FLOG! Entries for Mike Baehr - July 2008

Now in stock: Where Demented Wented

mike

Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes
Edited by Dan Nadel and Glenn Bray

The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise (the latter from the likes of R. Crumb and Bill Griffith), Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again.

This book, the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes — as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films. The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes also serves as a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, the illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, and a career-spanning essay by Edwin Pouncey (a.k.a. Savage Pencil). Also included is a rare interview with Hayes himself.

144-page b&w/color 8" x 10" softcover • $22.99
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Now in stock: Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4

mike

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4
By Michael Kupperman

The eagerly anticiwaited fourth volume of Thrizzle does something no comic magazine has ever done before... it helps your family organize its entire day! Every page is dedicated to a half-hour of an average 16-hour cycle, allowing it to compliment and entertain along the way. with Pagus, Twain and Einstein, The Scaredy Kids, and Jungle Princess!

32-page two-color 6.75" x 9.5" comic book • $4.50
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Now in stock: Mome Vol. 12 - Fall 2008

mike

Mome Vol. 12 - Fall 2008
By various artists; edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds

Appearing in MOME 12: Cover art and debut story by European master Olivier Schrauwen, who contributes the hilarious "Hair Types." David B. is back with "The Drum Who Fell In Love," while MOME #11 cover boy Killoffer gives us "Dirty Family Laundry." Nate Neal deconstructs the genres of indie comix in "Reality Comics Quartet," while Dash Shaw delivers another full-color gem titled "Train." Tom Kaczynski presents a suite of strips detailing the history of noise, while newcomer Jon Vermilyea introduces the creepy funny "Breakfast Crew." Plus, more Killoffer, Ray Fenwick, Sophie Crumb, and the great Al Columbia. On top of all this, we have newcomers Derek Van Gieson and Sara Edward-Corbett, as well as an illustrated prose short story by Paul Hornschemeier. Our most dense issue yet!

120-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
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Now in stock: Grotesque #2

mike

Grotesque #2
By Sergio Ponchione

A long time ago, a devious late-night pact altered the destiny of small community, its inhabitants forever cursed to live as mere clay in the hands of the capricious Mister O’Blique and the Wicked Barons. But is change finally afoot? Professor Hackensack journeys to the town in order to wrest from the Barons the secret of their power. He will be helped (or hindered) on this quest by Inspector Demifayce, Lady Puzzle, the Encephapolyp, the Taxmen and other players in the complex, not always human mosaic that forms the strange and twisted architecture of the Cryptic City. Find out why this surreal masterpiece from Sergio Ponchione was the sleeper hit of the 2008 Comic-Con!

32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket • $7.95
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Now in stock: Delphine #3

mike

Delphine #3
By Richard Sala

WHERE IS DELPHINE?!? Where can she be, this lovely object of our nameless traveler’s affection — or, perhaps, obsession? Since stepping off the train into Delphine’s hometown — surrounded on all sides by a deep black forest — the traveler has found nothing but trouble. It seems the townsfolk aren’t satisfied with simply being unhelpful — they are openly hostile and may even, for reasons he can’t understand, want to kill him. Perhaps our poor prince charming was hoping for a fairy tale romance, in which case, although he did get the fairy tale, along with its witches and wicked stepmothers and haunted forests and evil spells, he may find that not all fairy tales end with "happily ever after." In this penultimate issue of the four-part series, our traveler makes a startling discovery and faces a new horror that drives him to the brink of absolute madness.

32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket • $7.95
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Now in stock: Abandoned Cars

mike

Abandoned Cars
By Tim Lane

Abandoned Cars is Tim Lane’s first collection of graphic short stories, noir-ish narratives that are united by their exploration of the great American mythological drama by way of the desperate and haunted characters that populate its pages. Lane’s characters exist on the margins of society—alienated, floating in the void between hope and despair, confused but introspective. Some of them are experiencing the aftermath of an existential car crash—those surreal moments after a car accident, when time slows down and you’re trying to determine what just happened and how badly you’re hurt. Others have gone off the deep end, or were never anywhere but the deep end. Some are ridiculous, others dignified in their efforts to struggle to make sense of, and cope with, the absurdities, outrages, ghosts, and poisons in their lives.

