FLOG! Entries for Mike Baehr - November 2007

Josh Simmons's horror influences

mike

House scribe Josh Simmons talks to The Horror Blog about Candyman, David Lynch, and "ripping nuggs." (Hat tip: Dirk)

Brunch with Ho Che Anderson

mike

I meant to post this earlier, but couldn't find a working link until now: Multilingual European website Café Babel has an article on Ho Che Anderson, including video, plus some behind-the-scenes extras on their blog.

First look at Lust

mike

We just got our advance copies of Ellen Forney's Lust here at the office. Ellen picked hers up yesterday and posted this photo on her blog (Spongebob band-aid and all). Looks sharp! It'll be available in January; you can pre-order it now.

Seen Peanuts

mike

A handful of photos from Friday's opening of "Charles M. Schulz: Unseen Peanuts" at the Fantagraphics Bookstore can be seen by clicking the photo below:

People really win!

mike

Fantagraphics manda!, originally uploaded by Besacalles.

The Flickr user who won our contest to be the 1000th person to add us as a contact posted this nice photomontage of her winnings. She chose Camille Rose Garcia's The Magic Bottle and John Benson's Confessions, Romances, Secrets and Temptations. You're welcome, Besacalles!

Wimpy in the news

mike

With uncanny timing, this article in the Asia Times uses J. Wellington Wimpy as a metaphor for some sort of financial-market phenomenon that goes straight over my head. (Via Spurge.)

New Release: Popeye Vol. 2: "Well Blow Me Down!"

mike

Popeye Vol. 2: "Well Blow Me Down!"
by E.C. Segar

Our second volume (of six) of the acclaimed hit series collecting the entirety of E.C. Segar's original Popeye (a.k.a. Thimble Theatre) comic strips begins with a foreword by Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and continues with an introduction by noted film and cartooning critic Donald Phelps. This second volume features work from 1930 to 1932, and most notably includes the debut of Segar's second greatest character: J. Wellington Wimpy. Wimpy stands as a one-of-a-kind icon some 70 years after his creation, the most likeable lowdown cad ever to grace the comics page. Popeye Vol. 2 includes the stories: "Clint Gore" (continued from the cliffhanger last volume); "A One-Way Bank," in which Popeye opens a bank that allows withdrawals but no deposits; a long war story featuring King Blozo that begins with "The Great Rough-House War"; and "Skullyville," which wraps up the daily strips for this volume.

168-page 11" x 17" B&W/color hardcover with die-cut cover $29.95
Order Now!

Look, maw, we're on the teevee

mike

Just had to grab some Simpsons screencaps featuring Fantagraphics product placement:

Bard�n the Unstoppable Awards Machine

mike

Via The Beat: Spanish artist Max has been awarded the first-ever Premio Nacional del Cómic 2007 (National Comics Award) by the Spanish Ministry of Culture for his book Bardín the Superrealist. This is the second major European comics award received by Bardín, and this one comes with a nice fat €15,000 prize. According to the Spanish Reuters article (as translated by Babelfish), "'the jury considers' Bardín the Superrealist 'a graphically overwhelming work, with an original script and filled with literary, philosophical and cinematographic references,' the ministry in an official notice said." Congratulations, Max!

New Release: Meat Cake #16

mike

Meat Cake #16
by Dame Darcy

Meat Cake profiles the romantic Rudolph Valentino, the secret language of flowers, love spells, and spells for mermaid hair. Plus: don't miss the true tale of the magical ball and a kitten left by the faeries in a box of nails, depictions of 16th century folk ballads about the uselessness of everything, as only Dame Darcy can depict. And... sex magic!

32-page black & white comic $3.95
Order Now!

Joe Sacco: straight O.G.

mike

This report of Joe's recent visit with the Walker Art Center Teen Program is really great.

Ellen Forney shares National Book Award

mike

We were extremely pleased to learn that Ellen Forney and Sherman Alexie won a National Book Award for young people's literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Alexie and illustrated by Forney. Hearty congratulations!

You can congratulate Ellen in person tonight at Richard Hugo House, or, if you're patient and/or cheap, at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on February 9th at the opening of her exhibit "Lust," celebrating the release of her new book Lust: Kinky Online Personal Ads from Seattle's The Stranger. More details TBA.

Old school: Beat Happening played the warehouse

mike

Holy wow: 10 Things Zine has posted this historic photo of Beat Happening playing at our old warehouse back in 1992 or '93:

More Wordstock

mike

Eric's been having trouble with Blogger, so he asked me to post these pictures he took at Wordstock. Captions by Eric.

Our stunning display of awesomeness:

Leigh Walton of Top Shelf:

Our pals Rhonda Hughes and Adam O'Connor Rodriguez of Hawthorne Books:

Friends Chelsea Cain and Diana Abu-Jaber talk on the Borders stage:

Eli Horowitz of McSweeney's:

Upcoming Arrivals: wrapping up 2007

mike

Our final remaining 2007 releases have just been added to the website and made available for pre-order on our Upcoming Releases page. Pictured above: The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2; the 9th volume in our Krazy & Ignatz series, "A Ragout of Raspberries"; and The Comics Journal #287, featuring a cover interview with Jeffrey Brown.

Call 1-800-657-1100 (or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) or click the covers above and below to order online right now. Apart from the Journal, most of our books go out to our pre-order customers before they arrive in bookstores and comic shops, which means you can have bragging rights. Whee!

Eric Reynolds: busy man (Wordstock & Tomine)

mike

Mr. Reynolds represents at the Wordstock book festival in Portland, OR last weekend:

Last night, a newly-shorn Mr. Reynolds interviews Adrian Tomine at the University Book Store in Seattle:

Kudos for I Killed Adolf Hitler

mike

Publishers Weekly has named Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler to their Best Books of 2007 list. They say:

"Hard-boiled hit men, a time machine and a quest to save the world add up to a story about the permanence of love in this darkly humorous tale."

Also on the list: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, illustrated by our pal Ellen Forney, who is called out for her "witty cartoons."

Congratulations to all!

Video of Gary Groth interviewing Schulz biographer David Michaelis

mike

Eric Reynolds recorded a couple of brief video clips of Gary Groth's interview of Schulz and Peanuts author David Michaelis at the Elliott Bay Book Company here in Seattle on Wednesday evening and passed them to me to put on YouTube:

We also have several still photos from a few different sources — click for a gallery on Flickr.

Happy birthday Ludvig!

mike

Our office dog and unofficial mascot turns 3 today. Here he is as a puppy. Awww!

Ellen Forney: "totally sexy babe"

mike

So says Real Change in the intro to their great interview with Ellen.