The Comics Journal #292
Edited by Michael Dean and Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, executive editor

Gary Groth interviews father and son cartoonists Gene and Kim Deitch. Academy-award-winning Gene Deitch, whose wide-ranging career has spanned 60+ years, talks about doing illustrations for The Record Changer, directing cartoons such as Munro and Krazy Kat, and creating his comic strip Terr’ble Thompson. Underground comics pioneer Kim Deitch, touches on his father’s influence, reminisces about the New York-based scene and outlines the evolution of Waldo the Cat. Plus: The innovative Grant Morrison fills us in on his X-Men run, All Star Superman, the ambitious Seven Soldiers “maxiseries” how he became one of the architects of the current DC Comics universe. Our comics gallery presents an historical essay and highlights from the turn-of-the-19th-century work of Puck cartoonist F. M. Howarth.

200-page b&w/color 7.5" x 9.5" squarebound softcover magazine • $11.99
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The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 14 (New Softcover Printing)
By Robert Crumb

Finally back in print after a prolonged absence, The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 14: The Early '80s and Weirdo Magazine continues the multi-volume series comprising the complete works of the legendary cartoonist R. Crumb, one of America's most original, trenchant, and uncompromising artists. This volume features the beginning of a seminal period of both Crumb's life and comics history with the first eight issues of Weirdo magazine, edited and anchored by Crumb, including the legendary strips, “Uncle Bob’s Mid-Life Crisis” and “I Remember the Sixties.” Also included are collaborations with Harvey Pekar from the pages of American Splendor, rare music-related art, Crumb's final contributions to Winds of Change magazine, and much more.

128-page b&w/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
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The conclusion of Brian Heater's two-part talk with Jaime Hernandez about Love and Rockets: New Stories touches on fantasy, reality, and putting Maggie through the wringer.

Lotta interviews out there today, huh?

"La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée - A Week Celebrating the French Graphic Novel" is now over and was a rousing success by any measure. We have many photographs from the events to browse, from Wednesday's opening lecture by Kim Thompson (previously posted); Friday's opening of the David B. "My Story, My Stories" exhibit and book signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery:

...Saturday's David B. discussion at Seattle Central Library:

...and Sunday's "Romans Graphiques Meet the Graphic Novel" panel discussion at the Henry Art Gallery with panelists (L to R) Peter Bagge, David B., moderator Kim Thompson, and Jim Woodring:

David B. super-fan Karl Dotter, a.k.a. k4rl on Flickr, flew up from San Francisco for the events and has a bunch more photos and a few video clips:

Photographer Steve Sampson of the Alliance Française also took many, many great photos over the week; we'll be sure to post a link when they're up on the Alliance's website. And we recorded audio at all these events (and the Library is going to be podcasting theirs), so we should be able to bring you MP3s and possibly some multimedia in the near future.

Special thanks to all of the individuals and organizations who worked so hard to put together this fantastic week of events, and of course to the gracious and phenomenally talented David B. for making the journey, tirelessly signing and sketching, and providing such fascinating discussion. It's a great month to be a graphic novel fan in Seattle.

Apologies for the late update -- technical difficulties and all that. This week's reviews: 

• Joe McCulloch, AKA Jog, takes a good look at Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars

• Joe/Jog also looks at Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes 

• Sequart examines Explainers by Jules Feiffer

• Retailer Mike Sterling says Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman is "all you need to know about the new comics coming in this week," and then promptly sells out of them! Sequart looks at the issue too

• This week's coverage of Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell comes from Publishers Weekly, The Village Voice (second on the page), and Steve Bissette

• Black Heart Magazine reviews Ellen Forney's Lust

• French site Wart looks at Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• We take 3 spots on this top-10 list at Creative Loafing (and 2 of those are Acme Novelty Library)

• Our Eric Reynolds is posting scans of our press clippings on his Flickr account

• Harry Allen appreciates The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

• The Forbidden Planet International blog looks at The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott (reposted from the Blank Slate Books blog)

• Flickr user jjohnshea not only poses his sweet-looking dog with Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees by Tony Millionaire and Chance in Hell by Gilbert Hernandez (among other books... and look, here's his other dog with The Frank Book by Jim Woodring), he reviews them too:

In other links...

