FLOG! Entries - January 2010

Webcomics update for 1/29/10

mike

Friday nite webcomics party... new weekly strips for you...

The last of three sequential bar gags in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

...your situation may be desperate, little guy, but that's probably not a good idea in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

...and unless I'm mistaken this is Michelle's first appearance in Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman.

Daily OCD: 1/29/10

mike

Not many Online Commentary & Diversions links today but they're high-powered:

• List: Matthew J. Brady posts his top-20 Best Comics of 2009, with You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler at #10 ("It's an artful mix, matching a biographer's insight for detail with beautifully-flowing art and real emotions. If the next two volumes are this good, Tyler's work will be a modern classic, one for others to study for years.") and Low Moon by Jason at #8 ("It's funny, poignant, and, as always, full of insight about humanity, even though everyone is a strange animal creature. There can never be enough Jason.")

• Interview: Newsarama's Michael C. Lorah chats with Jason about his upcoming collection Almost Silent: "I'm grateful the books seem to have found an audience and are selling. It's not something I take for granted. There are better European cartoonits than me who have had problems finding an audience in America. I don't have a website or a blog so I don't have that much contact with readers except at signings and conventions. It's always good for the ego when some pretty girl says she's a fan."

• Tribute: In the Sun-Journal, Andy Rooney remembers his friend Bill Mauldin: "He was one of the great cartoonists who has ever been — in and out of the Army. I’ve looked at hundreds of cartoons he drew in my Stars and Stripes files, and he was a genius. His cartoons are still funny and perceptive." (via Journalista)

• Things to see: An Ellen Forney strip translated into Czech

Johnny Ryan's New Character Parade #4

mike

The new issue of Johnny's self-published series is now available from his online shop!

SWIPE FILE

jmiles

Screen Thrills Illustrated to...

Dan Clowes to...

Frank Miller to...

R.I.P. J.D., from Drew Friedman

mike

Drew Friedman pays tribute to the late J.D. Salinger by presenting his classic strip (co-written with K. Bidus) "Guilty Pleasures of Literary Greats" (which we've previously featured for its documentation of the Vladimir Nabokov/Hank Ketcham connection). Even if you've seen this strip before, it's worth a re-visit, and Drew outlines some of Salinger's other pop-culture obsessions to boot.

Sneak Peek: Robert Goodin in future Mome

mike

Robert Goodin gives us a lovely two-page glimpse of "The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung," a 24-page story to appear in Mome Vol. 19 or 20, later this year.

Culture Corner Is Coming...

covey

All the proofs have been approved and on press right now is our latest collection of Basil Wolverton's work. Archiving every "Culture Corner" strip ever printed alongside every extant original sketch for each of those strips, this book is a fascinating document of the artist's process. It also inlcudes a large number of rejected or otherwise-never-printed sketches for the strip, as well as Wolverton's hand-written log of these things.

In short, it's all very incredible.

Culture Corner was a lot of fun to work on and I'm once again grateful to Monte Wolverton for trusting me so fully with the task of designing a book of his legendary father's work.

TjuMmbNleT

covey

Everybody's doing mash-ups of one kind or another these days but nobody does a character mash-up like Jeremy Eaton's inspired cartoon jumbles. So when he started taking custom orders I jumped on it with "Original TMNT" vs "Archie TMNT." It's absolutely the best Christmas present I ever bought myself.

Jeremy does these with a beautiful combo of tones, from the tint of the paper to the hues of the wash. You can order your own Spider-Bat or whatever you like in the sidebar of his blog.

Daily OCD: 1/28/10

mike

A variety of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: The Comics Journal's R.C. Harvey names Sam's Strip ("because its spoof of comic strip cartooning is a joy to behold and because it has been so long awaited") and Humbug ("because, like Sam’s Strip, we’ve waited so long for a reappearance and because of the exquisite care Fantagraphics took in making the copies of the magazine’s pages as exact as possible") as two of the Best Reprints of 2009

• Review: "...[T]he handful of short stories [in The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.] represent great leaps in, or at the very least previously unseen examples of, [Shaw's] innovative approach to comics coloring, as well as some inventive storytelling techniques." – Christopher Allen, Comic Book Galaxy

• Analysis: At PopMatters, Oliver Ho explores the resonances between Gipi's Wish You Were Here #2: They Found the Car and the classic noir film Out of the Past: "It’s as though the story is trying to invert noir’s cliches. For example, Gipi avoids flashbacks, where Out of the Past is built on them. In this respect, the comic feels like a distilled, even-harder-boiled noir story."

