We didn't forget the Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "The Lagoon is a horror story, if a low-key one; like much of the best horror it makes the connection between horror and the absurd... [Lilli] Carré's sinuous, snaking treatment of sound provides a through-line... but it still feels disconnected in ways that few writers today are gutsy enough to attempt. The overall effect is like Clive Barker fed through a twee filter. This'll stick to you." - Sean T. Collins

• Review: "Who knew that Prince Valiant, a comic strip I always assumed appeared next to the word 'boredom' in the dictionary, was so vibrant, colorful, action-packed and gosh-darned fun?... This new edition [Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938] ups the ante not just through the fancy hardcover, but via state of the art technology that allows for a pristine detail and rich color that’s about as close to Foster’s initial intentions as we may ever be likely to get... The strip is full of brio and vigor and hits the ground running right from the start... Foster’s fight scenes are sumptuous in detail but economical in execution, with Foster rarely showing a glinting sword unless it’s either about to or already has carved someone in half... In a world where too often most art turns out to be exactly as shallow as first glance suggests, it’s nice to discover that something like Prince Valiant is capable of surprising, and even enthralling, the modern reader." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Interview: The wheres and whens are a little confusing, but I guess Indy Mogul's The Reel Good Show did or is doing a live video interview with Dash Shaw today... if it gets archived we'll link it

• Events: As part of his current residency at Dartmouth College, Jules Feiffer gave a lecture Wednesday; The Dartmouth's Fan Zhang has the report (via The Daily Cartoonist). A highlight: "I was doing what so many comic book artists at the time were doing — I was stealing. You learn by stealing, you learn by swiping and, God willing, you emerge into your own style." Zhang also reports that Feiffer will participate in a panel discussion with fellow cartoonists Edward Koren, Edward Sorel and Jeff Danziger on politics in cartooning on August 12

After you stop at our Comic-Con booth (#1716), head down the aisle to #1732 and check out the many awesome things for sale from Johnny Ryan, Jordan Crane, Steven Weissman, Buenaventura Press, Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson! We've already spotlighted Jordan's and Johnny's new goods...

Among the many awesome things Mark and Esther will have for sale will be this limited deluxe edition of Unlovable Vol. 1 with a glow-in-the-dark silkscreened dustjacket and the Pretty in Pink-style Tammy Pierce silkscreen print (also glow-in-the-dark!) shown below. (Not going to Comic-Con? Don't despair, you can order them on Mark and Esther's site funchicken.com.)

Steven will have a new set of his adorable "Tiny Joe & Junior" prints (preview more on his blog)...

...and Johnny, Steven, Mark, and Esther will all have new Stinckers! Phoo! Bring yer pocketbook!

From ARCADE #4 , winter 1975, edited Al Floogleman & Griffy

"Your violent thrashings stir me.  From where are you people pulling the energy?  It's a great trick, awareness and buoyancy.  Yours is still the art 'that knows not its name,' down and dangerous, some of the only art around still life-impelled beyond its theory (that's decadence).  There's a lot of dada ghosts riding their hopes on you; stay as unregenerate as you are."

 - Ken Jacobs 

Six years ago I believed the above quote was just as relevant in 2003 as it probably was in 1975 to what was once commonly refered to as "Underground Comix" and then later commonly referred to as "Alternative Comics." 

Look, it's my desk, with advance copies of two brand new books on it: All and Sundry: Uncollected Work 2004-2009 by Paul Hornschemeier (you can pre-order it from us and check out a preview here) and This Side of Jordan by Monte Schulz (with cover art by Al Columbia; no pre-order yet, but lots more info about the book here). Both will be debuting at Comic-Con next week with the authors in attendance!

Jordan Crane is offering an enormous screenprint of one of the most classic comic book covers ever made-- Jaime Hernandez's art for Love and Rockets #24. Epic. Perfect.

Plus, he's got new prints of his own work, including the sure-to-be-classic cover of his latest issue of "Uptight". You buy these two prints, you put them on your wall, it's your funeral when your mind explodes.

Plus you can buy the second in his series of objects, this time of raffle tickets. Buy prints here.

Skin Deep (New Softcover Edition)
By Charles Burns

Now back in print in a new, affordable 2009 softcover edition!

Charles Burns is the creator of the landmark horror graphic novel Black Hole (in development as a major motion picture directed by David Fincher as of this writing). Skin Deep is the third (following El Borbah and Big Baby) of a series of three volumes reprinting his acclaimed oeuvre up to Black Hole. Skin Deep includes Burns's popular character Dog Boy (a red-blooded all-American boy with the transplanted heart of a dog) and the classic strip "Dog Days," in which a hash-slinging vixen wags her tail at our fearful hero. The book also collects "Burn Again," which features a strange fella named Bliss Blister, claiming to bring the Word of God, but some fear he brings something evil and profane. In "A Marriage Made in Hell," a young wife's flesh tingled with passion, but the sight of her made her husband's skin crawl. Was the love-knot she tied really a hangman's noose? These tales of doomed romance set a tone for the rest of Skin Deep. In addition to the comics, Skin Deep includes several pages of new illustrations reprinted from Burns's sketchbooks as well as covers and other pieces from foreign editions of Burns's work.

Act now and get a signed bookplate as a FREE premium! The bookplate has been uniquely designed for this book, and each bookplate is printed on acid-free cardstock and hand-signed by the author. (Click here for more books available with signed bookplates.) See product listing for more details.

