PIM & FRANCIE GOLDEN BEAR DAYS HC - Tapa dura

[F]ascinating, especially for connoisseurs of pure cartooning.

These distressed, distressing comics and illustrations repeat and escalate like a stuck record or never waking from a recurring nightmare.--Paul Gravett

The twisted narratives and characters are presented so deftly--with such humor and visual panache--that their wrongness becomes right; and thus is the singular charm of Al Columbia.--Molly Young

Capable of rendering tight, stark, shudder-inducing figures, the horror-themed work of Al Columbia is some of the most ravenously fan awaited in the indie scene...disarmingly comfortable and sinister.--Rachel Molino

Al decided to dredge up old ghosts, unfinished pieces, trifles he had thrown away then reconsidered and offered them up to us as proof that he hasn't forgotten us. This 240-page book has certainly filled in some gaps for me as to what goes on in Columbia's mind... There seems to be something both amazing and horrifying around every corner, in any dark space, in the thick of the forest, in the bulbous eyes of maniacal creatures and the straight realistic lines of buildings that all have a dark window somewhere... It is truly a viscous treat and I am sure this one will never wash off.--Rachael M. Rollson

There are no explanations here, and few conventional payoffs -- just images designed to remind readers what it was like to be a panicked, paranoid child, convinced that every nighttime shadow contained a beast more menacing and repulsive than any grown-up could conceive. [Grade] B+.

Gorgeously reproduced -- rough pencil marks, taped edges, discolorations, and all -- this might be the sweetest thing to stare at, dumbly, in my whole library.--Mario Z. Alipio ""Top 11 of 2009" "

It's possible to piece together narratives from the fragments here, the way you might reconstruct a crime scene from bits of evidence, or a nightmare from fading details. These stories may even be all the more potent for having to be inferred, like the phantasms we imagine when we listen to horror stories on the radio.--Tim Kreider

This is visceral, elemental terror that generally festers below -- or alongside invisibly -- human reckoning. ... Frontwards, backways, sneak-a-peek sideways, it all packs a monumentally disturbing wallop.--Rich Kreiner ""Yearlong Best of the Year" "

Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days is a downright sadistic journey through the lives of its titular characters... The book succeeds rather well as both an introduction to the artist's work and as a standalone art book. It's simultaneously lush and sparse and terrifying and wonderful.--Brian Heater

Al Columbia is a "cult" comics figure, whose work has appeared in several Fantagraphics anthologies and series. Columbia's work has also been published in Smoke Signals, The Best American Comics, and Juxtapoz magazine. He lives in Connecticut.