Cheap Novelties is an early testament to Ben Katchor’s extraordinary prescience as both a gifted cartoonist and an astute urban chronicler. Rumpled, middle-aged Julius Knipl photographs a vanishing city — an urban landscape of low-rent apartment buildings, obsolete industries, monuments to forgotten people and events, and countless sources of inexpensive food. In Katchor’s signature pen and ink wash style, Cheap Novelties is a portrait of what we have lost to gentrification, globalization, and the malling of America that is as moving today as it was twenty-five years ago.

In 1991, the original Cheap Novelties appeared in an unassuming paperback from the RAW contributor; it would become one of the first graphic novels of the contemporary graphic novel golden age and set the stage for Katchor as he is now regarded– a modern day cartooning genius.  Drawn & Quarterly’s 25^th anniversary edition will be a deluxe hardcover reformatted to Katchor’s original vision.

The Tour Dates:

DECATUR, GA
Saturday, September 3rd, 11:15AM – 12:00PM
AJC Decatur Book Festival
101 E Court Square, Decatur, GA 30030

BROOKLYN, NY
Sunday, September 18th
Brooklyn Book Festival
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza
209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn NY 11201

NEW YORK, NY
Thursday, October 6th
192 Books
192 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011

COLUMBUS, OH
Sunday, October 16th, 12:30PM – 2:00PM
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus at Columbus Museum of Art
480 E Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215
In conversation with SETH – FREE

AUSTIN, TX
Saturday, November 5th – Sunday, November 6th
Texas Book Festival 2016
St. Edward’s University
3001 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704

MIAMI, FL
Saturday, November 19th – Sunday, November 20th
Miami Book Fair
300 NE 2nd Ave., Suite 4102
Miami, FL 33132