New local books look at art, comics, adolescence and more

Local books |

Among recently released books with local connections are a volume of local arts writing; a Fantagraphics collection of "Humbug" comics; and a tale about a teenager with the "Seattle Blues."

"Looking Together: Writers on Art," edited by Rebecca Brown and Mary Jane Knecht (Frye Art Museum/University of Washington Press, $18.95). Pairings of paintings with essays, poems and stories. Editors Brown and Knecht are local, as are all the writers, including Jonathan Raban on Albert Bierstadt, Frances McCue on Franz Von Stuck, Adrianne Harun on Henry Darger and Brown herself on Robyn O'Neil.

"Humbug" by Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Arnold Roth, Al Jaffee and Jack Davis, edited by Gary Groth and Jason Miles (Fantagraphics, $60). Fantagraphics' latest labor of love, assembled by Seattle editors Groth and Miles with local book designer Adam Grano, collects 11 issues of "Humbug," originally self-published by MAD Magazine founder Kurtzman with friends in the 1950s. Includes satirical takes on highway congestion, time travel, consumer reports and perspiration.

"Every Vanish Leaves Its Trace" by Elizabeth Aoki (Finishing Line Press, $14, www.finishinglinepress.com). A chapbook of verse by a Seattle poet and occasional contributor to The Seattle Times, touching on subjects ranging from kayaks to kidney transplants. Aoki reads with Jane Alynn, Lana Hechtman Ayers and Julene Tripp Weaver, 2 p.m., April 4, Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., Seattle; free (206-624-6600 or www.elliottbaybook.com).

"Seattle Blues" by Michael Wenberg (WestSide Books, $16.95). A Walla Walla writer's novel for ages 12 and up, about a 13-year-old girl spending the summer of 1969 in Seattle with a grandmother she's never met. Worries about her missing father (a soldier in Vietnam) and a friendship with an unusual boy next door are also part of the girl's experience.

"Olympic National Park: Touch of the Tide Pool, Crack of the Glacier" by Mike Graf, illustrated by Marjorie Leggitt (Fulcrum, $9.95). Graf's books about the fictitious Parker family — for ages 8-12 — recount their trips to national parks across the nation. In this fifth installment, Olympic National Park is their destination.

"Caribou Crossing: Animals of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" by Andrea Helman, photographs by Art Wolfe (Paws IV/Sasquatch, $16.95). A children's book for ages 5 and up, featuring short essays by Seattle author Helman on caribou, polar bears and other Arctic phenomena, illustrated with color photographs by Seattle cameraman Wolfe.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com