• This guy scored some great stuff at our Summer Sidewalk Sale last weekend

• Richard Grayson has a great report from last Friday's Where Demented Wented book release event at Desert Island in Brooklyn

• Blake Bell has the hots for my wife and writes some other things about his Comic-Con experience

• Paul Hornschemeier posts a video of Jonathan Lethem and Daniel Clowes talkin' shop at MoCCA

• At Blog Flume, Ken Parille connects the dots between Swiss appropriationist Ugo Rondinone, Jason, and Carl Barks

• Also at Blog Flume, Jonathan Bennett presents the complete It Was a Dark and Stormy Night by Snoopy

• Are you keeping up with Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga, Ted May and Dan Zettwoch?

• In other webcomics news, Roger Langridge announces the temporary return of Fred the Clown

• Tim O'Shea interviews The Comics Journal Online Editor Dirk Deppey

• News To Me Dept: Hey, this Angry Youth Comix cover is based on this Li'l Abner paperback cover

• An amazing piece of original art by Michael Kupperman and the bitter story behind how it was acquired (via Sean T. Collins)

• Our own Kristy Valenti posts her Comic-Con 2008 wrap-up at ComicMix

• At Thought Balloonists, see photos of Jim Woodring at his Comic-Con spotlight panel and video of Jaime Hernandez sketching John Hancock for a fan at our Comic-Con booth

• Our own Larry Reid is quoted in this Los Angeles Times article about photographer Edward Colver

• Tim of Sparky Malarkey has a lot of our books on his shelves

• More Anders Nilsen sketchbook comics

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS & MERGE RECORDS PRESENT:
TOWN OF MIRRORS: A Robert Pollard Book Release Party and Art Exhibition

at the MERGE RECORDS HQ
Friday, August 15, 6PM

DURHAM, N.C. — The Merge Records HQ will be hosting Dayton, Ohio’s Robert Pollard on Aug. 15th for Town of Mirrors, an art exhibition and book release party celebrating the release of Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, to be published in August by Seattle’s Fantagraphics Books. Town of Mirrors will be the inaugural art show in Merge’s downtown Durham office as part of Durham’s Third Friday, a monthly downtown arts and culture “crawl.”

The forthcoming Town of Mirrors coffee table art book will premiere at the event, with many of the actual collages from the collection hanging in the show alongside several new works. The Reassembled Art of Robert Pollard collects the very best of Pollard’s visual art and lyrics/poetry from his storied career. Featuring over 180 of Pollard’s favorite collages, hand-picked by the artist, as well as over a dozen new collages produced exclusively for this book, Town of Mirrors is the first comprehensive collection of Pollard’s visual art ever released. Original artwork and copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Listing info:

WHO: Robert Pollard
WHAT: Town of Mirrors Book Release Party & Art Exhibition
WHEN: Friday, August 15th @ 6pm
WHERE: Merge Records HQ, 409 E. Chapel Hill St., Durham, NC

Robert Pollard is the Dayton, Ohio singer-songwriter, who was the leader and creative force behind the legendary rock group Guided by Voices, one of the most influential bands of its generation (SPIN magazine recently named Pollard one of “The Top 50 Rock & Roll Front Men of All-Time”). Town of Mirrors is his first book.

In addition to being a revered songwriter and recording artist, Pollard is a gifted and prolific visual artist, working mostly in the medium of collage. His work has been exhibited at Michael Imperioli’s Studio Dante in New York and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He has created the covers to almost every Guided By Voices record and countless other Pollard-related releases.

Robert Pollard released four records on Merge, the most recent of which, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love and Standard Gargoyle Decisions, were released in October 2007. Mr. Pollard most recently released Robert Pollard is Off to Business on his own Guided By Voices, Inc. label. He was a fourth grade schoolteacher until 1994, when Guided by Voices first broke into the national consciousness with the release of the album Bee Thousand. With over 900 songs registered to his name with BMI, Pollard is among the most prolific and acclaimed songwriters of his time.

Town of Mirrors is published by Seattle’s Fantagraphics Books, best known as North America’s premiere publisher of graphic novels and comic strips.

Book info:

Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard
By Robert Pollard
Introduction by Rick Moody
$29.99 Hardcover
Music / Art
144 pages, full-color, 10” x 10”
ISBN 978-1-56097-924-1
PUBLICATION DATE: Aug. 15, 2008

“The visual art of Robert Pollard is uncanny, moving, strange, and it summons a dark melancholy at the same time; an austere beauty is forged in what is degraded and worthless in the image repertoire of culture itself.” – RICK MOODY, from his introduction