The DHL driver dropped off advance copies of a few of our April books today:

Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental (new hardcover ed.) by Drew Friedman & Josh Alan Friedman...

...Cruisin' with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Tooté by Spain Rodriguez...

...and Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion by Hans Rickheit! Three great books, three long titles. Look for more & better photos and our video flip-through previews in the coming weeks (and about 5 other previews before that — gettin' hectic around here!).

Mark your calendars, and start, uh... NOT practicing for the Fantagraphics Emerald City Comicon Pinball Party!

Convention guest Jim Woodring will be your host for the evening on Saturday, March 31st at Shorty's in Seattle. And the highlight of the event will be a low-score pinball tournament. Tank it without tilting, and you could win this beautiful backglass from a forthcoming custom-made Frank pinball machine! (As seen above, and currently on display at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery! Bee-yoooo-tiful!)

More details coming soon about the Emerald City Comicon, and our fun-filled after-party! See you there!

Tuesday, February 21st

• Seattle, WA:  Join us at the Elysian Brewing Company for the release of Rapture, the second beer in our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series featuring labels with the artwork of Charles Burns! Please note the updated time for the survival demo in the graphic above! (more info) 

Thursday, February 23rd

• New York City, NY:  Head over to the Society of Illustrators for a discussion and Q&A with Mome contributor Eleanor Davis, along with fellow artists Jillian Tamaki and Lisa Hanawalt!  (more info)

We've got our new Nicolas Mahler Angelman page for you! And in lieu of a new Up All Night strip Michael Kupperman has provided a rarity from his vaults.

And a note on a change here: I've greatly enjoyed bringing you weekly roundups of comics by our artists from elsewhere around the web, but putting them together here on Flog has proven to be labor-intensive, so from now on I'll be posting those strips on our Tumblr blog when appropriate, because that's easier. Of course I strongly encourage you to go through previous posts, link through to the sources of those strips and add them to your bookmarks and/or RSS reader, if you like 'em.

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Angelman by Nicolas Mahler (view at original size):

Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size):

Thanks to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse series co-editor David Gerstein for passing along these links I missed the first time 'round:

• Review: "Fantagraphics' second volume of Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse daily strip delves into the imagination of the cartoonist... Floyd Gottfredson is one of the most truly talented individuals that is finally getting his day in the sun. His contributions to the character and development of Mickey Mouse and newspaper storytelling are nothing short of revolutionary. Mickey Mouse Volume 2: Trapped on Treasure Island stands as second and essential tome in one of the most richly visionary and creative outputs in modern sequential art." – Rafael Gaitan, Comics Bulletin

• Review: "Like Volume 1, this volume does not disappoint. It's jam-packed full of lovingly restored daily strips. Some of the strips are definitely a product of their times. My only complaint is the color choice for the cover. Green? Seriously? And, not even a good shade either." – My Disney Collection Blog

• Plug: "While the stories are restored from Disney's originals and negative proofsheets, the book also includes over 50 pages of supplementary features, with rare behind-the-scenes art and vintage publicity material and has great paintings by Gottfredson from all stories." – Dave Wessels, Dave Wessels ComiX

• Review: "This week we look at one of the best things I bought last year: Fantagraphic’s first two volumes of the collected Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse strips. About the presentation of the volumes, the quality is on par with other collections published by Fantagraphics. That is to say high.... This frenzied spirit and (mostly) good natured humor is just one of the reasons to pick up one or both of these volumes. Gottfredson’s art in these volumes is crisp and consistent with the Disney look. Probably because he worked in the animation studio before taking over the strips, there’s a great sense of movement and fluidity in the panels.... As impressive as the detailed panels are, the craft of the story shows equal skill." – Matt LaVergne, LEMUR Comics Blog

• Review: "[These] are outstanding books, filled not only with great comics, but with reams of background material on the character and the development of the strip itself. These books have gotten nothing but praise from most quarters and I'm very pleased to at last add them to the stack of beautiful books on comics which is slowly but steadily consuming my home." – Rip Jagger, Rip Jagger's Dojo

• Review: "This box set is one of the best books in my collection.... These early works about Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson are very enjoyable to read.... In these early stories of Mickey Mouse, he is very brave. He is a hero." – Inge, It's a Beautiful Life

• Plug: "Do yourself a favor – next time you are in the store take a few moments and pick up a copy of Lost in the Andes or Pogo, [or] either Mickey Mouse collection... [and] flip through it. Read a few strips.  You will immediately see what I am talking about. These are rich, beautiful books and they deserve to be read by everyone." – Andy Mansell, The Heroesonline Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "[Swarte's] comic pages are playful symphonies, composed to the smallest detail. Though his style is static in nature, he is a master of panel layouts, organising the contents of each panel in such a way that movement erupts by the way he’s leading the eye across the page.... For those wanting to familiarize themselves with the comics of Joost Swarte, Is That All There Is? is a nice baptism into his specific world vision full of retro architecture and absurd happenings." – Bart Croonenborghs, Broken Frontier