96-page black & white 9" x 12" softcover • $16.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 9 (New Printing)
By Robert Crumb

Now back in print in a new softcover edition!

Robert Crumb's long day's journey into the '70s continues with this volume of classic material from 1972 and 1973. The sunny psychedelic era is a fading memory for the counterculture, and Crumb's work of that period reflects a darker, more introspective artist at work. This volume includes Crumb's first collaboration with Harvey Pekar — a long partnership that would help turn Pekar into an alternative comics star. This politically incorrect volume spotlights some of Crumb's most outrageous strips, including the complete contents of XYZ Comics, plus selections from Zap #6, Tales from the Leather Nun, San Francisco, and others. This volume also includes the ultra-rare drawings from the 1972 cookbook Eat It written by Crumb's ex-wife (20 pages' worth — a bonanza for Crumb lovers), rare and unpublished album cover art, and (in full color) Crumb's funny spoof of fellow undergrounder Jay Lynch's Nard 'n' Pat. All this, plus an all-new cover and introduction by the ol' Pooperoo himself — is it any wonder this is one of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling collections of classic comics ever released?

144-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Today the floodgates of Online Commentary & Diversions have opened:

• Review: "The way he turns narratives into advertisements, ends stories with some wacko randomly barging through a window, and abruptly drops gags only to pick them up and drop them again suggests that [Michael] Kupperman takes his cues from the surreality of the small screen — especially Monty Python's Flying Circus and its animated heirs on the Cartoon Network... Tales Designed to Thrizzle [Vol. 1] is a monument not only to silliness, but to craft... [T]he surreality of Monty Python becomes the surreality of Un Chien Andalou or Kafka. Not that Kupperman needs to reference film or literature. Why should he, when he can turn TV into art?" - Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader

• Review: "Michael Kupperman has defeated me once again!... I am fated to be Salieri to Kupperman’s Mozart, Twain to his Einstein... I give up: as the first Tales [Designed to Thrizzle] book, bringing together issues #1-4, makes abundantly clear, Kupperman is brilliantly funny and maddeningly brilliant... Damn you, Michael Kupperman. Give us more, or leave us alone in ignorance of how much better the world would be if you ran it." - Jared Gardner, Guttergeek

• Review: "Dry and absurd as ever, Norwegian cartoonist Jason returns with an anthology [Low Moon] featuring more of the verbally-spare cartoon animals that populate his surreal and depthful extended gag strips... There’s no other cartoonist who matches Jason’s somber deadpan and this serves as a great introduction to his work." - John Mitchell, Worcester Magazine

• Review: "[Willie & Joe: The WWII Years is a] terrific two-volume collection of the legendary Bill Mauldin's 'GI Joe' cartoons from 'the last good war'... Fantagraphics gives us a comprehensive collection of the cartoons that fellow enlisted man Mauldin created during the war, both for civilians and fellow soldiers alike... [T]his compendium is both a great time capsule, and a fitting tribute to an American original." - Mark London Williams, The SF Site: Nexus Graphica

• Review: "[Paul] Hornschemeier uses simple line art and varied color palettes for conveying emotional and narrative detail [in Mother, Come Home], capturing graphically with a sort of exquisite beauty the symbolic fantasies of Thomas and the grief-induced psychosis of his father." - Martha Cornog, Library Journal

• Review: "Fletcher Hanks was an early, forgotten great of comics: He drew from 1939-1941, and his work [in You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!] is vivid, funny and incredibly surreal... Hanks' work evokes a childlike energy that makes it seem as if he drew as much for himself as he did for the rest of the world. That creative spirit never goes out of style." - Whitney Matheson, USA Today Pop Candy

• Interview: Comic Book Resources' Kiel Phegley talks to Michael Kupperman who talks about his latest projects, including Marvex the Super Robot, and says of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1, "If I hadn't done it, I would want it badly. It's really the first time I feel I've succeeded in the 'book as object' category. It's very sexy."

• Interview: "You’ll Never Know delves deep into the recesses of human memory and what we choose to share with each other, laying bare the connections and experiences that define who we are—whether we choose to make them known or not." - John Hogan, introducing his Q&A with C. Tyler for Graphic Novel Reporter. Carol, on future installments: "Part of my brain can clearly see the plot unfolding, but I cannot adequately explain due to the intuitive components attached to the emotion involved... But basically, the five main characters will go through some pretty rough stuff in terms of facing and dealing with their issues on the way to finding their better selves. All I can say is stay tuned and I hope nobody is disappointed."

• Profile: The Palisadian-Post's article on Stan Sakai is worth checking out for the adorable photo of Stan, Usagi, and Sergio Aragonés alone

Our pals at Forbidden Planet NYC have launched a very nice new website that alt comix fans will enjoy, whether to scope out everything available from Fantagraphics, or to check out what just might be the most extensive zine/minicomic collection on the web since USS Catastrophe "downsized". Jason Miles and I checked out FP on our trip to BEA in June and the small press section, curated by Austin English, was truly non pareil. 

Rick Altergott fans rejoice! Rick has a brand new strip for Vice Magazine, and Nick Gazin interviews him too, saying "his work celebrates the kind of people that make your vagina curdle." See what Rick has to say about Frazetta, family, and fascinating creeps. Sample quote: "I seem to get ideas for sleazy content only, although I enjoy and appreciate all types of stories. I'm a pretty conservative person so it is weird that I have a reputation as a purveyor of gutter material."