FLOG! Entries - July 2008

Now in stock: Where Demented Wented

mike

Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes
Edited by Dan Nadel and Glenn Bray

The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise (the latter from the likes of R. Crumb and Bill Griffith), Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again.

This book, the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes — as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films. The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes also serves as a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, the illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, and a career-spanning essay by Edwin Pouncey (a.k.a. Savage Pencil). Also included is a rare interview with Hayes himself.

144-page b&w/color 8" x 10" softcover • $22.99
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Now in stock: Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4

mike

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4
By Michael Kupperman

The eagerly anticiwaited fourth volume of Thrizzle does something no comic magazine has ever done before... it helps your family organize its entire day! Every page is dedicated to a half-hour of an average 16-hour cycle, allowing it to compliment and entertain along the way. with Pagus, Twain and Einstein, The Scaredy Kids, and Jungle Princess!

32-page two-color 6.75" x 9.5" comic book • $4.50
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Now in stock: Mome Vol. 12 - Fall 2008

mike

Mome Vol. 12 - Fall 2008
By various artists; edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds

Appearing in MOME 12: Cover art and debut story by European master Olivier Schrauwen, who contributes the hilarious "Hair Types." David B. is back with "The Drum Who Fell In Love," while MOME #11 cover boy Killoffer gives us "Dirty Family Laundry." Nate Neal deconstructs the genres of indie comix in "Reality Comics Quartet," while Dash Shaw delivers another full-color gem titled "Train." Tom Kaczynski presents a suite of strips detailing the history of noise, while newcomer Jon Vermilyea introduces the creepy funny "Breakfast Crew." Plus, more Killoffer, Ray Fenwick, Sophie Crumb, and the great Al Columbia. On top of all this, we have newcomers Derek Van Gieson and Sara Edward-Corbett, as well as an illustrated prose short story by Paul Hornschemeier. Our most dense issue yet!

120-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
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Now in stock: Grotesque #2

mike

Grotesque #2
By Sergio Ponchione

A long time ago, a devious late-night pact altered the destiny of small community, its inhabitants forever cursed to live as mere clay in the hands of the capricious Mister O’Blique and the Wicked Barons. But is change finally afoot? Professor Hackensack journeys to the town in order to wrest from the Barons the secret of their power. He will be helped (or hindered) on this quest by Inspector Demifayce, Lady Puzzle, the Encephapolyp, the Taxmen and other players in the complex, not always human mosaic that forms the strange and twisted architecture of the Cryptic City. Find out why this surreal masterpiece from Sergio Ponchione was the sleeper hit of the 2008 Comic-Con!

32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket • $7.95
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Now in stock: Delphine #3

mike

Delphine #3
By Richard Sala

WHERE IS DELPHINE?!? Where can she be, this lovely object of our nameless traveler’s affection — or, perhaps, obsession? Since stepping off the train into Delphine’s hometown — surrounded on all sides by a deep black forest — the traveler has found nothing but trouble. It seems the townsfolk aren’t satisfied with simply being unhelpful — they are openly hostile and may even, for reasons he can’t understand, want to kill him. Perhaps our poor prince charming was hoping for a fairy tale romance, in which case, although he did get the fairy tale, along with its witches and wicked stepmothers and haunted forests and evil spells, he may find that not all fairy tales end with "happily ever after." In this penultimate issue of the four-part series, our traveler makes a startling discovery and faces a new horror that drives him to the brink of absolute madness.

32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket • $7.95
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Now in stock: Abandoned Cars

mike

Abandoned Cars
By Tim Lane

Abandoned Cars is Tim Lane’s first collection of graphic short stories, noir-ish narratives that are united by their exploration of the great American mythological drama by way of the desperate and haunted characters that populate its pages. Lane’s characters exist on the margins of society—alienated, floating in the void between hope and despair, confused but introspective. Some of them are experiencing the aftermath of an existential car crash—those surreal moments after a car accident, when time slows down and you’re trying to determine what just happened and how badly you’re hurt. Others have gone off the deep end, or were never anywhere but the deep end. Some are ridiculous, others dignified in their efforts to struggle to make sense of, and cope with, the absurdities, outrages, ghosts, and poisons in their lives.