• Links: Love & Maggie concludes their exhaustive, annotated breakdown of the contents of The Comics Journal #38

• Changes: Best of luck to frequent OCD link-ee Heidi MacDonald as The Beat leaves the PW umbrella and goes solo

• Things to see: More kids-book illustrations by Richard Sala

• Things to see: I can certainly understand why Kevin Huizenga did this particular piece of fan art

• Things to see: Mark Newgarden would gladly paint a mural for you Tuesday for a hamburger to-day (via The Comics Reporter)

Crumb's Liberation Cover

Eric

First day of Angouleme, and Crumb covers the French paper, Libération.

Warehouse finds back in stock!

mike

During our recent inventory count at our storied and labyrinthine warehouse, we discovered additional copies of several items thought to be sold out and unavailable for weeks, months — or years! Grab these gems while you can before they run out again — quantities are limited!

The Bill Sienkiewicz Sketchbook
Introduction by Alan Moore!

The Comics Journal Special Edition - Summer 2002
The premiere second issue of the "supersized" Comics Journals, with a great Woodring interview and cover.

The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye Vol. 9: 1934-1935 (Hardcover)
Our original Popeye reprint series from the 1980s. Handsome clothbound volume.

Dead End
Out of print European album-sized collection of T. Ott stories.

Haw!
Awful Brunetti gags; has been re-collected in Ho! but this original version is awful cute.

The Evolution & History of Moosekind
By Bob Foster. Like Larry Gonick but with moose. From the pages of Marvel's old Crazy magazine. Funny!

International Bob
A hard to find collection of Terry (Cud) LaBan's alternative-comics work.

The Island of Dr. Moral
Brilliant weirdness from the brilliant Jeremy Eaton.

Junkwaffel Vol. 2
Classic Vaughn Bodé material.

Love and Rockets: Short Stories
Just $5.48 (half cover price), a great entry point to Jaime's early Locas!

Love and Rockets Book 7: The Death of Speedy (Hardcover)
Includes some of everyone's favorite Jaime "Locas" stories. Now half off the cover price!

Muzzlers, Guzzlers and Good Yeggs
Last few copies of this great Joe Coleman book collected from BLAB!

The Reaper of Love and Other Stories
A 1988 reprint of classic Berni Wrightson material from 1968-1971! Out of print for years!

A Shroud for Waldo
Graphic novel length "Waldo" story by Kim Deitch.

Marc Maron's WTF?!

Eric

Marc Maron is an absolutely brilliant comic talent who hosted the morning show on the ill-fated Air America radio network, and I guess he enjoyed that gig so much he's created the WTF podcast to continue to scratch that itch. His latest episode features the always-funny Peter Bagge, taped while Marc was recently doing a set of comedy gigs in Seattle. For some reason, Marc thought it would also be a good reason to have me on, too. The show was recorded at the Fantagraphics Bookstore, and we had a good time doing it. Thanks, Marc! Check out Marc's archives, too, the show is fantastic.

King of the Flies desktop wallpaper

mike

When I was taking photos for our preview of King of the Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave by Mezzo & Pirus, I observed that the endpapers might make a nifty desktop background. One request to the art department later, and presto! (Note that this image is Not Safe For Most Workplaces due to partial nudity.)

Just click on the size that matches your monitor resolution and the image will open in a new window; if you're on a PC, right-click the image and select "Set As Background"; if you're on a Mac, control+click and select "Set As Desktop Background." (We don't know what the procedure is for iPhones, but if you have one, you probably do, right?) For lots more wallpaper selections, find recent ones here and older ones here.

