Gilbert Hernandez with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords. Whatever you do, don't miss the original caption.

If you're not a fan of Love and Rockets on Facebook, this is the kind of thing you're missing. My L&R page co-admin, Carol Hernandez, has been posting lots of goodies, including rare photos and sketches from the early days. Hot patootie!

We just discovered 11 copies of this 1992 issue of Pictopia squirreled away in our warehouse. Edited by Gary Groth and Robert Boyd and thought to be out of print for years, this anthology brings you some gorgeous Chris Ware color work (including a spectacular wraparound cover), a taste of Jacques Tardi, and work by such notables as James Sturm, David Collier and Doug Allen! 72 pages of the best of the early 1990s, at an early 1990s price! Hurry and get yours before they're all gone again.

Pictopia #3
By various artists

This issue sports a magnificent wraparound cover by Chris Ware, to go along with his full-color "Quimby the Mouse" story inside. The color section is rounded out by Dave Collier's "Apples" and Doug Allen's "Cranky the Drunk." Continuing this issue is the three-part private-eye serial by Jacques (West Coast Blues, You Are There) Tardi and Patrick Manchette, "Griffu," the hard-as-nails story of a none-too-bright detective who stumbles onto a case a little larger than he can handle. This is one P.I. who really takes his lumps! And as always, Pictopia is proud to present the work of talented newcomers and regulars alike, including: "Amarillo" by Scott Gilbert; "Chums" by George Parsons; "Cocaine" by Howard Rigberg; "Neither Science Nor Fiction" by Garrett Izumi; "Gunned Down in Motown" by Rick Metcalf & Kent Myers; "I Was a New York Bitch" by Eben Dodd; and "21st Century Schizoid Man" by Nemoto. An unbeatable package!

72-page black & white/color 8.5" x 10.75" softcover • $7.95
Update: SOLD OUT

The final Online Commentary & Diversions update for June '09:

• List: CBC Radio's Canada Reads: The Book Club posts the result of their month-long poll to determine "The Top 10 Graphic Novels": Black Hole and Love and Rockets come in at #5 and #6, respectively, with Ghost World and Jimmy Corrigan close runners-up

• Review: "Issue #3 of Jordan Crane's Uptight serves as a wonderful example of just how good pamphlet format comics can be... Uptight #3 delivers 24 pages of beautifully focused storytelling... If you like Crane's work or simply want to try something a little different, do go out and buy this. Uptight represents everything single issue comics should be but so very rarely are. Fact is, we need more comics like this, so vote with your wallets and support the fine folks at Fantagraphics..." - Matthew Dick, Exquisite Things

• Review/Profile: "...[Boody Rogers's] command of dream-state narrative logic and language-mangling dialogue remains unnerving and uproarious in about equal measure... Now comes the Fantagraphics edition of Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers — a 144-page whopper, rich in humor and dreamlike oddities..." - Michael H. Price of the Fort Worth Business Press recounts meeting Rogers in the 1980s and also reviews Rogers's memoir, Homeless Bound

• Review: "For his latest... book [Low Moon], Jason has decided to try something a bit different... In attempting to stretch himself, though, he offers some of his weakest work to date, but some of his strongest and emotionally wrenching as well... Longtime readers... will definitely want to pick it up..." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Review: "The temptation is to shut up and let Hal Foster's panels speak for themselves... Designed by Adam Grano, Prince Valiant [Vol. 1:] 1937-1938 is a beautiful book." - Steve Duin, The Oregonian

• Plug: "Literally jam-packed with strips that constantly vary in sizes, [Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1] shines with [Michael] Kupperman's earth-shattering wit, his excellent vintage-comics-inspired draftsmanship and his genius comedic timing. Thanks Fantagraphics!" - Librarie D+Q

• Plug: "You'll Never Know [Book 1: A Good and Decent Man] by C. Tyler arrived this week... it is funny, moving, sad -- highly recommended." - Librarie D+Q 

• Plug: "Dash Shaw = emotional psychedelic genius." - i want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now.

• Plug: "The Comics Journal #298: Man, only two issues until the big Siege of Asgard prelude." - Jog - The Blog

• Plug: "The Comics Journal #298: Lotsa good interviews in this issue... For me though, the meat of the issue is the wealth of daily Skippy strips by Percy Crosby reproduced in the gallery section." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Interview: Publishers Weekly has a Q&A with Peter Bagge about his new collection Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me. Money quote: "I could have taken the Doonesbury route and pandered to my fellow libertarians by pretending I (and they) had all the answers, but that would have been both too easy and dishonest."

• Interview: Newsarama's Zack Smith talks to Sam's Strip creators Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas about the creation of the strip and the new Fantagraphics collection. Sample quote from Walker: "You always put something personal in every strip, so it’s wonderful to see all these old strips again."

• Charity: ComicList reports that Jaime Hernandez will participate in Comic Book Legal Defense Fund fundraising at Comic Con with an autograph card and original art auction

• Oddity: What does Popeye have in common with Michael Jackson? Well, now they're both subjects of Jeff Koons artwork, according to this Reuters story

• Oddity: Did you hear about the former Drawn & Quarterly intern who attempted to navigate a handmade houseboat named the Velvet Glove Cast in Iron down the Mississippi River?

