Black Lightning Brick City Blues

When violent urban decay overwhelms his city and threatens to destroy those around him, long-absent hero Black Lightning returns to dispense his own electrifying brand of justice. Currently featuring characters from the hit TV series on The CW network! Written by the co-creator of Black Lightning, Tony Isabella, whose original work on the character comes full circle in this thrilling, never-before collected series! The world's a very different place from the one schoolteacher Jefferson Pierce once knew, and Black Lightning isn't the same hero he was. Older and wiser, Black Lightning reluctantly resurfaces with a ferocious new look and a dangerous edge in a city desperately needing a hero. Collects Black Lightning #1-13 and DC Universe Holiday Bash #2.

The worldÕs a very different place from the one school teacher Jefferson Pierce once knew, and Black Lightning isnÕt the same hero he was. Older and wiser, Black Lightning resurfaces with a ferocious new look and a dangerous edge in a city desperately needing a hero. Collects Black Lightning #1-13 and a tale from DC Universe Holiday Bash #2.

Black LightningÍs first solo series and origin story! With the power to generate electricity from within, Jefferson Pierce has donned a colorful costume and the secret identity of Black Lightning! However, it will take all of his abilities to protect his Metropolis neighborhood of Suicide Slum from those who seek to destroy it. With guest appearances by Superman and some familiar villains, Black Lightning makes DC Comics history. Collecting for the first time BLACK LIGHTNING #1-11 and WORLDÍS FINEST #260, featuring work by creators Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden, along with veteran inkers Frank Springer and Vince Colletta!

Black Lightning begins! Get to know Jefferson Pierce, a.k.a. Black Lightning, before his starring turn in the CW’s Black Lightning TV show! It’s been years since Olympic gold medalist Jefferson Pierce ran from a past plagued by his father’s murder and a superhuman power he couldn’t understand. In that time, decay has transformed his home, Metropolis’ Southside, into the notorious “Suicide Slum.” Accompanied by his wife and daughter, Pierce returns to make a difference in his old community as the new principal of Garfield High School. But there’s a storm of lawlessness sweeping Southside, fueled by corrupt politician Tobias Whale, the mysterious Swann, and his criminal organization, the One Hundred. Strengthened by his family, old friends and a Man of Steel’s support, Jefferson Pierce must now harness the electrical powers he once feared to become a beacon of hope…and strike down crime as Black Lightning! Writer Jen Van Meter (JSA CLASSIFIED, Hopeless Savages) and artist Cully Hamner (BATMAN AND THE SIGNAL, RED) recharge the origin of DC Comics' most electrifying Justice Leaguer in this classic take! Collects #1-6.

"Black Lightning created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden; Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family."

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Saxophone virtuoso Charlie "Bird" Parker began playing professionally in his early teens, became a heroin addict at 16, changed the course of music, and then died when only 34 years old. His friend Robert Reisner observed, "Parker, in the brief span of his life, crowded more living into it than any other human being." Like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, he was a transitional composer and improviser who ushered in a new era of jazz by pioneering bebop and influenced subsequent generations of musicians. Meticulously researched and written, Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker tells the story of his life, music, and career. This new biography artfully weaves together firsthand accounts from those who knew him with new information about his life and career to create a compelling narrative portrait of a tragic genius. While other books about Parker have focused primarily on his music and recordings, this portrait reveals the troubled man behind the music, illustrating how his addictions and struggles with mental health affected his life and career. He was alternatively generous and miserly; a loving husband and father at home but an incorrigible philanderer on the road; and a chronic addict who lectured younger musicians about the dangers of drugs. Above all he was a musician, who overcame humiliation, disappointment, and a life-threatening car wreck to take wing as Bird, a brilliant improviser and composer. With in-depth research into previously overlooked sources and illustrated with several never-before-seen images, Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker corrects much of the misinformation and myth about one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs. “A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him. In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds. Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs “Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget