About eight years ago I took these photos of Jim Lee's figure for Raphael, the Ninja Turtle.

And, yes, I do dream of doing the equivalent of Batman Collected with TMNT. And, yes, I realize that I'm no Geoff Spear but, actually, the person I was trying to be in Photography school was David Levinthal.

This show includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski and looks pretty darn good to me!

Gary Groth, Kim Thompson and myself are all headed east this weekend to attend one of our favorite shows of the year:  

Taking place Saturday and Sunday in Bethesda, MD, SPX is the last great East Coast show of the year, and we'll be there in full force with a slew of signings, events, debuts, etc. To wit: 

FANTAGRAPHICS SPX SIGNINGS:

SATURDAY
12PM: Paul Karasik & Miss Lasko-Gross
1PM: Paul Karasik & Tim Krieder
2PM: Dash Shaw & John Kerschbaum
3PM: Dash Shaw 
4PM: Lilli Carré 

SUNDAY
12PM: Paul Karasik & Miss Lasko-Gross
1PM: Lilli Carré
2PM: John Kerschbaum & Tim Krieder
3PM: Paul Karasik & Dash Shaw
4PM: Dash Shaw

FANTAGRAPHICS-RELATED PANELS:

Sat. 1:00PM: Kim Thompson: Vingt Sur 20
Sat. 1:30PM: Critics' Rountable with Gary Groth
Sat. 5:00PM: Herge and the Clear Line with K. Thompson and Joost Swarte
Sun. 1:30PM: Cartooning in Collaboration, with Dash Shaw
Sun. 2:ooPM: Spotlight on Joost Swarte, moderated by Paul Karasik

FANTAGRAPHICS AUTHORS WITH THEIR OWN TABLES:

Joost Swarte W42 (right next to us)
Miss Lasko-Gross C7-8
Lilli Carré E4
John Kerschbaum F16
Eleanor Davis B1-2
Paul Hornschemeier D15
Jon Vermilyea H7-8

NEW TITLES DEBUTING AT SPX! 

• THE LAGOON by Lilli Carré
  
• PETEY & PUSSY by John Kerschbaum
  
• FUZZ & PLUCK: SPLITSVILLE by Ted Stearn
  
• MAN OF ROCK: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOE KUBERT by Bill Schelly
  
• AMERICAN PRESIDENTS by David Levine
  
• POPEYE Vol. 3 by E.C. Segar
  

Hope to see you all there!

Before you watch the McCain/Obama debate in a few minutes, get yourself in the right frame of mind by taking an advance look at American Presidents, our upcoming volume of Presidential portraits by master caricaturist David Levine (coming next month). Click here if the slideshow doesn't appear above.

Here are the book reviews that turned up around the web on this relatively quiet week:

• The incredibly-named I Love Rob Liefeld recommends Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 for fellow L&R newbies; the more sensibly-named Read About Comics looks at the issue as well; Johnny Bacardi gives it an "A" (scroll about halfway down)

• Former Fantagraphics intern Michael Jewell recommends The Complete Love and Rockets in Savannah College of Art & Design's District

• Brazilian blog Quadrinhos Coquettes takes note of Mome

• Comic Book Bin looks at Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• The Forager Blog takes a trip down Matthias Lehmann's HWY 115

• Comics And... Other Imaginary Tales takes an advance look at a few of our late-Fall releases

And some other articles of interest:

• Here's what appears to be all the dialogue from Cathy Malkasian's Percy Gloom translated into Japanese

• Comic Book Resources profiles Kevin Huizenga

• Thomas Ott: the Brad Pitt of scratchboard! (according to this funny Angry Mum cartoon)

• The Duke University Chronicle talks to Dash Shaw

• I hadn't seen this before: the Chicago Hero statuette from Chicago Comics, designed by Chris Ware and sculpted by Alex Ross

• Drawn! features David Levine

• The Boston Phoenix talks Boston Spaceships (his new band) and Town of Mirrors (his new book) with Robert Pollard

• If our selection of Fantagraphics iPhone wallpapers doesn't include what you're looking for, you can make your own like Tim of Sparky Malarkey did

Go read: Gilbert Hernandez does the Simpsons!

Time for a 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: somebody gets Rocky Roaded! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)