FLOG! Entries for Mike Baehr - April 2009

Daily links: 4/30/09

mike

• Review: "Riveting... Fingerman [is] one of the meatiest cartoonists going... Fingerman makes [Connective Tissue protagonist] Darla so smart and funny and draws so distinctively, like Daumier might for Playboy..." - Booklist (no link; from print)

• Review: "Boody... is a compilation of the wonky comics work of that overlooked genius, Boody Rogers... Rogers' quirky cartooning style is faintly reminiscent of Al Capp crossed with Basil Wolverton, and his creations are wild and strange to say the least. This is an attractive compilation, wonderfully designed by Jacob Covey, that captures the charm and feel of 1940s-era comic books." - Gary Sassaman, Innocent Bystander

• Review: "Humbug is... sumptuous... It is quite possibly the best designed book I've ever seen come out of any comics company, clean and attractive and perfectly suiting its late 1950s time period. ...[I]t's a perfect little time capsule by five cartoonists and humorists at the top of their respective games." - Gary Sassaman, Innocent Bystander (same link as above)

• Review: "Sam's Strip is a whimsical little humor strip... It's a giant in-joke, charming in its inception and invention... and again, it's one damn fine-looking book." - Gary Sassaman, Innocent Bystander (same link as above)

• Review: "Supermen! [is]... in a format (designed by the editor) that perfectly complements its source material... I'm hoping for a second volume." - Gary Sassaman, Innocent Bystander (same link as above)

• Plug: Decider previews our FCBD Love and Rockets comic: "While this teaser doesn’t feature any of the series’ most beloved characters (save superhero wannabe Penny Century), it’s still a good introduction to Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez’s blend of magical realism, goofy wit, and surprising poignancy."

• Discussion: The Ohlone College "Bibliophiles Anonymous" book club is reading Ghost World in May

Trina Robbins talks Brinkley Girls with Mr. Media

mike

Last night the Mr. Media internet radio program interviewed Trina Robbins, editor of our upcoming collection The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940. Listen to the archived broadcast using the embedded player above or, if it's not visible, at this link.

From Wonderland with Love previews

mike

Steffen Maarup, editor of our forthcoming anthology of contemporary Danish comics From Wonderland with Love, has been posting extensive preview images over on The Comics Journal message board. If you're at all curious about what to expect from this book, this is the place to go!

Esther Pearl Watson signing on Sunday

mike

Catch Esther Pearl Watson signing her graphic novel Unlovable Vol. 1 at the Unique LA design & gift sale, at the Narrow Books table (Booth 1009) at 2pm on Sunday, May 3rd! From the announcement on Esther & Mark Todd's website:

"The event happens on the massive penthouse floor of the California Market Center (110 East Ninth Street, LA, CA) on May 2nd and 3rd. There's a whole lot of great stuff there, and you'll want to give yourself several hours to shop the wares of all the designers and vendors. Be prepared, admission costs $5, but it's well worth it!"

Daily links: 4/29/09

mike

Slow day:

• Plug: Corey Blake spotlights Blazing Combat

• Things to see: Bob Fingerman posts a set of thumbnail sketches from the development of Connective Tissue

• Oddity: Twitter-er mackbrad tells us "You guys should totally bid on this auction"

R. Crumb name-drop of the year

mike

Courtesy of UGK featuring Akon (via Minneapolis City Pages).

Now in stock: Usagi Yojimbo Book 7: Gen's Story (New Printing)

mike

Usagi Yojimbo Book 7: Gen's Story (New Edition)
By Stan Sakai

The seventh volume in this legendary series about a wandering rabbit samurai in feudal Japan is now available in a newly redesigned edition! This dense tome collects issues 32 through 38 of the original Usagi series as well as the Usagi strip from Critters #38. In addition to the novel-length "Gen's Story," which forms the centerpiece of this volume, and which relates the heretofore untold story of the mercenary swordsrhino Gennosuke, Usagi Yojimbo Book 7 includes "Kitsune" (introducing a new romantic interest for Usagi), "The Last Ino Story" (the final fate of the Blind Swordspig Zato-Ino), "The Return of Kitsune," and "Broken Ritual," a tale of hara-kiri based on an idea by Sergio Aragonés, who also contributes this volume's introduction. This perennial favorite features dragons, ghosts, demons, bats and more, all in set in Sakai's warrior landscape. A classic!

