Save the visit to the Library of Congress, which will come up later, these are THE pictures and thoughts on Small Press Expo 2012. We honestly were so busy that there was little time to make the rounds to other aisles and buy books or snag pics of our friends at this family reunion of a show. So please accept my apology for no SWEEPING landscapes of the table set-up as it was busy, busy, busy. SPX'sExecutive Director, Warren Bernard, ran a good show and David Michael Thomas could not have been better with convention previews and making sure we were comfortable throughout.

The Washington alt-weekly newspaper or insert covered the special guests of the con including the Hernandez brothers. Love and Rockets tattoos are the ink du jour as you can see along with Jughead hats and SUPER short skirts (even though we all know leggings that look like wormholes or intestinal tracts are really in this year). Drawing by Thomas Pitilli.

The signing at Politics and Prose in D.C. kicked off the 30th Anniversary Northeast Tour. With trusty escorts like Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, PR Director Jacq Cohen and myself, what could go wrong? First things first though, toothpicks to make sure teeth are clean.

Lilli Carré's new book Heads or Tails was a smash hit and the first to sell out followed by Chris Wright's Blacklung, The Hypo, Ron Regé's Cartoon Utopia and many more. Here Carré and Van Sciver sell their books, librarian Caitlin McGurk from OSU's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum eager to read the newest, greatest books.

Chris Wright draws and signs Blacklung on his dedication page to dearly departed friend, Sparkplug's Dylan Williams.

Future Fantagraphics author Charles Forsman and his cartooning counterpart, Melissa Mendes , run their own micro-publisher Oily Comics. You just can't get enough of them or their comics.

Tom Spurgeon stops by the table to enjoy our multi-printed collection of Is That All There Is? by Joost Swarte.

Long lines formed for the Hernandez Brothers both days and were chock full of other exhibitors and cartoonists like First Second's George O'Connor.

Fans got books signed, bought drawings and got their SPX convention badges signed.

That night at the Ignatz awards, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez cleaned up. While humbly accepting their Herriman bricks, they thanked Daniel Clowes & Art Spiegelman for NOT having new stories this year. The Brothers won Outstanding Series for Love and Rockets while Jaime won Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Story for "Return for Me"of Love and Rockets: New Stories #4.

Author Phillip Nel sold his Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss biography to whet everyone's appetite for the Barnaby book. Rich Tommaso sold his The Cavalier Mr. Thompson, a Fantagraphics-distributed book about a 1920s hotel in Texas.

Fans and friends got their signatures and tiny drawings by Tommaso.

Cartoonist TJ Kirsch shows off his Daniel Clowes drawing in Twentieth-Century Eightball.

Despite his dour face, Daniel Clowes genuinely liked Gary Panter's Dal Tokyo while Charles Burns looks on.

John Porcellino (of Spit and a Half, King Cat and Drawn and Quarterly) soaked in the cross hatching glory of Van Sciver's The Hypo. Maybe he was enjoying it too much.

As always, my partner-in-crime Jacq Cohen and I accidentally dressed to match some of our favorite classic books, me with Nancy and Jacq with Peanuts.

Jacq and I ran off after the convention to eat some delicious food with our good friends. Clockwise from the bottom left: Gilbert Hernandez, me, Jaime Hernandez, Tom Neely of Sparkplug, Joseph Remnant of ZAP/Top Shelf, Noah Van Sciver and John Porcellino. Delicious!

And finally, a picture from 2010's MoCCA Fest where I'm handing Jaime minis as a fan. Now we get to argue about baseball uniforms and proper sock height while working the Fantagraphics table. Thank you everyone for coming to the Fantagraphics table to buy our books, talk to our artists and spread more of the convention cheer. See you next year!

Photos by Jacq Cohen and me. Attitude by Fantagraphics.