• Review: "It is not very often that a comic (from any country) deals with gender identity in such a sensitive and accessible way, which is why I am so incredibly happy that Wandering Son is being translated into English.... I really do love Wandering Son. The story has a quietness to it that hides the intensity of its emotion. While gender identity is an important part of Wandering Son, it is not the only aspect of the story or or the characters. Shuichi, Takatsuki, their friends, families, classmates, and teachers all come across as real people. The connections between characters transcend gender, too. Friendships are developed and strengthened by common interests and standing up for each other.... I can't recommend Wandering Son enough and am really looking forward to the next volume." – Ash Brown, Experiments in Manga

• Metaplug: The New Yorker plugs Paul Di Filippo's review of Bill Griffith: Lost and Found - Comics 1969-2003

(final cover may vary)

Last week Joe Daly let us know that Dungeon Quest Book 3 (coming this summer), already planned to be double the length of the previous two volumes of the series, has turned out to be even longer and more epic, fattening up from 240 to 288 pages! (This also means we're raising the price by a buck.) If you're not already on board this Angoulême Jury Prize-winning and Ignatz Award-nominated series, which is jam-packed with outrageous action, hilarious stoner humor, nutty characters and eye-popping settings, for goodness sake order our money-saving bundle of Books 1 & 2 and get yourself caught up!

This is as good an excuse as any to reveal this 5-page sneak peek we've had hiding under our hat for a while. As you can see, Joe's art is getting more and more polished and confident and just plain gorgeous. Click each image to enlarge it in a new window. Enjoy!

(final cover art may vary)

It is my enormous pleasure to announce the return of Linda Medley to active Castle Waiting duty, beginning in April, after a three-year hiatus.

Castle Waiting Volume Two was originally supposed to run for another few issues, comprising a series of additional and concluding scenes, but Linda was unable to complete that material at the time. Since the main story was finished, since it looked as if Castle Waiting was definitely over, and since there was huge demand for a follow-up to the original Castle Waiting graphic novel, we released the chapters that had been completed as the Castle Waiting Volume Two book.

To my surprise and delight, Linda recently wrote me to say that she wanted to go back in and finish the book the way she'd intended it. As I write this she is putting the finishing touches on that long-delayed 16th issue, with two more to come after that, to REALLY wrap up the story. And her work is as great as ever. Here is a sample:

(click images to enlarge)

You may notice that the lettering is quite different, and, we feel, hugely improved. While we thought the typeset lettering in most of Volume Two was fine, we have, in the intervening years, become so adept at creating fonts from cartoonists' lettering that we decided to try that for Linda, and the results are quite stunning. (Believe it or not, this is Linda's hand lettering that we've used, even though it's so neat it looks like typography.)

You may wonder, where does that leave the epilogue-less Volume 2 book collection? Our plan is to let it lapse for the next year (in fact, our distributors just ran out of copies, so it is out of print), and then reprint the book with the new chapters added, and the entire thing re-lettered with the lovely new font.

Since we realize this may be a bit frustrating to loyal Castle Waiting readers/buyers, we are doing a few things that should help. For one thing, we will be offering a subscription to the three $3.95 comics (completing the story) for a supercheap $8.00. (Not bad for 70 pages of great new Medley comics.) And we are trying to figure out a way to accommodate those readers who bought the original Volume 2 book and would prefer the new one but aren't totally thrilled about being asked to fork over money for a whole new book. We don't want to be like Peter Jackson (well, New Line) who makes fans buy new Lord of the Rings DVD's every two or three years!

So stay tuned... and in the meantime, enjoy the imminent return (next month) of one of the greatest and most beautifully drawn fantasy comic books of all time... Castle Waiting!

This month's Diamond Previews catalog is out and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread (download the PDF) with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in April 2012 (give or take — some release dates may have changed since the issue went to press). We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions.

This month's Spotlight item is the eagerly anticipated The Adventures of Jodelle, the psychedelic 1960s classic from artist Guy Peellaert & writer Pierre Bartier. No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics is "Certified Cool," and our other featured titles are (surprise!) a new issue of Castle Waiting from Linda Medley (more about this soon!), New York Mon Amour by Jacques Tardi & co., the 3rd volume of our Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse strip collections "High Noon at Inferno Gulch," our oversized collection of Johnny Gruelle's amazing forgotten classic Mr. Twee Deedle, and the first salvo in our 2012 Love and Rockets 30th-Anniversary onslaught, Gilbert Hernandez's (all-ages!) The Adventures of Venus.

See them all here!

"Charles, Mother Has Come to Stay" is a late-1960s painting by Jim Flora (previously seen in our out-of-print second Flora art book The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora), now available as a limited-edition archival quality reproduction from the fine folks at Jim Flora Fine Art Prints.