As the Seattle Mariners embark on another season of despair and sordid revelations of players on performance enhancing drugs continue to grab headlines, cartoonist Wilfred Santiago reminds us why we love the game of baseball. 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente documents the unlikely career of the Pittsburgh Pirates legend. Clemente's inspirational rise from the barrios of Puerto Rico to the highest levels of our national pastime was heroic enough. Not content with the fame and fortune brought by his baseball abilities, Clemente became a tireless advocate for social justice and the plight of the underclass throughout Latin America.

Over the course of his storied career, Clemente overcame the racial discrimination of the era to win awards in nearly every category, including the World Series MVP in 1971. Despite his success on the field, Clemente never forgot his roots, returning in the off-season to manage and play with minor league teams on the impoverished island.

For all his staggering athletic accomplishments, it was his unflinching humanitarianism that cemented Clemente into our culture's consciousness. While visiting Puerto Rico in 1972, Nicaragua experienced a devastating earthquake. Clemente immediately began a relief effort, sending planeloads of supplies to the beleaguered country. When he learned these shipments were being diverted by corrupt officials, he boarded a flight to Managua. The plane, overloaded with supplies, fell out of the sky after take off. His body was never found. Clemente remains a hero throughout the hemisphere. He has been posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among countless others. Major League Baseball honors the player that best exemplifies his commitment to public service with the Roberto Clemente Award.

Clemente's cartoon biographer Wilfred Santiago will appear at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Wednesday, May 4 at 6:00 PM. His sensitive portrayal of this amazing story is rendered seamlessly with cinematic verve. Santiago will discuss his graphic novel with bestselling author Rob Neyer, national baseball editor for SBNation.com, followed by an informal reception and book signing. Please join us for this momentous occasion.

Listing information

Wilfred Santiago in conversation with Rob Neyer on 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente
Wednesday, May 4, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street. Seattle.
Phone: 206.658.0110

An egg-cellent* fundraiser is happening this Easter weekend at the KGB Bar in NYC!

[* Yeah, I went there.]

It's the very first benefit for The Sequential Artists Workshop, a potential new school for cartooning in Gainesville, Florida, founded by Tom Hart and Leela Corman and others.

Leslie Stein will be reading a brand new story titled “Brown Heart” at the event. (That's a page from it, below.) And John Kerschbaum will also be participating!

A $5.00 suggested donation this Sunday will help them raise funds for the 2012 opening of the Sequential Artists Workshop.

The benefit is this Sunday, April 24th at 7:00 pm in the Red Room at KGB Bar Upstairs Theater [85 E. 4th Street] in New York City’s East Village. Hop to it!

It's been a while, so let's catch up:

• New diary strips & sketches by Lewis Trondheim

• Artwork from Kurt Wolfgang's work in progress Pinokio plus some Mome meta-commentary and other sketches and characters at New Bodega

• Laura Park designed this placemat for fellow Chicago Mome-ster Jeremy Tinder's impending nuptials, and also this cool t-shirt design for The Mountain Goats & Jon Vanderslice

• At her Screened-in Porch blog, Carol Tyler presents “Will Work for Food” from The Job Thing — page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5

• "Crabby," a 3-pager by Tony Millionaire, plus "George R. Binks" and Billy Hazelnuts in color

• New artwork, dolls and other news in Dame Darcy's latest blog update

And more Things to See from the past 2 weeks:

• Illustrations, sketches, old strips and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new lithograph by John Hankiewicz

• Kevin Huizenga posted things on his blogs Fight or Run and The Balloonist

• Drew Weing posts the title lettering for the Serbian edition of S‍et to Sea and photos of Eleanor Davis painting a mural on his blog

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway and more artwork at his blog

• "The Strangest Story You Ever Heard in Your Life" wraps up at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog, plus illustrations at Mondobliquo

• Strips, illustrations and updates from Noah Van Sciver

• Recent illo jobs by Ray Fenwick on his Flickr page, including one for an article by Suze Orman in Oprah's mag — that's high profile!

• Drawings & photos by Renee French

• Recent illustrations and sketches, with commentary, by Steve Brodner

• Daily storyboards & production art from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• A coloring test for a work in progress by Robert Goodin

• Recent sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

• Nate Neal's monthly men's mag strip

I'm hoping to get a chance to do a post on my whole Stumptown Comics Fest haul, but one of the things we picked up was the Living Things series of lovely little pamphlet mini-art books from Little Otsu, including this one by Lilli Carré and other volumes by Hannah Waldron, Jo Dery, and Lizzy Stewart. You can order Lilli's here and find the others easily from there.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. (We're also seeing reports that Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #9 may be showing up in some comic shops in the East & Midwest, though it's not on this week's list.) See more about each book at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Safe Area Gorazde: The Special Edition
by Joe Sacco

272-page black & white 7.75" x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-396-5

"Joe Sacco's acclaimed and award-winning comic journalism about the Bosnian war gets Fantagraphics' gorgeous, special edition treatment." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 13: The Season of the Snoid (New Softcover Printing)
by Robert Crumb

128-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-413-0

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 15: Mode O'Day and Her Pals (New Softcover Printing)
by Robert Crumb

128-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-413-0

"It’s not a splurge for me since I already own them, but if you want to dip your toe into Robert Crumb waters, Fantagraphics has new editions of Vol. 13 and 15 ($19.99 each) in their Complete Crumb line. Both feature some really great works by the master." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"Those two Crumb volumes might actually be under-appreciated for as good as they are and for what people have decided is most valuable within Crumb's overall oeuvre." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview: At Torontoist, Courtney Clinton talks to Lorenzo Mattotti about The Raven and other topics in advance of his visit to the city for TCAF: "For me, it comes naturally to portray solitary characters. In the end we are all alone and at a certain point we have to confront this idea. Solitude can also be an inability to communicate with others. It’s probably something I as an artist feel more than most, even if I try to fight these feelings. On a positive note, in a moment of concentration solitude can help us see our own inner depth."

