Hey, 'member this stellar new portrait of the great Harvey Kurzman by the great Drew Friedman that got posted over at The Comics Journal last week? Well now it's available as a super-limited-edition print from Drew Friedman Fine Art Prints. The edition is at least half sold out already so get on it!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview: The Believer presents part 2 of Ross Simonini's 2008 chat with Jim Woodring: "I depend on a certain little frisson that I get when I hit upon a valid idea, relationship, event, or image. The thing shimmers in my mind, gives me that sense that it is glowing with unseen energy. 'Fluorescing' is the way I think of it. I reject dead ideas and keep live, glowing ones until the story resolves itself and I have a script."

• Review: "Jacques Tardi is a master storyteller, and The Arctic Marauder is a great place to start reading his work. If you’ve ever had an interest in expanding your comics enjoyment to European comics, this may be the book for you. But only if you like beautiful, smart and imaginative stories of high adventure." – Chris Neseman, iFanboy

• Review: "As ever, Jaime’s clear line style is masterfully rendered. The simplicity of his characters is disguised only by their realism, a clash of styles that he’s an accomplished practitioner of. Truly, in my opinion, there isn’t another artist working in comics who can seemingly capture so much from his characters while using so little.... [Perla La Loca] may not be the biggest or most dynamic story that’s come from Jaime’s pen, but if the previous volume’s death of Speedy storyline was the catalyst that brought on Maggie’s adulthood, this volume is the inevitable fallout." – Grovel

Congratulations are in order for Paul Hornschemeier!  Earlier this month, the Columbus Museum of Art and Thurber House announced a collaboration for their first ever Graphic Novelist Residency, and the receipient is none other than this Ohio State University alumnus!

Paul will spend three weeks starting in March living in a two-bedroom apartment located in the boyhood home of author and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber. In addition to researching and producing new work, he will also take part in several awesome events around Columbus!

Monday, March 26, 6:00-8:00 PM
Paul will lead an adult writing workshop for the graphic novel at Thurber House.  Deadline to register is March 16th.

Wednesday, March 28, 6:00-8:00 PM
Paul will lead a young writer's studio at Thurber House.

Saturday, March 31, 2:00 PM
Otterbein professor of philosophy Andrew Mills will speak about Hornschemeier’s work in a philosophical context at the Columbus Museum of Art. Presented in collaboration with The OSU Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities. Admission to the lecture is free.

Thursday, April 5, 7:00 PM
Join Paul at the Columbus Museum of Art as he speaks about his creative process with interviewer, comics writer, and blogger Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at Ohio State University. In conjunction with his talk, the museum will display a selection of Hornschemeier’s scripts, storyboards, and sketches highlighting his creative process. Free with museum admission.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "In addition to undermining the colonialist attitudes of Hergé and classic Disney cartoons with his R. Crumb-ish verve, Swarte also presents a clutch of perfectly packaged riffs on cartoon art. Having a Chris Ware introduction makes sense, given Swarte’s excruciating eye for architectural detail, and could help introduce Swarte to a larger audience, but the book [Is That All There Is?] may not need it — the art doesn’t speak for itself, it shouts." – Publishers Weekly

• Review (Audio): On the latest episode of Boing Boing's "Gweek" podcast, co-host Ruben Bolling discusses Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks: "(Spoiler: it's superb.)"

• Plugs: Library Journal's Martha Cornog lists "25 Graphic Novels for African American History Month" including 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago...

"The Puerto Rican slugger overcame family poverty, racial prejudice, and the language barrier to be voted the National League’s Most Valuable Player for 1966. Puerto Rican-born Santiago (In My Darkest Hour) superbly captures the kinetic excitement of baseball as well as Clemente’s skill and warm humanity on and off the diamond.... Highly recommended; buy several."

...and Black Images in the Comics by Fredrik Strömberg:

"First published by Fantagraphics in 2003 and nominated for an Eisner Award, this history of racial depictions in comics has been updated in both its content and its source list. Over 100 entries, each featuring a representative illustration and an instructive short essay, cover an international range of comics, from Moon Mullins through Tintin, Will Eisner, R. Crumb, Peanuts, Boondocks, and beyond."

• Plug: "The Fantagraphics reprint of the Mickey Mouse comic strip made by Floyd Gottfredson was already a gem in its first edition in two volumes separately, but with this new edition, with two volumes in a box and a lower price, it becomes essential." – CaraB (translated from Spanish)

• Interview (Video/Audio): Get comfy for an hour-long chat with Bill Griffith about Lost and Found: Comics 1969-2003 on Bob Andelman's Mr. Media podcast, presented in video and streaming audio formats: "I’m sure somebody will be offended, which will be nice — to still offend somebody after all these years. People who only know Zippy comics through King Features will probably be surprised to see that Zippy was more adult-oriented."

• Feature: Juxtapoz spotlights the artwork of Angoulême honoree Jim Woodring

• Commentary: In an impressive feat of scannery, Mike Lynch compiles all of the "silent penultimate panels" from Peanuts strips from 1969

* Other People's Publications
** Yeah, You Know Me.

Hey, it's the very first 2012 edition of "Down With OPP," our occasional column where we spotlight books from other publishers that you can find at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle!  And I was thrilled to get to the store this past weekend to find the latest volume of the celebrated Kramers Ergot anthology, from our friends at PictureBox.

It's chock-full of Fantagraphics artists: It opens with a great "Jimbo" strip from Gary Panter. There's also a wonderfully-drawn one-page gag from Tim Hensley. Kevin Huizenga re-draws a sci-fi story originally written decades ago by Bill Molno and Sal Trapani. And Frank Santoro & Dash Shaw turn in a beautiful collaboration on, well, catching pedophiles. 

