The Cartoon Utopia is coming to the New York Art Book Fair this weekend, and our very own Ron Regé, Jr. will be signing on Saturday, September 29th!

The good people of Desert Island will host a signing with him at 3:00 PM in the lobby of MoMA PS1 (Gallery F). Be one of the very first to get your hands on this spectacular stunner of a book, which won't be in stores until October!

Free and open to the public, the seventh annual NY Art Book Fair runs from September 28th to 30th, at MoMA PS1 [ 4601 21st Street ], Long Island City, Queens.

The Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary East Coast Tour, sadly, comes to an end at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

Join Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez at the Saint Francis Auditorium [ 180 Remsen Street ] for some compelling chats this Sunday, September 23rd:

2:00 P.M. // Worlds Built over Time
This all-star panel brings together the narrative geniuses of Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Adrian Tomine (New York Stories) and Gabrielle Bell (The Voyeurs) to discuss how they’ve developed characters, stories, and imagined worlds over serial publications. Moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos, co-organizer, Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Featuring screen projection.

3:00 P.M. // The Sex Panel: Taboo in Pictures
Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Leela Corman (Unterzakhn), Molly Crabapple (Devil in the Details) and Bob Fingerman (From the Ashes) talk about sex and taboo in comics. What inspires and informs their work and drives their characters (and readers)? From obscenity to art, and the delicious in-between. Featuring screen projection, with viewer discretion advised! Moderated by Heidi MacDonald.

5:00 P.M. // Enduring Unlikable Women
Elissa Schappell (Blue Print), Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets) and Dana Spiotta (Stone Arabia) write difficult, complex female characters. Join these authors in a reading and discussion that looks at the bad boy and the unlikable woman in literature and how they are reviled or celebrated by their audience and creators. Moderated by Meredith Walters, Brooklyn Public Library.

Come see Gary Panter kill it at Death by Audio [ 49 South 2nd Street, Brooklyn ]!

He and his band Devin, Gary & Ross will be bringing their "stunning psychedelic chicken music" to this Brooklyn venue on Wednesday, September 26th.  Also on the bill are Sunfoot, Volunteers Park and Ice Balloons. Don't miss it!

Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez are stocking the shelves with awesome as the Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary Tour heads to the Rock Shop in Brooklyn this Friday, September 21st! 

For two punk afficianados as the Bros, this is guaranteed to be a rockin' night! They'll be joined by special musical guest Jeffrey Lewis! In fact, Jarvis Cocker says Jeffrey Lewis is the finest lyricist of his generation! (That's for our Office Manager, Steph!)

So, shop 'til you drop at the Rock Shop this Friday night starting at 7:30 PM! The Rock Shop is located at 249 4th Avenue, Brooklyn.

The editors of The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 will converge upon Bothell on Saturday, September 29th for the "Convergence on Poetics" conference!

Join Nico Vassilakis & Crag Hill at the North Creek Events Center at the University of Washington Bothell [ Campus Way NE ] as they perform a collaged reading of essays at 3:00 PM.

Convergence on Poetics queries the current understanding and practice of poetics within writing communities and the academy. The conference consists of keynote panels, poetics postings, and author performances. All events will be scheduled singularly, so that a conversation of the whole can address, in the words of George Oppen, “the meaning / Of being numerous.”

The conference runs from September 27th through 30th, and you can read more about it here. There is no fee for attending, but registration is required, so click here to make it happen!

Due to popular demand, our author Pat Thomas is bringing Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 back to London this fall!

Join Pat on Monday, October 15th at the Institute of International Visual Arts, or INIVA, in London. Starting at 6:30 PM, he'll be giving his raved-about presentation, followed by a book signing.

INIVA is located at 1 Rivington Place. This event is sponsored by the University of East London.

Join Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez for a free event at the Philadelphia Free Library! (So much better than the Philadelphia Expensive Library...)

Yes, the Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary Tour rolls on into the library's Montgomery Auditorium on Wednesday, September 19th! Join the Bros for a presentation at 7:30 PM, followed by a Q&A session. After the talk, fans and friends can get their books signed in the Library Lobby from 8:30-10:30 PM.

Note: there is a limit of 5 signed books per person!

The Philadelphia Free Library is located at 1901 Vine Street, between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway.

Justin Hall, our wonderful editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, is just one of many, many guests participating in the Escapist Comics Small Press Fest this week.

On Friday, September 21st and Saturday, September 22nd, there will be live readings and a Q&A, artwork projections, and even musical guests, all gathered to showcase underground comics in the Bay Area! The fun starts at 5:00 PM on both days, so don't be late!

The Escapist Comic Bookstore is located at 3090 Claremont Ave. in Berkeley.

And we mean that in the nicest way!

Peter Bagge will be the guest of honor at GRAPHIC 2012 in Sydney, Australia! Join Pete on Sunday, November 11th for an in-depth insight into his darkly comic and hysterical semi-autobiographical work. He'll be discussing Hate and other Neat Stuff starting at 7:30 PM at the famous Sydney Opera House. Aussies, do not miss this rare opportunity to see Pete speak in person!

Tickets for this event go on sale today, Monday, September 17th -- or, err, yesterday, since Australia is in the future! The Sydney Opera House is located at 2 Macquarie Street in Sydney, Australia. If you live in Sydney, I can't possibly imagine you'll have a hard time finding it.

Tuesday, September 18th

• Baltimore, MD: Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez continue the Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary celebration at Atomic Books at 7:00 PM!  (more info)

Wednesday, September 19th

• Philadelphia, PA: The Philadelphia Free Library proudly hosts Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez for a presentation in the Free Library's Montgomery Auditorium, followed by a Q&A session. After the talk, fans and friends can get their Love & Rockets books signed in the Library Lobby from 8:30-10:30 PM. (more info)

Friday, September 21st

• Seattle, WA: Our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company debut "Blight," the latest from our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse collaboration, featuring artwork by Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series! (more info) 

• Brooklyn, NY: Friday nights may never be the same especially when the avid fans of punk, Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, bring the house down at The Rock Shop starting at 7:30 PM. (more info)

Saturday, September 22nd

• Brooklyn, NY: Join The Comics Crowd at Bergen Street Comics for an evening of comics readings and panel projections from Michael Kupperman, Gabrielle Bell, Julia Wertz (Drinking at the Movies), Bob Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics), Lauren Weinstein (Girl Stories), Lisa Hanawalt (I Want You), and Aaron Diaz (The Tomorrow Girl). (more info)

Sunday, September 23rd 

• Brooklyn, NY: The Love & Rockets East Coast Tour will end with a stop at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Gilbert Hernandez will join many other creators on "The Sex Panel: Taboo in Pictures," featuring obscenity, art and the area between the two. Meanwhile, Jaime Hernandez stars on a panel called "Worlds Built Over Time: Panel to Page, Book to Series" on world building and character development in the long term. Book signings will follow each panel discussion. (more info)