The writing is straightforward, the stories mainstream but told in a pulpy idiom with an existential edge, often in the first person, reminiscent of David Goodis’s or Jim Thompson’s prose or of films like Pick-Up on South Street or Out of the Past. Visually, Lane’s drawing is in a realistic mode, reminiscent of Charles Burns, that heightens the tension in stories that veer between naturalism on the one hand and the comical, nightmarish, and hallucinatory on the other. Here, American culture is a thrift store and the characters are thrift store junkies living among the clutter. It’s an America depicted as a subdued and haunted Coney Island, made up of lost characters—boozing, brawling, haplessly shooting themselves in the face, and hopping freight trains in search of Elvis.

Abandoned Cars is an impressive debut of a major young American cartoonist.

168-page black & white 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $22.99
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Comic-Con 2008 wrap-up

mike

We're still getting back on our feet after the onslaught of intensity that was Comic-Con 2008. As always, we had a blast meeting fans, hosting a load of artist signings, and movin' units.

Take a quick video cruise through our booth on Wednesday just before the "preview night" crowd descended:

The unqualified hit of the Con for us was the brand-new Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 — we blew through a gross of them, our whole supply, by Saturday afternoon. Other hits of the show were the debuts of Jim Woodring's The Portable Frank and Deitch's Pictorama from the Deitch brothers; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell sold out too. Also making a strong debut showing were the new 2nd issue of Sergio Ponchione's Grotesque, which is turning out to be a sleeper hit of our Ignatz line; the new 4th issue of the smash-hit Tales Designed to Thrizzle from Michael Kupperman; Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars; Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes; Krazy & Ignatz Vol. 10; our new giant Krazy & Ignatz hardcover; four more new Ignatz Series issues (Baobab #3, Delphine #3, Interiorae #3 and Sammy the Mouse #2); and Meat Cake #17 by Dame Darcy. John Pham's Sublife made a late appearance in unbound preview form, which didn't stop fans from snapping up a few copies. Holy man, that's a lotta new stuff!

Personal highlights:
- Best Costume: the guy wearing a Green Lantern jersey with a Devo energy dome.
- Best Celebrity Sighting at the Booth: Tom ("Spongebob") Kenny. I'm told that Tom Lennon and Ben Garant of Reno 911 also shopped, but I missed them.
- Best Shopping Find: Jim Woodring's Pupshaw & Pushpaw book at the Picturebox table.
- Best After-Hours Activity: there were several, but the winner is Friday night Chinese food and The X-Files movie (blast the critics, it's frickin' great).
- Favorite Addition to the Yoda-Themed Con Sketchbook: all of them, but maybe especially Mary Woodring's (stay tuned for scans).
- Biggest Disappointment: forgetting to ask for a Yoda sketch from Natalia Hernandez (who was wearing a Yoda backpack for crying out loud). Runner-up: wasting time in a hopeless line for the Venture Bros. panel.
- Best Suggested Name for a Theoretical Off-Site "Alternative" Comic-Con: "Fuckin' C'mon-i-Con," suggested by our own Ajax Wood.

Big thanks to all of our lovely and wonderful artists who turned out (not to mention their lovely and wonderful families); bigger thanks to our hard-working, ass-kicking staff (Kim, Gary, Ajax, Kristy, Janice, Jason, and Zuniga at the Con, plus everyone back home, especially Eric, who still did all the heavy-lifting prep work); and biggest thanks to all the comics-loving fans, customers, and looky-lous who stopped by our booth. (Apologies if I'm forgetting anything or anybody — my brain overfloweth.) We're already looking forward to next year.

Here's a selected handful of photos; head here for 42 more (plus whatever we add over the next few days).

Mario & Gilbert Hernandez:

Blake Bell & Paul Karasik:

Jean Schulz:

Johnny Ryan:

Jim Woodring:

More!

B.D. avec D.B.

mike

Here's the official flyer announcing "La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée - A Week Celebrating the French Graphic Novel," supported by Fantagraphics Books, the 4Culture King County Lodging Tax, the Alliance Française of Seattle and the Cultural Development Fund of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA. Click here for our previous announcement.

Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Andrew Zaben

mike

Every day in July we've been spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! The sale is ending, so now is your last chance to take advantage of these great savings!

Today we present our final spotlight, featuring two realistic, character-driven books by Andrew Zaben.

Dream Big Dreams

A promising 100-page debut novel, Dream Big Dreams is a complex narrative about a local bar owner grappling with the decision of whether to sell out to a big chain. The Lower Depths is a secluded basement tavern where locals congregate to discuss socialism and other philosophical concerns. When the owner contemplates selling to a corporation whose sincerity regarding maintaining the bar's integrity is in question, the idealistic regulars resist and decide to take matters into their own hands. Dream Big Dreams is a rarity among debut works: a compelling story rich with thoughtful observations on contemporary society, with well-developed characterizations that slowly come together over the novel's dense 100 pages.

