Uptight #3
By Jordan Crane

With Uptight #3 Jordan Crane continues to prove himself to be one of the most skilled and versatile cartoonists of his generation. First he maps uncharted territory of graphic melancholia with a brand new serialized tale of infidelity, "Vicissitude," in sumptuous greytone. He follows that up with the first installment of "Freeze Out," a delightful new all-ages adventure starring Simon & Jack, the boy and cat heroes from Jordan's classic tale The Clouds Above!

24-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $2.75
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Tomorrow! 2009 MoCCA Festival! Find us at tables #110-114 -- that's along the north wall (on the right from the main entrance).

Have we mentioned we have 11 new titles debuting at the show (barring any shipping snafus)? Holy crud! It's going to be awesome!

For updates from the show floor, follow us on Twitter -- we'll be posting as much of the action as we can, time permitting.

Here's our updated signing schedule as it stands right now -- we've had a couple of changes since we first announced it.

See you there!

FANTAGRAPHICS MoCCA SIGNINGS

SATURDAY SIGNINGS

11:00 am - Noon • Paul Hornschemeier, Dash Shaw & Derek Van Gieson (Mome)

Noon - 2:00 pm • Jason & Michael Kupperman

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm • Paul Karasik & Bob Fingerman

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm • Lilli Carré, Miss Lasko-Gross & Ted Stearn

4:00 - 5:00 pm • Arnold Roth & Al Jaffee

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm • John Kerschbaum & Dash Shaw

SATURDAY PANELS

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm
 • AH, HUMBUG! Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in conversation

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm
 • Scandinavian Comics 101, With Steffen P. Maarup, Thomas Thorhauge and Ib Kjeldsmark (From Wonderland with Love)

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
 • Paul Karasik on the Twisted Genius of Fletcher Hanks

SUNDAY SIGNINGS

11 am - Noon • Steffen P. Maarup, Christoffer Zieler, Ib Kjeldsmark, Allan Haverholm, Thomas Thorhauge, Simon Bukhave and Søren Mosdal (From Wonderland with Love)

Noon - 1:00 pm • Paul Karasik, Sara Edward-Corbett (Mome) & Ted Stearn

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm • Dame Darcy & Dash Shaw

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm • Jason & Michael Kupperman

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm • Bob Fingerman, Paul Hornschemeier & Miss Lasko-Gross

SUNDAY PANELS

11 am - 11:50 am
 • Kent Worcester and Tom Kaczynski in conversation

Noon - 1:00 pm
 • The Astonishing SVA Roundtable with Dash Shaw

3:45 pm - 4:45 pm
 • Gary Panter and Frank Santoro in conversation

WHAT:

2009 MoCCA FESTIVAL

The 8th annual art festival celebrating comics and cartoon art.

WHEN:

Saturday, June 6th and Sunday, JUNE 7th

11:00am - 6:00pm each day

WHERE:

The 69th Regiment Armory

68 Lexington Avenue at Lexington Avenue at 25th Street

New York City
By subway: 6 Train to 28th Street Station

Online Commentary & Diversions returns (probably) Tuesday next week, as your humble correspondent travels to and from the MoCCA Festival. Fortunately, looks like things are quiet out there (as I doom myself saying that):

• Review: "[Luba] seems more and more like a great book every time I pick it up. I guess I shouldn't be surprised... It's going to be until the end of the year before I can attempt a bigger piece on the book... I feel I can wait that six months before a summary statement because there won't be many works in this calendar year better than this one, and if there [are] I'll be so happy I won't care... For now I just want people to know how good it is and remind folks that it's out there. It's a good read, too... It's going to be a good year spent in this book's company." - Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "To say they don’t make them like this anymore is a gross understatement... [The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940] is a very welcome introduction to an artist whose skills need to be seen to be believed, and an even more welcome reminder that newspapers used to offer readers a lot more than just news and commentary — they also used to offer honest-to-God fine art." - J. Caleb Mozzocco, Las Vegas Weekly

On his blog, Mack White posts a bunch of teaser images for "Roadside Hell," his story in the upcoming Hotwire Comics Vol. 3, coming early 2010. Zombies, snakes, a luchador executioner... looks good!

