Just one Online Commentary & Diversions link for you today:

• Review: "...I want to call as much attention as I can to Joe Daly's sublimely odd and very, very funny The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book... If you're one of those that complains that comics doesn't allow for new and unique comic sensibilities, you need to read this book. Actually, everyone should." - Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

Tim Lane contributes the above two-page spread to the upcoming third volume of our Hotwire anthology. At his blog he's got closer looks, the concept sketch, and more background info. That "O" kills me.

Check out an exclusive excerpt from Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 at ICv2.com -- 6 pages from the final chapter of Jaime's "Ti-Girls Adventures." We should have the issue in stock in a couple of weeks, and stores will have it next month.

This looks like a killer show:

August 12, 2009 - Seattle, WA. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery continues its summer celebration of Seattle cartoonists with a signing and book launch party for Eroyn Franklin's new graphic novel Another Glorious Day at the Nothing Factory on Saturday, August 22 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Produced with the support of the Xeric Foundation and Allied Arts, this 216 page book consists of striking hand cut images, with an individually die-cut silkscreen cover in a numbered edition of 1,000 copies.

Another Glorious Day at the Nothing Factory is a revealing examination of the artist's transition from adolescence to adulthood. Franklin's impressionistic narrative complements the austere hand cut imagery in her exquisitely crafted autobiography. Original pages from Another Glorious Day at the Nothing Factory are included in the bookstore's current exhibition "Comics Savants: A Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists."

Franklin was awarded a prestigious Xeric grant in 2008 to assist with production of this project. Past recipients of funding from the Xeric Foundation, which supports publishing efforts of emerging cartoonists, include notable Seattle artists Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso and David Lasky, who are also featured in the exhibition "Comics Savants."

Please join us on Saturday, August 22 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM as Fantagraphics Books continues its commitment to promoting the work of promising regional cartoonists with a party honoring Franklin's impressive achievement. The artists will sign copies of the newly minted graphic novel as well as her equally superb handcrafted mini comic The Here.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.) only minutes south of downtown. Open daily 11:30 until 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.

Listing Information

Eroyn Franklin book signing

Saturday, August 22, 6:00 to 8:00 PM

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110
www.fantagraphics.com

Finally available for pre-order, one of our most anticipated releases of the year and our second original prose novel: This Side of Jordan by Monte Schulz is a picaresque novel told in the voice of a lost generation hurtling toward the Great Depression. A farm boy meets a violent gangster and an eccentric dwarf, encountering more curious characters as they traverse the American South. Featuring cover art by Al Columbia. This book is now available for pre-order in our online shop following its noteworthy debut (attracting the likes of Ray Bradbury and Joe Hill) at Comic-Con last month. To hook you, we've made the entire first chapter available for free as a 23-page PDF dowload. This book will be in stock and shipping in a week or two, and in stores approximately 4 weeks later (subject to change).

From poet and filmmaker Chad Parenteau: "The following is footage from time spent with cartoonist and graphic novelist Hans Rickheit while visiting his home in Philadelphia, as he discusses his influences, his New England hometown, and his upcoming graphic novel, The Squirrel Machine. Thanks to Hans for the opportunity to let me attempt something film-ish." (YouTube link)

Hump day Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "What more can I say about these wonderful [Complete Peanuts] collections? I’ve enjoyed each one immensely so far; they make me laugh and grin and even smirk a little from time to time... Top notch book. You can’t have a much better time than reading these collections. Highly recommended." - Todd Klein (link via Robot 6)

• Review: "[Prison Pit: Book 1] is the best comic Johnny Ryan has ever drawn. And I'm the guy that ranked the last Angry Youth Comix in his Best of 2008... This really needs to be experienced on its own. It's rich, clever, energetic, funny - I don't think I've purely in-my-guts enjoyed another comic so much in 2009... You've gotta see it to believe it." - Joe McCullough, Jog - The Blog

• Plug: "...[O]ur favorite comic book artist is Mr. Johnny Ryan!... Johnny continues his brilliant legacy with an 120 page epic tale named Prison Pit... Next to Jughead, Johnny’s about the best thing going on in comic books these days, so don’t be a chump and wait until they make some perverted documentary about him and he’s some hipster darling! ACT NOW!" - retroCRUSH

• Profile: For the Los Angeles Times, Tobias Carroll profiles artists who straddle music and comics, including Zak Sally, whose "surreal and compelling series Sammy the Mouse, begun in 2007, is a kind of existentialist's Bloom County," plus our pals Archer Prewitt & Ron Regé Jr.

• Analysis: For The Walrus, Sean Rogers examines the many intersections between Thomas Pynchon and comics, including Krazy Kat and Arnold Roth

• Events: Michael Upchurch of The Seattle Times looks at the "Comics Savants" exhibit now on view at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery

• Events: Angela Ashman of The Village Voice previews Michael Kupperman's appearance at The Strand Bookstore next Tuesday

I'm already on board for Marvel Strange Tales MAX, but Samurai Hulk by Stan Sakai? Come on! Robot 6 has the official PR.

Dame Darcy's band Death by Doll has a show in Seattle this Saturday, so as DD says, "don't miss the rococo-psychedelic art/death rock fun!" Plus, the multifarious and multitalented Dame has concocted a new fragrance for men called Sexy Summer Man -- all details on concert and cologne are at her blog.