Squa Tront #13
edited by John Benson

48-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $9.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-571-6

Ships in: May 2012 (subject to change) – This item will be available to order simultaneous with its release to comic shops.

Five years in the making and meticulously edited by John Benson, Squa Tront returns with a profusion of rare and interesting features from the EC era: the story behind Basil Wolverton’s first EC art; Howard Nostrand’s last interview; art from the unpublished third issue of Flip; Jack Davis’s WWII cartoons; plus EC era art by Wallace Wood, John and Marie Severin, Harvey Kurtzman, and Roy Krenkel. The longest running EC historical magazine and a perfect companion to Fantagraphics’ new series of EC reprints.

Download and read a 6-page PDF excerpt (1.7 MB) including the Table of Contents.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Editor Greg Sadowski just provided us with this update on one of our most-anticipated books of the year:

Basil Wolverton opus Creeping Death from Neptune is taking a few extra months due to the inclusion of material not originally planned — nearly a hundred pages, including unpublished 1936-38 sci-fi strips and Wolverton's complete non-humorous Marvel comics. Here's a panel from "Eye of Doom" (1952).

Very excited to be putting this one together. I'll be amazed if it doesn't sell out quickly. Do yourself a favor and pre-order a copy today — if you love comics it doesn't get better than this.

Agreed! And Greg's right: demand for this one is through the roof! Thanks Greg!

We're doing a special cross-promotion with our colleagues at Americaware, producers of fine t-shirts (and now hoodies!) featuring artwork by Northwest comics legends Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Basil Wolverton and Jim Woodring. With every order you make with us you'll get a $5 coupon to use on an Americaware order, and with every Americaware order you'll get a 20% off coupon to use when ordering from us! You could get into an endless loop of savings! I personally have several Americaware shirts and lemme tell ya, they are niiiiice.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview: Dan Wagstaff, a.k.a. The Casual Optimist, has a Q&A with Jason: "I have ideas in my brain, just lying there, that I sometimes think about. This can last years. Then suddenly I can get ideas for dialogues. I write this down. It’s maybe four or five pages. I can start working on those, and at the same time think about what’s going to happen next. I don’t write a full script. It’s based on improvisation. I write pieces of dialogue. Or sometimes I sketch out the pages first, the images, and write the dialogue after. I usually work on nine or ten pages at the same time, pencil a bit here , then ink it, and then pencil a bit there and ink that. It’s the completely wrong way of doing it, by the way, but it seems to be the only way I can work."

• Plugs: Martha Cornog of Library Journal spotlights a few of our upcoming releases in the latest "Graphic Novels Prepub Alert":

Creeping Death from Neptune: Horror and Science Fiction Comics by Basil Wolverton: "The line between horror and humor dissolves easily, and Wolverton's extravagantly grotesque drawings drew chortles and chills from readers of MAD magazine and numerous comics from the 1940s to the 1950s.... Now a few years after a successful New York exhibit plus several published collections of illustrations and shorter pieces, this volume reprints important sf/horror sequential work, carefully restored, plus material from his personal ledgers and diaries."

Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause: "With the pen name of 'Jaxon,' Jackson (1941-2006) drew Texas history into comics that included Mexican as well as Anglo legacies. Los Tejanos ('the Texans' of Mexican ancestry) fixes on Juan Seguín, a tragic figure in the 1835-75 Texas-Mexican conflict. Lost Cause chronicles the state's turmoil during Reconstruction, in the wake of the Civil War. Jackson's detailed, realistically drawn accounts will be useful for anyone interested in those coordinates of U.S. history or in Latino-Anglo heritage."

No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics: "Herewith a color and black-and-white sampler from a little-recognized underground of gay comics from the past four decades, including [Alison] Bechdel and [Howard] Cruse, Europe's Ralf Koenig, and 2011 ALA keynoter Dan Savage. Huh? Dan Savage wrote comics?! Indeedy, indeedy. Fantagraphics promises 'smart, funny, and profound' — and uncensored."

Lots and lots of images to share, and lots and lots of overflow spilling over into links:

• We linked to this a while back in Daily OCD, but the interview with Lilli Carré at art:21 includes the first glimpse of her sketchbook I've ever seen (along with other art) and daaaang; Lilli also drew Groo the Wanderer for Matthew J. Brady 's theme sketchbook (there's a good one by Jeremy Tinder too) AND did this illustraton for The New York Times AND this amazing letterpress print

• Is Barack Obama losing his indie cred? Drew Friedman shares his illustration for the New York Observer about the President falling out of favor with the hipster demographic, and...

