... is gonna knock baseball fans' socks off. Some of the most crackling baseball action in comics I've ever seen (and there's more than you'd think).

You know the show, you know Dash. Listen, already! (Image from Bodyworld.)

Eric Reynolds: I wouldn't want to be attacked by a werewolf.

We've got a new printing of this perennial favorite book in stock now. Read more info and order here; click here for a preview look.

This is an old post I'm just getting to:

"Having just approved the proofs for printing the brand new Love and Rockets Volume Three I can't help but post about HOW FUCKING AMAZING these New Stories are. Absolutely mind-blowing on the part of both Gilbert and Jaime.

"EVERY SINGLE PANEL of Jaime's work is ridiculously well-rendered. Like a mural you'd stare at for days and yet each one is cast aside as simply a panel in another story he's done. And even more amazing is how he's pulled off telling a perfect Superhero story-- the thing I wish I got from the Marvel/DC Universe (or even, to be honest, Omega or Cold Heat or TMNT) is right there in his 50 page contribution to NS#1. Can I call it an homage? Or is it simply a progression of the genre-- one where Jaime adds just the right tone of human-ness to do what the Marvel Universe does while offering a gentle, gauntlent-gloved hand to pull it out of its insipid, calculated hole? I won't ruin things by posting panels, especially since there will surely be throngs of people who will better review this work in the near future.

"I don't know how to compare Gilbert's work to most popular comics. What he does is unequaled. He changed my perception of what story-telling is and he keeps doing it. It's even more satisfying than his brother's truly perfect lines.

"The thing is this: The Bros. would be burned out and spinning bald (if urgently smoking) wheels had they simply pursued a career in the Studio System of Marvel/DC where they'd be celebrated but increasingly reigned in. Having lived an under-scrutinized life of perfecting their Art has left them somehow scaling a peak that is, impossibly for their time, just going higher and higher. They're both at the top of their game nearly thirty years after they began pushing themselves towards that peak. I'm a cynic and I'm amazed at how crazy good their work on L&R3 #1 is."

*End three-month old rant.

The minicomics of artist Noel Friebert, aka Noel Troll, are mysterious vignettes that can go from two characters engaged in fisticuffs to two characters engaged in a kind of moist sex without a moment's notice. It's decidedly jarring, visceral stuff but I love that it always feels very personal even when I don't know what the hell is going on.

I keep his silkscreened book (object) Troggy the Little Brother on my desk to revisit over and over just to take in the whole elaborate package. Simultaneously loose and meticulous, it's an impressive art book made from a single, well-folded piece of paper: A slotted tongue locks the contents closed. Once the reader pushes back the muscle, this book opens to a figure whose arms seem to open him up to the viewer while flailing fists punch down his insides. Those insides open further to reveal a bright and dizzying orgy of lumpy, cartoony faces purging emotions ranging from joy to resignation.

I highly recommend checking out all of the artists of Closed Caption Comics, a talented group of young, experimental cartoonists (Ryan Cecil's labyrinthine "Gem Cave" is another brilliant example of production complementing concept). Meanwhile, here are some of Noel's comics: 3 Bros, BrownEye, Toads N Choads 2. And his Trading Cards (which arrive sealed in plastic no less).

Raymond Scott + Irwin Chusid/Barbara Economon + Drew Friedman = magic synergy that you can buy. (Via WFMU.)