Set to Sea
by Drew Weing

144-page black & white 5.5" x 6.25" hardcover • $16.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-368-2

Ships in: July 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now 

The central character is a big lug and an aspiring poet who runs up tabs at the local bars by day and haunts the docks by night, writing paeans to the seafaring life. When he gets shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong, he finds the sailor’s life a bit rougher than his romantic nautical fantasies. He helps rebuff a pirate assault, survives a gunshot to the eye, and learns to live — and love — a Conradian life on the sea, all the while writing poetry about pirates, bad food, unceremonial funerals, foreign ports, and unexpected epiphanies. By the end of his life, he’s found satisfaction in living a life of adventure and finding a receptive and appreciative readership. What more could one ask for?

This is Drew Weing’s debut graphic novel, after honing his craft with numerous, lovingly produced self-published comic stories. Drawn in an elaborate crosshatched style that falls somewhere between Gustave Doré engravings and E. C. Segar’s Popeye, Set to Sea is part rollicking adventure, part maritime ballad told in visual rhyme. Every page is a single panel, every panel is a stunning illustration, every illustration a part of a larger whole that tells a story in the deft language of cartooning.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 13-page PDF excerpt (831 KB).

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This week's strips, back on schedule:

Don't worry, the kitty's unharmed in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan...

Nate Neal reveals the jacket wraparound for his forthcoming graphic novel The Sanctuary, coming this Fall from Fantagraphics. Click for a larger view on Nate's Flickr page.

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• The New Yorker's current Caption Contest cartoon is by Gahan Wilson

• Drew Friedman's Spitzer-take for The New York Observer

• It's your all-new weekly installment of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• This week's clammy Maakies from Tony Millionaire

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents a guest strip from Noah Van Sciver

• This week's "I, Anonymous" and some fighter jets by Steven Weissman

• A page from a comic-in-progress by John Hankiewicz

• Richard Sala presents the original art for the endpapers of his first book Hypnotic Tales — a larger version is linked here

• It's this week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop and it features the logo for his upcoming series from Fantagraphics

• Quackers and Randy Gander funny business from Josh Simmons & co.

• This guy, plus a trap and a kung fu fly (?) from Renee French

• Renee also makes her first guest appearance at the always-great Trubble Club (where Laura Park & Lilli Carré are also known to hang out)

• Video: "How to Draw Judge Martin Feldman" by Steve Brodner

• Anders Nilsen presents photos of his thesis installation from 1996

• Two new batches of drawings from Derek Van Gieson

• A pair of recent illustrations for the Globe & Mail by Ray Fenwick

• Laura Park's recipe for kimchi cream cheese

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Regarding the artwork, finally, it is once again amazing. Creatures and landscapes seem to spring from the most disordered imagination and land on white paper before diving in a bucket of surrealism. So [Weathercraft] is yet another excellent work by Woodring..." – Thomas Papadimitropolous, Comicdom (translated from Greek – thanks to Ted and Takis for the help)

 • Review: "Just a few observations on the art [in It Was the War of the Trenches]... Tardi is bringing very specific and very effective weapons to bear in his chillingly successful effort to convey this particular horror." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly

• Review: "John Pham’s latest Sublife features a group of longer pieces that conjure a philosophical, nomadic vibe that’s rare and welcome. ... He excels at telling a story with a cinematic sense of where to put the camera, so to speak, and how to build drama. ...Pham’s fondness for sci-fi odysseys of lonely adventurers in endless, barren landscapes — whether the desert of outer space or the desert outback of Australia — is a real good thing." – Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "After a couple of years, Jaime’s Maggie storyline, which ran in L&Rv2 #s 1-10 and was reprinted in the Ghost of Hoppers book, still stands as a truly extraordinary piece of work – a story about ghosts and loss, and new friends and old towns. There are demons in the darkness, both literally and figuratively, and odd little talismans that bind us all to that weirdness. It’s a story about growing up and sticking by your friends and all the confusion that brings. It’s about adapting to the fact you’re normal and still having to avoid demonic dogs. But most of all, like almost all of Jaime’s stories, it’s about Love." – Bob Temuka, The Tearoom of Despair (via ¡Journalista!)

If you missed Drew Friedman's appearance on Seven Second Delay on WFMU (broadcast live from the UCB Theatre in NYC on Wednesday), you can listen to the show on the archive page right here.

If you've wondered what Jim Woodring's new graphic novel Weathercraft would look like if it were in color, look no further than the cover of this week's issue of The Portland Mercury. Don't forget, Jim's at Portland's mighty Powell's Books tonight at 7:30!

Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes
Introduction by Charles Schneider; essay by William D. Moore; appreciation by David Copperfield

240-page black & white/color 6.5" x 9.75" softcover • $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-367-5

Ships in: June/July 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Do you wish to separate the jolly good fellows from the dour sour pusses from those who seek to ASCEND TO THEIR SIDE DEGREES — but you suffer from lack of imagination when it comes to constructing elaborate hazing rituals and DEVICES? Does fake vomit, joy buzzers and a party pack of fake moustaches only produce yawns, rather than giggles, among your once-merry members? Well, look no further than Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes, in which the manufacturers De Moulin Bros. & Co. from Greenville, Ill. feature the finest electro-dropo benches, goat-shaped tricycles, electric branding irons (and much much more)!

Not only does this 1930 catalog, reproduced with marvelous 21st century machinery, provide tightly rendered pen-and-ink period illustrations and detailed product descriptions, it also has helpful how-tos and scripts to aid in the pulling of these pranks on initiates!

(WARNING: Fantagraphics Books is in no way responsible for any resultant maiming, crippling, immolation, or disfigurement resulting from the construction and/or use of devices pictured in this catalogue. At least, we don’t think so.)

Today, DeMoulin Bros. & Co. is one of the largest suppliers of costumes for marching bands in the United States. But in 1930 the company produced an amazing array of props and devices created specifically to be used in minor “hazing” of candidates in the side degrees of various fraternal organizations. The great 1930 DeMoulin Bros. & Company Fraternal Supply Catalog No. 439 is truly a holy grail for the prankster, arm-chair sadist and those interested in the some of the zanier historic arcana lurking behind that neighborhood odd-fellows lodge.

This is the ultimate desert-island book for pranksters looking for something edgy and new to dream about, Rube Goldberg-like devices created to instill terror and bemused respect, before the candidate ascends to receive a more sublime form of illumination. All in good fun, it is — or was — the American way!

Download an EXCLUSIVE 24-page PDF excerpt (1.5 MB).

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Mome Vol. 19 - Summer 2010
by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

128-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-349-1

Ships in: June/July 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

The acclaimed anthology of contemporary comics steams toward its landmark 20th issue. This issue leads off with the cover story, the first part of the satiric psychedelic epic "The White Rhinoceros," drawn by Josh Simmons and written by The Partridge in the Pear Tree. It is our privilege to welcome the great Gilbert Hernandez to the pages of Mome with a brand-new story starring his beloved character Roy! Also debuting this issue, exciting newcomer D.J. Bryant, with what may be the most hard-boiled story to appear in Mome yet. And making return appearances: Olivier Schrauwen, Tim Lane, Conor O'Keefe, and Robert Goodin with new stories, and T. Edward Bak with the continuation of his epic "Wild Man" serial.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 9-page PDF excerpt (1.6 MB) with a page from every artist in the issue, plus the Table of Contents.

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