Here's our final batch of overdue photo previews, at least for the time being: You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! by Fletcher Hanks. Watch the preview in the slideshow player embedded below; if it's not visible to you, or to see it full-screen (recommended), click here; if you don't like slideshows, browse here.

I went a little nuts snapping eye-catching panels, as you can see. There's just so many of them! I want to highlight two of my favorites below; the first one reminds me of Tim Lane, and the second for obvious reasons.

Drew Friedman, whose portrait of W. as The Joker has been in the news lately due to the ill-conceived (unless they are intended to be absurd) Obama-as-Joker posters currently papering L.A., has filed his official (and highly sensible) response to the flap on his blog; Vanity Fair, where Friedman's illo originally ran, also has coverage.

Aha! We teased this a little while ago and now it has appeared: Dash Shaw appears on Indy Mogul's "Reel Good Show" to discuss his upcoming animation project for IFC.com and accompanying book from Fantagraphics, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD (official info on the project here), with a couple of brief interludes of other stuff. Hijinks ensue! Here's the YouTube video link for those who don't see the embedded player above.

We Are the Friction is a very rad-sounding short fiction/illustration book/exhibit project from Sing Statistics which features artwork from Ray Fenwick (above) and a mess of other great contributors. Photos from exhibit host Analogue Books in Edinburgh.

...when FedEx drops off a big stack of Gilbert Hernandez artwork. Behold, the entirety of his next book, the "Fritz film adaptation" The Troublemakers. Drawn at size. Amazing. Our production maestro Paul Baresh will be scanning this tonight. Probably a late Fall/early Winter release. Cover painting by Rick Altergott.

Another dose of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "I’ve just finished the fourth Usagi Yojimbo trade and the fifth is sitting next to me... If you’re like me, throw away your preconceptions about anthropomorphic comics and get on board. As a fan of samurai fiction (to the point of having a Seven Samurai tattoo) and comics, I can’t recommend Stan Sakai’s beautifully drawn, note-perfect reinvention of the genre highly enough." - Kevin Church

• Review: "I Killed Adolf Hitler is a fun, silly and slightly creepy comic, a love story wrapped around a time travel paradox, dressed up with gun fighting. In short, it's a perfect comic book..." - Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Review: "Sometimes the single panel of a political cartoon just isn’t a big enough space for a cartoonist to work with, especially if said cartoonist is interested in providing a detailed, nuanced discussion or honest-to-God reporting on a topic. That’s the sort of political cartooning Peter Bagge has been engaging in for Reason magazine, and a decade’s worth of examples are now available in trade-paperback collection Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me... Bagge is libertarian (as is Reason), and it shows, but one need not agree with his politics to enjoy his work here, perhaps because as a political cartoonist, Bagge’s a cartoonist first and political second." - J. Caleb Mozzocco, Las Vegas Weekly

• Plug: The Metabunker's Matthias Wivel calls your attention to From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium: "it’s a damn fine collection of comics."

• Plug: The Beat (Publishers Weekly) covers our Nancy announcement

• Events: Fans of Peter Bagge's work in Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me can get together with some like minded souls at a Reason magazine party in Philadelphia on August 28

The Previews website has an exclusive selection of 9 interior pages from the brand new Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray omnibus Love and Rockets collection by Jaime Hernandez. Feast your eyes!

We have a trio of new original graphic novels with coincidentally zoological titles, all now available for pre-order. All of them debuted to a great response at Comic-Con last month; they should be in stock here and ready to ship later this month, and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that. Click the links for each book below for more info and to access downloadable PDF excerpts!

Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life by Bruce Paley & Carol Swain - A comics memoir of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, a life lived in the countercultural margins, from the optimism of the Summer of Love to the nihilism of the punk years, vividly brought to life with compelling visuals by the cartoonist Time Out called "the Raymond Carver of British comics."

The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book by Joe Daly - Set in sun-drenched Cape Town, South Africa, this book features two full-length stories, “The Leaking Cello Case” and “John Wesley Harding,” rife with mystery, suspense, action, adventure, conspiracy theories, cool cars and excellent weed. From the creator of the Eisner-nominated Scrublands.

The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit - Meticulous, strange, and hauntingly beautiful, this evocative and enigmatic book will ensure the inquisitive reader a spleenful of cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel.

COPRO GALLERY (at Bergamot Station)
2525 Michigan Ave #T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404
GALLERY: 310-829-2156

PREVIEW OF ARTWORK: www.blabshow.com

Copro Gallery and Monte Beauchamp proudly present the fifth annual "BLAB! SHOW," a kaleidoscope of colors and scenes from the "21st-Century Apocalypse" feature in the next issue of BLAB!

Artists include: MARK RYDEN, JOE SORREN, JEFF SOTO, SHAG,
FEMKE HIEMSTRA, ALEX GROSS, NATALIA FABIA, RYAN HESHKA,
MARTIN WITTFOOTH, OWEN SMITH, GARY BASEMAN, JEAN-PIERRE ROY, KRIS KUKSI, GEORGANNE DEEN, GARY TAXALI, SPAIN, XNO,
FRED STONEHOUSE, ANDY KEHOE, MARC BURCKHARDT, MARK TODD, CALEF BROWN, JOHN POUND, DAVID SANDLIN, and many more.

BLAB! -- an anthology of art, illustration, found graphics, and sequential art -- is the brainchild of Chicago-based art director and designer Monte Beauchamp.