Two of Portland's most venerable comics-related institutions need your help:

First, the Independent Publishing Resource Center is having a Spring Membership Drive. They have various levels of membership — the Zine of the Month program sounds pretty awesome. Our pals at Sparkplug have posted an eloquent plea from IPRC member and Mome artist T. Edward Bak — please go check it out and then sign on up!

Also, Jason Levian of the paradisical Floating World Comics is raising funds via Kickstarter for printing costs of the next issue of Diamond Comics, the awesome broadsheet comics anthology he publishes and distributes for free. Find out a whole lot more here, and pledge away!

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources:

• "The Bowery Hillbillies" — Drew Friedman's cover illo for this week's New York Observer

• Laura Park continues her Geek Love illustrations at Picture Book Report

• Almost missed these Johnny Ryan/Nick Gazin jam comics at Vice (thanks Sean T. Collins)

• Presented without context by Olivier Schrauwen

• Renee French's mouth drawings continue to skeeve me out, yet I can't look away

• At What Things Do , read the first part of "Look Out for Big Della," excerpted from Steven Weissman's White Flower Day

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Reading this book was like unearthing a trunkload of old baby pictures… if the babies in question would eventually grow up to become Mad Magazine and Rat Fink. ...[L]ike a Buddy Holly song on an oldies station or WWII-era tattoo flash, some art just stands the test of time and becomes classic. Basil Wolverton’s Culture Corner is a one-of-a-kind work and definitely falls into that category. [Grade: A]" – Chad Derdowski, Mania

• Review: "For some time now, Norwegian cartoonist Jason has been on my shortlist of recommended artists for the uninitiated. ... The next question, naturally, is: which Jason book to start with? Almost Silent... fits the bill perfectly. ... This is the output of an artist with a clear vision who is truly at the top of his game. ... Beautifully bound and reasonably priced, you’re not going to find a much better entry point into the world of contemporary graphic novels than Almost Silent." – Brian Heater, The Daily Cross Hatch

• Review: "...The Last Lonely Saturday [is] pretty much the best love story in comics form I've ever come across. ... It's an intelligent, moving, beautiful, terrific little comic." – Sean T. Collins (we linked to this previously when it ran on The Savage Critics but it's worth re-running)

• Review: "Here’s a book that was initially attractive as an intriguing, if intellectual, curiosity, only to reveal itself in short order as a continually fascinating experience. ... I hope this volume, despite its killer commercial potential, will inspire a second. ...Abstract Comics is the most surprising book of the year." – Rich Kreiner, "Yearlong Best of the Year," The Comics Journal

• Interview: Mr. Media's Bob Andelman talks to Monte Schulz about This Side of Jordan: "My dad read the book before he died. He liked Rascal a lot — 'He's such a funny little guy.' He used to tell me I was raising the level of art in the family." Listen via the embedded player above or at this link, or download the MP3

Johnny Ryan's in an art show 3-way at GRSF with Le Merde & Matt Furie, opening April 17. It sounds like Matt may be showing some Johnny fan art — I'd love to see his take on Blecky Yuckerella.

Slated to arrive at comic shops nationwide this week:

The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13)
By Charles M. Schulz

344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-345-3

Checking in with the comics bloggers' new-release roundups, Comics Comics' Joe McCulloch notes "The intro here is by Robert Smigel, which will probably be good." At Comics Alliance Douglas Wolk says "Words cannot tell you how much I love this era of Charles M. Schulz's masterwork. So forget it." (Nicely done, Douglas.) Comic Book Galaxy 's Alan David Doane says "New Complete Peanuts is... always great news."

Don't forget to check out our previews! Just click the cover above for all the info. We imagine most comic shops will have ordered copies to have in stock, but maybe give your local shop a shout first.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources:

• Formula for greatness: Babysitters Club spoofs written by Julia Wertz & drawn by Johnny Ryan

• It's Roger Langridge's original cover to the never-published Zoot #7 (most of which was eventually collected in Zoot Suite) — read more about it

• For the Venn diagram intersection between numismatists and Snoopy-philes, it's the British Virgin Islands commemorative coin celebrating the 60th anniversary of Peanuts (reported by Coin News, via The Daily Cartoonist)

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Booklist's Ray Olson names the Top 10 Graphic Novels of the past 12 months, including You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("Alt-comics veteran Tyler fully demonstrates her artistry in a book about her father’s WWII experiences, her childhood and present struggles raising her daughter, and her growing realization of war’s long-term effects on soldiers and their families.") and A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross ("With washed and faded and wildly varied artwork and writing that sounds utterly like a teen’s voice, Lasko-Gross makes high-schooler Melissa’s late-teen experience real enough to nip incipient nostalgia in the bud.")

• Review: "This charming collection of stories from the long-running and much acclaimed Love and Rockets explores friendship and romance through the interconnected experiences of several characters over many years. ... What's impressive about Hernandez's work isn't so much each story on its own as it is how all the pieces fit together into a whole world that's almost but not quite like our own. ... Hernandez's gorgeous art is both expressive and simple... It all comes together to construct a world and people easy to relate to." – Publishers Weekly

• Review: "Tardi's work which is distinguished by an unstinting attention to locale and detail, captures the true horror of war in a way that no other artist has been quite able to achieve. ... [It Was the War of the Trenches] is the story of man against the system, with the system as the ultimate winner. This is a story for our times." – Peter Richardson (via ¡Journalista!)

