Legendary Croatian poster artist Igor Hofbauer has created a book of graphic stories which are dark and visionary, based on a combination of classic American underground comics and film noir, pop art, German Expressionism, and Russian Constructivism. Hofbauer's comics are often surreal and nightmarish stories in strange cityscapes that will be recognized by anyone who has spent time in the concrete housing and brutish planned neighborhoods of the former Eastern Bloc.

Robert Morgen, a successful New York physician, searches for a less stressful lifestyle and moves to Vermont with his wife and son. But the rural lifestyle becomes the catalyst for the dissolution of his marriage. Discontented with the practice of medicine and saddened by the loss of his son to his wife's custody, Robert volunteers to work as a physician in the border town of Peshawar, Pakistan, during the Russian-Afghan war in 1986. While training refugee Afghan physicians and working in Afghan refugee camps, he develops a deep respect for the tenacious courage of the Afghan people. His dedication to the Afghan cause leads him to cross into Afghanistan with a French physician and nurse and a group of Afghan warriors. They are ambushed by Russian troops on a mountain pass and Robert and the nurse, Simone, are the only survivors. Their endurance tested to the maximum and often in danger in Afghanistan's deadly wartime environment, Robert and Simone struggle to make their way back across the border. In the journey through the unknown, Robert's life is irrevocably changed. LEONARD SCHONBERG served as a volunteer physician on the Afghan border in 1985 and 1986 during the Russian-Afghan war. His three previous novels, DEADLY INDIAN SUMMER, FISH HEADS and LEGACY were all published by Sunstone Press.

With its unique focus on how culture contributed to the blurring of ideological boundaries between the East and the West, this important volume offers fascinating insights into the tensions, rivalries and occasional cooperation between the two blocs. Encompassing developments in both the arts and sciences, the authors analyze focal points, aesthetic preferences and cultural phenomena through topics as wide-ranging as the East- and West German interior design; the Soviet stance on genetics; US cultural diplomacy during and after the Cold War; and the role of popular music as a universal cultural ambassador. Well positioned at the cutting edge of Cold War studies, this important work illuminates some of the striking paradoxes involved in the production and reception of culture in East and West.

What would you do to avenge the murder of your father? When a mad monk whispers to Hanzus that someone poisoned his father, he rides at once to the monastery in haste. But as his father succumbs to the slow poison, he learns the assassin fled south to an inn called the Black Rook. With revenge in his heart, Hanzus travels a raging sea in search of his father’s killer, cementing his name as the Baron Without Sorrow. And on the trail of revenge, he discovers secrets about his family he never knew. Accompanied by Barrett, a drunk who dreams of adventure and a taste of exotic women, and Mavrian Morr, a Bloodkin shunned by humanity he is obligated to track down the killer and avenge his father. But through the process, will he uncover a deeper plot and overcome the madness in the world?

The Comics Journal, which is renowned for its in-depth interviews, comics criticism, and thought-provoking editorials, features Gary Groth in frank and often hilarious discussion with the satirist and children’s book author Tomi Ungerer. Ungerer talks about the entire trajectory of his life and career: growing up in France during the Nazi occupation, creating controversial work, and being blacklisted by the American Library Association. This issue, the first in its new twice-a-year format, covers the “new mainstream” in American comics ― how the marketplace and overall perception of the medium has drastically shifted since the “graphic novel boom” of the early 2000s and massive hits like Persepolis, Fun Home, and Smile. It also includes sketchbook pages from French-born cartoonist Antoine Cossé’ an introduction to homoerotic gag cartoons out of the U.S. Navy; and Your Black Friend cartoonist Ben Passmore’s examination of comics and gentrification.

Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc explores the rise of youth as consumers of popular culture and the globalization of popular music in Russia and Eastern Europe. This collection of essays challenges assumptions that Communist leaders and Western-influenced youth cultures were inimically hostile to one another. While initially banning Western cultural trends like jazz and rock-and-roll, Communist leaders accommodated elements of rock and pop music to develop their own socialist popular music. They promoted organized forms of leisure to turn young people away from excesses of style perceived to be Western. Popular song and officially sponsored rock and pop bands formed a socialist beat that young people listened and danced to. Young people attracted to the music and subcultures of the capitalist West still shared the values and behaviors of their peers in Communist youth organizations. Despite problems providing youth with consumer goods, leaders of Soviet bloc states fostered a socialist alternative to the modernity the capitalist West promised. Underground rock musicians thus shared assumptions about culture that Communist leaders had instilled. Still, competing with influences from the capitalist West had its limits. State-sponsored rock festivals and rock bands encouraged a spirit of rebellion among young people. Official perceptions of what constituted culture limited options for accommodating rock and pop music and Western youth cultures. Youth countercultures that originated in the capitalist West, like hippies and punks, challenged the legitimacy of Communist youth organizations and their sponsors. Government media and police organs wound up creating oppositional identities among youth gangs. Failing to provide enough Western cultural goods to provincial cities helped fuel resentment over the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow, and encourage support for breakaway nationalist movements that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Despite the Cold War, in both the Soviet bloc and in the capitalist West, political elites responded to perceived threats posed by youth cultures and music in similar manners. Young people participated in a global youth culture while expressing their own local views of the world.

Sean Connery began the sixties spy movie boom playing James Bond in Dr. No and From Russia with Love. Their success inspired every studio in Hollywood and Europe to release everything from serious knockoffs to spoofs on the genre featuring debonair men, futuristic gadgets, exotic locales, and some of the world's most beautiful actresses whose roles ranged from the innocent caught up in a nefarious plot to the femme fatale. Profiled herein are 107 dazzling women, well-known and unknown, who had film and television appearances in the spy genre. They include superstars Doris Day in Caprice, Raquel Welch in Fathom, and Ann-Margret in Murderer's Row; international sex symbols Ursula Andress in Dr. No and Casino Royale, Elke Sommer in Deadlier Than the Male, and Senta Berger in The Spy with My Face; and forgotten lovelies Greta Chi in Fathom, Alizia Gur in From Russia with Love, and Maggie Thrett in Out of Sight. Each profile includes a filmography that lists the actresses' more notable films. Some include the actresses' candid comments and anecdotes about their films and television shows, the people they worked with, and their feelings about acting in the spy genre are offered throughout. A list of websites that provide further information on women in spy films and television is also included.