I attended Joe Sacco's Town Hall event last night in Seattle, and it was, as expected, a great talk. Is there a more charming, erudite, and intelligent soul in this racket? I tend to think not. Anyway, I'm not even going to begin to write a recap -- too many foreign sects, races and historical events to keep track of -- except to say that the talk focused on the social and political events from about 1949 to 1956 that led to the massacre investigated and reported on in his new new book, FOOTNOTES IN GAZA, followed by an excellent Q&A session. When one woman asked Joe if it was true that he was planning on following up FOOTNOTES with some lighter, funnier comics and he confirmed it, she asked him if he could elaborate. He simply replied, "I have some very good ideas." We have no doubt about that, Mr. Sacco. 

Above photo: Joe Sacco contemplates some of his great ideas before his event at Seattle's Town Hall, 01.13.10.  

The Luc Besson adaptation of Jacques Tardi's ADELE BLANC-SEC movie, due this Spring, now has a teaser trailer which can be seen here:

No shots of Adele herself yet, but the bearded fellow in the final scene is Armand Fallières, whose name Jeopardy! champions (paging Ken Jennings!) will shout out, preceded with "Who is...?" — if the clue is "President of France from 1906-1913." Encouragingly, the scene is taken straight from the book. Will this be a movie adaptation of a classic comic that remains totally faithful to the original, without COUGH*Watchmen*COUGH embalming it?

I'm sure everyone is now thinking, "Gee, with that ADELE movie coming out, wouldn't this be a great time to re-release those ADELE books that Dark Horse and NBM released the first few volumes of back in the last century, although preferably with spiffed-up lettering and a brilliant new translation, in time to enjoy some of that movie P.R.?"

Why, it sure would.

Pretty much every page of Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit: Book 1 is amazing, so you really can't go wrong with any of the 15 that he's just put up for sale at Comic Art Collective, now can you?

Now arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

The Troublemakers
By Gilbert Hernandez

Dig this scene! Low-life drug dealer Dewey Booth has $200,000 that even-lower-lifes want. BLING! Wes is a rock and roll loser that only wants to buy a club where nobody can tell him he can't sing or perform. WAILIN'! He's known Dewey for years, but that isn't enough to get his dough. Wes needs help. Nala is an über-stacked bombshell whose pleasure in life is to seduce and then humiliate men dumb enough to fall for her. HUSH HUSH! For half the dough, she agrees to help Wes get Dewey's ill-gotten goods. Things don't go so well when a wily grifter from Wes's past shows up to complicate things. GULP! Vincene is another troublemaker who enjoys wrecking people's plans and wants the Dewey dough, too. In the end, deadly fires ignite, heads literally roll, eyes are shot out — and all Wes wants to do is sing in a rock and roll club.

The Troublemakers is the second volume in a series of original graphic novels in which Gilbert Hernandez creates comics adaptations of movies starring or co-starring Luba's half-sister Rosalba "Fritz" Martinez from Love and Rockets. The first, the dystopian Chance in Hell (in which Fritz has only a bit part), was released in 2007. This hard boiled, pulp graphic novel will delight longtime Hernandez fans as well as provide a perfect introduction to newcomers to Hernandez's work.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 12-page PDF excerpt (532 MB).

128-page black & white 5.5" x 7.5" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-922-7
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Arrived in our warehouse a few weeks ago and already shipping (whoops!):

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 12
By Robert Crumb

Back in print in a new 2009 softcover edition after a several-year absence, the 12th volume of The Complete Crumb spotlights Crumb’s first collaborations with national treasure Harvey Pekar, which appeared in the legendary American Splendor. This collection also includes a skeptical report-in-comics on an aerospace symposium (commissioned by CoEvolution Quarterly, it comes off like one of Michael Moore’s cocky documentary films), Crumb’s encounter with an interviewer from High Times magazine, an evocative period piece featuring 1930s jazz musicians, another of Crumb’s collaborative “jams” with Aline Kominsky, and everything else that’s established R. Crumb as the master catoonist of his time! Makes a great gift and doubles as an evocative educational tool, teaching our youth what it means to be American (from the guy that moved to France)!

