I knew we seemed swamped here lately in our small art department but I was surprised to get this email from Kim Thompson just now: "This leaves us with the following most impressive roster of 30 (!) books and comics in production or on a boat."

"On a boat" means it's being shipped to us by the overseas printers. That's just through September...

We'll be revealing video and photo previews of a half-dozen of our upcoming releases over the next few days. First up, the next two entries in our Ignatz Series: Delphine #3 by Richard Sala and Grotesque #2 by Sergio Ponchione. Spine-tinglers both! Watch the videos above and take a closer look in our two photo galleries: Delphine, Grotesque.

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Today's installment features two books from a cartoonist who's near and dear to our hearts -- not only is he a singular artist, he counts the beans for us: Ted Jouflas.

Filthy

The apocalyptic Filthy from Ted Jouflas examines everything filthy in the world! From the slime of urban decay to the deforestation of a once pristine Eden; from the garbage barges of old Shanghai to the sewers of Los Angeles; from the bowl of dirty underwear that is the corporate world to the royal media drunk on themselves; this book goes there and wallows in it! Join the fun with a variety of charming characters: the vicious brat Janine De Bleu and her billionaire parents Mumsie and Popsie; her evil cat, Milo Maurice; her little rodent friend, Le Rat; the Slum Boy in the drudlepit and his evil uncle, Skunkle Sneaky! All rendered in Jouflas's striking, hilarious style and written with a perfect rhyme scheme.

80-page black & white 8" x 11" softcover
regularly $9.95 • ON SALE $7.46
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Scary!

You saw her in Weirdo as "Batgirl" and "The Monster." Now Winkie is back in this all-original graphic novel. Written with a sadistic wit and drawn in a style bold and demented enough to compare to Ralph Steadman, Jouflas's debut work follows Winkie on the most hellacious misadventure of her life, a tale of debauchery, crime, neuroses, greed, lust, psychoses, vengeance, love, rage, mystery, comedy, and sorrow. Co-starring Dave the French Poodle, Mensa the Cat, Dr. Nimrod, Princess Pretender, and Candyass the Hillbilly, Scary is the bastard offspring of "Fractured Fairy Tales" and the black-and-white horror films of the '30s and '40s.

104-page black & white 8" x 11" softcover
regularly $6.50 • ON SALE $4.88
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ZAK SALLY TOURS WEST COAST W/ BOOKS, GUITARS, ART & NATE DENVER

Zak Sally (the cartoonist behind Recidivist, Sammy the Mouse, and the guy behind La Mano books) and Nate Denver (of Nate Denver's Neck, Total Shutdown, and the amazing Wait, You're Not A Centaur book/CD) are going to hop in a car together with a couple guitars and boxes of fresh books, then drive like hell up the west coast, stopping only to PLAY SONGS AND SELL BOOKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO LIVE IN L.A, SAN FRANCISCO, OLYMPIA, PORTLAND, AND SEATTLE.

THAT'S RIGHT: Zak will be attending the San Diego Comic Con (from Friday the 25th through Sunday the 27th of July), signing fresh-off-the-boat-from-Singapore copies of Sammy the Mouse #2 at the Fantagraphics Books booth. He'll also be selling La Mano books there and with his pals at Sparkplug Comics' table as well.

Following Comic-Con, Sally and Denver will begin the aforementioned tour:

• Monday, July 28: Secret Headquarters, 3817 W. Sunset Blvd, LOS ANGELES, CA.
• Tuesday, July 29: Needles and Pens, 3253 16th st, SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
• Thursday, July 31st: The Pony Club, 625 NW Everett St. #105, PORTLAND, OR.
• Friday, August 1: Danger Room Comics, Columbia and Fourth, OLYMPIA, WA.
• Saturday, August 2: The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 1201 South Vale St (at Airport Way S.), SEATTLE, WA.