100-page black & white 6.5" x 10.25" softcover
regularly $10.00 • ON SALE $7.50
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Queens Blvd.

Black humor and strong characterization defines this realistic (but fictional) look at a day in the lives of three bookies as they deal with the everyday hassles of living in search of a mildly dishonest buck.

56-page softcover
regularly $6.00 • ON SALE $4.50
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Chocolate Cheeks for 7/29/08

mike

Steven Weissman continues bringing us in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story continues right here! (We'll be back to our regular Friday update schedule this week, so this page will only be up for a few days! Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Penny Van Horn

mike

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

The subject of today's spotlight, Penny Van Horn, cut her teeth in the Weirdo and Twisted Sister anthologies.

Recipe for Disaster

"The secret was revealed to me by Carl Jung, and was further illuminated by Sigmund Freud, Herman Hesse, Patti Smith, David Bowie, and Sylvia Plath. Laugh if you must at this cast of characters, but at this ripe intersection in my life, their combination became my personal recipe for disaster..." So begins Van Horn's amazing graphic novella, a collection of short stories and vignettes, mostly autobiographical, part mystical exploration, depicting incidents from the author's life, as well as those of her friends, neighbors and relatives. The title story is an intense autobiographical account of her nervous breakdown which is alternately riotous and terrifying. Van Horn uses her trademark painstaking scratchboard style for every page, giving the book a shockingly intense visual look.

88-page black & white 8" x 11" softcover
regularly $9.95 • ON SALE $7.46
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Henriette Valium

mike

Today's spotlight is on the artist known as Henriette Valium, who is also known as Montreal's "godfather of punk comics."

Primitive Cretin

Disgusting! Awesome! Baffling! Astounding! Hilarious! These are just a few of the adjectives that describe the hypnotically weird stories and artwork of Quebec cartoonist Henriette Valium, seen previously in several issues (and on one memorable cover) of Zero Zero. Amazingly, this is the first mass-market solo Valium comic ever, so we pulled out all the stops with an Acme Novelty Library-sized deluxe package that showcases Valium's mind-bogglingly detailed pages. Primitive Cretin will have fans of Dave Cooper, Glenn Head, and Kim Deitch, among others, clamoring for more!

48-page black & white 8.5" x 13" comic book
regularly $8.95 • ON SALE $6.71
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Carol Tyler

mike

Today's spotlight is on Carol Tyler, an acclaimed cartoonist whose work has garnered praise from Studs Terkel and Robert Crumb as well as a 2006 Eisner Award nomination.

The Job Thing

Ever have a job you really hated, wanted to kill your boss, or prayed for that winning lottery ticket to deliver you from the drudgery of yet another day at the salt mines? If so, then you'll love this collection of ten stories all about slaving at the bottom of the employment food chain. Stories include "Fool of the Arts" (horrendous experiences working at a museum), "Book Beat" (you'd think working at a book store would be an ideal job, wouldn't you?), "Job Abuse" (in which Carol survives a framing shop job where she's stabbed through the foot by another employee) — as well as "Detour of Duty" (being introduced to jobs at a tender age) and much more. The Job Thing also includes memories of spectacularly awful jobs suffered by several famous cartoonists in leaner times. This book is a bracing introduction to Tyler's funny and often scathing voice.

72-page black & white 8" x 11" softcover
regularly $7.95 • ON SALE $5.96
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Late Bloomer

This book presents the biggest, richest and most delightful collection of Tyler's work to date featuring many new and previously unpublished works. In "Migrant Mother," Tyler tells the grueling story of a cross-country trip with the flu and her terrible-twos toddler using her trademark combination of rueful humor and empathy. The full-color "Just A Bad Seed" is a meditation on a problem child who might not be such a problem after all, while "The Return of Mrs. Kite" chronicles a family crisis — how her widowed grandmother fell in with a beau of questionable character. "Gone" (also in full color) is a stirring meditation on all kinds of loss, and "Why I'm A-gin' Southern Men" is a classic rant that dissects that particular breed of male — or at least a certain subspecies of "ex"es — with pitiless wit. Other stories include "Sweet Miss Lee" (a reminiscence of an immigrant roommate and her fate), "There's Something Wrong with a Perfect Lawn" (a tale of suburban obsessiveness), "Little Crosshatch Mind" (where artistic impulses come from), and "Uncovered Property" (discovering the power of sexuality at an early age). Tyler works equally well in delicately crisp black-and-white penstrokes and lushly watercolored paintings (this book features over 30 pages of her stunning full-color work). All told, the three-dozen stories here cement Tyler's reputation as a cartoonist to be reckoned with.

