This Saturday at 12:00PM I'm honored to be interviewing one of my favorite cartoonists, Seattle's Peter Bagge, for the 2010 Comic-Con International (Room 3). If you happen to be a recipient of a golden ticket and are braving this year's premier comic book convention then I urge you to attend as we'll be wholesaling a satori experience in the guise of humor and loathing for all humankind! The following topics will be discussed: Delusion, Consequence, Death, Study of History, Crosshatching, Super Wackiness, Grim Mundane Reality, and more! 

Screen Thrills Illustrated to...

Dan Clowes to...

Frank Miller to...

Is Denis Kitchen legendary because he's no longer relevant? or because he wrote the ad copy?

 Worst Comics Industry Crime of  2009

Today, I'd like for you to join me in wishing musician (Lubricated Goat, Bloodloss, Monkeywrench) and Fantagraphics staffer MARTIN BLAND a happy birthday (pictured all the way to the right). I've learned much from Martin's fine example and he deserves all the cosmic happiness headed his way because he's a fucking nice guy.

 Martin also blogs HERE .

photo courtesy sub pop.

I implore you to visit Adam Grano's recently relaunched website. Go! Now! Click! STOP READING THIS AND CLICK!

Okey... if you're still reading this... it would appear you require further endorsement...

Fantagraphics Art Director, Adam Grano is an Alchemist of high order. I think he might be a member of the much lauded Mensa Society , but who cares. Adam is a smart and funny thinker (and closet cartoonist!) and it's nice to see his inherently irreverent sensibility materialize.  If you're at all interested in this gooey ether we call the internet than I IMPLORE YOU TO VISIT ADAMGRANO.COM and sample the sage and vaudevillian pollen he's cultivated for your enjoyment.

You wont be disappointed!

As a Comic Book Salesman at this year's Comic-Con it was impossible not to feel the crushing presence of the latest and greatest bullshit Hollywood and beyond had to offer and I'm not sure why.  Why did this year feel any different from last year, or the year before?  Maybe I've gone to one-too-many Comic-Cons thus forcing me into a downward spiral of delusion and dread?  Or maybe the mainstream acceptance sought by the comics industry at large is really a Trojan Horse?  Regardless the cause, there were far too many injustices committed at this year's Comic-Con and yes I will be pressing charges in future Flog posts.

On the other hand, as a Long Box Cretin this year's Comic-Con was unquestionably winsome!  Thanks to the lack of Back Issue Fiends I had plenty of elbow room to find great deals (Herbie #12 for $2 are you crazy!?!) and the lack of competition for elusive issues of weird olde comics was a very welcomed change.

 Sigh... music to my ears.

From ARCADE #4 , winter 1975, edited Al Floogleman & Griffy

"Your violent thrashings stir me.  From where are you people pulling the energy?  It's a great trick, awareness and buoyancy.  Yours is still the art 'that knows not its name,' down and dangerous, some of the only art around still life-impelled beyond its theory (that's decadence).  There's a lot of dada ghosts riding their hopes on you; stay as unregenerate as you are."

 - Ken Jacobs 

Six years ago I believed the above quote was just as relevant in 2003 as it probably was in 1975 to what was once commonly refered to as "Underground Comix" and then later commonly referred to as "Alternative Comics." 

He endures...