Check out this splendid Alice in Wonderland looking glass at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Created by Georgetown Records staffer and Fantagraphics friend John Ohannesian, the topical mirror is available for the modest price of $80. The first purchase of this limited edition piece was made by none other than Courtney Love.

Also back in stock is the new edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 
illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia. They sold out quickly when Camille dropped by the Gilbert Hernandez reception last month and graciously signed copies for fans.

Look for these and a wondrous assortment of amazing new books this Saturday, April 17 at the Peter Bagge & James Sturm signing and book launch party. Bonus: It’s national Record Store Day at neighboring Georgetown Records. Swag galore! See you all soon.

The one bummer about being at MoCCA this past weekend was that I missed what were surely amazing performances by Ardent Vein (our own Ajax Wood) and Zinjanthropus (current and former FBIers Tom Price, Martin Bland & friends) at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery / Georgetown Records on Saturday evening. Fortunately our good pal John Ohannesian was there to document the occasion:

Check out more of John's photos of the event on our Flickr page.

...Caught in a bad romance!

Every six months I get to read a full two years' worth of Peanuts strips in preparation for writing blurbs for our next Complete Peanuts edition, beginning with the "In our next volume" telegraph-style paragraph for the one headed off to the printer. And even though I thought I'd read pretty much every Peanuts strip ever done I always come across something previously unseen, or surprising, or jaw-droppingly weird. Like, who knew there was a recurring Peanuts character called "Crybaby" Boobie? Not I, until last year!

Well, this time around, prepping our 15th volume (covering 1979 and 1980), I may have been startled at the sequence in which Peppermint Patty gets her hair cornrowed, Bo-Derek-in-"10" style (with a shout-out to Ms. Derek, no less)... and the daily strip (not Sunday strip, which itself is odd) where Charlie Brown tries to kick the football and Lucy doesn't pull it away (he doesn't get to kick it anyway, but you'll have to read the book to find out why)... and the strip where Marcie takes off her glasses and we see her eyes... but this is what really made my jaw drop this time.



Yes, Charles Schulz brought back the mostly-retired Pig-Pen for a Valentine's Day blind-date romance...with Peppermint Patty! Even weirder for a Peanuts romance (at least the human ones), it did not go unrequited. It doesn't last long (although there's a nice little "sequel" to it a couple of months later)... but still.

The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 will be released in March 2011. Mark your calendar.

Live from New York (where I am for MoCCA), it's your Friday night online strips! (FYI, Daily OCD and Things to See will return next week.)

Get that lady another drink in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

...friends helping friends in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

...and get ready for some great sound effects in this week's Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman.

...in France, with the world premiere in Brussells tomorrow. Still no announcement of U.S. distribution for Luc Besson's adaptation of Jacques Tardi's ADELE BLANC-SEC (we're still hoping it will open here when we debut the first volume of our new translation of the original comics at Comic-Con), but here's the final trailer, with lots and lots of new footage:

Exciting!

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• This week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman

• This week's Maakies by Tony Millionaire

• Johnny Ryan describes this fan art by James Henry Dufresne as a "supervillain team-up"

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Troublemakers is... a noirish tale of crosses double and triple, in which the same small cast keeps tripping over each other, making and breaking promises and plans and alliances. ... The dialogue is often overwrought in that trying-to-be-tough way, but the plot is suitably twisty and energetic. " – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Interview: Comic Book Resources' Chris Mautner talks to Gahan Wilson about fifty years of Playboy cartoons and Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons: "The bottom line in horror, or humor, really, is that life is tough and sometimes it's ludicriously disastrous. And yet we cope. We struggle on. That's a large part of the thing. That's very much underlying it. This admiration for us for making it through one day to the next. And taking care of kids and being nice to people. Working it out somehow together."

• Interview: On the MTV Tr3s Blogamole, Daniela Capistrano talks to Gilbert Hernandez about High Soft Lisp: On Fritz: "Well, looks wise, she's an 8 1/2 and she's smarter than any of my other characters. She always has the potential to go anywhere and do anything I want because she's wealthy and childless, giving me free reign to change her life at any time. She's got class and the genetics to age beautifully and gracefully." On what he's going to do with his U.S. Fellows grant: "Spend it on gold rims for my car."

• Interview: Alex Dueben interviews Robert Williams on the Suicide Girls website (SFW): "The arts have to be open for everybody with every kind of style. I’m for making the thing open and free. I don’t think an artist has to learn to paint and draw. I prefer to do that, but I want the ability to have as much right to be in a museum as someone else. I respect their right to put anything in there. If they want to have a pile of sand in the middle of the museum, that’s okay with me. As long as I have room in there."

We are exceedingly pleased to report that Fantagraphics publications and artists received a record 18 nominations for the 2010 Eisner Awards. To celebrate, we're offering these titles at 18% off for a limited time! Click here for the full sale selection. (Sale is valid for online and phone orders only.) Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday, July 23, 2010 at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Congratulations to all the nominees! Fantagraphics' nominations are as follows:

• Best Short Story: "Because I Love You So Much," by Nikoline Werdelin, in From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium  

• Best Single Issue: Ganges #3, by Kevin Huizenga

• Best Humor Publication: Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury, by Tony Millionaire

• Best Humor Publication: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations, by Peter Bagge

• Best Anthology: Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu

• Best Adaptation from Another Work: West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi
• Best U.S. Edition of International Material: West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi

• Best Archival Collection — Strips: The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940, edited by Trina Robbins
• Best Publication Design: The Brinkley Girls, designed by Adam Grano

• Best Archival Collection — Strips: Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, by Gahan Wilson, edited by Gary Groth
• Best Publication Design: Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, designed by Jacob Covey

• Best Archival Collection — Strips: Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938, by Hal Foster, edited by Kim Thompson

• Best Archival Collection — Comic Books: Blazing Combat, by Archie Goodwin et al., edited by Gary Groth

• Best Archival Collection — Comic Books: Humbug, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Gary Groth

• Best Writer/Artist — Nonfiction: Carol Tyler, You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man
• Best Painter/Multimedia Artist: Carol Tyler, You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man

• Best Comics-Related Periodical: The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti

• Best Lettering: Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics), Cat Burglar Black (First Second)

Yowp! It's a 100% brand-new full-color slam-bang 8-page Jaime Hernandez story in the new "issue" of MySpace Dark Horse Presents! (Oops, direct linking doesn't seem to be working correctly at press time, but it's simple enough to find.)

Scion Magazine 15: Gilbert Hernandez from Scion ART on Vimeo.

Gilbert Hernandez, comic book artist and co-creator of Love and Rockets, interviewed at his home studio in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Scion Magazine.

I can't believe we almost missed this — thanks to L&R fan Michael Schmitz for sharing this on the Love and Rockets - The Hernandez Brothers Facebook page.