(This brand new 5th softcover printing features all-new design by Fantagraphics art director extraordinaire Jacob Covey. This is the final Fantagraphics Usagi book to receive the redesign treatment, so complete your collection today!)

192-page black & white 6" x 9" softcover • $18.95
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Now in stock: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4 (New Softcover Printing)

mike

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4 (New Printing)
By Robert Crumb

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4: Mr. Sixties! continues the multi-volume series comprising the complete works of the legendary cartoonist R. Crumb, one of America's most original, trenchant, and uncompromising satirists. The series includes the earliest, heretofore unpublished comic strips, as well as his sketchbooks, underground comix, dramatic and autobiographical strips, and his classic cartoon creations Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. In this volume: Zap #0 & #1 ("Keep On Truckin'!"), Crumb's work from the East Village Other and Yarrowstalks, plus much rare art, some of Crumb's long-lost American Greetings cards from the '60s, and more (see the entire table of contents here).

144-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Now in stock: The Comics Journal #297 (Mort Walker, etc.)

mike

The Comics Journal #297
Edited by Mike Dean & Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, executive editor

This issue’s highlight is a career-spanning interview with Beetle Bailey/Hi & Lois creator Mort Walker, in which the veteran cartoonist gives you a front-row seat to post-WWII comic-strip history, with additional commentary from sons/collaborators Brian and Greg Walker, as well as fellow Sam’s Strip co-creator Jerry Dumas!

Also: A conversation with Alan’s War author Emmanuel Guilbert (complete with a preview of his new graphic novel, The Photographer); a generous comics section featuring the work of pioneering British cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson, introduced with an essay on the artist’s life by Art Young; R.C. Harvey on the comics of Happy Hooligan creator Frederick Burr Opper; John A. Lent explores the world of Kenyan comics; reviews of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, Jonathan Lethem's Omega the Unknown and Noel Sickles's Scorchy Smith; and much more!

Naturally, we’ve got free previews at TCJ.com — here are excerpts from R.C. Harvey’s interview with Mort Walker, Matthias Wivel’s conversation with Emmanuel Guilbert, and Kent Worcester’s review of two anthologies, the Lynda Barry-edited The Best American Comics 2008 and the Ivan Brunetti-edited An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories Vol. 2.

208-page black & white/color 7.5" x 9.5" squarebound softcover magazine • $11.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Daily links: 4/28/09

mike

• Review: "With [Miss Lasko-Gross's] latest book, A Mess of Everything, it seems that not only does she grow up as young person, but this book also shows alot of promise and growth for Miss as a creator. [...] [I]t is... an honest look at growth through an awkward time in one's life... Oh yeah, and the art is pretty darn good too." - Robin McConnell, Inkstuds

• Review: "It's magnificent... a really, really good book." - Irish comics podcast The Comic Cast discusses Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier (link via Paul)

• Preview: If you're looking for a Spanish-language version of our announcement of Peter Bagge's Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me, Zona Fandom has you covered

• Things to see: A funny gag panel by Steven Weissman

• Event: Ellen Forney sez "This Sunday at 2pm, I’ll be giving a talk at Shoreline Library as a part of their 'Crazy for Comics' Graphic Arts Festival. Come one come all!" (via Ellen's blog)

Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me by Peter Bagge - Previews, Pre-Order, Plus

mike

Now available for preview and pre-order: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations by Peter Bagge, collecting a decade of informed, provocative, cantankerous & hilarious cartoon opinion pieces for Reason magazine from our favorite libertarian curmudgeon, on topics ranging from Stupid War to Stupid Sex and, of course, Stupid Politicians. This book is scheduled to be in stock in June and in stores approximately 4 weeks later.

