This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 3 (1938-1940)
by Roy Crane

152-page full-color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-529-7

The Complete Peanuts 1985-1986 (Vol. 18)
by Charles M. Schulz

344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-572-3

The Complete Peanuts 1983-1986 Gift Box Set (Vols. 17-18)
by Charles M. Schulz

two 344-page black & white hardcover volumes in a custom 8.75" x 7.125" x 3" slipcase • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-573-0

"...if I were splurging, it would be a choice between the third volume of Captain Easy, Roy Crane’s delightful adventure-filled Sunday strip, and the new Complete Peanuts Box Set, covering the years 1983-1986." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: It’s all stripping this week, as Roy Crane brings Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 3 (1938-1940) ($39.99) and Charles Schulz provides The Complete Peanuts Vol. 18: 1985-1986 ($28.99). From the past! Where you can live!" – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal

"The Captain Easy material I love, sort of unreservedly, and think it really works at that size. The Peanuts books are really fascinating currently, and we're starting into that era after the perceived glory years and before the final, strong run where there's a great deal of curiosity as to how the work holds up." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

Love and Rockets fan Jeff Weis has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the series by getting tattoos of the Locas on both shoulders — classic giddy-up Maggie the Mechanic (inked by Joe Bass at Jade Mermaid Tattoo in Portland, OR) and one we haven't seen before, debonair tuxedo Hopey (inked by Christy Fish at Blacklist Tattoo in Portland)! Bravo and thanks for sharing, Jeff!

Delivered early yesterday, our advance copies of The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008, an innovative new collection that spotlights the intersection of art and language. If you're wondering "What is this 'vispo' of which you speak?" we have a nice big 35-page excerpt, including introductory essays by editors Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill, on the book's dedicated page, which you can peruse to get a sense of this fascinating art form — and of course we have more previews in the works. Scheduled for October release, the book is available for pre-order right now.

Hey, we just dug 10 copies of Mystic Funnies #1 by Robert Crumb out of our storage annex (a.k.a. Gary's garage)! We also found a few volumes of the R. Crumb Sketchbook series that we thought we were out of. Buy 'em before somebody else does!

Enjoy this hilarious (and SFW) short promotional video for Sexytime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur (coming very soon), created by the book's co-editor Jacques Boyreau. Don't be bored!

Pretty book alert! The first bound copy of Lilli Carré's story collection Heads or Tails showed up at the office late last week. It's a gorgeous package containing Lilli's short stories from Mome and elsewhere, along with new material. With a unique visual style and a literary, poetic storytelling sensibility, along with an experimental streak informed by her work in illustration and animation, Lilli is a singular young talent and we're thrilled to be collecting her comics work. The book is due in early November, give or take. Stay tuned for more previews & sneak peeks; learn more about the book and pre-order a copy (with a money-saving offer on Lilli's acclaimed 2008 debut The Lagoon) here.

Chris Wright writes: "My second book, and first 'graphic novel' Blacklung, will, if all goes according to plan, be debuting at SPX in September. I didn’t feel like drawing new comics one day, so I drew these promotional poster type things instead." It'd be nice to have some printed copies to give away at our SPX table — I'll see if we can make that happen. In the meantime, you can read a 12-page excerpt and pre-order a copy of the book right here.

"A bunch of large, intricate drawings" by Ron Regé Jr. from his upcoming Fantagraphics release The Cartoon Utopia are on exhibit as part of the "Shangri-LA" art show curated by Mike Kelley opening at Synchronicity Space in L.A. tonight which explores notions of... Utopia! Turn your head upside-down and you'll see that Ron is also giving a lecture at the gallery next Friday, August 24 at 7PM. More info here.

The Raven (Softcover Ed.)
by Lorenzo Mattotti & Lou Reed

166-page full-color 9" x 9" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-585-3

Ships in: September 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

In 2000, veteran rock 'n' roller Lou Reed, legendary director Robert Wilson, and a cast of singers and actors premiered Reed's musical POEtry in Hamburg's Thalia Theater.

An ambitious combination of Edgar Allen Poe's poems and stories and Reeds reinterpretations of same (with a few classic Reed songs such as "Perfect Day" and "The Bed" integrated for good measure, POEtry bridged the centuries to provide a unique vision of beauty and horror for the dawning 21st century.

In 2003, Reed released (under the title The Raven) a double CD reprising the musical, featuring an all-star cast of singers and actors including Steve Buscemi, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson. Willem Dafoe, and the Blind Boys of Alabama, as well as an edited single-CD version focusing on the songs.

Now, for the definitive book version compiling the songs, verses and narratives that comprise POEtry/The Raven, Reed has personally commissioned legendary Italian illustrator and cartoonist Lorenzo Mattotti (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stigmata) to visualize this extraordinary collaboration. Mattotti's vivid, abstracted and enigmatic artwork brings out all the terror and beauty of this centuries-spanning masterwork.

For our edition of this book, we enlisted Grammy Award-nominated designer Jesse LeDoux to create the striking jacket design.

16-page excerpt (download 2.2 MB PDF) including the Table of Contents and Reed's foreword (also read our exclusive interview with Lorenzo Mattotti):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Barack Hussein Obama
by Steven Weissman

112-page full-color 7.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-623-2

Ships in: September 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

What does it mean to live in America today? If you know there’s no right answer to that question, you’ll want to read Barack Hussein Obama — a book about you; about your country, your family, your president.

Barack Hussein Obama is not a graphic novel. It’s neither a biography nor an experiment, but a whole, fully-realized parallel America, a dada-esque, surrealistic satirical vision that is no more cockeyed than the real thing, its weirdness no more weird, its vision of the world no more terrifying, where the zombie-esque simulacra of Joe Biden and Hillary and Newt and Obama wander, if not exactly through the corridors of power, through an America they made and have to live in, like it or not.

American cartoonist Steven Weissman takes from the lives of the leader of the free world, his friends, his family, his sworn enemies, and gives them a new life that is both withering and oblique, devastating and contemplative, chaotic and pellucid.

Before you lose your will to vote, read Barack Hussein Obama.

13-page excerpt (download 6.3 MB PDF):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):