Scheduled to arrive in better comics shops across the land this week: The Comics Journal #298, featuring The Umbrella Academy's Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon, Perry Bible Fellowship's Nicholas Gurewitch, and much more:

Also popping up on some unofficial lists: Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 by Michael Kupperman. It's not on the official distribution list, though, so no promises.

As always, feast your eyes on our many previews and excerpts at the above links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability before busting open your piggy bank.

We're honored to have picked up 5 nominations for this year's Harvey Awards:

Best Anthology: Mome Vol. 10 - Winter/Spring 2008

Best Graphic Album - Original: Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

Best Single Issue or Story: Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

Best Domestic Reprint Project: The Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz (Vols. 9 & 10)

Best American Edition of Foreign Material: Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason

To celebrate, our nominated titles, except Peanuts (for contractual reasons), are now 15% off for a limited time! First buy, then (if you're a comics professional) vote!

Congratulations to all of our nominated colleagues, with special shouts-out to Al Jaffee for his Abrams book Tall Tales (multiple nominations), Chris Ware for Acme Novelty Library #19 (Best Single Issue or Story), and Jay Lynch & the Mineshaft folks for Mineshaft #23 (Best Cover Artist).

Let's see what Online Commentary & Diversions popped up over the weekend:

• Review: "Abstract Comics: The Anthology is an impressive collection of old and new work with unique pages covering exactly what the title says... bold... intriguing... This is a book for readers who like fine art or those who would like to expand their sequential art experiences. A hearty slap on the back for Fantagraphics for choosing to create this marvelous example of a widely unknown artistic expression." - Kris Bather, Comic Book Jesus

• Review: "I had always equated [Prince] Valiant with everything that is dull and lifeless and boring and supposedly good for you, but it turns out I was completely and utterly wrong. On the contrary, it's a rip-snorting good time, full of high adventure and thrilling escapades. And Valiant, far from being the schoolmarmish goody two-shoes I imagined him being, is full of piss and vinegar and quite a bloodthirsty young chap, which makes him a good deal more interesting than some of his contemporaries on the comics page." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Review: "Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5, like all the previous issues by Michael Kupperman, did not fail at thrilling or dazzling me." - Brian Cronin, Robot 6 (same link as above)

• Review: "...C. Tyler's You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man isn't... much like any other autobio comic I've encountered... It’s a really rather fascinating work, and the longer one thinks about it, the more important and universal it seems to be. On the surface level, of course, it’s an extremely interesting, rather unique story of a couple different life’s stories, and how they overlap, but there plenty of other levels waiting to be discovered and ruminated over. I won’t be at all surprised to see this book taking slots on a lot of best of the year lists in another six months or so." - J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

• Review: "Don’t think of [The Wolverton Bible] as an exception or a bizarre footnote in religious art but one and maybe the 20th century continuation... By the end of the book, pages after pages of doom and destruction, you realize that Wolverton is maybe the only person to illustrate the The Old Testament and the Book of Revelation -- the most 'savage' books of the bible." - Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader?

• Plug: "Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1: It's the collection of the first four issues of Michael Kupperman's hilarious series, now in color! This stuff is comedy gold, so get it if you haven't read it already, and hell, spend the extra money to see the non-monochromatic version if you want." - Matthew J. Brady

• Plug (?): Robot 6's Chris Mautner proposes Ti-Girls and Snake 'n' Bacon action figures. I'd buy 'em!

• Preview: Comics And... Other Imaginary Tales gives thumbs up to two of our upcoming releases: Captain Easy Vol. 1: Solidier of Fortune by Roy Crane and Like a Dog by Zak Sally (both previewed here)

• Interview: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon talks to Trina Robbins about about the genesis and assembling of The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940: "It's really great to have The Brinkley Girls, and I was pleased when Robbins agreed to answer some questions about it."

• Events: Jared Gardner reports from a panel he moderated with Arnold Roth, Mort Walker and Brian Walker as part of the celebration of the merger of the International Museum of Cartoon Art with Ohio State University's Cartoon Library and Museum, adding that Jean Schulz has set up a matching grant to raise needed funds for the combined museum to move into a new permanent home

• Oddity: At Guttergeek, Chris Reilly interviews himself: "I actually am a big fan of Michael Kupperman and Eric Reynolds from Fantagraphics just sent me a copy of the hardcover Tales Designated to Thrizzle Vol. 1 and I would like to conduct this interview by commenting on the quotes of this book – would that be cool?" Um, 'kay...

• Things to see: Two more classic Michael Jackson illustrations from Drew Friedman

Here's a glimpse of Kevin Huizenga & Matthew Thurber's contribution to The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #15, from Kevin's blog.

Strips, Scripts and Scapes: Contemporary Comix in Southern California

June 22 - August 22 

I missed this Riverside Art Museum show in time to post for the opening, but the show includes Sammy Harkham, Johnny Ryan, John Pham, Mike Bertino, Travis Millard, Rusty Jordan, Souther Salazar, Brent Harada, Walt Holcombe, Martin Cendreda, Mary Fleener (story by Harvey Pekar), Taylor McKimens, Roberta Gregory, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, and Megan Whitmarsh. 

Seattleites: don't miss Peter Bagge's band, Can You Imagine?, this Wed. in Seattle in support of the great local comedian Paul Merrill!

This looks like an incredibly fun show. 

More HERE and HERE.