136-page b&w/color 8" x 10" hardcover
regularly $28.95 • ON SALE $21.71
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Rich Tommaso

mike

Today's spotlight features the first major work from Rich Tommaso, a talented cartoonist and former Fantagraphics staffer.

Clover Honey

Clover Honey is the story of Abigail, an aspiring hitwoman out to prove her value to the family. She braves the wilds of Newark, exorbitant parking rates, traffic jams, and bad hair days to track down Trevor, her former mentor, who is on the lam with a big briefcase of mob dough. It reads like a collaboration between Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, with its quirky humor, contemporary characters, and unflinching violence. A feast for readers looking for intelligent genre fiction in comics, Clover Honey is a gangster story that concentrates on character. Tommaso designed the look of the page with a combination of bold, fluid brush strokes and stark white highlights against solid gray background; the book is virtually two colors throughout.

120-page black & white 6" x 9" softcover
regularly $12.95 • ON SALE $9.71
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Carol Swain

mike

The subject of today's spotlight, British cartoonist Carol Swain, has been acclaimed by Alan Moore and called "the Raymond Carver of British comics" by Time Out, yet somehow still remains something of a secret.

Foodboy

Foodboy is about loss and hope, friendship, faith, and bonds that are tested when the paths of two boyhood friends diverge. Gareth and Ross live in a small Welsh village; when Ross ends up alienated from society and living in a near-feral state after an encounter with a visiting troupe of Evangelists, it falls to Gareth to try to help him. Foodboy is drawn in Swain's trademark style of exquisite panel compositions.

80-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover
regularly $9.95 • ON SALE $7.46
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Invasion of the Mind Sappers

A disquieting meditation on teenage fantasies in the tradition of Heavenly Creatures and The Miracle, Swain's first full-length graphic novel tells the story of Dai, Helen, and Ivan, three friends who believe that the earthquake that rocked their hometown was caused by — yes — a crashlanding UFO, survived only by their temporary headmaster. Are they right, or is the truth even stranger? Swain's brutally honest depiction of small-town life and her powerfully forthright graphic style create a bruising, harrowing masterwork.

80-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover
regularly $8.95 • ON SALE $6.71
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Wilfred Santiago

mike

The subject of today's spotlight, Wilfred Santiago, is poised to make a major splash in 2009 with 21, his comics biography of baseball legend Roberto Clemente.

In My Darkest Hour

The Age of Anxiety has never been better depicted in comics form than in In My Darkest Hour, a modernist, mainstream graphic novel that explores the inner life of its protagonist, Omar Guerrero, a 28 year-old Latin American transient, who confronts his pervasive feelings of inadequacy, anger, guilt, and escalating alienation. The first full-length graphic novel from Pop Life collaborator Wilfred Santiago, in a lovely two-color format.

128-page two-color 7" x 9" softcover
regularly $14.95 • ON SALE $11.21
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Chris Polkki

mike

The subject of today's spotlight, editor Chris Polkki, put together two fantastic anthologies for us in the first half of this decade, one focusing on international artists and one featuring some of comics' newest superstars.

Bête Noire

The alternative comics movement has gone worldwide with a vengeance, with cauldrons of activity in a number of countries. With Bête Noire, Polkki set himself the daunting task of corralling all these exciting movements into one fantastically dynamic English-language anthology, with 88 pages of new or previously untranslated comics from two dozen top-notch cartoonists acclaimed for their work in such cutting-edge magazines or cooperatives as Kramers Ergot, Cornélius, Le Dernier Cri, and L'Association. The exciting Bête Noire roster features MS Bastian (Switzerland); Fé + Witko, Frédéric Coché, Ludovic Debeurme, Lucie Durbiano, Quentin Faucompré, Morgan Navarro, and Caroline Sury (France); Adam Dant (UK); Anke Feuchtenberger (Germany); Ichiba Daisuke, Junko Mizuno, Suzy Amakane, Takeshi Nemoto, and Yuichi Yokoyama (Japan); Ben Jones (USA); Reijo Karkkainen (Finland); Peter Köhler (Sweden); Olaf Ladousse (Spain); Helge Reumann (Switzerland); Fabio Viscogliosi (Italy) and the legendary Quebecois madman Henriette Valium (Canada). There is also a color section featuring Kevin Scalzo, creator of the endearingly gross Sugar Booger! David Heatley provides the wraparound cover.

