A couple of students from the local art school head to the shore one fine afternoon. Bernard, Dean and Jorge look forward to some serious Frisbee-tossing and are psyched when Astrid shows up to swim, but Gabi is so freaked out she doesn’t even want to leave the car. Why is Gabi demanding they head home before dark?

The stories in Syncopated challenge convention, provide perspective, and search out secret truths–all in the inviting, accessible form of comics. Syncopated will give you a daringly different view of the past–from the history of vintage postcards to the glory days of old Coney Island. It will immerse you in fascinating subcultures, from the secret world of graffiti artists to the chess champs of Greenwich Village. And it will open your eyes to pieces of forgotten history–for example, the Tulsa race riots of 1921–and to new perspectives on critical current events, such as the interrogation of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. These “picto-essays” encompass memoir, history, journalism, and biography in varied visual styles–each handpicked by Brendan Burford, one of America’s top editors. Including: How and Why to Bale Hay by Nick Bertozzi Penny Sentiments by Rina Piccolo Boris Rose: Prisoner of Jazz by Brendan Burford and Jim Campbell Portfolio by Tricia Van den Bergh Father Figures by Josh Neufeld West Side Improvements by Alex Holden The Evening Hatch by Richard and Brian Haimes What We So Quietly Saw by Greg Cook “Like Hell I Will” by Nate Powell Welcome Home, Brave by Dave Kiersh The Sound of Jade by Sarah Glidden Subway Buskers by Victor Marchand Kerlow Erik Erikson by Paul Karasik Dvorak by Alec Longstreth A Coney Island Rumination by Paul Hoppe An Encounter with Richard Peterson by Brendan Burford

Krachmacher, means "noise maker" - overwhelmed with emotion, characters make noise, either real or not, to drown out their problems.

The Sock Monkey returns home from the University where he has become a Master Poet dedicated to the Science of Un-naming Objects. He embarks on a journey of sentimentality as he rediscovers his childhood home. However, things are not as he remembers them, and he is subjected to an avalanche of heart-breaking realization.

Headgames marks the eighth issue for the collection of artists, illustrators and cartoonists that comprise Meathaus. Featuring brand new works by a variety of Meathaus favorites, including James Jean (Fables), Tomer Hanuka (Bipolar), Brandon Graham (Prophet), Jim Campbell (At The Shore), Tom Herpich (Adventure Time), Dash Shaw (BodyWorld) and Farel Dalrymple (The Wrenchies) and more. As with Meathaus' previous release Love Songs, Headgames allows the cartoonists to focus their creative energies around a loose theme, providing a compelling structure for innovative storytelling.

Dean tries rescuing Astrid's stuff from her car as the tide washes it away, but a creepy underwater encounter scares him off, prompting Gabi to tell more of her own story. No one has patience, but what they see as the sun sets proves her stories might be true. Hopefully they'll heed Jorge's warnings to "remember the wind dimensions."

The "Troubles" in Northern Ireland have endured for so long that eventually the abnormal has become normal. This volume examines the processes by which society has become gradually dehumanised, and how the inhuman conditions, under which people have been forced to live so long, have come about. The authors seek to understand this situation and build upon the current literature, using their different personal and professional backgrounds to great effect to create a wider perspective. They describe the political background, the framework of Kleinian psychoanalysis, and then bring the two together to create a new foundation from which to move from a troubled mind to a mind at peace.

Gumball and Darwin might have done of lot of things that could be considered immature and dangerous in the long years that they've been alive, but none of that even comes close to what they're about to do in this issue. May Anais have mercy on their souls ...