"You'll Never Know" Dad & Daughter Book Signing
Saturday, June 13, 2009
5 - 7 PM

Shake It Records will be hosting a book signing with local artist C. Tyler for her new graphic memoir You'll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man.

And, as an added rare bonus, her father, 90 year old World War II veteran Chuck Tyler -- subject of the book -- will also be there to sign copies.

A Cincinnati Exclusive!!!!

You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man is published by Fantagraphics of Seattle. It tells the story of the 50-something author's relationship with her World War II veteran father, and how his war experience shaped her childhood and affected her relationships in adulthood. "You'll Never Know" refers not only to the title of her parents' courtship song from that era, but also to the many challenges the author encountered in uncovering the difficult and painful truths about her Dad's service.

You'll Never Know makes full use of Tyler's virtuosity as a cartoonist: stunningly rendered in detailed inks and subtle watercolors, it plunges the reader headlong into the diverse locales: her father's wartime experiences and courtship, her own childhood and adolescence, and contemporary life.

C. Tyler is an accomplished artist who has been drawing comics for over thirty years. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has two other solo books, Late Bloomer and The Job Thing, also by Fantagraphics. She teaches a class in comics at the University of Cincinnati's DAAP School of Art.

"If you want to find out what happened to Willie and Joe after they got home from World War II, You'll Never Know is the perfect place to start. C. Tyler's graphic novel, passionately conceived and brilliantly drawn, extends the range of Bill Mauldin to cover the aftershock of the Last Good War on the warriors who fought it and the collateral damage to their families. Not since Catch-22 has anyone probed the secret heart of the Greatest Generation with this kind of raw, icon busting courage."
-Tom Mathews (Our Fathers' War: Growing Up in the Shadow of the Greatest Generation)

"One of the true greats of the 'underground' generation."
-Chris Ware

"Her work has the extremely rare quality of genuine, authentic heart."
-R. Crumb

Another late dose of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: CBC Radio's "Canada Reads: The Book Club" host Hannah Sung kicks off voting on the "Top 10 Graphic Novels" with Ghost World: "I love Dan Clowes’s clean, graphic style. I love Enid’s glasses, I love how everything is 'lame' and I love that Enid expresses how much she hates Sassy magazine even as she reads it."

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch's Brian Heater wraps up his 3-part talk with Michael Kupperman. Sample quote: "But of course the point of humor is that you always want it to look easy. You don’t want it to look like you spent two hours on your 140 character line — not that I’ve ever done that [laughs]."

• Interview: The Metabunker's Matthias Wivel talks to Steffen Maarup, editor of From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium, debuting at MoCCA this weekend. Sample quote: "My selection process was pretty much as simple as picking what’s good; so stories that were original, did interesting things with the medium of comics, or touched me in some way."

• Preview: The Star Clipper Blog looks forward to Dash Shaw's The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.

• Plug: Lady, That's My Skull blogger Sleestak gives a shout-out to Bob Fingerman's Connective Tissue, C. Tyler's You'll Never Know Book 1, and The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940

• Analysis: With a Twist of Lemon ponders the enduring appeal of Charlie Brown

• Things to see: Bob Fingerman presents another outtake from Connective Tissue: a sweet spotlight on protagonist Darla

• Things to make & do: Have you always wanted to cut & assemble those Thimble Theatre "Funny Films" slideshows but didn't want to ruin your Popeye books? Electric Cabinet has you covered (hat tip to Journalista)

From editor Irwin Chusid, the first photographic evidence of The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, our third Jim Flora art book. We're hoping to have our own photos of the exterior and interior of the book taken and posted soon (not to mention getting it listed here on our gol' dang website so you can order the blessed thing).

On his blog, Tim Lane reveals the killer cover for the softcover edition of Abandoned Cars, due late '09-early '10, and hints that there may be two variant covers. Head over there for a sweet sampling of the lurid Golden Age crime comics covers that inspired this one!

For a limited time (the next 17-18 days or so), Paul Hornschemeier is accepting commissions to draw anything from your fevered imagination. I've seen him draw a cubist Smurf -- the sky's the limit here, folks. Fully rendered, $50 B&W, $100 color. Details and purchasing info right here (or just talk to him at the MoCCA Fest).