The back page of the 2011 edition of the Comic-Con Annual magazine features the great moment at last year's San Diego con when Inkpot Award-winning manga-ka Moto Hagio met one of her inspirations, the great Ray Bradbury, and presented him with a copy of her book A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. Click the image for a larger scan and see another snapshot here.

From Paul Karasik via Dan at TCJ.com comes word of this new product from Hex Games: Leopard Women of Venus, a role-playing game inspired by the comics of Fletcher Hanks. Wow! From the product description:

"Leopard Women of Venus is a mind-melting pulp science fiction role-playing game inspired by the works of Fletcher Hanks. Hanks wrote and drew bizarre and memorable work in the earliest days of American comic books. His work is boldly drawn, frequently ugly, and strangely fascinating. Leopard Women of Venus gives you the tools you need to recreate the magic and lunacy of a Fletcher Hanks comic with your gaming group."

If any of our readers play this game we would love a report on it.

In an effort to find a loving home for some fascinating artifacts and give ourselves a little more storage space, we are auctioning the original production pasteups for the entire issue #133 of The Comics Journal from 1989, including all 120 original pages, front and back covers, and production ephemera.

Gary Groth provided this description of the issue:

"This was our special sex & violence issue, published at the height of a minor but persistent media brouhaha over the sexual and violence quotient in 'grown-up' comics from Marvel and DC. DC had implemented a ratings system — or announced it — and a number of creators — Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Howard Chaykin — were up in arms over it. This was a remarkably solid issue analyzing the question from every which way. I approached Jim Woodring for a cover and he did a doozy, encapsulating the theme in a single image. It would've been the issue's art director who literally pasted it all up, using wax and photostats and typesetting-on-film. Those were the days."

See the eBay auction listing here. By the way, the issue is still available to purchase.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Analysis: At The Comics Journal, Ken Parille does a close reading of "Bianca" from Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (for which we provided a free PDF download of the story): "I first saw 'Bianca' as a conventional sentimental tale, exploring such familiar themes as 'the sanctity of childhood' and 'the power of art.' And many online writers, regardless of their aesthetic evaluation of its merits, seemed to concur. Some found its sentimentality beautiful, others found it excessive, but all agreed it needed little explication. Had I read it only once or twice, I would have agreed, too. Yet re-readings revealed to me a far different, and far more compelling, surface and depth."

• Commentary: Andrei Molotiu on the death of The Comics Journal message board and the birth of the Abstract Comics anthology

The new issue of Mome/The Comics Journal contributor Noah Van Sciver's series Blammo is out now from Kilgore Books & Comics. Get your copy direct from Noah or from Kilgore. Lord Vader commands it! (Photo from Noah's recent trip to Australia as recounted on his blog.)

UPDATE: There's a funny commercial!

At last! The protagonist of Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit is set to spring into the 3rd dimension and destroy all your puny He-Men, eat all your Cabbage Patch Kids and rape all your Barbies courtesy of Monster Worship. Interchangeable Slorge arm please!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

The Arctic Marauder
by Jacques Tardi

64-page black & white 9" x 11.75" hardcover • $16.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-435-1

Previews & Ordering Info

In our ongoing quest to showcase the wide range of Jacques Tardi’s bibliography, Fantagraphics reaches all the way back to one of his earliest, and most distinctive graphic novels: A satirical, Jules Verne-esque “retro-sci-fi” yarn executed on scratchboard in a stunningly detailed faux-woodcut style perfectly chosen to render the Edwardian-era mechanical marvels on display. Created in 1972, The Arctic Marauder is a downright prescient example of proto-“steampunk” science fiction — or perhaps more accurately, and to coin a spinoff genre, “icepunk.”

In 1899, “L’Anjou,” a ship navigating the Arctic Ocean from Murmansk, Russia, to Le Havre, France comes across a stunning sight: A ghostly, abandoned vessel perched high atop an iceberg. But exploring this strange apparition is the last thing the sailors will ever do, as their own ship is soon dispatched to Davy Jones’ locker via a mysterious explosion.

Enter Jérôme Plumier, whose search for his missing uncle, the inventor Louis-Ferdinand Chapoutier, brings him into contact with the sinister, frigid forces behind this — and soon he too is headed towards the North Pole, where he will contend with mad scientists, monsters of the deep, and futuristic submarines and flying machines.

Told with brio in hilarious slabs of vintage purple prose, The Arctic Marauder works both as ripping good adventure story and parody of same, and, predating as it does the later and not dissimilar Adèle Blanc-Sec series, is a keystone in Tardi’s oeuvre in his fantastical mode.

