Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot

A lengthy comic version history of Sunderland framed through the experience of a single slob like audience man making up the entire audience of a surreal production at the Sunderland Empire.  Interesting but I did feel like I was just being lectured to, and found the repeating mentions of Lewis Carrol / Dogson's links to Sunderland and the life of Alice Liddel a little repetitive.  Learned lots though

An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories edited by Ivan Brunetti

An amazing doorstep of a book featuring excerpts of American comic fiction chronologially from about the fifties onwards. You wont find any superheroes here, this is the history of the comics that appeared in papers, independent graphic fiction and fanzines, of Robert Crumb and Maus and Peanuts.