We are pleased to announce that we are now taking online pre-orders for Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons and Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons - Collectors Edition, and that we are offering the regular edition NOT ONLY with an exclusive, limited-edition signed 3-color silkscreen print (pictured below – while supplies last) BUT ALSO at a special discounted price!

Attendees at this year's SPX had the opportunity to pre-order the regular edition at a discounted post-paid price of $100 (cover price: $125) and collect the signed silkscreen print; we are extending this offer to all pre-orders direct from Fantagraphics by offering the edition for $92 + shipping (which should be $8 for customers within the U.S., unless you are a 20/20 Club member, in which case the shipping is FREE within the U.S. and you get an additional 20% discount). This discount applies ONLY to pre-orders and will end without advance notice when the set is in stock and ready to ship, sometime in December. In other words: don't dilly-dally!

Click here to pre-order the regular edition and receive your exclusive print and discount; click here to pre-order the limited Collectors Edition, which does not come with the silkscreen print but does include exclusive extras of its own, including a glow-in-the-dark letterpress print and box set of holiday card facsimiles. Stay tuned to Flog for more information and previews of both editions, coming soon!

Here you go, today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Locas II, by Jaime Hernandez, combines lush artwork with vivid, heart-in-mouth storytelling. ...[I]f you haven’t encountered its two heroines before, you might find yourself a little lost in the ongoing magic realist soap opera that is Hernandez’s stock-in-trade. It would be a bit like dropping in on Coronation Street for the first time — albeit a Corrie soundtracked by The Germs and Big Black. ... [But] even if you find yourself lost somewhere in the middle of Locas II, the lostness makes a kind of sense. The lives Hernandez chronicles are a little lost. ... Best of all, there's the creamy out-and-out gorgeousness of Hernandez's cartooning, with its echoes of Peanuts, the old Archie comics and 'good girl' art (never, outwith [Russ] Meyer's movies, have so many worn so little so often). Can you fancy a drawing? Look at the portrait of Frogmouth on page 405 and tell me it's not possible." – Teddy Jamieson, The Herald

• Review: "The Good: Prison Pit reminded me a lot of Gwar, professional wrestling and the comic strips my friends and I used to draw in junior high. ... It was gross as hell and filled with blood and gore and just straight-up repulsive juvenile humor. It was a lot of fun. The Bad: It’s probably too awesome for a lot of people to handle. ... The Bottom Line: Dude, it’s great. Just shut up and buy it. ...I’m giving Prison Pit an A and as soon as I’m done writing this review, I’m going to sit down and re-read it." – Chad Derdowski, Mania

• Events: At comiXology, Kristy Valenti (moonlighting from her Assistant Editor position at The Comics Journal) recaps the graphic novels panel with Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso, Gary Groth & Top Shelf's Leigh Walton at last weekend's Seattle Bookfest

Now available for preview and pre-order following its hit debut at APE: The Troublemakers by Gilbert Hernandez. A drug dealer, a rock 'n' roll loser, and über-stacked vixen, and a wily grifter: these greedy low-lifes are chasing the hard luck charm! This second book in Beto's series of "Fritz movie adaptations" (following Chance in Hell) is a lurid, hard-boiled, pulpy delight! Get a sizzling taste by downloading our exclusive PDF of the first 12 pages right here (one word: catfight!). This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship sometime in the next 2 weeks and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that (subject to change).

View a photo slideshow preview of the book embedded here. (A video preview will debut exclusively in the near future — we'll let you know!) Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

Today brings some big-deal Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: At Comics Comics, Frank Santoro declares The Troublemakers by Gilbert Hernandez "Best in Show" at APE and gives it a wordless review that says it all

• Review: "Translated into English for the first time since it was written, more than 25 years ago, Jacques Tardi & Jean-Claude Forest’s You Are There proves well worth the wait. Forest’s satirical, minimalist writing lampoons French society and human greed with equal skill, and Tardi has never done better art: It’s all deep, dark pools of blackness that perfectly match the pitch-dark humor of the writing. Equal parts Beckett and Kafka, the story explores the conflict between greedy speculators and the last heir of an aristocratic family whose land has been reduced to a series of precarious walls and towers. Tardi’s intricate, gorgeous art gets better and better until the book’s spectacular ending. It’s an absolute must-read for anyone interested in how European comics got to where they are today. Had this been translated earlier, it likely would be counted as one of the masterpieces of the rich period of the mid-’80s… [Grade:] A" – The A.V. Club

