Our pal Pam Noles attended Drew Friedman's discussion and book signing for More Old Jewish Comedians at L.A.'s Skylight books (with guests Ben Schwartz and portrait subject Carl Ballantine) on Saturday and sent us a whole bunch of photos which we've loaded up on Flickr. Read Pam's account of the event here!

And now the pièce de résistance, found in Gary Groth's office:

 Wait for it...

We shit you not. 

(Click for larger image.)

From Irwin Chusid, Jim Flora archivist and editor of our Flora books:

Jim Flora Art LLC has released a limited-edition, archival-quality fine art print of an uncirculated 1963 Jim Flora tempera painting entitled Back to Bellefontaine. Flora was born in Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, in 1914. He lived in the town until 1934, when he enrolled at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Only twenty-five (25) prints of Back to Bellefontaine were produced for this edition. Back to Bellefontaine has not previously been reproduced or published.

Some remembrances of the town by the artist are on the Jim Flora blog.

A quick break from "Flog! Photo Friday" for a new installment of Steven Weissman's "Chocolate Cheeks"! In this week's strip: Pullapart Boy's instigatin'. (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

More Flog! Photo Friday, this time with audio! Last night at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, moderator Gary Groth was joined by Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, and Jim Woodring for a lively discussion about Robert Crumb and a range of related topics. More photos can be seen on Flickr, in regular and slideshow styles.

Plus! Download the complete audio of this event (24.5 MB MP3). It's a bit low-fi, but mostly intelligible. (We are still working on bringing you a full-fledged podcast... stay tuned for that.) We've also archived this feature on our website at this page.

Flog! Photo Friday continues with the complete stack of Jaime Hernandez's original artwork for his 50-page story in Love and Rockets: New Stories #1, the first issue of the new, annual incarnation of Love and Rockets, which will debut in July at ComiCon in San Diego:

It's Photo Friday on Flog! First, "The Fun Never Stops!" with Drew Friedman at our storefront last night. Below, the exhibit pre-opening: 

Below, the crowd gathers. That's Drew second from left.

Extreme close-up!

Lots more photos in our Flickr stream, in regular and fancy slideshow formats.

Don't forget, Drew appears at Skylight Books in L.A. tomorrow with guests Ben Schwartz and comedian Andy Kindler. Details here.  

This week's free preview is a downloadable 25-page excerpt from Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips (1956-66), the first volume in a major archival project collecting the entirety of Jules Feiffer's strip for the venerable New York City weekly paper. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. As a reminder, Gary Groth's Introduction to the book is reprinted here on the Fantagraphics website (with a slideshow of 11 strips selected by Groth) and can be read by the general public, no registration required.

A parenthetical aside on the panel above: I was startled by Feiffer's use of "omigod" in this strip dated January 2, 1957 — decades before the word was popularized by the whole "Valley Girl" fad of the 1980s.

(As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up...)

Safe Area Gorazde (New Printing)
By Joe Sacco

Praised by The New York Times, Brill's Content and Publisher's Weekly, Safe Area Gorazde is the long-awaited and highly sought after 240-page look at war in the former Yugoslavia. Sacco (the critically-acclaimed author of Palestine) spent five months in Bosnia in 1996, immersing himself in the human side of life during wartime, researching stories that are rarely found in conventional news coverage. The book focuses on the Muslim-held enclave of Gorazde, which was besieged by Bosnian Serbs during the war. Sacco lived for a month in Gorazde, entering before the Muslims trapped inside had access to the outside world, electricity or running water. Safe Area Gorazde is Sacco's magnum opus and with it he is poised too become one of America's most noted journalists. The book features an introduction by Christopher Hitchens, political columnist for The Nation and Vanity Fair.

The new Seventh softcover printing (2008) features an all-new cover design by Adam Grano.

240-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover $19.95
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The Kat Who Walked in Beauty (2nd Printing)
By George Herriman

Presenting a unique, stand-alone companion to our Krazy & Ignatz series. The Kat Who Walked In Beauty collects many rare and unique dailies from the 1910s and 1920s. Though many readers are aware of Herriman's dynamic Sunday pages, few know that during 1920, in what must have been an editorially unrestrictive period for Herriman, he drew some of the most graphic and brilliantly conceived daily strips ever created; they look like "mini-Sunday" strips. This nine-month stretch of dailies, never-before-reprinted, is among the treasures included in this collection. The collection includes many other Herriman gems, including the very first stand-alone Krazy & Ignatz strips from 1911, and the illustrations from Herriman"s Krazy Kat Jazz pantomime/ballet, performed to captivated New York audiences in 1922. This book fills in several gaps in the daily strip history, reproduced at close to their original size.

The new 2nd printing features an orange spine and interior spot color; we also still have limited quantities of the first printing, with a green spine and interior spot color. Please indicate your choice when ordering.

114-page black & white 15" x 11" hardcover $29.95
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