• Aww, Drew Friedman's portrait of his dad Bruce Jay Friedman for Tablet; Drew also presents an awesome gallery of Plop! covers by Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood at his blog

• Some Jaime Hernandez record-cover art I hadn't seen before, for the band The Shame Idols (via Love & Maggie)

• This one makes Janice very happy: Jason draws Robert Smith of The Cure — plus film reviews and various other commentary at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Johnny Ryan draws some of his favorite bullies for Vice and shares some recent commissions on his Flickr page: Gremlin/robot orgy, Star Wars 4-way and fuckball

• Wowee-wow, lookit these vintage Sesame Street illustrations by Jack Davis that were posted by Leif Peng at his Today's Inspiration blog (via Drawn)

• Dig this nifty nutty video that Michael Kupperman made for no particular reason; then when you're done, watch this psychedelic one

• Gary Panter sending this box of dog biscuits to a dog named Gary Panter is probably about the cutest thing you'll read all day

• I think Steven Weissman loses this sketchbook battle with his son Charles — that and his weekly "I, Anonymous" spots and more at his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Writer Dan Sinker shares the evolution of Paul Hornschemeier's cover illustration for The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel — via Paul's blog, where Paul also shares a website header illustration and accompanying interview; also, about umpteen new entries on his daily sketch blog The Daily Forlorn

• Eleanor Davis illustrates for The New York Times and for Rattler magazine

• Richard Sala presents the original, unretouched artwork for his Kramer's Ergot 7 strip, likewise for a Peculia story, plus some words on "Invisible Hands" — plus a whole lot more on his Tumblr blog

• The first page of a feature graphic story Tim Lane is doing for the Riverfront Times, to appear later this month, plus some of Tim's sketches for the story

• Lorenzo Mattotti previews 3 upcoming publishing projects: a graphic adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a collection of Venice landscapes; and a collaboration with Art Spiegelman for an upcoming September 11-themed collection from Casterman

• Sergio Ponchione teases his Prof. Hackensack strip and illustrations in the new Linus as well as some recent illustrations of classical composers

• Laura Park's strip for this month's issue of The Believer, plus a Picasso-esque sketch (and, if you look around, lots of photos of her adorable new puppy)

• Speaking of Laura Park, Derek Van Gieson did this little jam strip with her on a recent visit to Chicago, where they and others also took part in a little Trubble Club action; more from Derek at his These Days I Remain blog

• Stephen DeStefano illustrated this poster for a new Washington, DC staging of Lithuanian Sweetheart, a play written by his Lucky in Love collaborator George Chieffet; also, an album cover illustration, Popeye playing hockey, Popeye playing soccer

• Louis C.K. fan art on Josh Simmons & Wendy Chin's Quackers blog (I'm not sure who did it — I'm guessing Wendy... and if you don't watch Louie you should) — meanwhile Josh has a couple new doodles on his The Furry Trap blog

• I was going post Renee French's portrait of the Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson's character from the movie Super) but I decided to go with this more mysterious, less link-baity piece instead

• Sammy Harkham's 2009 portrait of singer-songwriter Will Oldham for Colors magazine

• From Steve Brodner: Warren Buffett for Harper's (above); the SE; Planet of the Apes for The New Yorker; Rome sketchbook; Keystone XL pipeline protestors; and feral CEOs

• Sketchbook pages and more sketchbook pages by Anders Nilsen

• Glimpses of 11 binders worth of storyboards for Dash Shaw's The Ruined Cast

• Views of some rather astonishing cut-out dioramas made by Hans Rickheit for a recent art show

Additionally:

• Colleen Frakes shares some birthday sketch comics done for her by Mome contributors Joe Lambert and Chuck Forsman

• A drawing by Matthias Lehmann for an upcoming book from Le Dernier Cri

• Recent drawings by Andrei Molotiu

• The latest creations and updates from Dame Darcy at her blog

• Frank Santoro is selling his sketches of "black & white boom" cover art, along with the original comics, to help keep him in cash while he works on his new comic — there's a new mythology piece on his Tumblr too

• A bunch of new sketches by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• From Jim Blanchard, a rollerderby poster and a painting of Tura Satana

