Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is pleased to announce "Comix Talks," a series of discussions with accomplished comix artists, writers and editors. The first installment takes place on Wednesday, February 23 at 6:30 PM featuring Aaron Renier in conversation with Jason Shiga. Future events include editor and translator Kim Thompson on Jacques Tardi, writer Monte Schulz in conversation with Fantagraphics publisher and editor Gary Groth, Wilfred Santiago on 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente, and Jim Woodring on Congress of Animals.

"Comix Talks" is presented in association with the fledgling Fantagraphics Book Club. Additional information on the book club will be announced at the Aaron Renier/Jason Shiga appearance at the bookstore on on February 23. Watch this space for more news.

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio has been nominated for Best New One-Shot Manga in the 2011 About.com Manga Readers' Choice Awards! Voting continues through midnight ET, Tuesday, March 8, 2011. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Mome Vol. 21 - Winter 2011
by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

112-page full-color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-394-1

Previews & Ordering Info

Our acclaimed art-comics anthology forges into its 6th year with another diverse and wonderful volume full of returning favorites and a few surprises.

On the cover, a detail from Sara Edward-Corbett's haunting, Gorey-esque tale of nocturnally animate objects. Also in this issue: Steven "Ribs" Weissman's freewheeling, sometimes-satirical, sometimes-deeply-weird webcomic "Barack Hussein Obama" (starring the President of the United States and his associates) makes its print debut; Sergio Ponchione provides another full-color prequel story to his acclaimed series Grotesque (translated from its appearance in Italy's Linus magazine); Josh Simmons is back with more "White Rhinoceros" and one of his unparalleled standalone horror stories; Nate Neal takes us back to the world of his graphic novel The Sanctuary; and we welcome Nick Thorburn, cartoonist and frontman of the acclaimed indie bands Unicorns and Islands.

All this plus: a one-pager from Dash Shaw; a blackly comic fable from Jon Adams; a typically trenchant strip from Tom Kaczynski; new chapters of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man," Derek Van Gieson's "Devil Doll," and Kurt Wolfgang's "Nothing Eve" serials; a dreamlike tale from Lilli Carré; and more autobiographical vignettes by Nicolas Mahler.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Working in frenetic black and white, Eisner-award-winning Italian cartoonist Lorenzo Mattotti illustrates screenwriter Claudio Piersanti’s Stigmata with powerful art that drives a timeless fable of existential dreams. [...] Thanks to Piersanti’s workable script, Stigmata comes across as naturalistic and modernist in an old-school Hemingway style. [...] It’s an old story, but the heart that Mattotti and Piersanti bring to their comic keeps the work interesting.Mattotti’s character designs are as incredibly idiosyncratic as they are intense — their bodies are hulking masses, with exaggerated proportions and faces that don’t feel drawn so much as sculpted." – Ao Meng, The Daily Texan

• Review: "Segar's Thimble Theater was a nearly perfect blend of humor and adventure, with a cast of interesting oddballs (led by Popeye himself, of course) and a tone that could veer from high drama to low comedy within a couple of panels. And this Fantagraphics series is even closer to perfection, presenting Segar's work gorgeously on great big pages — it would be a much better world if all our artistic treasures were treated this well." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Interview (Audio): I haven't yet but you can bet I'll be listening to the entire 2 hours of the Inkstuds interview with the great Carol Tyler

• Interview: Robot 6's Brigid Alverson gets the behind-the-scenes scoop from Rich Tommaso about his work recoloring the Carl Barks ducks comics for our forthcoming collections

• Coming Attractions: The latest "Graphic Novels Prepub Alert" from Library Journal's Martha Cornog spotlights Murder by High Tide: "Belgian artist Tillieux (1921-78) is well known in Europe for tightly plotted mystery-comedies, churning with action and spectacular roadway mayhem. Never before translated for Americans, his work suggests Hergé's Tintin but in moodier, Will Eisner-grimy settings."

Last September, Blake Bell, author of Fire & Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics, appeared in Toronto for a book launch event with Everett's daughter Wendy to discuss Bill and his career. The full audio of the talk is now available as a 70MB MP3 download courtesy of Jamie Coville, and Blake offers commentary about the event on his blog.

If you read Destroy All Movies!!! and thought "these guys are hilarious — I wish they'd make a movie of their own," then we have good news for you: Zack Carlson & Bryan Connolly, editors of the book, have written a horror-comedy screenplay titled (funnily enough) Destroy about a would-be vampire hunter in a world with no vampires and it's headed into production with director Michael Stephenson (Best Worst Movie) on board. The Hollywood Reporter reports, Cinematical talks to Zack and Michael about the film, and Wired adds their commentary.

