FREEDOM AND JUSTICE — AMERICAN STYLE

1632 And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religous war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.

2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia, and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.

THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....

When the dust settles, Mike leads a group of armed miners to find out what happened and finds the road into town is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell: a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter attacked by men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot. At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of the Thirty Years' War.

She is a daughter of one of Mars's oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples—the extended family syndicates that colonized the red planet. But Casseia Majumdar has a dream of an independent Mars, born in the student protests of 2171. During those brief days of idealism she forged bonds of friendship and hatred that set the stage for an astonishing war or revolution on Mars.

On Basilisk Station (or "HH1" as it's known to the faithful) is the first installment in David Weber's cult hit Honor Harrington series, which has charmed the socks off schoolgirls and sailors alike. Honor—the heroine of this fast-paced, addictive space opera—is a polished, plucky bulldog of a naval officer, part Horatio Hornblower, part Miles Vorkosigan, part Captain Janeway, and with a razor-clawed telepathic cat thrown over her shoulder for good measure.

The series' kickoff puts a giddy Commander Harrington at the helm of her first serious starship, the HMS Fearless. But her excitement quickly fades—political maneuvering by top brass in the Manticoran navy has left her light cruiser outfitted with a half-baked experimental weapons system. Against all odds (just the way Honor likes it), she still manages a clever coup in tactical war games, a feat that earns her accolades—and enemies. The politicians she's offended banish her to a galactic backwater, Basilisk Station. But that outpost soon proves to be a powder keg, and it's up to Harrington and the Fearless crew to thwart the aggressive plans of the Haven Republic. A perfect mix of military SF and high adventure—if you enjoy your tour, re-up with HH2, The Honor of the Queen. —Paul Hughes

With more than 1,000 full-color photographs, diagrams, charts, cutaway drawings, and detailed illustrations in each book, DK¹s Visual Encyclopedias cover everything you¹ve ever wanted to know about animals, dinosaurs, and science.

Discusses the influence papyrus and paper, rubber growing, and the tea and opium trade have had on the relationships between nations.

Train a cat? Yes, you can! Clicker training, the new way of communicating with animals,is quick and easy for you - and it's fun for your cat. Clicker training can improve your cat's health, activity and attitude toward life. It can make your cat happier and more affectionate.

In the easy-to-read beginner's guide, Karen Pryor, the world's leading clicker training expert, tells you how to teach your cat:

* to come when called
* to play without biting or scratching
* to stay off the table
* to get along with dogs
* to walk outside on a leash
* to do cute tricks and games!

All with a click and a treat!

Simple techniques and step by step projects. From selecting pens and mastering different alphabets to designing and laying out your work, this complete guide to the art of calligraphy shows a wide range of techniques. Beautifully illustrated.

A proficiency in drawing hands is necessary for any serious representational artist. Pointing to subtle differences between young and old, male and female, and hands engaged in a variety of activities, this concise guide is an indispensable companion for the intermediate student of figure drawing.

This calligraphy book includes basic instruction in penmanship and a gallery of finished work from top calligraphers.

Loaded with solid information and instructive interviews, this tell-all insider's guide takes readers through every possible step on the career road to comic book writing. 40 illustrations.

This provocative anthology provides inspiration on how to teach, think, and talk about comics in the classroom and beyond. Featuring essays by, and interviews with, more than sixty professionals, educators, and critics, the book provides an in-depth view of the art, business, and history of comics art. Readers will learn about a wide variety of genres, from editorial cartoons, political comics, and comic strips to graphic novels, superhero sagas, and alternative comics. Other featured topics include the role of comic art in related fields such as animation, design, and illustration;lesson plans by top teachers; and essays on how to thrive and grow as a creative comic artist.

A comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. "The potential of comics is limitless and exciting!" writes McCloud. This should be required reading for every school teacher. Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman says, "The most intelligent comics I've seen in a long time."

Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way. Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form.