At the core ofArt d’Eccois the dysfunctional relationship between Art and his idiot sidekick (and embryonicFred the Clownprototype), the Gump. The stories casually use issues such as censorship, religious fundamentalism and even Marxist theories of capitalism as a skeleton around which to build a relentless series of verbal and visual gags, laced liberally with postmodernist winks and nudges. Also in this volume is a selection of newly produced material, marking Andrew Langridge’s first new comics work in over a decade, and some rarely-seen early stories never before published in the USA.