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

500 Portraits
by Tony Millionaire

192-page black & white 5.75" x 7.5" hardcover • $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-473-3

"500 Portraits is a collection of drawings by the mighty Tony Millionaire of various people, some famous, some not so famous. I’m sure it all will be exquisitely rendered." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"Be sure to pick up @tonymillionaire's 500 Portraits HC from @fantagraphics today and play 'Do you know who that is?' with someone you love!" – Midtown Comics

"Finally, an event on any week it was released, and one of the few that doesn't seem like it's being put out before Christmas on purpose: an art book featuring Tony Millionaire's portraiture. If this one works, they need to do a book of his house drawings." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

See a 5-page sneak-peek at PREVIEWSworld!

Provocative cartoonist Tony Millionaire will appear in Seattle at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, January 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for a book signing and art show. He'll be exhibiting brilliantly sedate work from his new book 500 Portraits, recently released by Fantagraphics Books.

500 Portraits collects over two decades of work by the beloved creator of Drinky Crow's Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts. Tony Millionaire's gorgeous fountain pen illustrations, which combine naturalistic detail with strong doses of the fanciful and grotesque, include the famous (Bob Dylan), the infamous (Abu Ghraib soldier/model Lynndie England), the fictional (Yoda), the animal kingdom (a cockroach), and everything in between. Literary figures (Hemingway), literary characters (Don Quixote & Sancho Panza), Hollywood legends (Steven Spielberg), comics icons (Hergé, Daniel Clowes, Hernandez Brothers, etc.) and historical figures (Hitler) also figure prominently.

Many of these 500 portraits were created for The Believer, the magazine founded by Dave Eggers that Millionaire helped define visually with images of interview subjects in every issue. The book also includes dozens of illustrations from various other publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Ephemera Press Historical Maps, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

The artist will be present to sign copies of his many Fantagraphics titles as well as the recent Encyclopedia of Hell and other works. The evening will also feature the premiere of the short live-action film "Everybody Loves Drinky Crow" by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid.

Listing information:

Tony Millionaire
PORTRAITS

Artist reception & book signing
Saturday, January 7, 6:00 to 9:00 PM
Exhibition continues through February 8, 2012

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas tops Deb Aoki's list of the Most-Anticipated New Manga of 2012 at About.com Manga: "This 3-volume story from 1974 has been on many manga connoisseur's wish lists for years, so it's a real joy to see that Fantagraphics will be publishing the entire saga in English in one volume."

• List/Review: Manga Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson ranks Wandering Son the #2 Best New Manga of 2011 and recommends Volume 2 in her review: "Shimura Takako’s young figures are adorable. They look unspoiled, with their future ahead of them, which puts their struggles into greater relief.... Translator Matt Thorn’s essay at the back of this volume addresses the issue of being 'Transgendered in Japan' directly, providing valuable information on cultural context, as well as warning us that the children’s lives may be very difficult in years (and stories) to come. There is no more handsome manga than Fantagraphics’ presentation of Wandering Son."

• List: Forbidden Planet International asks comics creator Martin Eden his 3 favorite comics of 2011: "My attention had been waning a bit with the Love and Rockets comics, and then 2010′s Love and Rockets [New Stories] 3 came out and it blew my mind – it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever read. So much so, that I found myself re-reading the entire series and tracking down all the issues I’d missed. This year’s Love and Rockets [New Stories] 4... was still utterly mind-blowing, and Jaime Hernandez is producing the best work he’s ever done, in my opinion."

• Review: "One of comics revered masters gets a fresh new reprinting [Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes ] worthy of his work and accessible to kids.... This volume finds [Barks] at a creative peak, combining the bold adventuring of Tintin with the wisely cynical view of human weakness of John Stanley.... Donald is an everyman of frustration whose life is one big Chinese finger trap—the harder he fights, the harder the world fights back.... Despite the dark undertones, the comic expressions and dialogue is still laugh-out-loud funny. A wonderful project that should put Barks’s name in front of new generations of admirers." – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

• Review: "This exceptional first volume of the collected adventures of Pogo Possum should remind readers of the substantial legacy left behind by Kelly.... The volume is beautifully put together, including excellent insights into Kelly and his work... One only needs to get a short way into the adventures of Pogo and his pals in Okefenokee Swamp to recognize the impact Pogo has had on so many cartoonists... With Pogo Possum and [his] supporting characters..., Kelly was able to blend hilarious humor, exceptional storytelling, keen political satire, and brilliant wordplay into a strip that could be appreciated both by children and adults. The more one reads this volume, the clearer picture one has of Kelly as comics’ answer to Lewis Carroll, with Alice having changed into a possum and left Wonderland behind for a swamp." – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

• Review: "The Art of Joe Kubert contains extensive commentary by Bill Schelly that contextualizes Kubert's work with the development of comics as a medium. ...[I]t's an informative and briskly engaging essay. ​In reviewing the vast panorama of Kubert's eight-decade career, The Art of Joe Kubert allows readers previously unfamiliar with the artist to share an appreciation of his abiding interest in human nature (as opposed to just superhero theatrics) through a surprising variety of storytelling styles and subject matter. Kubert's great influence on other cartoonists came from the way he embraced the comics medium as a whole, instead of just a particular niche or character type." – Casey Burchby, SF Weekly

• Interview: The A.V. Club's Sam Adams chats with Jack Davis: "I’ve said this many a time; I’ll tell it again. When I was going to kindergarten, and that’s a very young age, my mother used to walk me to school. I would go up past a chain gang — that was the old days when the prisoners wore stripes and everything — and I saw that. I would go to kindergarten, and they’d put a piece of construction paper in front of me, and crayons, and I did, probably, a stick figure, but I put stripes on him. And from that, they thought I had talent. My mother thought I was great. And from then, I’ve always drawn. Drawn pictures. I love to draw cartoons."