• Review: "One of the best things about Mome is that, as a reader, I feel like I'm getting work from each artist that's their 'A' material. [Lilli] Carré and [Dash] Shaw have many other outlets for publication, but it's clear that they take a special delight in having an outlet for their short story ideas. [Nate] Neal and Kurt Wolfgang have Mome as their primary outlet for publication, and clearly go all-out in every story. ... I'd like to see young artists like [Conor] O'Keefe and [Sara] Edward-Corbett grow more ambitious and perhaps even serialize a story in the anthology. Of course, seeing outstanding work from old favorites along with translated short stories of European artists has been another welcome trend for what continues to be a must-read book, issue after issue." – Rob Clough

• Profile: Robot 6's Chris Mautner, undoubtedly echoing the sentiments of many, makes his plea for a collection of the early work of Al Columbia

• Interview: C. Tyler appeared on Cincinnati NPR station WVXU yesterday to discuss You'll Never Know Book 1: A Good and Decent Man on the Around Cincinnati program (direct MP3 link)

• Interview: Art historian and critic Catherine Spaeth talks to Abstract Comics editor Andrei Molotiu: "One thing that is interesting to me about abstract comics is exactly that they contain no preexisting narrative and therefore no excuse for a sense of diegetic time. You’re not following a story, so what you are left with are the actual visual elements on the page (panels, shapes) that move your eye from panel to panel but outside of a fictional time frame."

• Events: Vince Keenan has a brief recap of the Fantagraphics-sponsored comics panel at Seattle Bookfest

• Things to read: Michael Kupperman blogs two short prose stories starring Twain & Einstein

• Things to see: A Halloweeny animated drawing by Lilli Carré

• Things to see: A new Glenn Ganges two-pager, sans dialogue, from Kevin Huizenga

• Things to see: Jim Blanchard sure gets some cool commissions

• Things to see: Bob Fingerman draws a "big butt girl" (I know, shocker, right? I kid, I kid)

Rebel Visions author Patrick Rosenkranz sent us some photos of the sights (including the Hernandez Bros.) at the Wonder Woman Day charity event at Excalibur Books & Comics in Portland, OR yesterday to share with you. Below: The Bros., their artwork for the charity auction, and Rosenkranz & friend. More of Patrick's photos are in our Flickr set, including the cutest little Supergirl you ever did see.

At his blog, Hans Rickheit presents a first look at his next couple of comics projects. Above: a teaser of a teaser.

Feast your peepers on this amazing window display for Rock Candy: The Artwork of Femke Hiemstra at the American Book Center in Amsterdam featuring just some of Femke's collection of creepy/cute toys and figurines (more of which can be seen in the book). The book launch for Rock Candy takes place at the ABC on Saturday — Halloween day, appropriately.

Some Online Commentary & Diversions to wrap up your week:

• Review: "Artist Carol Swain brings a sober British reserve to her husband Bruce Paley's tales of hippie and punk excess for a nostalgic feel with the winning Giraffes In My Hair: A Rock ‘n' Roll Life. ...[F]rom the late ‘60s through the early ‘80s, his peripatetic adventures with drugs, women, and punker Johnny Thunders make for a series of fun, roguish vignettes. ... Swain uses pencil to understated effect, and works up a lyrical, nostalgic vibe. Her simple scenes arrange a loose chronological narrative into a warm experience conveyed as in a film or a song—at its best, Giraffes plays like Dylan's 'Tangled Up in Blue,' if you will. ... Highly recommended." – Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "West Coast Blues is just the right mixture of action, suspense, and surprise to keep just about any reader’s attention. ... It’s hard to ignore the strength of Tardi’s art in making West Coast Blues such a strong graphic novel. ... West Coast Blues is a sharp, beautiful book. ... For people looking for a noir thriller, you’ve come to the right place." – Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics

• Things to see: At the Covered blog, a version of Love and Rockets #23 by the artist KG

• Things to see: Oh, these fairy tale illustrations for The Guardian by Eleanor Davis are just lovely

Short notice: Tomorrow night at Big Brain Comics in Minneapolis there's a book release party for Zak Sally's Like a Dog and John Porcellino's Map of My Heart (from D&Q). Festivities start at 5 PM - more info at the La Mano blog. Twin Cities comics fans, this is a Must Do!

It's a Very Important Friday webcomics update!

First, an inspirational, and uncomfortably titillating, message in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

... Steven Weissman says of this week's strip "THIS COMIC WILL CHANGE AMERICA FOREVER!" and I cannot disagree! The President earns his Nobel Peace Prize right here!...

...and this week concludes our run of Monday-Friday Rocky strips by Martin Kellerman, wrapping up our presentation of the strips from Rocky Vol. 2: Strictly Business. Debuting next week, a new weekly feature: "The House of No" by Derek Van Gieson!