136-page b&w/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-264-8
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Arrived in our warehouse a few weeks ago and already shipping (whoops!):

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 7
By Robert Crumb

Back in print in a new 2009 softcover edition!

This superb collection of work by Robert Crumb continues into the '70s with another 120-page slab of pure Crumb work, all topped off with a brand new Crumb cover (featuring Mr. Natural) and a two-page introduction by Mr. Sketchum himself! This volume includes all the Crumb work from Zap! #5, Bijou #4, and San Francisco Comic Book #3, as well as the complete reprintings (including the covers in full color) of Uneeda (which includes one of Crumb's more eccentric creations, Bo Bo Bolinski, as well as the classic "Honeybunch Kaminski, the Drug-Crazed Runaway"), Mr. Natural #1, and Hytone #1 (with "Pete the Plumber" and "Horny Harriet Hot Pants"). But that's just the tip of the iceberg! For true-blue collectors, this volume includes several ultra-rare greeting cards (reproduced in full color); Crumb's illustrative contributions to Esquire and Playboy in that period (both in full color); drawings from Promethean Enterprises and the East Village Other; and, most tantalizing of all, the original, never-printed cover to Zap! #5!

134-page b&w/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-061-3
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Online Commentary & Diversions for today:

• List: Carol Borden of The Cultural Gutter names Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 as one of "10 Comics I Liked in 2009," calling it "an amazing collection of Golden Age comics and heroes, beautifully restored."

• Review: "It’s weird and it’s different and it immediately showed me that Ganges #2 is not what I thought it was. I was expecting mopey autobio, a distant cousin of Blankets with better artwork, and instead got something that was well worth the hype. ...It’s a comic about people and how they interact, held high by shockingly good art. The first ten pages show that Huizenga can do some amazing things with storytelling and the rest of the book shows his strong grasp of body language and how to make talking heads interesting." – David Brothers, 4thletter!

• Tunes: Zak Sally provides a soundtrack playlist for Like a Dog to Largehearted Boy, who says of the book "Sally is incredibly inventive, these cartoons differ in theme greatly, but all come together through his dark, foreboding illustrations. This volume is worthwhile alone for the two editions of Sally's Eisner Award nominated comic, The Recidivist, but the additional works offer a glimpse into this talented artist's evolution (as do the copious notes included in the collection)."

• Interview: TCJ.com begins serialization of Gary Groth's interview with David Levine from The Comics Journal Library Vol. 4: Drawing the Line (originally from The Comics Journal #178)

• Plug: Poopsheet Foundation's Rick Bradford flogs Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s

• Plug: At his blog Love the Line, Richard Cowdry says Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s "is the book I'm MOST looking forward to in 2010!"

• Tribute: For Time magazine, Edward Sorel remembers David Levine (via Journalista)

• Commentary: Illustrator James Gurney quotes art historian/Prince Valiant expert Brian Kane about the history of 19th century illustrated newspapers

• Links: Love & Maggie provides a detailed, annotated and hyperlinked overview of The Comics Journal #38 from 1978

• Things to see: A whole mess of recent illo jobs by Steve Brodner

• Things to see: Mike Sterling takes a look at an interesting Vaughn Bode rarity

The Previews website is featuring 8 interior pages from It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi, available at comic shops, bookstores and of course right here on our website this Spring.

Exciting news: Steven Weissman has joined the What Things Do webcomics collective alongside founders/charter contributors Jordan Crane, Sammy Harkham and Ted May. The first page of his brand new story "This Already Happened" is up now!

Fantagraphics' co-leader and secret weapon Kim Thompson speaks to Chris Marshall of the Collected Comics Podcast about our line of classic strip reprints and foreign translations.