Join us this weekend at CAKE at Center on Halsted in Chicago from Saturday, June 15 through Sunday, June 16th! Table 13-14 is the place to be. We're pumped to announce our special guests, Kim Deitch, Ben Catmull, Charles Forsman, Leslie Stein, Josh Simmons, Tom Kaczynski, Lilli Carré, and Noah Van Sciver! Check out our lush signing schedule:

Saturday, June 15th

Leslie Stein               11:00am-Noon
Chuck Forsman      Noon-1:00pm
Lilli Carré                  1:00pm-2:00pm
Kim Deitch               2:00pm-3:00pm
Ben Catmull             3:00pm-4:00pm
Noah Van Sciver    4:00pm-5:00pm
Josh Simmons        5:00pm-6:00pm

 Sunday, June 16th

Tom Kaczynski      11:00am-noon
Noah Van Sciver   Noon-1:00pm
Kim Deitch              1:00pm-2:00pm
Chuck Forsman     2:00pm-3:00pm
Josh Simmons       3:00pm-4:00pm
Leslie Stein             4:00pm-5:00pm
Ben Catmull           5:00pm-6:00pm

We have some lip-bustin' new books to debut at CAKE.

• The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley by Kim Deitch

• The End of the Fucking World by Charles Forsman

• Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2 by Leslie Stein

• The End by Anders Nilsen

• Wake Up, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian

• Good Dog by Graham Chaffee

• The Daniel Clowes Reader edited by Ken Parille

aaaannnnd Wandering Son Vol. 4 by Shimura Takako

Our cartoonists will be partaking in programming throughout the weekend, so check out their panels! 

On Friday, June 14th Kim Deitch has a signing from 6pm-8pm at Chicago Comics. (3244 N Clark)

Saturday, June 15th

Noon-1:00pm // Chris Ware: Special Guest Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan - the Smartest Kid on Earth, which received the Guardian First Book Award and was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial of American Art. His most recent book, Building Stories, was voted a 2012 Top Ten Book of the Year by the New York Times, Time Magazine and Publishers Weekly. Jake Austen, editor of the vital and influential Chicago cultural magazine Roctober, will host Mr. Ware in conversation, speaking on Ware's career and his connection to Chicago and its living comics history.

3:00 - 4:30pm // Eyeworks: Parallel Lines: The Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation is a film festival with a focus on abstract animation and unconventional character animation. The festival programs showcase outstanding experimental animation of all sorts: classic films, new works, and rare masterpieces. Founded in 2010 by Alexander Stewart (Library Book, Sideral) and Lilli Carré (Heads or Tails, The Lagoon), Eyeworks is held annually in Chicago, with additional curated programs presented in Chicago and other cities throughout the year. The Eyeworks program showing at CAKE this year, Parallel Lines, features animated work that highlights an overlap between alternative comics and experimental animation. The screening will include both classic and contemporary works on this theme, showcasing narrative and graphic parallels between the two forms. Immediately following the screening there will be a Q&A, with presented animators Kim Deitch, Kevin Eskew, and Leif Goldberg.

Sunday, June 16th

12:30 - 1:30pm // Mega-Solutions to Micro-Publishing: Oily Comics: In the current expansion of the micro-publishing field, Special Guests Oily Comics is a premiere imprint. Operated by Chuck Forsman (The End of the Fucking World, Snake Oil) and Melissa Mendes (Lou, Freddy), Oily Comics features some of the best talent in alternative comics. Joining them on stage will be fellow Special Guest Michael DeForge (Adventure Time, Elizabeth of Canada, Lose), and German cartoonist, Anna Haifisch (The Buddies, Future Tense). CAKE co-organizer Max Morris will moderate this exciting discussion.

2:00 - 3:00pm // Kim Deitch: Special Guest Kim Deitch came from a legacy in the animation field and continues to form a legacy of his own. From the hey-day of the undergrounds, through the breakthrough of Raw, Kim Deitch remains a seminal force in alternative comics. Deitch will be speaking about his new book, The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley, out this year from Fantagraphics. He will be joined by Caitlin McGurk (Good Morning You), librarian at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.

3:30 - 4:30pm // Intimate Anxiety: Beyond the shock tactics of portraying "inappropriate" subject matter in comics, we find the medium is exquisitely suited for grappling with explicit content, unchained from the trappings of taboo. Intimate Anxiety focuses on three artists' ferocious visions of sex and death, made all the more visceral through gorgeous and painstaking details. Special Guest Phoebe Gloeckner sets the standard for work that probes these realms. From her experimental memoir, Diary of a Teenage Girl, to her iconic illustrations for RE/Search to her current work dealing with the ongoing femicide in Cuidad, Juárez, Gloeckner continues to confront difficult realities with groundbreaking graphic integrity. Julia Gfrörer's art vibrates off of the page while crafting oblique erotic worlds laced with terror. Through sparse text and a perfect sense of visual timing, Gfrörer's comics, such as Too Dark to See, Flesh and Bone and Black Is the Color bring language to the unspeakable. Joining them will be Special Guest Heather Benjamin, whose obsessively rendered drawings aim straight for the jugular vein. Author of the cult art zine Sad Sex and contributor to the prolific output of Collective Stench, Benjamin's art delves headfirst into complicated scenarios that are emotionally fraught and sexually feral. Moderated by Caroline Paquita, author of Womanimalistic and founder of Pegacorn Press, Intimate Anxiety is a conversation about the power and truth that lies within impropriety.

