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 the Xeric Grant-winning debut from artist and animator Santiago Cohen:

The Fifth Name

Based on a 1920s Austrian novella by Stefan Zweig, this story is a reaction to the politics of the time. A personal story of a man searching for a sense of justice and responsibility towards the others, it takes place in India before Buddha when people had very different moral values. Divided into 5 sections, each section deals with different aspects of the life of the main character Virata as he tries to be righteous. Stefan Zweig was a humanist and after seeing what became of his beloved Europe when the Nazis took over he eventually committed suicide in Brazil in 1942 when he couldn't bear it any longer. Xeric Grant winner Santiago Cohen's personal connection with the story is evident in each line of this wonderful book. This engrossing tale of an ancient soldier's quest for wisdom and justice amidst the chaos of medieval life resonates with the archetypical immediacy of a children's fable, but don't let that fool you. Behind the simple but expressive art is a profound meditation on life, loss, guilt and the search for enlightenment that will stay with you long after you've finished reading.

128-page two-color softcover
regularly $14.95 • ON SALE $11.21
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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 the accomplished 1997 debut by Brian Biggs:

Frederick & Eloise: A Love Story

Brian Biggs is a talented illustrator whose first comic is a strange and hypnotic love story that maneuvers around Paris and Frederick's dreams with a light touch that belies its grisly subject matter. Told in a strict format of two panels per page, it features Biggs's elegant and surreal drawings. Consider a comic written by Roman Polanski and drawn by Alfred Hitchcock and you'll have some idea of what to expect: dreamlike and perverse (though not in the least bit explicit), it engages the senses and lingers in the mind. This stunning debut is presented in a unique, deluxe mini-book format, printed on high-quality, enamel-coated art paper, with full-color painted covers and a beautifully executed halftone interior. This is one of the most accomplished works by a new talent we've ever been privileged to publish.

32-page black & white 8" x 7" comic
regularly $4.95 • ON SALE $3.71
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Have a great holiday weekend, America. Remember: light fuse, get away.

• The blogger known as Polinees on Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason

• Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine says Jason's The Last Musketeer is "great fun"

• The North Adams Transcript on Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco

• Kevin Church posts his favorite page from The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez

• Writer Reading looks at R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz's Kafka

• Cool Aggregator recommends Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button, and Panels and Pixels includes it in a graphic-novel roundup post

• The Suit Ling Library on The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott

• Flog commentor Derik Badman points out his 2006 review of Romance Without Tears

• Stripper's Guide takes a thoughtful look at Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

Plus...

• Sean T. Collins rescues his 2007 WizardUniverse.com interview with Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez from archive-dump oblivion by re-posting it on his own site

• Comics Comics recaps the Heroes Con "Craft in Comics" panel featuring Jaime Hernandez - part 1, part 1.5, part 1.75

• Javier Hernandez (no relation) talks about interviewing Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko author Blake Bell for the Planet Comic Book Radio program; meanwhile, Rick Klaw, grandson of Irving Klaw, learns something new about his grandfather from Strange and Stranger

• Syndicate Product Covert HQ and Super Doomed Planet both examine the Schulz and Peanuts roundtable in The Comics Journal #290 (we're sold out of that issue, by the way) 

From me, to Irwin Chusid, back to me, to you... I had the luck to find this great, seldom-seen Jim Flora illustration in a copy of the June, 1964 issue of Venture: The Travelers World that I stumbled upon at a thrift store last weekend. Our Paul Baresh scanned it up real pretty and I sent it to Irwin, who posted it on the Jim Flora art blog, where you can see a larger version.

While Stevie Weissman's kid is away at camp he's asking people like you and Johnny Ryan (above) to "do battle" with li'l Charles' Shark Team drawing. Check Weissman's blog for updates-- so far there are three contributions. Here is the template so you can be a part of the action!

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 a great collection of classic '50s romance comics compiled and edited by John Benson:

Romance Without Tears

A first-time collection of the best romance comics of the 1950s. These bright, naturalistic tales (originally published by Archer St. John and written by unrecognized comics master Dana Dutch) are about high school girls who may be inexperienced but definitely have minds of their own. Many of these stories are illustrated by Matt Baker, who achieved fame for his work on Phantom Lady and other sexy female characters in the '40s and '50s.

"With bold writing and smooth, graceful artwork, these tales are fun and visually compelling stories — not just relics of the past, but good comics that hold up." – Publishers Weekly

160-page full-color 8" x 10" softcover
regularly $22.95 • ON SALE $17.21
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Where "The Spirit" failed, "The Dark Knight" dominates. THAT is a great teaser poster. You could bother with posting three separate images to make one weak image for a teaser campaign or you could do THAT.

(Maybe without the bogus Photoshopping-- I've never graff'ed a day in my life but those lines would be more upset by the mortar than what's happening here.)

If you're anywhere near an Imax theatre then you should consider seeing the movie there: complete with a simulated fight and some drinks in Seattle.

Yesterday I found out one of my previous Flog posts about a dollhouse ended up linked to at least one honest-to-god porn site. Who are these people looking for childhood memories thrown in with their porn?

Today it's Google. I work in comics so, from time to time, I may look for an image of "manga porn" in a search engine in order to send an obnoxious joke email to a coworker. On the very first page of results this is what I got:

 

That would be Chris Ware in the bottom row, which was surprising. At least until I realized the thumbnail also sort of resembles a dollhouse. Is there a comics/dollhouse sexual fetish that I'm unaware of?

Anonymous comments welcome.

The Comics Journal #291
Edited by Michael Dean & Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, executive editor

This issue’s cover interview is with comics artist Tim Sale, the house artist for the television series Heroes. Sale’s artwork has also graced prestigious mainstream projects such as Batman: the Long Halloween, Spider-Man Blue and Superman Confidential. The Eisner winner chats about his stylized takes on characters such as Spider-Man, Batman, Daredevil, Catwoman and Superman, as well as his earlier work on comics such as Grendel, and elaborates on the dynamics of collaborating with writers such as Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke. The Journal queries up-and-coming cartoonist Josh Simmons on his disturbing and often funny body of work — his minicomics, his series Happy; his debut graphic novel, House; and his decades-spanning series Jessica Farm. Gary Groth examines the collaborations between Ralph Steadman and Hunter S. Thompson. Also in this issue: tributes to Steve Gerber and Dan Stevens; a huge gallery of kinetic anarchy from Funny, Films, Giggle, and other Golden Age comic books by Flintstones co-creator Dan Gordon; and a sneak preview of Danica Novgorodoff's Slow Storm.

216-page color/b&w 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $11.99
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Usagi Yojimbo Book 5: Lone Goat and Kid (New Softcover Edition)
By Stan Sakai

Now in a new softcover printing with a newly-designed cover!

This fifth volume collects the epic-length "Blood Wings," in which Usagi battles a fearsome clan of ninja bats, while "Lone Goat and Kid" offers a cunning and affectionate parody of the famous "Lone Wolf and Cub" manga while doubling as one of Usagi's most dramatic and heartfelt adventures. "Frost and Fire" and "The Way of the Samurai" provide the psychological drama of this volume, which is rounded out by one of the most unique Usagi tales ever, "A Kite Story," which doubles as a fascinating look at the daily life and work of a 17th century Japanese kite maker, dramatically showcasing the thoroughness of Sakai's research and his skills as a storyteller. Featuring a foreword by the legendary Stan Lee!

142-page black & white 6" x 9" softcover • $14.95
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