800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1152 x 864 | 1280 x 960 | 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 720 | iPhone

Daily OCD: 1/27/10

mike

Online Commentary & Diversions for today:

• Plug: Chris Mautner of Robot 6 declares Hotwire Comics Vol. 3 his Pick of the Week: "Here's another hefty sampling of edgy, in-your-face alternative comics, edited by Glenn Head, who provides the cover as well as a couple of interior stories as well. This volume boasts a rather impressive A-list of contributors, including Mary Fleener, Michael Kupperman, R. Sikoryak, Mack White, Johnny Ryan and more. The Sikoryak story in particular — a mash-up between Dennis the Menace and Hamlet — is worth checking out, as is the great, surreal tale from White. If nothing else, I'm grateful to Head for giving folks like White a place to get their comics published, as they're the kind of artists we don't seem to see enough of these days."

• Plug: Marc Arsenault at Wow Cool hypes Hotwire Comics Vol. 3

• Plug: "The third volume of Fantagraphics’ Harvey and Eisner nominated Hotwire has arrived and it looks great. ... The Complete Dennis the Menace 1961 - 1962 by Hank Ketcham. Read it." – Gosh! Comics Blog

• Elsewhere: Irwin Chusid reports the good news that Jim Flora's children's books will start coming back into print with new editions from Brooklyn-based indie press Enchanted Lion Books

• Things to see: At What Things Do, part 3 of Steven Weissman's "This Already Happened"

First Look (for real this time): Tales Designed to Thrizzle #6

mike

Squint no more! (Plus I got the issue number right this time.) The new issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle comes out in May!

UPDATE: Michael Kupperman lets us know that this is not the finished version, so some changes may be made between now and when it goes to press.

Bookmark me...

Eric

... Sophie Crumb has an art blog.

New Comics Day 1/27/10

mike

Scheduled to arrive at enlightened comic shops across the land tomorrow:

Hotwire Comics Vol. 3
By various artists; edited by Glenn Head

The Comics Reporter says: "A boon for fans of a certain kind of energetic, restless, profane comic book making — for the rest of us it's an exquisitely curated, controlled visit to that particular comics world." Jog calls it "a distinctly old-fashioned scattershot alternative comics production" and "a louder, more comedic, more visually-driven" sibling to Mome.

We have previews-a-plenty both here on our site and on the official Hotwire website; check them out while you're contacting your local shop to confirm availability.

Comixtravaganza Finale Features Peter Bagge

LarryR

The Seattle Public Library's popular "Comixtravaganza" celebration concludes this Saturday, January 30. The Rem Koolhaas-designed central branch hosts a comics creating workshop with Fantagraphics friends Greg Stump and David Lasky at 1:00 PM, followed by a career-spanning media presentation by alternative comics titan Peter Bagge at 3:00 PM. Later that evening Lasky and Bagge will be featured guests at the fabulous book launch party for NEWAVE! The Underground Mini Comics of the 1980s at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Admission is free to all events.

If you live in the Northwest, you won't want to miss these wildly entertaining spectacles.

Daily OCD: 1/26/10

mike

Another short Online Commentary & Diversions update:

• Feature: Publishers Weekly spotlights King: The Special Edition. Calvin Reid talks to King creator Ho Che Anderson and Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth about the development of the book

• Review: "Whatever the case, [The Squirrel Machine] is a compelling, fascinating journey through an often creepy and always striking world, one that's regularly quite hilarious... What can one make of that sort of thing? You might be able to attempt an interpretation, one that will be just as valid as any, but it's just as legitimate to go along for the ride and see where Rickheit takes you. It won't be where you expect, that's for sure." – Matthew J. Brady

• Things to see: "Pecker Eggs" by Johnny Ryan

• Things to see: It's been a while since the last time we had new sketchbook pages from Anders Nilsen

Bill Everett book breakdown

mike

Blake Bell is plowing ahead with his forthcoming, highly-anticipated book Fire & Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics (preliminary cover art shown above subject to change), and you can track his progress on his Bill Everett Facebook page. In this update, he outlines the contents of each chapter and gives a general idea of what to expect in the book, which is on track for a September release.