Exclusive Savings: Order The Arctic Marauder together with The Extraordinary Adventures of Adéle Blanc-Sec Vol. 1 and save 20% off the combined cover price!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Dungeon Quest, Book 2
by Joe Daly

136-page black & white 6" x 8.25" softcover • $12.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-436-8

Previews & Ordering Info

Millennium Boy, Steve, Lash Penis, and Nerdgirl continue on their twin mystical quests to find the missing parts of the Atlantean Resonator Guitar, as well as to locate the prophet and poet Bromedes and return his borrowed penis sheath, in this second hilarious, violent, and rip-roaringly entertaining installment of Joe (The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book) Daly's role-playing-game-inspired graphic novel series.

Fortified and empowered with a brand new collection of weapons and resources (including the magical Egyptian Book of Thoth, the Iron Crocodile badge, and the rectally transported Gliding Charger of the Eel), the valorous quartet must contend with river trolls, a leaf monster, glo-babies, and copious amounts of killer weed and serious blow.

Will they succeed in one or more of their noble quests? Or are the dice of fate loaded in their disfavor? You'll have to read Dungeon Quest Book Two to find out!

Exclusive Savings: Order Dungeon Quest Books 1 & 2 together and save 20% off both!

Here's Cartoon Network's first promo for the Ben Jones-created show The Problem Solverz, debuting in April. Jones's Cold Heat collaborator Jon Vermilyea tweeted about it, and Jon's been working for Cartoon Network, so it's probably safe to assume that Jon's been working on this show, and John Pham's been working there too, so maybe he worked on the show too — don't quote me on that or anything though. (I guess I should contact the guys and ask them...) Anyway it looks super fun and I'm totally going to watch the heck out of it.

UPDATE: I contacted Jon and John and they confirmed that they are both designers on the show!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Matthew J. Brady posts his picks for the best comics of 2010 on his Warren Peace Sings the Blues blog (where there are links to his past reviews), including:

"25. Temperance... is a confounding work, and a fascinating one, with some excellently moody art. I still don't know if I really understand it, but it's a strange, unforgettable book."

"23. Set to Sea... is lovely to look at, full of beautiful seascapes and cartoony movement. It may be a small and quick read, but it doesn't seem that way in subsequent memory."

"18. Wally Gropius... is a deeply weird comic, but one that is not easily forgettable, starting with an off-kilter take on old teen comics and throwing in a sort of dada energy, social commentary that isn't always easy to decipher, some startling sex and violence, and an angry attitude toward the idly manipulative rich and their disdain for the rest of humanity. It's also really funny, and what seems like random incidents eventually cohere into an actual story, but the crazy contortions of the characters, the financial imagery and sound effects, and the bizarre dialogue and actions from the characters are what will haunt the mind for some time to come."

"10. It Was the War of the Trenches... is one of the most incredible books of the year, an ugly, grimy, angry look at the devastation of war on everything it touches, an endless cascade of horrors that are all the more effective due to their reality. This is arresting work, something everyone should read, lest we forget how easy it is to get caught up in the killing once again."

"7. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories [...] From the beautiful artistic filigrees that fill panels throughout, to the firm grasp of character and complex emotional examinations, every page of this book is an essential bit of reading for manga fans."

"3. Love and Rockets: New Stories #3... is an amazing example of how great these creators are, and the way comics can be used for maximum effectiveness to tell emotional, realistic, beautifully real stories."

• Interview: Sean O'Toole of South African culture mag Mahala talks to Joe Daly: "Whatever other influences effect my comics worldview, I always end up coming back to Tintin. It’s an impeccable foundation text in terms of characters, story telling and artwork. I also appreciate the fact that it’s written and drawn by one person, George Remi aka Hergé (although I know he had studio assistance later in the series). It’s a complete creation, in that way, there’s a deep level of cohesion between the drawing and the narrative."

• Interview: At Comicdom, Thomas Papadimitropoulos talks to Jim Woodring (interview in English follows introduction in Greek): "I write all my stories out in words, describing the action. After a lot of rejecting of alternatives I end up with something that feels meaningful to me, even if I don't know why. In fact I prefer it if I don't know why. If I can tell there is some significant meaning respiring in the depths of the proposed action, I don't worry about what that meaning might be; I draw the story up and allow the meaning to occur to me and to readers whenever the time is right." (via The Comics Reporter)