Author Monte Schulz will return to Skylight Books to launch the last book in his Jazz Age trilogy, The Big Town!

Join Monte on Wednesday, April 4th for a reading and signing of his exciting new novel, starting at 7:30 PM.

The Big Town is the story of a failed businessman whose dreams of prosperity hinge on the secret proposition of a millionaire industrialist and a dangerous relationship he finds with a poor orphan girl chasing love in the great American metropolis.

Skylight Books is located at 1818 N Vermont Ave in Los Angeles! 

Beginning Sunday April 1st, the Prince Valiant strip boasts its third ongoing artist (after John Cullen Murphy, 1971-2004, and the just-retired Gary Gianni): Thomas Yeates — perhaps best known to long-time comics fans for his stint on Saga of the Swamp Thing and other DC Comics, but a busy, sought-after illustrator in both comic books and comic strips (including Zorro and Conan). He'd previously followed in Hal Foster's footsteps, drawing Tarzan comics on and off during the last two decades for Dark Horse Comics (including in the issues of Dark Horse Presents that are currently on the stands).

Mark Schultz continues to write the Valiant strip, as he has since 2004.

Of course, upon hearing this news, we immediately roped Yeates into writing an introduction for an upcoming volume of our ongoing series of reprints of the original Foster Prince Valiant.

So if your local paper does not carry this last great adventure comic strip, now's the time to write and email them and demand it.

(a partial assortment)

Last November, we introduced one of our most successful and acclaimed promotions ever: The FBI•MINI project, a series of mini-books exclusively available as premiums via Fantagraphics mail-order. Customers could secure these coveted collectibles either by ordering (or pre-ordering) specific books that went along with the FBI•MINIs, or just placing a general order (for $50 or more). We got in so many orders for FBI•MINIs (close to a thousand!) that we had trouble keeping up with demand!

The FBI•MINIs include first-time-in-English comics by Joost Swarte, David B., Raymond Macherot, and Jacques Tardi (the legendary, 21-page, never-completed Manchette collaboration FATALE); otherwise out-of-print early obscurities by the Hernandez Brothers, Peter Bagge, Bill Griffith, and Stan Sakai; some fantastic sketchbook material by Johnny Ryan, Jim Woodring, Stephen DeStefano, and Kim Deitch; as well as such oddities as a vintage 1938 POPEYE sequence by Segar's assistant, a collection of full-color Richard Sala horror portraits, a facsimile GIL JORDAN page by Maurice Tillieux in full color, Tony Millionaire's hilarious illustrated rant about a failed TV submission, a never-printed Joe Sacco comic strip/book report, and Ivan Brunetti's legendary NANCY try-out strips... and more. Go here for a complete list!

For the month of April we're "doubling down" with this promotion: If you place an order that qualifies you for one of the FBI•MINI's (by ordering one of the qualifying books, or ANYTHING of $50 or more), add a second FBI•MINI to your order. And if your order is $100 or more, you can order FOUR FBI•MINIs... and so on! If ordering by phone or mail, order the FBI•MINIs as you would any other item; if ordering online, list them in the "comments" section.

This special deal will be in effect throughout the rest of April 2012. Place your order today!

Just beginning to catch up on Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Profile: With his big new art book out and his museum retrospective on the way, Daniel Clowes gets the New York Times profile treatment from Carol Kino: "Mr. Clowes can create a striking face with a few deftly placed lines or brush strokes, often seizing on some specific characteristic that summons up an indelible personality. Think of Enid Coleslaw, the snarky teenage anti-heroine of Ghost World, and her big, black nerdy-hip glasses; they cover most of her face, but they can’t conceal the tiny shifts in expression that loudly telegraph her mood."

• List: Daniel Clowes may be headed for a museum retrospective, but he is neither dead nor retired — but that doesn't stop Flavorwire's Elona Jones from naming 10 candidates to carry the torch of "his storytelling skills, interest in surrealism, and eye for biting observations," including Jason, who "receives international acclaim for his brilliant storytelling." 

• Preview/Review: Boing Boing previews 2 stories from The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics, with Cory Doctorow saying "Today marks the publication of Fantagraphics' magnificent archaeological comicsology… Many of these are racier, grosser, and meaner than even MAD dared. There’s also an engrossing appendix of annotations from editor John Benson…"

• Review: "The John Benson-edited anthology The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics assembles largely forgotten work by the likes of Jack Davis, Will Elder, Ross Andru, and Jack Kirby, parodying everything from Mickey Spillane novels to Rex Morgan, M.D. Some of these pieces can stand up to the best of Mad (or at least match the magazine’s average), but even the stories that are clunky and unfunny are fascinating for the way they rip off Mad shamelessly, including all the asides and mini-gags that Will Elder once labeled Mad’s 'chicken fat.' It’s a testament to how quickly the innovative and subversive can become mainstream." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "Next to Pogo, the newspaper comics collection that fans have been most anticipating would be Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, which over the past few decades has garnered a reputation as the purest distillation of the gag cartoon, a triumph of minimalism... Nancy Is Happy: Dailies 1943-1945 joins Bushmiller’s magnum opus in full swing ... Bushmiller’s genius [was] to make everything in his strip so basic that anyone, anywhere, at any time, could get the joke." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review (Video): Video blogger Robert Crayola looks at Nancy Is Happy: "If you like comics or comic strips especially and you haven't read Nancy or if you have and you just want more, I think you'll enjoy this.... Hopefully we can get many more volumes of this. I hope you support it. It's a great book."