• Bird sketches with field notes by Debbie Drechsler

• A performance poster illustrated by Nate Neal

• An image-packed update on various works in progress from Noah Van Sciver

• Roger Langridge sketches Popeye vs. Bluto

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Fantagraphics, always a publisher you can count on to rescue classic comic material from oblivion, has published a gorgeous 288 page hardcover archive edition of Mickey [Mouse]'s earliest serialized comic strip adventures and he's quite a different character than we know today...a little rambunctious, a little mischievous, and a whole lot of fun. This book takes readers on a glorious ride through depression-era adventures as Mickey battles villains, becomes a fireman, visits a circus, and meets his faithful pup Pluto for the first time. Besides the many great comic strips, Fantagraphics has filled the book with a ton of supplemental material... This is an absolute must-have for any Mickey Mouse fan. Grade A" – Tim Janson, Mania

• Review: At Comic Book Resources, Greg Burgas and Kelly Thompson engage in a dialogic analysis of Dave McKean's Celluloid.

Burgas: "McKean’s art is astounding, as it always is. He moves from his very rough pencil work that he used on Cages and moves quickly into a multimedia extravaganza, with photographs interspersed with film reels (more photographs, of course, but used in a different way) and paintings and more detailed pencil work. The colors are magnificent, too... It’s an astonishing work of art, to be sure..."

Thompson: "I agree that the success of this book is in that it is beautiful from cover to cover. As a rule I tend to prefer McKean’s very rough pencil work, though I very much appreciate the layering mixed media styles he uses, and I found all of it very beautiful and successful in that way. I was impressed with the color choices and the really wonderful cubist look he achieved for some of the work, and some of the mixed media he used toward the end was some of my favorite in the book period.... After discussing it, I feel more pleased with the book as a whole because I’ve been forced to admit that I don’t recall seeing many more effective executions of erotic subject matter as a legitimate work of art in this way..."

Burgas: "What is compelling about Celluloid is that McKean tackles a difficult subject and elevates it beyond a simple porn comic. I think the very fact that Celluloid makes you wonder about sex in many of its iterations is impressive. As you can see, both Kelly and I had our issues with it, but it’s a gorgeous comic nevertheless. It’s definitely something that you don’t see every day!"

• Review: "I have the impression that Lewis Trondheim is the most important European artist of his generation. Such is the creativity and productivity and so the breadth of his work that, for me at least, wins the title deservedly. Approximate Continuum Comics... is the first part of Trondheim's autobiographical adventures.... The brilliant humour of Trondheim, his sharp-tongued reason, the way with which it shows the mix of imagination with reality. Equally impressive is the effortless way in which the most espressive artwork works serving the story." – Aristides Kotsis, Comicdom (translated from Greek)

• Review: "Bell does the best job of any attempt I've ever seen to bring together everything we know about Ditko's life and work. The result [Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko] is fascinating, frustrating and eventually presents a sad portrait of an immense talent that withdrew from the world and denied it of his work and himself of the audience, acclaim and success that was easily within his grasp." – Tom McLean, Bags and Boards

• Plug: "The 22nd -- and final -- issue of MOME from @fantagraphics is the best one yet. So sad." – Whitney Matheson (USA Today Pop Candy), via Twitter

• Plug: Sceneario takes note of the new entries in our new Franco-Belgian comics line with interest and excitement (en Français)

• Preview: At Flavorwire, Emily Temple shares some glimpses of the cartoons to be included in Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons, saying "Her style is distinctive — the charmingly brusque drawings are cut from linoleum and then essentially stamped when she applied ink to the ridges, and while the content is largely related to her experience as a student, you can still feel the slightly skewed, individualistic perspective that appears in O’Connor’s short stories.... Lovers of her work will doubtless find joy and meaning in her cartoons, and other people will probably like them too."

• Preview: Jamie Frevele of The Mary Sue picks up on the preview of Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons, saying "...while not as demented as some of her writing, the dark humor is still there, even in the short span of a single panel."

• Plug: "Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons is the first compilation of her graphic work in pen-and-ink and linoleum cuts. Before her writing career the young student aspired to be a cartoonist, and she developed a visually bold and eye-catching style. The results are witty and acid comments on campus life and American culture that show O'Connor developing her own acerbic point-of-view." – M. Bromberg, BellemeadeBooks

• Plug: The Portland Mercury's Jacob Schraer amusingly abandons writing about Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons to post a video of Miss Piggy — that's OK, we all have days like that

• Interview (Audio): Kevin Avery, author/editor of Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson, is a guest on the Rockcritics Podcast. Host Scott Woods says "I’ve mentioned a few times here already Kevin Avery’s wonderful book, Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson. Half a personal biography of Nelson, half a compilation of select Nelson reviews and essays, it’s one of the finest books I’ve ever read about a writer — and, needless to say, about rock criticism."