• Profile: Benjamin Ivry of Forward looks at the career of Jules Feiffer, who says "From my earliest cartoons, I’ve tried to work in front of audiences who may not be happy with what I’m saying. In the then left-wing Village Voice, I criticized the student left and they weren’t happy. I don’t find it fun to work before audiences who would agree with me; I prefer to challenge their preconceptions. My role is to push and prod and challenge, and I try to do it pleasantly rather than otherwise."

• Interview: Big Think presents a multi-part video interview with Jules Feiffer

• Interview: Robot 6's Chris Mautner talks to Matt Thorn about editing our upcoming manga line: "My goal is to make a line that will appeal to the twenty-something Sailor Moon/Pokémon generation that feel they've outgrown the bulk of what is currently available, and that will also appeal to intelligent grown-ups who just enjoy a good read, but have never seen themselves as readers of manga, or even comics. I'd like to provide these people with smart, high-quality, accessible manga."

• Hooray for Hollywood: That Popeye movie is going to be in 3D, will not co-star Supergirl

Tom Kaczynski reports that "Kevin Huizenga will be in Minneapolis to give a lecture at MCAD. For those who follow comics Kevin needs no introduction. For those of you who don’t know his work he’s easily one of the best and most interesting cartoonists working today. But don’t take my word for it, come see for yourself! Kevin will speak at MCAD during the student mini-comic Expo on Thursday (Mar. 25th) at 1:00 pm." What he said.

Details:
Thursday, March 25th.
1:00 pm
Auditorium 150, Main Building
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 1 (1933-1935)
by Roy Crane

114-page 10.5" x 14.75" full-color hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-161-9

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

Roy Crane is one of America’s greatest cartoonists and Fantagraphics is embarking upon an ambitious reprinting of his best work, beginning with his gorgeous adventure strip — Captain Easy.

Crane created the first American adventure strip — before Hal Foster’s Tarzan and Prince Valiant, before Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, before Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon — and quickly established himself as a master of the comic strip. Begun in 1924 under the eponymous title Wash Tubbs, within four months it moved from a gag-a-day strip about a girl-crazy young grocery store clerk to an adventure strip when Wash Tubbs embarks on a treasure hunt. Captain Easy was introduced in 1929 and began starring in his own Sunday page in 1933, which begins our first volume of Captain Easy.

The first of six volumes contains the earliest Sunday pages from 1933 to 1935. In his first adventure, Captain Easy visits a lost city, battles pirates, dons a deep-sea diving suit to explore a sunken ruin in search of treasure, and everywhere he goes, he finds beautiful women — a lost princess, a pirate queen, a savage woman in need of` “taming.” A romantic adventurer from a less politically correct age, Captain Easy is a Soldier of Fortune whose bravery and daring are exceeded only by his Southern gallantry.

Crane created the template for the adventure strip, combining adventure and humor in a Bigfoot cartooning style that perfectly conveyed the tongue-in-cheek tone and light-hearted thrills that kept readers on the edge of their seats. As comics historian Brian Walker put it, “the artist’s patented visual storytelling technique blended humor, drama, heroics, and pretty girls.” Crane’s Captain Easy influenced virtually every cartoonist who followed him — from Chester Gould (Dick Tracy) to Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates) — and even Hollywood’s adventure movies starring the likes of Cary Grant or Errol Flynn adopted Crane’s tone of two-fisted, good-natured derring-do. Citing Crane’s influence on comics, the artist Gil Kane once said, “Superman was Captain Easy; Batman was Captain Easy.” According to comic strip historian Richard Marschall, Crane was “a master not only of storytelling but of the art form, developing expressive techniques and a whole dictionary of conventions and signs for future comic strip artists.”

The first volume of Captain Easy also features a selection of Crane's original color guides, a biographical and critical introduction to Crane and his work by comics scholar Jeet Heer illustrated with rare Crane art, a preface by series editor Rick Norwood, and a foreword written by Charles M. Schulz for the 1974 Luna Press Wash Tubbs collection.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 10-page PDF excerpt (12 MB)!

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

• Some lucky 5th-grader is getting this in the mail from Steven Weissman

• Richard Sala presents "Strange Question," a story dated 1985/2003, in two parts

• A nautical-themed Jim Flora piece from around 20 years ago

• OMG, Gabrielle Bell draws Stephen Colbert in her new Lucky strip

• Mark Kalesniko presents a roughed-out page from Mail Order Bride

• Woo woo! It's Paul Hornschemeier's latest WSJ illustration

• More Renee French-drawn teeth. Gaaaah. Whew!

• A quarterly alternative comics anthology with a funny-sounding four-letter name? Gee, I wonder where they got that idea? Kidding aside, Robot 6 and The Beat report on pood, a newsprint broadsheet-format comic which debuts at MoCCA this year and features Sara Edward-Corbett (above), Hans Rickheit and many others

• Speaking of Hans Rickheit, here's his Ectopiary page 16 and an album cover commission

• "Pequeño Unicornio Tamale, Detective Privado Sobrenatural" by Derek Van Gieson

• "Meteorite swarm" (above) and "moulded gravity" from Tom Kaczynski

• Two more possibly-related pieces of evidence for the greatness of Johnny Ryan