Today we're presenting a preview look at the haunting debut graphic novel The Lagoon by Lilli Carré. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

Here's an advance look at John Kerschbaum's brutally funny graphic novel debut Petey & Pussy, starring a pair of kvetching, balding, foul-mouthed anthropomorphic misanthropes. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

Hey, Wait...
By Jason

This superbly evocative graphic novella by the award-winning Norwegian cartoonist Jason (his first appearance in the English language) starts off as a melancholy childhood memoir and then, with a shocking twist midway through, becomes the summary of lives lived, wasted, and lost. (Imagine a version of Stand by Me in which not all of the kids outrace the train.) Like Art Spiegelman did with Maus, Jason utilizes anthropomorphic stylizations to reach deeper, more general truths, and to create elegantly minimalist panels whose emotional depth charge comes as an even greater shock. His sparse dialogue, dark wit, and supremely bold use of "jump-cuts" from one scene to the next (sometimes spanning a number of years) make Hey, Wait... a surprising and engaging debut. Love and Rockets co-creator Gilbert Hernandez calls this one of the best graphic novels ever.

64-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover • $12.95
Add to Cart • Read More...

The Left Bank Gang
By Jason

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce walk into a Parisian bar... no, it's not the beginning of a joke, but the premise of Jason's unique new graphic novel. Set in 1920s Paris, The Left Bank Gang is a deliciously inventive re-imagining of these four literary figures as not only typical Jason anthropomorphics, but...graphic novelists! Yes, in Jason's warped world, cartooning is the dominant form of fiction, and not only do these four work literary giants work in the comics medium but they get together to discuss pen vs. brush, chat about the latest graphic novels from Dostoevsky ("I can't tell any of his characters apart!") to Faulkner ("Hasn't he heard of white space? His panels are too crowded!"), and bemoan their erratic careers. With guest appearances by Zelda Fitzgerald and Jean-Paul Sartre, and a few remarkable twists and turns along the way, and you've got one of the funniest and most playful graphic novels of the year. Like Jason's acclaimed Why Are You Doing This?, The Left Bank Gang is rendered in full spectacular color.

2007 Eisner Award Winner, Best U.S. Edition of International Material

48-page full-color 7" x 10" softcover • $12.95
Add to Cart • Read More...

As an experiment, I'm switching to a daily link post instead of the weekly "blogosphere roundup" -- hopefully smaller chunks will be easier to digest, not to mention more timely. And here we go:

• Derik Badman cites a Jaime Hernandez story in an article about the use of the first-person point of view in comics

• Look at some incredible sketchbook pages by Matthias Lehmann

• The Onion A.V. Club's "Comics Panel" gives high grades to Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman and Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Steve Brodner hits it out of the park

Editor Craig Yoe is seeking material for The Great Anti-War Cartoons, a 120-page black & white hardcover we're publishing next year. Visit Craig's site for more information and a preview slideshow.

Ben Catmull: cartoonist, music video director (via Spurge).

Still Working from Ben Catmull on Vimeo.

Johnny Ryan sez on his blog: "Superfan Patrick O'Odonnell and friends have produced another cinematic masterpiece based on one of my comics. If you ever wondered what would happen if Stanley Kubrick fell out of the top floor of the World Trade Center and landed brain first into a pile of my comics, you'd probably get something like this." Behold.

Eric has been scooping me on some stuff this week. I'm grateful for it because it makes my job a little easier; just make sure to look for his link posts if you haven't seen them already.

This week's reviews & analysis:

• The Honolulu Star-Bulletin looks at Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Read About Comics recommends the third issue of Baobab by Igort

• The Boston Globe notes the New York Times' review of Jules Feiffer's Explainers and adds their two cents

• Alex Siddons learns something from Alex by Mark Kalesniko...

• ... and the Graphic Novel Challenge Blog reads Kalesniko's Mail Order Bride

• HappyGlyphs Comics looks at Krazy & Ignatz 1943-1944 by George Herriman

• Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader? on Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes

• Derik Badman notes a few unusual Schulz panels in The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968

• Moonlighting for comiXology, The Comics Journal's Kristy Valenti attempts to synch reading Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes with its musical soundtrack by Victor Banana (a.k.a. Tim Hensley)

• Comic Book Resources' list of "the 20 most significant comics in American comics history" (in terms of the industry) includes Gil Kane's Blackmark (in its original incarnation rather than our reprint) and, duh, Love and Rockets #1

• The Bloghorn, web mouthpiece of the UK's Professional Cartoonists' Organisation, is "full of beans" over the work of Fletcher Hanks as collected in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

• Beware of spoilers as PLAYBACK:stl checks out Johnny Ryan's Angry Youth Comix #14

• Our Humbug teaser excites The Hipster Dad and commenters on The Beat

And other items of note:

• Here's Tintin as drawn by Robert Goodin

• headsOnBoards files a terrific report from the Kim Deitch retrospective exhibit at MoCCA

• Design blog Farmidable digs into the Flickr activity of Fanta art director Jacob Covey

• Anders Nilsen presents recent selections from his sketchbook

• Jeff Elden discusses the influence of Charles M. Schulz and includes a photo of his Charlie Brown tattoo

Ready for some Halloween chills? American Public Media's Weekend America radio program presents a selection of Tales of Terror this weekend, including the Richard Sala tale embedded above (click here if the player's not showing up).

Thanks to Justin Green for granting us permission to run his introduction to Jim Woodring's The Portable Frank here on our website in its entirety. A great intro to a great book.

Time for the new installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. In this week's episode: a very unpleasant surprise!

This is also a great time to catch up on our current Monday-Friday chunk of our rolling 5-strip archive of Martin Kellerman's Rocky.