• Reviews/Commentary: At her lisaloves2read blog, Lisa Pollifroni continues delving into Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets mythology, with an examination of "Poison River" in Beyond Palomar and first impressions of the Luba hardcover, plus some additional related thoughts

The Batgirl, Heck Yeah! blog strikes again with this 2002 sketch of "the original Bat-Girl" by Gilbert Hernandez. These are all from the personal collection of Rico Renzi, who saw our post of Jaime's sketch earlier today and rushed to add Gilbert's this evening. Thanks Rico!

Maggie Chascarillo (somewhat embarrassedly, it seems) dons (or doffs?) the Batgirl costume in this 2006 convention sketch by Jaime Hernandez recently posted on the Batgirl, Heck Yeah! Tumblr.

UPDATED: Hey, there's one by Steven Weissman too!

St. Louis! Are you ready for a calvacade of whimsy and wonder?!

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 20th, The Magic Dwindler, Esq. (aka Tim Lane!) kicks off a monthly series at Subterranean Books entitled The Whirling Gypsy Comicarouselesque Revue & Burlesque.

As he explains on his blog, it's "loosely based on traditional carousel comic performances, but are also meant to facilitate explorations and experimentation in inventive ways of bringing comics – or I should say pictures and words – into the realm of performance."

The Whirling Gypsy... will whirl every third Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at Subterranean [6275 Delmar Blvd.]. Don't miss it!

 Today's Online Commentary & Diversions, continued:

• List: In light of the impending end of the anthology, Robot 6's Chris Mautner names "The six best stories in Mome" (to date... there's one issue yet to go)

• Review: "Hernandez of Love and Rockets continues his obsessive study of faux Z-movies featuring L&R character Fritz, a lisping, freakishly large-chested post-ingenue. This latest offering [Love from the Shadows] is imaginatively staged, beautifully drawn and deftly dialogued, with odd discordant undertones and psychosexual notes that include incest and insanity." – Richard Pachter, The Miami Herald

• Review: "More stoner/fantasy silliness from Daly. There seems to be more of a focus on plot and creating lengthy action sequences than in previous. The jokes don’t seem as frequent, or at least are more subtle this time around. [...] Dungeon Quest Book Two is still a fun romp, especially if you’re at all familiar with the fantasy genre or role-playing games in particular." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Review: "Crane's drawings are clear, simple, rounded. They combine perfectly with the primary colors used in printing newspapers. His characters were drawn more cartoonish than realistic, with free and lightweight lines, without much concern for details. In layout, Crane was able to explore the space of the entire page of the Captain Easy strip, alternating horizontal and vertical panels to get a more dynamic effect. The author also used horizontal panels to show beautiful panoramic images of fights and persecution." – Gustavo Guimaraes, Ambrosia (translated from Portuguese)

• Interview: At The Rumpus, Ted Wilson has a fun chat with Jim Woodring: "People sometimes avoid me but not because I am or am not a garbageman. I really have no idea what you are asking. Do people avoid garbagemen? Not in my experience. In fact I learned that some women simply cannot resist a man in any kind of a uniform. I’m not kidding."

• Interview: Paul Gravett presents a transcription of the Comica-sponsored conversation between Dave McKean and Lorenzo Mattotti which took place in London last month: "I had read Piersanti’s novels, When he was buying a portfolio of mine, we were introduced. A French publisher wanted a short comic for an anthology about religion, so I asked Claudio because I knew he was interested in philosophy and spiritual problems. He had the idea of a man who finds he has stigmata wounds on his hands and doesn’t know what to do." (via The Comics Reporter)

• Interview: At The Comics Journal, Ken Parille talks to Ivan Brunetti about teaching comics: "To me, art is not about talent, it’s about hard work. It’s about developing one’s intelligence, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity. To some degree, the potential for these things seems to vary, implying they are perhaps innate, but I think anything can be nurtured (or neglected). Something might not come easy, but it can be learned. It’s matter of will, desire, determination, and hard work."

• Feature: At the Drawing Words & Writing Pictures blog, Best American Comics series co-editor Matt Madden spotlights Alexey Sokolin's "Life, Interwoven" from the Abstract Comics anthology as a 2010 Notable Comic: "The comic is made entirely of hatching lines, scribbles, swooping lines, and, way down beneath it all, hints of representative imagery. It almost looks like what began as a conventional comic mutated as the marks and lines broke free of the images. It’s also interesting the way the comic can read either as a six page comic, a series of six drawings (a sextich?), or six iterations of the same page being increasingly overwhelmed with line."