Via the Facebook page for 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente:

40 YEARS AGO…
October 13, 1971
Game 4- Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Baltimore Orioles, was the first World Series game held at night ever.
Roberto Clemente batted three hits in a Pirates' 4–3 comeback victory! ♥

Wilfred Santiago takes you "behind the pages," sharing some of his process art from 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente and showing how his sketches and thumbnails developed into the final pages. Cool! Click each image to dig 'em on Flickr.

[See our Tumblr blog for more recent Things to See.]

You can be the proud owner of the original art for page 7 of 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago. Looks like he's added some special touches like hand-coloring and shading and an extra sound effect. Bid it up on eBay!

Above, the triumphant moment of Roberto Clemente's 3000th career base hit, which took place 39 years ago today, as depicted in 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago. Celebrate the milestone anniversary by curling up with a copy of the book! (Thanks to the ever-vigilant Janice for catching the anniversary!)

Somewhat belatedly, a portfolio of candid photographs by roving
photojournalist Lynn Emmert. Captions by her husband (me).

Now that is one fine lookin' booth.

And then I woke up in a cold sweat, as the memories came flooding back.

Kim Thompson and Frank Stack, separated at birth.

Natalia Hernandez, more adorable than three Zooey Deschanels, next to one of her daddy's comics.

Speaking of whom... Partying like it's 1982 (San Diego Comic-Con premiere of Love and Rockets #1, if you'll recall).

It's always sad to see older cartoonists who have become so jaded they can't muster up any enthusiasm when meeting their fans.

Mark Kalesniko, happy to be finally off the FREEWAY (notice clever integration of book title into caption). Also visible, right to left, paying customer, Conrad Groth, Mike Baehr, Eric Buckler, Gilbert Hernandez.

"Well, hello there, do you come here often?" Frank Stack hits on Joyce Farmer by (almost literally) showing her his etchings.

21 author Wilfred Santiago (rockin' the indoor sunglasses) and Sanlida Cheng.

Eisners, man!

Sometimes in the middle of a convention I like to shave my beard down to a goatee and pretend I'm someone famous.

Eric Buckler, Conrad Groth, and Kristy Valenti, workin' the booth.

Did we mention?... Two Eisners for IT WAS THE WAR OF THE TRENCHES! Janice Headley displays.

And it's not a San Diego convention without Stan and Sharon Sakai!

And in case you missed it...

The list of nominees continues to grow for American Library Association/Young Adult Library Services Association "2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list. Joining the already-announced Wandering Son Vol. 1 among the nominees are:

21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago

Yeah! by Peter Bagge & Gilbert Hernandez

Isle of 100,000 Graves by Jason & Fabien Vehlmann

Nominees will continue to accumulate throughout the year, and will be winnowed down to the final list to be announced by the ALA in January.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...21’s eloquence is visual, and it is a very real eloquence. The character of Roberto Clemente is nearly hugged to death in this particular portrayal: he’s virtuous and charming and earnest and respectful to elders, and thus kind of dull. But the world around him is alive, and Santiago’s expressive (and occasionally, bracingly expressionistic) approach to portraying Clemente’s wild athletic genius ensures that it remains thrillingly present. Santiago’s art is impressively mutable and subtle, with the early scenes in Carolina in particular and the off-field action in general drawn with a clean, evocative realism and the baseball action shading towards the comics-y abstract.... [A] fitting and vital tribute." – David Roth, Los Angeles Review of Books

• Review: "If you're onboard for the third installment of something so purposefully vile as Prison Pit, you know what you're getting into. You're not going to be shocked by violence and gore, but you're still going to have a great time... We get a collection of creatures and monsters beating the shit out of each other in the most juvenile way possible, but Johnny Ryan does such a handsome job of designing these creatures to be as ugly and awful as possible. It's an ugliness that you see in the margins of your seventh-grade notebook when you were drawing pictures of horrible things because this was the only thing that could excite you during social studies or whatever, and it's exciting to look at because you never know what you're going to see next." – Geoffrey Lapid, Death-Ray Ozone

Today is the day that Major League Baseball honors the late great Roberto Clemente by naming the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, given each year to the MLB player who best exemplifies Clemente's legacy of athletic and humanitarian achievements, which you can read all about in Wilfred Santiago's beautiful and universally acclaimed graphic biography 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. We still have the book available with a limited-edition signed bookplate for no extra charge, so get your copy now!

• Convention sketches inspired by song lyrics is a pretty great idea, and an Atlanta comic fan named Erich collects them and posts them on his blog. Above: Lisa Leavenworth + Mudhoney by Peter Bagge (hat tip: CBR)

• Noah Van Sciver illustrates the Denver Westword's "hipster's guide to sports"

• More Jack Davis fun from Will Pfeifer's Today's Inspiration blog, as Pfeifer presents a bunch of Davis-illustrated "Funny Valentines" Topps cards (hat tip: The Comics Reporter)

• Victor Kerlow draws Julie Hagerty and Albert Books in Lost in America for The New Yorker

• Eleanor Davis presents a preview of her Mome 22 story "Nita Goes Home" on her Doing Fine blog and sketches for the story (like the above) on her We Be Ouija blog

• John Cuneo recent illustrations & sketches including Mad Men above

• A book cover illustration (above) and preliminary sketches, and a New Yorker cover from January, by Lorenzo Mattotti

• More composer illustrations (like Stravinsky here) and Linus illustrations from Sergio Ponchione

• Nate Neal posts the prologue to his new book in progress, The Ten Thousand and First Thing

• Speaking of prologues, here's one from Nick Drnaso

• Laura Park got a new puppy! He helps her draw.

• Chuck Forsman posted images of his new minicomic The End of the Fucking World which he had at SPX (and his nice-looking cat Bruce)

• Of course I'm going to post this one from Paul Hornschemeier's The Daily Forlorn sketch blog

• Coach and Two by Tony Millionaire

• Steven Weissman's sketches and notes for "Peter Criss Diary" as seen in Mome 22, plus his latest "I, Anonymous" spots at his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Whoever Jason is that's a pretty sweet dedication sketch by Wilfred Santiago in his birthday-present copy of 21

Plus:

• Matthias Lehmann shows a bit of a new magazine illustration

• Frank Santoro draws another Greek myth

• Sketches and drawings by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Debbie Drechsler sketches some unusual finches

• Stephen DeStefano posted a couple of his character drawings from the late lamented Sym-Bionic Titan: Lance in action and a crowd scene

• Steve Brodner draws and comments on last week's GOP debate, 9/11 cash-ins and this hilarious one on the fate of Anthony Weiner's House seat

21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago is now available to our mailorder customers with a signed bookplate at no extra charge! Supplies are limited and may run out without warning, so act with appropriate haste.

Wilfred signed these plates back in May when he was visiting Seattle and we promptly misplaced them (whoops), so if you ordered the book from us between May 4 and now, let us know and we'll be happy to send you one.