• Interview: Nerve gets sex advice from a trio of cartoonists including Rick Altergott — "If you want to talk about inking brushes or pens or what kind of paper or even something as broad as 'who's your favorite cartoonist?' 'Do you know Robert Crumb?' 'Do you know the Hernandez brothers?' Once you get the answer, you can fine-tune it from there. Before you know it, you're probably going to end up in bed." — and Anders Nilsen

• Plugs: The fine folks at L.A.'s Secret Headquarters are posting their staff gift suggestions: Julie recommends Leslie Stein's Eye of the Majestic Creature ("Good for: Anyone with an overactive imagination; fans of whimsy and good times") and Malachi suggests The Cabbie Vol. 1 by Martí ("A European (and comically sordid) take on the American crime genre") and Walt Kelly's Pogo Vol. 1 ("The essential collection of Pogo – A comic that expertly integrates social satire into the daily newspaper format")

• Craft: Kevin Huizenga spills his secrets for using templates to lay out his comics

These books have been out for a while and some low-res images have been floating around but I've been waiting, waiting, waiting for designer Paul Buckley to post them on his Flickr page in all their high-res glory and at last my patience is rewarded! Behold Ivan Brunetti's and Jordan Crane's amazing cover illustrations for the new Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions of the Roald Dahl classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, now available at bookstores near you. But this isn't even the half of it! There's back covers, spines and flaps too — see the full layout of Charlie here and James here.

[Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

This weekend in San Francisco, get a hint of what's to come in our upcoming anthology No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall!

Justin recently taught the Engage: Queer Comics Project class at the California College of the Arts, and now his students are curating an art show opening this Saturday, December 17th at the S.F. Cartoon Art Museum.

The show will feature art from LGBTQ comics over the last four decades made by local creators, as well as a film composed of interviews of major figures in queer cartooning conducted by the students, and Quiltbag, a zine of original material created by the students themselves. 

Among the featured artists is our very own Trina Robbins!  Other artists featured in the show include: Burton Clarke (Gay Comix), Jaime Cortez (Sexile), Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf), Jon Macy (Teleny and Camille), MariNaomi (Kiss and Tell), Joey Alison Sayers (Just So You Know), Christine Smith (The Princess), Mary Wings (Come Out Comix), and Rick Worley (A Waste of Time).

Plus, there will be comics-inspired drag performances by the uncanny Sue Casa, Trangela Lansbury (ohmygod, best name ever), Karma Zabetch, and others. The party runs from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the S.F. Cartoon Art Museum [ 655 Mission Street, San Francisco ].

And No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall, is slated for release in April 2012!  Stay tuned to the FLOG for pre-sale details!

Back in 1973, this ad in Billboard magazine quoted renowned Rolling Stone journalist Paul Nelson in promotion for an album by musician Elliott Murphy, a singer-songwriter who Nelson helped discover.

"Since Elliott Murphy and his work will be with us as long we have rock & roll, I suggest we play it now..." -- Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone

And Elliott Murphy will be playing that music tonight at BookCourt in Brooklyn, alongside author/editor Kevin Avery, who will be doing a signing and discussion for Everything is an Afterthought: The Life & Writings of Paul Nelson.

This is a very special chance to not only hear the words that Nelson wrote, but to hear the music that inspired those words.

The event starts at 7:00 PM, and BookCourt is located at 163 Court Street in Brooklyn, between Dean and Pacific.

We'll be helping to distribute Rich Tommaso's forthcoming self-published graphic novel The Cavalier Mr. Thompson (as in Jim, not Kim), but before that can happen he's got a Kickstarter campaign going to help pay for the printing costs and help him finish it in time for its European publication deadlines. We've published a few of Rich's comics in the past and most recently you can see his stellar coloring work in our Carl Barks Library series!

Kick in some bucks and you could get a signed copy of the book along with bonuses like prints, buttons, original art or even a 3D sculpey rendition of a scene from the book! Watch the video above for more info and check out a 75-page (!) preview from the book at Rich's website!

Yup, Tony Millionaire's 500 Portraits gets the nod from TV's Andy Richter. Sweet, sweet nepotism!

As you may know, next spring we are publishing Significant Objects, a collection of writing and images from the project of the same name wherein various writers created narratives inspired by various seemingly valueless objects which were then auctioned on eBay with their respective stories as the item description, to see if the accompaniment of the story would lead to an increase in the objects' value as measured by the bids. So, news comes via the Significant Objects blog that the students in an 11th-grade English class at Wm. E. Hay High School in Stettler, Alberta, Canada are embarking on their own experiment replicating the project, with the objects (some of which were created by the writers) and their stories being posted at the Stettler's Significant Objects blog as well as their eBay listings (proceeds from which go half to the writers and half to charity). Those kids all get an A+ (or whatever the Canadian equivalent is) from us! Go show them some love by checking out the stories and maybe throwing a few bids down.