View a photo & video slideshow preview embedded here. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended). And at our product info page, download a 12-page PDF excerpt!

Plus, as an extra bonus, Bagge-ify your computer screen or mobile phone with this exclusive free desktop wallpaper based on the wraparound cover art! Select the size that matches your screen resolution:

800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1152 x 864 | 1280 x 960 | 1280 x 720 | iPhone

Daily links: 4/27/09

mike

Due to the somewhat obsessive nature of my link gathering, I had the idea to start calling these posts "Daily OCD: Online Commentary & Diversions." What do you think, readers? Too cutesy-poo? Offensive to sufferers of real OCD?

• List: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon names "The Ten All-Time Best Long-Running Comics Series," with Love and Rockets Vol. I at #2 ("The best long-running and organic artistic achievement in serial comic book form... The Hernandez Brothers inspired and outworked a greatest generation of comics auteurs. Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez are each among that handful of artists who must be given serious consideration when talking about the best cartoonists working. In Love & Rockets each created fictional worlds for the ages and used them as a vehicle for enormous artistic development, lapping the majority of their peer group. One so inclined could argue with seriousness a top 25 of American graphic novels where 1/3 of the titles listed came from this series") and Acme Novelty Library at #8 ("...a mind-bending achievement... ACME punched right in the scrotum the notion that every issue of a single comic book series had to look like the others... Its primary value is that it presented [Chris] Ware's giant talent to enough of an audience to bring him thousands of hardcore fans... Ware can dream up a single-page that if it were the only thing he ever published people might still know his name")

• List: The A.V. Club's Noel Murray offers commentary on Spurge's list ("There’s no one definitive L&R storyline; it’s just story after amazing story, accumulating over the past three decades like personal correspondence. [...] Ware... turn[ed] comic books into a kind of readable sculpture...") and lobbies for the inclusion of Johnny Ryan's Angry Youth Comix

• Review: "Miss Lasko-Gross' self-caricature in her autobio stories [in A Mess of Everything] is an interesting mash-up of a typical teen with low self-esteem and that of an indignant outsider determined to make her increasingly confident voice heard -- and loudly. [...] Lasko-Gross' greatest strengths as an artist are her character design, gesture and use of body language. It's the way she stages her characters that makes looking at each page interesting... I love the touch of the exaggerated and the grotesque that she injects into her drawings, distorting faces and bodies to reflect emotional tumult." - Rob Clough

• Review: "I read Leah [Hayes]’s whole book, Funeral of the Heart [in one sitting]; I couldn’t stop reading. It’s a beautiful, engrossing book... Amazing." - Anika in London

• Review: "Formerly-suppressed, entirely classic, these stories [in Blazing Combat] are all solid examples of comic storytelling and craftsmanship... [T]he teams here make things look too easy. Not surprising since we’re talking about master artists like Toth, Frazetta, Severin, Crandall and others. The stories have all aged surprisingly well... Highly recommended..." - Matt Maxwell, Robot 6

• Reviewer: At that same Robot 6 link, Miss Lasko-Gross reviews books by Osamu Tezuka and Gabrielle Bell

• Reviewer: Alexander Theroux's latest book review, for Closing Time by Joe Queenan, is up at The Wall Street Journal

• Plug: Biblioteca del Instituto Internacional (an American-English library in Madrid) recommends Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

• Preview: Monster Brains presents 3 pages from Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit Book One (due this fall)

• Profile: The Walrus's article on Seth discusses his design work for The Complete Peanuts in depth

• Events: Portland, your Free Comic Book Day cup runneth over, as Andrice Arp and the other contributors to the excellent free anthology comic Bird Hurdler will be appearing at various locations throughout town -- Andrice has the full itinerary and details on her blog

• Things to see: Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine has an uncollected Boody Rogers story for ya

• Things to see: Three recent illos from the ever-busy Drew Friedman

• Things to see: Another fantastic new story page from Tim Lane

• Things to see: In the next panel, Big Bird kicks Freddy Krueger in the nuts

• Things to see: Ragged Claws Network presents a few of Jeffrey Jones's Jones Touch strips which can be found in the out-of-print collection of the same name from our Eros Comix imprint (NSFW)

Webcomics update for 4/24/09

mike

Look sharp, we've got something different in this week's batch of online strips!