Tuesday, September 18th

• Baltimore, MD: Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez continue the Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary celebration at Atomic Books at 7:00 PM!  (more info)

Wednesday, September 19th

• Philadelphia, PA: The Philadelphia Free Library proudly hosts Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez for a presentation in the Free Library's Montgomery Auditorium, followed by a Q&A session. After the talk, fans and friends can get their Love & Rockets books signed in the Library Lobby from 8:30-10:30 PM. (more info)

Friday, September 21st

• Seattle, WA: Our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company debut "Blight," the latest from our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse collaboration, featuring artwork by Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series! (more info) 

• Brooklyn, NY: Friday nights may never be the same especially when the avid fans of punk, Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, bring the house down at The Rock Shop starting at 7:30 PM. (more info)

Saturday, September 22nd

• Brooklyn, NY: Join The Comics Crowd at Bergen Street Comics for an evening of comics readings and panel projections from Michael Kupperman, Gabrielle Bell, Julia Wertz (Drinking at the Movies), Bob Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics), Lauren Weinstein (Girl Stories), Lisa Hanawalt (I Want You), and Aaron Diaz (The Tomorrow Girl). (more info)

Sunday, September 23rd 

• Brooklyn, NY: The Love & Rockets East Coast Tour will end with a stop at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Gilbert Hernandez will join many other creators on "The Sex Panel: Taboo in Pictures," featuring obscenity, art and the area between the two. Meanwhile, Jaime Hernandez stars on a panel called "Worlds Built Over Time: Panel to Page, Book to Series" on world building and character development in the long term. Book signings will follow each panel discussion. (more info)

Excellent! Mr. Charles Burns will be at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, October 20. Doh! Not that Charles Burns. Or are they one in the same? Cartoonist Charles Burns was an Evergreen State College classmate of Simpsons creator Matt Groening, after all.

And on Monday, October 22 Mr. Burns will be joined by Bart and Homer...ay, caramba! We mean Charles Burns will appear at 7:30 with incomparable cartoonist Chris Ware and book designer Chip Kidd at Town Hall, 1119 8th Avenue in Seattle. Cowabunga!

"Like" Fantagraphics Bookstore on Facebook for the latest information on events, new arrivals, specials, and more!

Saturday, October 20 is an embarrassment of riches at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. We'll have the incomparable Charles Burns signing copies of The Hive — his long-awaited sequel to X'ed Out. 

Joining Burns will be the lovely and talented Gabrielle Bell with her new book, The Voyeurs, on Tom Kaczynski's Uncivilized Books imprint. Tom will also be present.

Bonus: This event coincides with Elysian Brewing's Great Pumpkin Brew Festival at their nearby Georgetown bottling plant, featuring dozens of seasonal pumpkin beers from regional boutique breweries. Store patrons can also sample the latest Black Hole-inspired 12 Beers of the Apocalypse and view our new exhibit "The Horror: Selections from the EC Comics Library." Do NOT miss this one. "Like" Fantagraphics Bookstore on Facebook to keep up with all the action.

Get blighted with our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company on Friday, September 21st, as they debut "Blight," the latest from our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse collaboration! 

"Blight" is a perfect seasonal Pumpkin Ale, available on draft, and in exclusive 22 oz. bottles with labels featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series. 

The official tapping begins at 4:00 PM, followed by a survival demo by Bryan & co. at 5:30 PM, with Spuds in the Hole from 4:00 to 7:00 PM!  

Come by and collect the next stamp in your Apocalypse Beer Survival Guide. Fill your book with survival item stamps at our Apocalypse events throughout the year for an outstanding experience at our final End of the World Celebration on 12.20.12! 

The Elysian Brewing Company is located at 1221 E. Pike Street in Seattle. You better know it by now: the end is BEER!

The book might not be out until October but you can peruse the table of contents of The Best American Comics 2012, edited by Françoise Mouly, now!

Created by series editors, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, this year's Best American Comics honors many Fantagraphics authors. Not only is there a Gary Panter cover but the inclusion of Jimbo, Joyce Farmer's Special Exits, Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals, Jaime Hernandez's Love Bunglers from Love and Rockets, Michael Kupperman as well as Charles Burns, Blab's Nora Krug, Hotwire's David Sandlin, Jordan Crane, Jonathan Bennett, Renee French, David Collier and Chris Ware.