• Review: "One of the signature achievements of ’80s alt-comics, Drew and Josh Alan Freidman’s Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental: An Anthology of Comic Art, 1979-1985 is now back in print in a spiffy new edition that doesn’t really add anything to the original, but is still a necessary addition to any library that doesn’t already have a copy.... Drew Friedman’s stipple-heavy photo-realism and his brother Josh’s gleefully cruel humor combine to craft an alternate history of American entertainment that’s preposterous and yet feels true. Even now, decades after other cartoonists and comedians have tapped this well, the Friedmans’ pioneering work in the field of 'brattily dicking around with icons' remains unparalleled." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Plug: Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder gives Drew Friedman a platform to hype his upcoming NYC art show at Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn and re-release of Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental

• Review: "Folly... serve[s] as a good introduction to Rickheit’s beautifully ugly visions, of a world where cute girls and humanoid stuffed animals commit atrocities against oozing flesh. With a drawing style that resembles Jason Lutes and Charles Burns, and a storytelling style similar to Jim Woodring and Al Columbia, Rickheit excels in making nightmares lucid. Some characters recur from story to story in Folly, but really this book is just page after page of beautiful images juxtaposed with wounds and excreta. The single-mindedness of Rickheit’s approach — and the level of detail he applies to it — is impressively horrifying." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "...[A] heck of a ride... Jason might not be to everyone’s taste, but those who have acquired it will find Isle of 100,000 Graves to be a small but satisfying banquet." – No Flying No Tights

• Reviews: Chris Spector's Midwest Record rounds up reviews of new & recent Fantagraphics releases by Carl Barks, Jack Davis, Gahan Wilson, Pat Thomas, Johnny Gruelle, Ernie Bushmiller and E.C. Segar

• Plugs: The Los Angeles Times Hero Complex's Emily Rome and Geoff Boucher spotlight the L.A. Times Book Prizes graphic novel nominees, including Celluloid by Dave McKean and Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring

• Profile: The Salt Lake Tribune's Ben Fulton introduces Kevin Avery and his books on Paul Nelson, including Everything Is an Afterthought, which Avery will be signing at two events in Utah next week

• Interview (Audio): Pat Thomas appears on the Wax Poetics "Bad Data" podcast to discuss Listen Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975

• Interview (Video): Monte Schulz sits down to discuss his new novel The Big Town with host Fred Klein on the Literary Gumbo video podcast

• Commentary: Monte Schulz is writing a new blog at The Huffington Post, and for his first entry he tells you "What the 1920s Was Really Like" based on his research of the decade for his novel The Big Town

• Analysis: More from The Hooded Utilitarian critical roundtable on Jaime Hernandez's "Locas" stories — Corey Creekmur on the role of memory and Jason Michelitch on the gaps in the stories

• Contest: At Design Observer Rob Walker writes more about the Studio 360 Significant Objects writing contest

• Scene: Ashley Cook of Giant Fire Breathing Robot reports from our "Northwest Noir: Seattle's Legacy of Counterculture Comix" panel at Emerald City Comicon

Get ready, Beantown! We've got Peter Bagge and Al Jaffee coming your way for the 2012 Boston Comic Con!

Join them Saturday, April 21st and Sunday, April 22nd at the Hynes Convention Center [ 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA ].

And on Sunday, see Al in the panel Legends of Mad Magazine! The "Usual Gang of Idiots" reunite to reminisce about the creation of MAD, the most influential humor magazine of the 20th century. Al Feldstein and Paul Coker Jr join Al Jaffee for this rare event at 11:00 AM in Panel Room 102.

It'll be wicked awesome!

Join author Monte Schulz for a hometown appearance for The Big Town, on Tuesday, April 3rd! He'll be signing this riveting new novel starting at 7:00 PM! 

A novel of the Jazz Age, The Big Town is the story of a failed businessman whose dreams of prosperity hinge on the secret proposition of a millionaire industrialist and a dangerous relationship he finds with a poor orphan girl chasing love in the great American metropolis.

Chaucer’s Books is located at 3321 State Street in Santa Barbara.

Having been preoccupied by this past weekend's Emerald City Con, we're a bit late in offering our warmest wishes and hearty congratulations to two of our favorite gentlemen and their lovely significant others.

