Jason brought our attention to this fan's tattoo based on the cover of The Last Musketeer, by Brazilian tattoo artist Marlon Miná. Nice work!

From filmmaker John Kinhart comes this excellent short video interview with Kim Deitch about The Search for Smilin' Ed.

THIS is one of my most favorite things I've ever seen. Please click through and support this project. If Jim Woodring pulls this off, he will be the cock of the cartoonist block for all eternity, short of Charles Burns building a 2 story-tall Winsor Newton Series 7 and inking the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Watch the video. If anyone else outside of possibly Chris Ware proposed this, you would laugh at them. But in Jim's able hands, you can't help but BELIEVE. I am sold. Just listen to him. If you are a cartoonist, especially, I implore you: click the above and watch the video, you won't regret it. Then mobilize immediately amongst your cartooning corps. This MUST happen. If Jim were a preacher, I'd have joined his congregation already. 

Jordan Crane is a silkscreening fool in the runup to Comic-Con, just having released two new editions, Flutter to Fly and Leave Taken, on his Reddingk site, following the zombie print from a couple of days ago. Gorgeous as always.

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Plug: "Based on reviews, [Werewolves of Montpellier] sounds really good. The art reminds me of Chris Ware or Chris Onstad, and I’m a fan of deadpan, sardonic humour. Do want!" – Werewolf News

• Plug: Joe Gordon of the Forbidden Planet International Blog recommends the works of Jacques Tardi for your Bastille Day reading: "...[W]ith the always fine folks at Fantagraphics translating and publishing Tardi’s work in English several of his works are now easily accessible even to anyone who doesn’t read a word of French. A long-standing interest in the history of World War One and his own family history lead to his It Was the War of the Trenches, recently published in English and one of the most interesting comics on the period since Charley’s War in my book."

• Plugs: The Washington Post's Michael Cavna places the Moto Hagio spotlight panel and the Humor in Comics panel featuring Peter Bagge in his top 10 picks for Comic-Con on Friday and Sunday, respectively

Once more Paul Hornschemeier has a shirt design on shirt.woot, $10 today only, $15 thereafter. To celebrate Paul has put all of the shirts in his own Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop on sale for a limited time. I hope mine arrives in time for Comic-Con.

Just dropped off at the office today: our advance copies of A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio. It's pretty! Designer Adam Grano has outdone himself on this one, and of course the contents are gorgeous too. Pick up your copy at Comic-Con next week and have it signed by Moto Hagio — she'll be there all 4 days! It should be widely available next month.

Looky here, it's the first advance copy of Too Soon? Famous/Infamous Faces 1995-2010 by Drew Friedman, which arrived in the office yesterday. Yes, we'll have copies for sale at Comic-Con! It should be widely available around the beginning of September.

To: Tony Millionaire, Johnny Ryan, Tim Hensley 

From: Eric Reynolds

Hey, would you three be up for a late-August signing at Family for your new books? Sammy is interested and I think it could be cool. 

---------------------------------------------------------  

To: Eric Reynolds, Johnny Ryan, Tony Millionaire

From: Tim Hensley

Do you mind if I pass on this? Hopefully, Johnny and Tony won't mind. 

Thanks, Tim. 

---------------------------------------------------------   

To: Eric Reynolds, Tony Millionaire

From: Johnny Ryan

I wasn't going to do it, but since Tim isn't going to be there I'll do it.

 ---------------------------------------------------------   

I would have done it, but not if Johnny will.

---------------------------------------------------------   

The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 (Vol. 14)
by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by Alec Baldwin

344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-375-0

Ships in: August 2010 (subject to change)
This item will be available for order on its release date. Stay tuned for updates.

As the 1970s wind down, the last two recurring Peanuts characters have fallen into place: Snoopy’s brother Spike and the youngest Van Pelt sibling, Rerun. But that doesn’t mean Schulz’s creativity has diminished; in fact, this volume features an amazing profusion of hilariously distinctive new one- (or two-) shot characters!

For instance, in an epic five-week sequence, when Charlie Brown is found guilty by the EPA of biting the Kite-Eating tree, he goes on the lam and ends up coaching the “Goose Eggs,” a group of diminutive baseball players, Austin, Ruby, Leland, and — did you know there was a second Black Peanuts character, aside from Franklin? — Milo.

Also: a tennis-playing Snoopy ends up reluctantly teamed with the extreme Type “A” athlete Molly Volley... who then reappears later in the book, now facing off against her nemesis, “Crybaby” Boobie. (Honest!) Add in Sally’s new camp friend Eudora, the thuggish “caddymaster” who shoots down Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s new vocation, an entire hockey team, and a surprise repeat appearance by Linus’s sweetheart “Truffles” (creating a love triangle with Sally), all in addition to the usual cast of beloved characters (including the talking schoolhouse and the doghouse-jigsawing cat, who gets hold of Linus’s blanket in this one), and you’ve got a veritable crowd of characters.

It’s another two years of the greatest comic strip of all time, full of laughs and surprises.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 15-page PDF excerpt (688 KB) containing all the strips from January, 1977!

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The Complete Peanuts 1975-1978 Box Set
by Charles M. Schulz
designed by Seth

two 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-376-7

A boxed set of the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of The Complete Peanuts, designed by the award-winning graphic novelist, Seth. Shipping shrinkwrapped, with volumes 1975-1976 and 1977-1978 packed in a sturdy custom box designed especially for this set, it's the perfect gift book item. (For more information on the contents of each volume, see the individual product listings linked above.)

"The Complete Peanuts has framed Charles Schulz’s enduring masterpiece about as well any lifelong fan could’ve hoped." – "The Best Comics of the '00s: The Archives", The A.V. Club

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

Also available:

The Complete Peanuts 1975-1978 Slipcase
by Charles M. Schulz
designed by Seth

8.75" x 7.125" x 3" slipcase • $4.99

Ships in: August 2010 (subject to change)
This item will be available for order on its release date. Stay tuned for updates.

Even if you purchased the fifth pair of volumes of The Complete Peanuts (1975-1976 and 1977-1978) separately rather than in the two-volume set, you can still have this handsome, durable two-volume slipcase designed by Complete Peanuts series designer Seth. This item is exclusively available directly from Fantagraphics. (Books not included.)

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