The University of Toronto Arts Council presents Joe Sacco as part of the UofT Arts Council 2011 Speakers Series on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 8pm at Innis Town Hall.

Joe Sacco, the second speaker in the UofT Arts Council 2011 Speakers Series, is one of the world's premier comic book artists and is widely recognized as a central figure in bringing graphic novels and sequential art into the cultural mainstream.

Sacco's work is frequently featured on university syllabi, in programs ranging from English to Political Science to Peace and Conflict Studies.

A Guggenheim fellow, Sacco's work has been profiled by the BBC, Time Magazine and the New York Times.

Trained as a journalist, his storytelling takes the form of "comics journalism" and includes such lauded works as Palestine and Safe Area Goražde.

A book signing will follow Sacco's lecture. All of Sacco's works will be available for sale at the event, courtesy of The Beguiling.

See more information and purchase advance tickets here.

This fascinating-looking exhibit which originated at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco last summer is now traveling to Toronto. From the announcement:

Graphic Details is a groundbreaking touring exhibition, providing the first in-depth look at a unique and prolific niche of graphic storytelling — Jewish women's autobiographical comics. While the influential role of Jews in cartooning has long been acknowledged, the role of Jewish women in shaping the medium is largely unexplored. This exhibition of original drawings, full comic books and graphic novels, presents the powerful work of eighteen Canadian and international artists whose intimate, confessional work has influenced the world of comics over the last four decades, creating an entirely new genre.

Featuring work from artists: Vanessa Davis, Bernice Eisenstein, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Katin, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Miss Lasko-Gross, Sarah Lazarovic, Miriam Libicki, Sarah Lightman, Diane Noomin, Corinne Pearlman, Trina Robbins, Racheli Rotner, Sharon Rudahl, Laurie Sandell, Ariel Schrag, Lauren Weinstein, Ilana Zeffren

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women
Originated by Michael Kaminer and Sarah Lightman
February 17th to April 17th, 2011
Opening Reception Thursday February 17th, 7:30PM-10PM (Artists in attendance)
@ Koffler Gallery Off-Site at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W
Free to Attend

More info here; there's a great lineup of related events here. 

Steven Brower, author of From Shadow to Light: The Life and Art of Mort Meskin , is the subject of a retrospective exhibit of his acclaimed design work at The Art Institute of California — Inland Empire in San Bernardino, March 17 through April 30, 2011. There will be an opening reception and lecture March 17. Via Steven's blog .

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "If your sense of humor is still intolerant of situations in which people embarrass themselves, whether or not they’re conscious of that embarrassment, Unlovable is pretty much your nightmare. [...] If there are flaws to point to here, they are: 1) that no one could possibly be as clueless and as unintentionally revelatory of that cluelessness as Tammy Pierce (i.e., that there’s too much authorial interpretation here), and 2) that, like any diary, it’s not particularly structured but instead consists of one damn thing after another (i.e., that there’s not enough shaping). That may well mean Watson’s hit the mark just right." – Hillary Brown, Paste

• Interview (Audio): On BreakThru Radio's "Art Uncovered" program, host/DJ Thomas chats with Unlovable creator Esther Pearl Watson between some great music (Warning: autoplaying audio which you'll have to stop and then start the interview — or download it as an MP3)

• Review: "In devouring the latest in Fantagraphics' fine, modern-day collections [of Prince Valiant...] , I was actually reminded more of Kirby's fellow Silver Age comic book titan Steve Ditko. Foster's young man seethes and overreacts and even plays the fool in the same way that Ditko allowed Peter Parker the human foibles inherent to those in the process of becoming an adult. (Spider-Man never got mad enough to lop off anyone's hand that I can remember, so point to Valiant there; they did operate in different centuries with their own definition of 'responsibility,' however.)" – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "Love from the Shadows is weird even for Gilbert, who always seems to draw on the id more than his brother." – Hillary Brown, Paste

• Plug: "The first two Fritz books contained some of Beto’s finest storytelling,  and I have really high hopes for this third volume. Love from the Shadows is purportedly a campy thriller, and the solicitation text make it sound like a hell of a lot of fun! Be sure to pre-order this one, so you don’t miss out!" – Edward Kaye, Hypergeek

• Plug: "Johnny Ryan's work isn't for everyone. But it most definitely is for me. [Prison Pit] is a book so batshit awesome it ought to be illegal (and maybe actually is). Ryan is as original as they come. Thank God for that, 'cause I don't think the world could survive two of them." – Jason Aaron (Scalped, Wolverine) at Comic Book Resources