First up, TheComicsJournal.com co-editor and Picturebox  Founder Dan Nadel and his partner Rachel welcomed their first child, Henry, into the world early Friday morning. (You should do each of you a favor and help keep Henry in fresh diapers by picking up Picturebox's new Rory Hayesand Destroy All Monsters! books). 

Meanwhile, on Sunday, our old pal Jacob McMurray , Senior Curator of Seattle's Experience Music Project and author of our book TAKING PUNK TO THE MASSES , and his wife Sara welcomed their second daughter, Eleanor, into their family. 

Monday, April 2nd

• Los Angeles, CA: Join editor Pat Thomas at the Norman Lear Center for a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, 1965-1975. (more info)

Tuesday, April 3rd

• Santa Barbara, CA: Author Monte Schulz will be making a hometown appearance for The Big Town, at Chaucer's Books. (more info)

 Wednesday, April 4th

• Los Angeles, CA: Monte Schulz will return to Skylight Books to launch the last book in his Jazz Age trilogy, The Big Town! (more info) 

• Los Angeles, CA:  Editor/curator Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation at BookSoup on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975! (more info)

• Kyoto, Japan: The exhibit Three Sides Chicago: Squares, Squirrels & Dots, featuring Archer Prewitt, alongside Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge, will be opening at the Trancepop Gallery. All three artists will make an appearance at the opening reception. (more info)   

Thursday, April 5th

 • Los Angeles, CA:  Meet Daniel Clowes at Meltdown in Los Angeles!  The evening will be hosted by Blair Butler (of G4's Fresh Ink), and there will be an interview conducted by Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing, followed by a Q&A.  Also, it's the First Annual "Enid Coleslaw" Meet-Up at Nerdmelt. (more info)

• Los Angeles, CA:  Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 at Amoeba Records. (more info)

• Columbus, OH:  Join Paul Hornschemeier at the Columbus Museum of Art as he speaks with Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at Ohio State University. In conjunction with his talk, the museum will display a selection of Hornschemeier’s scripts, storyboards, and sketches highlighting his creative process. (more info) 

Saturday, April 7th

• Santa Barbara, CA:  Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 at Warbler Records & Goods. (more info)

• Tokyo, Japan:  Three Sides Chicago: Squares, Squirrels & Dots spotlights the work of Archer Prewitt, alongside Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge, and they'll make an appearance at the Shibuya Parco B1F LIBRO on this final day of the exhibit. (more info)

Fantagraphics Books and Light in the Attic Records are excited to announce that author, lecturer, and music-man Pat Thomas is hitting the road with Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. Meet the mofo behind the book that pays tribute to the Black Power Movement of the '60s-'70s. Heading up the West Coast and then across the pond to England, Thomas will be giving talks, signing books, and playing tracks at both bookstores and record shops.

While researching this book project in Oakland, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, and others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records' Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, which released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and Ossie Davis, among others. Obscure records produced by African-American sociopolitical organizations of the period are examined, along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Watts Prophets, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and many more.

Thomas will give a slide and music presentation, and then sign copies of Listen, Whitey! and the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records. The album features rare tracks from African-American activists like Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Last Poets, with protest music by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Harper, and more.

Listen, Whitey! features nearly 200 pages of text accompanied by over 250 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles -- most of which readers will have never seen before. The book creates a cultural context for the iconic images and the accompanying album.

Tour Schedule:

Wednesday, April 4, 7pm
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
W. HOLLYWOOD, CA 90069
310.659.3110

Thursday, April 5, 7-8PM
AMOEBA Records
6400 Sunset Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90028
323.245.6400

Saturday, April 7, TBA
Warbler Records & Goods
131 E De La Guerra St
SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101
805.845.5862

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30PM
The Booksmith
1644 Haight St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117
415.863.8688

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 pm
Pegasus Books
2349 Shattuck Ave.
BERKELEY, CA 94704
510.649.1320

Sunday, April 22, 7:30 PM
Powell's City of Books
1005 W Burnside
PORTLAND, OR 97209
503.228.4651

Wednesday, May 9, TBA
University of Southampton
University Road, SOUTHAMPTON SO17 1BJ
+44 (0)23.8059.5000

Thursday, May 10, TBA
SPONSORED AND PRESENTED BY
THE WIRE MAGAZINE
Cafe OTO
18 - 22 Ashwin St.
Dalston, LONDON E8 3DL

Friday, May 11, TBA
Rough Trade East "Dray Walk"
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, LONDON
E1 6QL
+44 (0)207.392.7788

Tuesday, May 15, TBA
Durham University
Lecture Room of the Music Department
The University Office
Old Elvet, DURHAM
DH1 3HP
+44 (0)191.334.6305

It's a Charles Burns fan's dream (and who among us isn't a fan?): over 90 minutes of Charles speaking about his life and work in a talk given as part of the Caroline Werner Gannett "Visionaries in Motion V" Series of lectures at the Rochester Institute of Technology. (Hat tip: Mike Lynch.)