Non Compliance
Former Somerville resident and area comics creator and designer Jordan Crane is in town for several days this week to celebrate the release of the fifth edition of his awe-inspiring comics anthology Non. There was a signing last night at the Picnic featuring Jordan, Megan Kelso, Greg Cook, Paul Lyons, P. Shaw, and Tom Devlin, and then a bunch of us -- including most of the Picnic staff -- repaired to Shay's for an evening of food, folks, fun... and many fizzy beverages. We closed the place, which probably wasn't the wisest move given that it was a Monday.

Limited to a run of 2,000 copies, Non has received exceptional reviews to date, including rankings in Time Magazine's best of 2001 list and the Village Voice's 25 favorite books of 2001. And it's a doozy. Featuring a silk-screened dust jacket, Non #5 includes several books, a couple of which are housed in a cardboard recess that's part of the dust jacket. About a fourth of the print run is gone, and Jordan's order backlog -- it takes forever to collate the thing -- is so big that he's not even taking orders any more. So check your local comics retailer.

I'll be sure to review it in an upcoming Media Diet entry.