The writing is straightforward, the stories mainstream but told in a pulpy idiom with an existential edge, often in the first person, reminiscent of David Goodis’s or Jim Thompson’s prose or of films like Pick-Up on South Street or Out of the Past. Visually, Lane’s drawing is in a realistic mode, reminiscent of Charles Burns, that heightens the tension in stories that veer between naturalism on the one hand and the comical, nightmarish, and hallucinatory on the other. Here, American culture is a thrift store and the characters are thrift store junkies living among the clutter. It’s an America depicted as a subdued and haunted Coney Island, made up of lost characters—boozing, brawling, haplessly shooting themselves in the face, and hopping freight trains in search of Elvis.

Abandoned Cars is an impressive debut of a major young American cartoonist.

168-page black & white 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $22.99
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Hernandez Bros Comicon Interview

Eric

CBR's Sean Collins interviewed Gilbert, Jaime & Mario Hernandez on the floor at Comicon, for your pleasure.

Confidential to Gary Groth

Eric

Your day of reckoning is coming, my friend.

Blab! Museum Show at KSU

Eric

BLAB!: A Retrospective opens August 1, 2008 at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the campus of Kansas State University. The exhibition, organized by the Beach Museum of Art, will be on view through November 2, 2008. It is the first American museum exhibition devoted to the work of BLAB!, Monte Beauchamp's periodic anthology of sequential and comic art, illustration, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition, which focuses on BLAB! #8-18 (1995-2007), features the work of forty-six artists and includes 150 works of art from thirty-nine collections. All of the work in the exhibition has appeared in BLAB!.

Artists in the exhibition: Michael Bartalos, Gary Baseman, Richard Beards, Tim Biskup, Stéphane Blanquet, Calef Brown, Greg Clarke, The Clayton Brothers, Sue Coe, Don Colley, Brian Cronin, Nicolas Debon, Douglas Fraser, Charles Paul Freund, Drew Friedman, Geoffrey Grahn, Steven Guarnaccia, Ryan Heshka, Peter Hoey, Tom Huck, Teresa James, Jeffrey Kamberos, Nora Krug, Peter Kuper, Mark Landman, Laura Levine, MATS!? [Mats Stromberg], Walter Minus, Christian Northeast, John Pound, Archer Prewitt, Chris Pyle, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Jonathon Rosen, Marc Rosenthal, Sergio Ruzzier, David Sandlin, Spain, Bob Staake, Fred Stonehouse, Mark Todd, Chris Ware, and Esther Pearl Watson.

The accompanying 128-page, full-color catalogue was designed by Monte Beauchamp and contains contributions by David A. Beronä, Mark Frauenfelder, Matt Dukes Jordan, and Bill North.

For more information, contact:

Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University
701 Beach Lane (14th & Anderson Ave.)
Manhattan, KS 66506 • 785-532-7718

Zak Sally in Portland TONIGHT!

Eric

The Pony Club welcomes Zak Sally and Nate Denver tonight for an evening of books, music and destruction. Tuesday July 29th, 6PM Doors, 7PM Music, 8PM Books

Comic-Con 2008 wrap-up

mike

We're still getting back on our feet after the onslaught of intensity that was Comic-Con 2008. As always, we had a blast meeting fans, hosting a load of artist signings, and movin' units.

Take a quick video cruise through our booth on Wednesday just before the "preview night" crowd descended:

The unqualified hit of the Con for us was the brand-new Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 — we blew through a gross of them, our whole supply, by Saturday afternoon. Other hits of the show were the debuts of Jim Woodring's The Portable Frank and Deitch's Pictorama from the Deitch brothers; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell sold out too. Also making a strong debut showing were the new 2nd issue of Sergio Ponchione's Grotesque, which is turning out to be a sleeper hit of our Ignatz line; the new 4th issue of the smash-hit Tales Designed to Thrizzle from Michael Kupperman; Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars; Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes; Krazy & Ignatz Vol. 10; our new giant Krazy & Ignatz hardcover; four more new Ignatz Series issues (Baobab #3, Delphine #3, Interiorae #3 and Sammy the Mouse #2); and Meat Cake #17 by Dame Darcy. John Pham's Sublife made a late appearance in unbound preview form, which didn't stop fans from snapping up a few copies. Holy man, that's a lotta new stuff!