I don't think Aunt Jiggles is in for quite what she expects in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan...

The kids search for safe ground in this week's installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 51-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures....

And in our current 5-day chunk of Martin Kellerman's Rocky, we take a break from the daily strips to present a story running 4 full pages, starting yesterday and continuing through Tuesday of next week. Be sure to come back Tuesday to catch the full story before it disappears!

Daily links: 4/24/09

mike

• Review: "If war is hell, Blazing Combat is heaven. ...[A]lthough the subject matter is bleak, the presentation it’s been given is beautiful. This is as good as war comics get." - Rod Lott, Bookgasm

• Review: "Adam Grano’s bold cover design is the perfect complement to Fantagraphics’ comprehensive collection of [Blazing Combat]... It’s remarkable how little these stories have aged, as many cover thematic ground that resonates to this day." - Kevin Church

• Review: "Anders Nilsen's comics have the rare power to generate queasy laughter... Random cruelty, futility, ennui, and an implied assault on human complacency are the order of the day [in Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes]. When Nilsen wants you to feel his boredom, or taunt you for your own, he's merciless... Nilsen is a relentlessly interesting comics creator. ...I'm looking forward to his next performance in the wasteland." - Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "The Lagoon is a peculiar book, continually confounding the reader's expectations. It starts out in many ways like a mystery or thriller novel does... But as the book progresses, it turns into a very different beast (no pun intended); a hidden romance, a story about longings, and family relationships... [T]his is a story that feels lush and moody in a way that comics often try to be but rarely succeed... The art in The Lagoon is a beautiful, lush, textured affair from [Lilli] Carré. It's almost like a cross between Charles Burns and Craig Thompson... The Lagoon is a beautiful graphic novel, ...a very solid, well-crafted book, and whatever Carré’s next project is, it’ll be one to keep an eye out for." - Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics

• Review: "I love love love Unlovable... The cover has glitter, too. LOVE it!... [Tammy] Pierce's earnest attempts to fit in at school and with her friends [are] funny and endearing, and sometimes embarrassing... Those days were such a pain in the ass, but they were the best." - MacKenzieLand

• Interview: SciFiPulse.Net talks to Greg Sadowski, editor of Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941. Choice quote: "Some have written that I chose artists strictly for their name value, but the truth is that after you’ve gone through hundreds of golden age books, the same guys stop you time after time: Cole, Eisner, Everett, Fine, Hanks, Kirby, Wolverton, and every now and then a few others. That’s how they became 'name' artists in the first place - because they were the best."

• Plug: Our pal J.R. Williams hypes Supermen! on his Flickr feed

• Things to see: Speaking of Flickr, here's a photo of Andrice Arp posing with a blowup of her cover art for Mome Vol. 15 (which I'm going to get up on the site here for pre-order real soon, I promise) from the good folks at Tugboat Press

Fall 09 - Winter 10 Preview Part 10

mike

We hope you've enjoyed our sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's final excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog, taking you through March of next year, includes Temperance, Cathy Malkasian's follow-up to the acclaimed Percy Gloom; The Search for Smilin' Ed by Kim Deitch; and Our Gang Vol. 4, continuing to collect Walt Kelly's 1940s kids' comic. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

Differences

mike

Today we celebrate the diversity of office cultures in alternative comics, as evidenced by sequential posts on Twitter:

Now in stock: Luba by Gilbert Hernandez (and Collectors Edition announcement!)

mike

Luba
By Gilbert Hernandez

Here at last, the long-awaited sequel to Palomar.