88-page b&w/color 7" x 8.5" comic book
regularly $9.95 • ON SALE $7.46
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Blood Orange #1-4

The four issues of Blood Orange showcase the comic art of Rick Altergott, Lauren Weinstein, Kevin Huizenga, Ron Regé, Jr., Gary Baseman, Archer Prewitt, Rebecca Dart, Chris Wright, Jeffrey Brown, Matti Hagelberg, Fabio Viscogliosi, Renee French, Anders Nilsen, Ben Jones, Brian Ralph, Lark Pien, Tobias Tak and Ted May, with covers by Steven Weissman, Olivier Douzou, and Lark Pien. In addition, issue #3 features European cartoonists Pakito Bolino and Caroline Sury, Ulf K., Alex Baladi, Nicolas Mahler, Olaf Ladousse, and Fabio Zimbres. In a distinctive, beautifully designed format, Blood Orange captures the pulse of alt-comics.

48-page black & white comic books
regularly $5.95 each • ON SALE $4.46 each
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Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Mark Newgarden

mike

Today's spotlight on cartoonist's cartoonist Mark Newgarden features one of the funniest, and certainly the fuzziest, books in our catalog.

We All Die Alone

Acclaimed cartoonist Mark Newgarden debuted in the first issue of RAW magazine in 1980 and his work subsequently found its way into a variety of high and low profile media. He co-created the '80s pop culture fad "Garbage Pail Kids," wrote, drew, and syndicated a weekly humor feature in the '90s, and created a "Web Premiere Toon" for The Cartoon Network called "B. Happy." Newgarden is currently developing an unconventional Christmas special for The Cartoon Network. Newgarden's comics are hilarious, alarming, and masterful uses of the medium, alternating between old-time gags and avant-garde storytelling, often on the same page without missing a comedic beat. His syndicated strip in such publications as L.A. Weekly and The New York Press encouraged a fervent following and exerted a fresh influence on the medium. Today they remain as vital and entertaining as when they first appeared. Those syndicated comics will make up the bulk of this book, the balance drawing on Newgarden's long form stories from various anthologies, including the much-lauded "Love's Savage Fury." In addition to compiling his comics, this book is a full picture of the artist, his influences, and his many other careers. An avid collector and historian of 20th century ephemera, Newgarden has achieved the rare distinction of both contributing to and furthering the mediums he collects: novelties, comics, and cartoons. Newgarden remains a great link to the past while moving ever further into the future. We All Die Alone is an uproariously funny and fascinating book that will appeal to comics readers, pop culture buffs, and any appreciator of the graphic arts. Designed by Dan Nadel (The Ganzfeld, The Wilco Book) and Helene Silverman (Jimbo in Purgatory).

224-page b&w/color 7.5" x 8.5" hardcover with flocked cover
regularly $28.95 • ON SALE $21.71
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Sneak peek video & photos: Town of Mirrors

mike

It's finale time for our string of video and photo teasers of upcoming releases begun last week. Presenting Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, the coffee-table art book featuring the visual work of the Guided by Voices frontman and indie rock icon. Watch the video above, and take a closer look in our photo gallery.

Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Tori Miki

mike

Today we're featuring the American debut of one of Japan's most distinctive humorous voices, Tori Miki.

Anywhere But Here

Miki has won awards for his essays, screenplays and manga, including the prestigious Bunshun Manga Award. With four best-selling volumes released to date, the comic strip series Anywhere But Here is one of his greatest successes. Running weekly in Japan's TV Bros, a respected magazine of television and media criticism, Anywhere But Here is a wordless comic strip that could perhaps best be described as "Monty Python meets The Far Side meets Zen humor." Miki's unnamed lead character (modelled after himself) works as a bookstore owner but somehow finds himself entangled with aliens, alternate realities, and other mysterious disturbances in the space-time continuum. Like Gary Larson's The Far Side, Anywhere But Here can leave you scratching your head in bemusement almost as often as it makes you laugh, but we've selected the very best of his first two volumes for this special collection, printed in an elegant two-color edition.

96-page two-color 6.5" x 7.25" softcover
regularly $12.95 • ON SALE $9.71
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