Personal highlights:
- Best Costume: the guy wearing a Green Lantern jersey with a Devo energy dome.
- Best Celebrity Sighting at the Booth: Tom ("Spongebob") Kenny. I'm told that Tom Lennon and Ben Garant of Reno 911 also shopped, but I missed them.
- Best Shopping Find: Jim Woodring's Pupshaw & Pushpaw book at the Picturebox table.
- Best After-Hours Activity: there were several, but the winner is Friday night Chinese food and The X-Files movie (blast the critics, it's frickin' great).
- Favorite Addition to the Yoda-Themed Con Sketchbook: all of them, but maybe especially Mary Woodring's (stay tuned for scans).
- Biggest Disappointment: forgetting to ask for a Yoda sketch from Natalia Hernandez (who was wearing a Yoda backpack for crying out loud). Runner-up: wasting time in a hopeless line for the Venture Bros. panel.
- Best Suggested Name for a Theoretical Off-Site "Alternative" Comic-Con: "Fuckin' C'mon-i-Con," suggested by our own Ajax Wood.

Big thanks to all of our lovely and wonderful artists who turned out (not to mention their lovely and wonderful families); bigger thanks to our hard-working, ass-kicking staff (Kim, Gary, Ajax, Kristy, Janice, Jason, and Zuniga at the Con, plus everyone back home, especially Eric, who still did all the heavy-lifting prep work); and biggest thanks to all the comics-loving fans, customers, and looky-lous who stopped by our booth. (Apologies if I'm forgetting anything or anybody — my brain overfloweth.) We're already looking forward to next year.

Here's a selected handful of photos; head here for 42 more (plus whatever we add over the next few days).

Mario & Gilbert Hernandez:

Blake Bell & Paul Karasik:

Jean Schulz:

Johnny Ryan:

Jim Woodring:

More!

Sketchbook #70

Eric

Courtesy Gilbert Hernandez:

Dash Shaw & Co. at Rocketship FRIDAY!

Eric

B.D. avec D.B.

mike

Here's the official flyer announcing "La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée - A Week Celebrating the French Graphic Novel," supported by Fantagraphics Books, the 4Culture King County Lodging Tax, the Alliance Française of Seattle and the Cultural Development Fund of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA. Click here for our previous announcement.

Johnny Ryan Fans UNITE!

Eric

Good news for my fellow Angry Youth Comix fans (for full details go HERE):

New Character Parade features 24 one page comics starring all new soon-to-be icons like Half Man Half Shit, Fuckball, Ralph Waldo Schmegma, Baby Stud, Kenny Kloggins, Rasputin On A Dirtbike, Sherlock Homeless, Butt Douglas and many more. I am so there.

Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Andrew Zaben

mike

Every day in July we've been 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! The sale is ending, so now is your last chance to take advantage of these great savings!

Today we present our final spotlight, featuring two realistic, character-driven books by Andrew Zaben.

Dream Big Dreams

A promising 100-page debut novel, Dream Big Dreams is a complex narrative about a local bar owner grappling with the decision of whether to sell out to a big chain. The Lower Depths is a secluded basement tavern where locals congregate to discuss socialism and other philosophical concerns. When the owner contemplates selling to a corporation whose sincerity regarding maintaining the bar's integrity is in question, the idealistic regulars resist and decide to take matters into their own hands. Dream Big Dreams is a rarity among debut works: a compelling story rich with thoughtful observations on contemporary society, with well-developed characterizations that slowly come together over the novel's dense 100 pages.

100-page black & white 6.5" x 10.25" softcover
regularly $10.00 • ON SALE $7.50
Order Now

Queens Blvd.

Black humor and strong characterization defines this realistic (but fictional) look at a day in the lives of three bookies as they deal with the everyday hassles of living in search of a mildly dishonest buck.

56-page softcover
regularly $6.00 • ON SALE $4.50
Order Now

Sketchbook #69

Eric

Courtesy Jaime Hernandez:

My favorite con pic so far.

Eric

From Publishers Weekly's "PW Comics Week." The Hernandez Dynasty: Gilbert, Natalia, and Unca Jaime. As Tom Spurgeon put it this morning, "My friends and I make jokes that everything always comes back to the Hernandez Brothers, but it does." Except now it comes back to the Hernandez Brothers... and Daughters!

Update: Photo by Jody Culkin. Thank you!

BWS' Eisner speech

Eric

Blogger Alan David Doane has run the entire transcript of Barry Windsor-Smith's acceptance speech for the Hall of Fame Award he received last Friday night at the Eisners. The speech turned some heads with lines like "[Work-for-hire is] a legal but unethical instrument designed to rape and plunder young talents," and was read by our own Gary Groth (BWS could not attend the con). Congratulations to BWS' award, and kudos for his candor.

Chocolate Cheeks for 7/29/08

mike

Steven Weissman continues bringing us in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story continues right here! (We'll be back to our regular Friday update schedule this week, so this page will only be up for a few days! Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)