• Profile: "[Basil] Wolverton was one of the pioneers who made today’s highbrow comics scene what it is; his twisted abstract portraiture, all sweatbeads and pleading eyes, floated like a buoy in a sea of banal comic art, influencing kindred spirits like Robert Williams and Big Daddy Roth. Though best known for his nightmare caricatures in the vein of Lena Hyena, his sf and horror work — jewels like the 'Brain Bats of Venus' — is equally disturbing (or invigorating). God knows what brain bat attached itself to Wolverton’s fertile grey matter, but it certainly wasn’t of this atmosphere." – Joe Alterio, HighLobrow

In 1946 Al Capp held the now infamous contest to see who could conjure the true image of the world's ugliest woman, Lena Hyena from Lower Slobbovia. Amongst the 500,000 + submissions was this ghastly beaut by Carl Barks.

The, ahem, judges for this contest were three of the worlds ugliest men: Salvador Dali, Boris Karloff and Frank Sinatra and as you may know, they aptly awarded Basil Wolverton's warped rendering "The Champ."

Here we have Lena by Basil Wolverton as colored by Jim Woodring from Wolvertoons.

I think it's worth noting and more than a coincidence that Carl Barks, Basil Wolverton and Jim Woodring all hail from the great pacific northwest, a region rife with grotesque power drawers, past and present.

Side note: It's rumored that Jack Cole sent in a drawing of the wonderful Lena. What I'd give to see that!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: School Library Journal names Linda Medley's Castle Waiting Vol. 2 one of "39 Graphic Novels That Kids Can't Resist": "Both volumes of Castle Waiting are vivid and enchanting, as any good fairy tale should be. Handsomely bound and printed on rich, creamy paper, the most important element — the story — is charming, filled with slowly building plots and compelling characters, and the slow pace means readers can spend the summer hours with some good company.... With clean black-and-white art and impeccable pacing, Castle Waiting remains a favorite for older kids and younger teens."

• List: Rick Klaw's "Top Ten of the Half Year '11" at The Geek Curmudgeon includes Joe Daly's Dungeon Quest at #9 ("Littered with violence, inappropriate sexual innuendos, misguided bravado and infused with hilarity, Dungeon Quest... promises a uniquely entertaining graphic novel experience.") and 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago at #3 ("In this emotionally moving biography, the Puerto Rican Wilfred Santiago magnificently chronicles the often tragic life of this icon.... Santiago expertly traverses Clemente's tribulations, losses, and success with ease and skill. His portrayal of the baseball games rank among the finest ever attempted in this medium. Under the masterful hands of Santiago, 21 evolves into far more than just a biography of a sports figure. It showcases a life worth emulating.")

• Profile: "...21: The Story of Roberto Clemente... is drawn with a jagged whimsy that gets at the sudden sharpness of a baseball game's action, the frenzy that comes from out of nowhere to temporarily replace the long, slow stretches of waiting, scratching, spitting and eyeballing opponents that are endemic to the sport. The result is a captivating work that reflects the complexity of Clemente (1934-1972), a dedicated humanitarian as well as an uncommonly gifted athlete.... 'I knew the culture he came from, because I came from the same place,' [Wilfred] Santiago says. 'And there was a mythic aspect to him that was part of the story I wanted to tell. Comic books bring a different kind of narrative that's not possible in any other medium — not books, not movies.'" – Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

• Review: "A little boy is mistaken for his older sister and is bewildered by the feeling that this stirs in him. Thus begins the story of the Wandering Son, a daring fairy-tale about two unusual children in the time before the riot of puberty and their struggles with who they are and who they want to be.... The artwork in Wandering Son is appealing and sensitive....  Wandering Son mercifully isn’t a political screed and its characters, equally mercifully, are not pressured into making political points out of their inner lives.... They are allowed under that protective charm 'kawaii' to explore their feelings and identity and are treated with the utmost compassion and dignity by their author. That makes Wandering Son a most compelling fantasy... Wandering Son chooses for the most part to dwell on the possibility of choice, of self-knowledge and the love of a friend who knows your secret." – Michael Arthur, The Hooded Utilitarian

• Review: At his High-Low blog, Rob Clough re-posts his Sequart review of the first 5 volumes of Mome: "I can't help thinking of Mome as the comics equivalent of a baseball farm league club. You know you're good if you're invited by the major league club to come on, but there's an expectation of getting better, of being productive, of working hard in order to become great. And the creators in this book seem to range across a wide variety of ages and levels of experience, much like a minor league baseball team. Some are raw rookies, others have been laboring in obscurity for years and are just now getting an opportunity at the big time."