Reading Johnny Ryan's story, I found myself thinking, "This might be the most romantic thing he's ever written," but then I ended up nearly laughing out loud by the end. It complements Sammy Harkham's marital comic, in a weird way.

I couldn't help reading the comic from Ben Jones in an "Alfe" voice, and the dialogue is so hilariously quotable, I just wanted to post random lines from it on Twitter.

And there's still more I haven't even mentioned, like the glossy full-color photography, the 70's Penthouse reprints, and the intro from Ian Svenonius, who will forever be to me "The Sassiest Boy in America."  

Get a copy for yourself at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.

Saturday, February 4th

• Seattle, WA: The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery kicks off Black History Month with the debut of two diverse books. Seattle-based music scholar Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975, will be joined by Seattle authors Mark Long and Jim Demonakos, who together with cartoonist Nate Powell created the graphic novel The Silence of Our Friends. (more info)

Big, exciting news on a Sunday: Congress of the Animals (Frank et le congrès des bêtes) by Jim Woodring has been awarded the Prix Spécial du jury at the Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême! Congratulations and well deserved Jim!

We're also happy to see that a volume of Carl Barks Donald Duck comics from our colleagues at Glénat received the Prix du Patrimoine. The full list of winners is reported by BoDoï; hat tip to The Comics Reporter.

Our weekly strips from Mahler & Weissman (Kupperman's taking another week off), plus links to other strips from around the web:

---

Black Classroom by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

Angelman by Nicolas Mahler (view at original size):

And elsewhere:

The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Forming by Jesse Moynihan:

Humblug by Arnold Roth:

Keeping Two by Jordan Crane:

Maakies by Tony Millionaire (via The Rumpus this week):

The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider:

Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim (animated!):

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

What's in the Backpack by Victor Kerlow:

The Big Town
by Monte Schulz

440-page hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-503-7

Ships in: March 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

A novel of the Jazz Age, The Big Town is the story of a failed businessman whose dreams of prosperity hinge on the secret proposition of a millionaire industrialist and a dangerous relationship he finds with a poor orphan girl chasing love in the great American metropolis.

Harry Hennesey’s hopes of success, both in his household and the world, have driven him to sell his home in an Illinois small town and take his chances in the big city. He rents a room in a run-down hotel. He deals in wholesale items scavenged from yard sales and close-outs. One night at a movie theater downtown, he meets a teenage flapper named Pearl who latches onto him and won’t let go. For several years now, Harry has threatened his marriage and self-esteem with innumerable infidelities. Now he finds himself falling in love with a girl less than half his age. But that’s not all.

Charles A. Follette, chairman of the board of the American Prometheus Corporation, comes to him with a slick proposition: find Follette’s missing niece, and the road to riches shall be his. Soon, though, Harry discovers a darker secret to the identity of the missing niece and what lies behind the urgency for her detection. It’s this revelation that leads him to a closer examination of what it means to the life he’s known since the birth of his children and that life he believes awaits him if he can only reach the top of the ladder.

Harry’s story in The Big Town is set against a fantastic backdrop of an archetypal 1920s American big city. We see speakeasies, sanitariums, skyscrapers, and a glittering Gatsby-like party high atop the metropolis. Lost in his own moral confusions, we watch Harry try to reform his young lover and uncover the secret of her own past in a small canal town miles beyond a city where gangsters murder ordinary citizens and everyone seems to have a get-rich scheme as the Roaring ’20s come to a thunderous close. The Big Town evokes a lost era through language and flamboyant characters reminiscent of Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Ring Lardner, etc. Yet it’s also eerily relevant to our own time with its study of the role of business, crime, morality, and love in our lives.

Download and read a 24-page PDF excerpt (186 KB) including the first two chapters.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Advance Praise for The Big Town:

"Monte Schulz's The Big Town exposes decadence, wealth and consumption in Jazz Age America as spiritual myopia — where desperate, haunting characters hinge their lives on impossible dreams. This lyrical, gripping novel is as close to 1920s America as it gets, and penned with such frightening realism that the chaos of a bygone era erupts from its pages." – Simon Van Booy, award-winning author of Everything Beautiful Began After

"Bold and stirring, The Big Town is a big walk through the dark side of Jazz Age America, a place where temptation and violence were only a breath away. A finely-textured tale of moral ambiguity told with gripping realism that richly evokes the sights and sounds of an era defined by gangsters and Gatsby." — Persia Walker, author of Black Orchid Blues

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers:

Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics
by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon; edited by Michel Gagné

208-page full-color 7.75" x 10" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-502-0

See Previews / Order Now

Together, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created such classic two-fisted comic series as Captain America, Boys' Ranch, The Newsboy Legion, and The Boy Commandos. But few people realize that one of their greatest successes — from 1947, when they singlehandedly created the genre, to the end of the 1950s — was... romance comics!

In such best-selling titles as Young Love and Real Western Romances, Simon and Kirby delighted a generation of girls and women (and probably a fair number of boys and men as well) with hundreds of charming and endlessly inventive stories of love and heartbreak.

And now, for the first time since their original publication in the 1940s and 1950s, 21 of these classics have been meticulously restored and are printed herein — in full, glorious color. So get out your handkerchiefs and enjoy the trials, tribulations, tragedies and triumphs of Suzi, Marjorie, Annaliese, Toni, Kathy, Sari... and 15 other star-crossed young lovers from half a century ago.