Now older but perhaps not so very much wiser, the hammer-wielding matriarch Luba has relocated to the United States of America, where she continues to contend not only, as an immigrant, with a brand new and not always welcoming culture but also her tempestuous extended family — her eccentric sisters Fritz and Petra, her nurturing but often disapproving cousin Ofelia, her many children ranging from the fully grown (Guadalupe and Doralis) to the latest brood sired by her husband Khamo (Casimira, Socorro, Joselito, and Conchita) — many of them in turn each with her own network of family members, lovers, and friends (including a number of other escapees from Palomar).

These “America” stories — over 100 of them, ranging from quick one-page blackout sketches to bona fide graphic novellas — were originally published in a number of different comics and reprinted in a trilogy of oversized paperbacks. Luba finally collects in one compact, affordable hardcover the entirety of these tales, showcasing Gilbert Hernandez’s wicked wit, great compassion, and uncanny understanding of how human beings love, squabble, and ultimately find a way to make it through this life. Tales of sex, violence and rock and roll rub elbows with stories of love, sensitivity, and understanding — and thanks to the miraculous alchemy of Hernandez’s peerless storytelling, what emerges is a coherent, exciting, funny portrait of one of the richest group of fictional characters ever to spring from a cartoonist’s mind.

600-page black & white 7" x 10.25" hardcover • $39.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

NOTE: Stay tuned for the future announcement of the Collectors Edition of Luba, signed by Gilbert Hernandez, with a special binding, and strictly limited to 30 copies, which will most likely be a convention exclusive starting this summer!

Now in stock: Connective Tissue by Bob Fingerman

mike

Connective Tissue
By Bob Fingerman

Video store clerk Darla Vogel is fed up — fed up with her job, fed up with her wake-and-bake roommate, fed up with everything. But when one of the customers at Kwok's Video offers her some of his meat-flavored candies, Darla takes a plunge down the rabbit hole into a surreal world of throbbing, veinous buildings, compulsory public nudity, weird creatures, and more. If William Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, H.P. Lovecraft, and Harvey Kurtzman ever collaborated, the result might resemble Bob Fingerman's bold confection of words and pictures — the copiously illustrated prose novel Connective Tissue.

134-page duotone 7.25" x 8.25" hardcover, available with FREE signed bookplate • $22.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Daily links: 4/23/09

mike

• Review: "The publication of I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets by Fantagraphics is a perfect example of publishers saving comics from obscurity. Hanks’ figures are blocky, the anatomy can be clumsy, and the writing is simplistic, yet on each page there is at least one panel that takes your breath away with its energy and power... There are terrifying images amidst his clunky compositions and strange leering grimaces in the faces of the heroes and villains alike. On top of all these aesthetic challenges and rewards, they are great stories, ...lively with a passionate definition of right and wrong, which gives them an infectious dynamism and excitement." - Christian Zabriskie, The Graphic Novel Reporter

• Review: "The line-up is mind-boggling..." - Rob Clough, in a 2002 review of the comics section in The Comics Journal Special Edition Vol. 2 (currently 50% off!) which originally ran in Savant

• Plug: Portland OR radio personality Daria from 105.1 The Buzz has selected Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime Hernandez as her Graphic Novel Pick of the Week

• Plug: "Released at last! America's finest comic book: Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5" - retailer Mike Sterling, spotlighting this week's new comics

• Plug: Fluxtumblr spotlights a joke from Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5

• Interviews: Someone identified only as Telebob sends along this compilation of video interview footage with original undergrounder Jack Jackson, which we are happy to share

• Shout-out: Hey Tucker Stone, let us buy you a drink (at the 9:32 mark)

• This just in: Jean Schulz is awesome

Fall 09 - Winter 10 Preview Part 9

mike

All last week and this week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes Norman Pettingill: Backwoods Humorist, the outsider cartoonist's first retrospective; King of the Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave by Pirus and Mezzo; Scream Queen: Sand and Fury by Ho Che Anderson; and The High Soft Lisp, a new Love and Rockets collection from Gilbert Hernandez. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!