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch's Brian Heater continues his conversation with Mome editor Eric Reynolds: "I don’t know if there’s an official reason. I just felt like the time had come. It had been over five years. I’m really happy with it. I’m proud of what we did. But at the same time, there are always compromises you make along the way. I felt I’d already run my course with it. I could have kept it going. I sort of set myself up with a template that was fairly easy to do, three or four times a year."

• Review: "Excellent quality reproduction of the cartoons, interesting texts...; a supreme book treatment by a 'bibliophile publisher': something that convinces even the most recalcitrant Disney collectors to buy something that they might already have seen and have read the contents of the first volume in multiple dressings and in multiple languages, ​​and possess it in different forms." – Luca Boschi, Il Sole 24 Ore (translated from Italian)

• Plug: "Mickey Mouse 'Race to Death Valley' has the first MM strips from 1930-32 by Floyd Gottfredson, considered the finest of all the MM artists and much collected. Several complete episodes and a wonderful 68-page section devoted to essays, early Mickey artwork and special features. I'm eager to sit down and digest it all myself." – Bud Plant

• Review: "Schulz's jokes are fine; his characters are likable and instantly recognizable; and Peanuts is never dull. But, in these years, it settled for being a consistently entertaining standard comic strip rather than digging any more deeply than that into the sources of human sadness and discomfort." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Plug: "The very lengthily named Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Volume 1 'Through the Wild Blue Wonder' is offered by Fantagraphics ... I’m convinced that this will be the best version it can be of Walt Kelly’s game-changing political and cultural satire.... I’m looking forward to finally getting a chance to see this classic for myself. I’m sure, given Fanta’s high production values, it’ll be worth the wait." – Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading

• Plugs: At the Westfield Comics Blog, K.C. Carlson takes a close look at our listings in the current issue of Previews (including Pogo, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 2, The Art of Joe Kubert and more)

• Plugs: The latest "Comics College" reader's guide from Chris Mautner at Robot 6 delves into George Herriman and Krazy Kat: "If you... want to dig deeper, the next logical choice is Fantagraphics’ lovely collection of Sunday strips, dubbed Krazy & Ignatz.... If all those books seem like too much shopping for you, Fantagraphics has collected much of the same material in two hardcover volumes, with a presumed third one coming along the way sometime in the near future.... Fantagraphics has announced their intention to collect the daily Krazy Kat strips as well, but that’s down the line a bit. In the meantime, there are really only two ways to get a solid sampling of the daily strip, one of which is The Kat Who Walked in Beauty, an oversize tome that pairs together strips from the 1910s and 1920s, as well as some other Krazy-related ephemera."

• Plug: "Fantagraphics Books publishes one of my all-time favorites; Jason, short for John Arne Saerterøy. Jason’s animal people inhabit satirical but celebratory genre pieces. In about 50 pages, Jason’s The Last Musketeer tells the story of Athos, the last depressed musketeer in the 21st century. A meteor hits Paris, and Martians start invading. Before too long, Athos stows away to Mars to save the Martian princess in order to save Earth from total annihilation." – Victoria Elliott, The Daily Texan

• Profile: Mary Ann Albright of The Columbian talks with Monte Wolverton (who's been instrumental in helping us publish works by his late father Basil) on his political cartooning career (via The Daily Cartoonist)

Things are gettin' trippy over at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art as they recently kicked off a set of tandem exhibits,  “Us Versus Them” and “Masters of Collective Reality,” curated by Phoenix-based artist Jon Haddock. 

And Haddock's clearly got good taste as the "Masters of Collective Reality" exhibit will feature work from such artists as Rory Hayes, Joe Sacco, Basil Wolverton, and Jim Woodring, whose piece is show above!

Both exhibits run through October 2nd at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [7374 East Second Street, Scottsdale, AZ].

Now is the perfect time to upgrade your spring wardrobe with lovely new tee shirt designs by Basil Wolverton, Jim Woodring and Jim Blanchard from Seattle-based label Americaware. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is offering a 25% discount off the $29.95 designer shirts — now only $22.50. The line features six signature creations by each cartoonist in sizes M, L and XL. Fantagraphics Bookstore is the only store on the planet to carry these amazing garments, so drop by while our limited supply lasts. Open daily at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's enchanting Georgetown arts community. Phone 206.658.0110. See you then.