Each event will open doors at approximately 6:00PM, followed by solo musical performances by Sally and Denver beginning around 7:00PM, and ending with the artists signing books and answering questions from fans until everyone is satisfied.

Sally’s complete line of Fantagraphics and La Mano releases will be available along the way, as well as assorted posters, CDs, and other detritus.

Sick of hearing youself lament the good old days, when everything wasn't so boring and lame? Well Sally and Denver are coming to your town, so shut up and SHOW UP! It's going to be a blast. No sound system, no microphones, no nothin’; just like Pa Ingalls did it.

Zak Sally is an artist and musician hailing from Minneapolis, MN. He was in the band LOW for many years and though he isn't anymore, he has recently completed his first “solo” record, playing all the instruments and singing songs like this:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/51018-new-music-zak-sally-formerly-of-low-my-secret-world-mp3-stream

Nate has put out bunches of great records (both solo and with numerous other groups), and you can and should check them out at www.natedenver.com.

BONUS: Click here to download the tour poster (2.5 MB PDF), print it out, and plaster your town with it (subject to your local municipal laws)!

Here's two recent podcast interviews with STRANGE & STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO author Blake Bell. First up is BlogTalkRadio and second is FanboyRadio.  If you like Ditko, you must listen. There are no shades of grey here. 

As we gear up for this year's big Comic-Con International, we've got a couple of real goodies from last year's Con for you!

On Friday, July 27, 2007, at Comic-Con International in San Diego, moderator Gary Groth was joined by the Hernandez Brothers for two featured spotlight panels on their work and the 25th anniversary of Love and Rockets. We are pleased to bring you these audio recordings of each interview and Q&A session: the first with Jaime and the second with Gilbert.

Jaime:

Click here for the archive page with streaming audio (please use that address if linking from your own site), or click here to download the audio file (19.5 MB MP3).

Gilbert:

Click here for the archive page with streaming audio (please use that address if linking from your own site), or click here to download the audio file (17.2 MB MP3).

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Today's installment features another cartoonist who's a best-seller in his native land but relatively unknown here: the Mexican cartoonist known as JIS.

Cats Don't Exist

JIS (a pen name for Jose I. Solorzano) made his American debut with this inspired and inspiring slice of psychedelic absurdity. With a childlike mastery of the obvious, an inspired sense of mischief, and hilarious insight into the human divine, Jis' comics at once recall the sensibilities of both Jules Feiffer and Terence McKenna. Deceptively minimalistic, the book collects a handful of comic stories and individual drawings that will nudge the lucky reader gently into a dissonant universe. In the title story, cats replace aliens as bogeymen of the human psyche. "To Our Dear Enemies" is a fulsome thank-you note to censors for infusing boring old sex with such intrigue; "We Woke Up... Married" and "Guilt as an Aphrodisiac" will teach you more about love than Erich Fromm and Barbara Cartland combined; and JIS's epic is "Moons, Loonies, and Angel, which kicks off with the deceptively comforting line, "First, organize your eyes..."

96-page b&w/color 8.5" x 11" softcover
regularly $12.95 • ON SALE $9.71
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For years I've longed to use photographs of our books in marketing material instead of the usual flat, digital design files. But, as many Fantagraphics fans know, we run a low-budget ship around here so we can't afford to hire anyone to do this. However, if there are any generous souls out there who are set up to do product shots of books we'd love to work with you in trade. You shoot a book, you keep the book.

If any Flog readers know a photographer who might be game, please consider passing this posting on to them.

This would not be a high volume gig-- just one to three books a month. If we can get a few interior shots out of the deal, cool. The critical thing is some decent cover shots of our books, which occassionally have tricky things like diecuts or foil stamping or whatever.

And maybe we can hook you up with some back catalog books as well.

IF INTERESTED, PLEASE WRITE me care of fbicomix /at/ fantagraphics.com with "Attn: COVEY" in the subject line. Or post in comments.

Thank you!