So come visit Jacq and all our cartoonists at tables 13-14 this weekend at CAKE! 3656 N Halsted, Chicago, IL 60613

Today is a two-fer digital comics day at Fantagraphics and comiXology! Cathy Malkasian's beautiful Candidesque tales of Percy Gloom and just released Wake Up, Percy Gloom are now available to download. The perfect fable for someone on a journey, Percy Gloom unique gem of a story, humorous and bewitching at the same time. Its diminutive hero is as complex and unique as the fantastical world he inhabits.  Only $12.99 at comiXology for an 180-page adventure.

Meanwhile, in Wake Up, Percy Gloom we find our bulb-headed hero awaken from (what he thinks is) a 200-year nap and finds himself in a strange new land, embarking on a wide-ranging quest to find his mother. This new 116-page book from Malkasian is available both now both in stores and at comiXology to read digitally for $24.99.

"More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." -Diamond Scoop

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

The End
by Anders Nilsen

80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25" x 10.5" hardcover • $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-635-5

"these pages come from such a raw emotional place that they'll reverberate like an echo from a well.…It's a message we've heard before, but its majestic delivery and the difficult path that led to this revelation make The End all the more exceptional." –About.com

Wake Up, Percy Gloom!
by Cathy Malkasian

192-page two-color 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6

"More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." –Diamond Scoop

How cute is Jason walking by the Jason-inspired mural by Kolstadgata 15? His next book, Lost Cat, comes out soon!

Have you given yourself a headache waiting for the release of Prison Pit Book 5? UK-based independent t-shirt label Bottle Of Smoke has unleased a new Johnny Ryan t-shirt just for you!

CMYK process print (as you can see above) on an organic, 100% cotton white t-shirt. Majestic to all of the senses.

Available now at bottleofsmoke.co.uk.

We have a new co-worker here at Fantagraphics, her name is Wanda, she's roommates with Jacq and Tony and she's into comics. She's particularly excited about Lost Cat by Jason. 

Although, she DID protest at this photo because she couldn't read the book. Okay, okay, Wanda. 

There ya go. Jason comics are page-lickingly good, aren't they!

Leslie Stein, cartoonist from Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2 (and Volume 1) recently took this picture stating her new book's cover was "inspired by the bass I never use but love and sabbath VOL 4, which I use all the time." You can pick up a copy of Stein's new book at the Fantagraphics table this weekend at CAKE, signing schedule and details coming soon.

And for the record, Stein DOES use guitars though. Her band, Prince Rupert's Drops, pretty muchs rips shit on the daily.

Legendary comics "herstorian," Trina Robbins, is bringing a chunk of her astounding collection of women's comics to the Women’s History Museum of California in San Diego this summer!

(The entire collection has NEVER been shown, she notes!)

Wonder Women: On Paper and Off explores the avenues women have made in the comic and graphic industry.  This exhibition follows the history of women in comics starting in the 20th century — as artists and characters — through today’s cartoon and graphic illustrations.

The exhibit, which opened this past Friday, June 7th, also features contributions from contributions from Joyce Farmer, Mary Fleener, Carol Lay, Ron May (collector), Peiter Ortiz (collector), Mimi Pond, and Andrea Tsurumi.

On Thursday, July 18th at 7:30 PM, Trina will be joined by Mary, Carol, and Ramona Fradon, for a panel discussion of their experiences of working in the comic industry, followed by a signing of her upcoming collection Pretty in Ink: American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013!

The Women's Museum of California is located at 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16. The exhibit runs through Sunday, September 1st, 2013.

Well, baseball and softball season in the city leagues of Seattle started recently and we couldn't help but draw a little inspiration from the man who helped elevate baseball to its on-high status, Willard Mullin. The Golden Age of Baseball Drawings 1934-1972 collects for the first time Mullin's best drawings devoted to baseball — depictions of players like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and the story of Mullin creating the Brooklyn Bum, the bedraggled mascot of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Whether you're in the dugout...

Out ready to turn a play in the infield...

Or catching fly balls in the outfield... (see me, I'm that little green and pink-banged blob on the right)

…this hardcover book is full of great baseball gags and political comics from a time when the nation needed something to keep up their moral. Our team, Scared Hitless, even decided to get uniforms to match the beautiful book jacket (or did Jacob Covey design it to match us?). 

See you at the next game with some more previews of the Willard Mullin's Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972. For Seattle people, we play at the Cal Anderson park on Monday nights, 8pm. Come on by and check out this advance! 

First baseman Matt enjoyed this Babe Ruth comic. Thanks to Hugo Garcia for photo help!

Oh, goody! Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics in the pulpy flesh. A lost masterpiece from a cartoon giant. Wilson's mid-1970s Sunday strip — really a collection of one-panel gags, a freewheeling mélange of board meetings, monsters, cavemen and so on — are collected in this fine, long edition. While Wilson is better known for his work in Playboy and National Lampoon, it's fun to see him harness all the colors of the rainbow to convey the blackest of black comedy. Prismatic AND perverse.

Can you hear the oom-pah-pah accompanying some of the finest cartooning of lumpy, melty, and always hilarious people? Perhaps you need to read a few pages over here (full-screen viewing recommended), or get the PDF directly, and pre-order the book here.