We're proud to announce the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery Fall Schedule! Come find out why New York Magazine listed us in their Urbanist's Guide to Seattle! See why the Seattle Weekly named us Seattle's Best Comic Book Store, adding "it's a gallery, bookshop, and thriving arts community all in one." But, hopefully, you know how great we are already, so just c'mon out and buy some books!

• Saturday, September 8th: GARY PANTER Dal Tokyo exhibition and book signing. Exhibition continues through October 10.
 
• Saturday, October 13th: THE HORROR: EC Comics Library exhibition with music performance by MOLLY NILSSON. Exhibition continues through October 31.
 
• Saturday, October 20th: CHARLES BURNS signing The Hive in association with Elysian Brewing’s Great Pumpkin Brew Festival.
 
• Monday, October 22nd: CHRIS WARE, CHIP KIDD, and CHARLES BURNS artist talk and book signing at Town Hall.

• Friday, November 2nd: NOAH VAN SCIVER The Hypo with DAVID LASKY The Carter Family exhibition and book signing. Exhibition continues through November 22.
 
• Saturday, November 10th: ELLEN FORNEY Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me presentation and book signing at Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Public Library.
 
• Saturday, November 24th: NICO VASSILAKIS The Last Vispo Anthology exhibition, book signing and performances.  Exhibition continues through December 6.
 
• Saturday, December 8th: Spectacular 6th Anniversary Celebration with very special guests, including musical guest GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE.

You won't want to miss a minute of the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery Fall Schedule! We're located at 1201 S. Vale Street at Airport Way South. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. 

While reading a particularly engrossing book or graphic novel, it is not abhorrent to combine the experience with a fine drink. We are not above such fun.

In the weekly article from iFanboy, Comic Shots picks one tasty drink and pairs it with a delicious read: Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man. Josh Christie waxed on quite a bit about Carl Barks' stories. "I was, perhaps, predestined to love these new editions of Barks’ classics. Nevertheless, these stories tap into something deeper – they are, at their core, good stories. Barks’ characters are funny and charming, and their constant scheming (be it in an attempt to save a dollar or to thwart the Beagle Boys) is wildly creative."

Christie read the book while sipping only the fanciest beer imaginable at a whopping $150 a bottle. So we here at the ol' homestead came up with our own drink that you can make at home (if you are of drinking age) that also rings true to Scroogian sensibilities. It's a lil' take on the screwdriver called the Scrooge Diver.

Ingredients:

1 part vodka (cheap, of course)

1/2 part cranberry juice

one stolen sugar packet (Scrooge's kitchen is FULL of free condiments)

Orange juice to the top with three ice cubes and enjoy while reading the best of Carl Barks in "Only a Poor Old Man." In the end, we actually used FREE VODKA which is better than cheap (in Scrooge's eye) thanks to the Jason Sacks of the Comics Bulletin who handed out special apple vodka at Comic-Con this year. Uncle Scrooge enjoys a soda below.

If mixing drinks isn't your thing, maybe you'd enjoy drinks with comics labels. For the past seven months, Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle has created some very special beers with Charles Burns art as part of the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse. With names like Maelstrom, Ruin and most recently, Torrent: you know that these are not your average beers. We claim no responsibility for you waking up in the post-apocalyptic/neo-punk/dystopian world of your dreams.

If you are in Seattle and have missed such excellent apocalyptic parties at Elysian Brewing Company and its satellite pubs, Tangletown and Elysian Fields, you've got August through December to make up for it! Check with your local co-op or grocery store to see if they carry Elsyian's 12 Beers of the Apocalypse.

It's actually really lovely at the Elysian Brewing Company, but tomorrow night Thursday, June 21st, they bring us "Wasteland," the latest from our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse collaboration! 

"Wasteland" is an Elderflower Saison, available on draft, and in exclusive 22 oz. bottles with labels featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series. 

The official tapping begins at 5:00 PM, followed by a survival demo by Bryan & co. at 6:30 PM, with cavepainting til 8:00 PM. As always, themed attire is welcome, so grab your spelunking helmet!

Come by and collect the next stamp in your Apocalypse Beer Survival Guide. Fill your book with survival item stamps at our Apocalypse events throughout the year for an outstanding experience at our final End of the World Celebration on 12.20.12! 

The Elysian Brewing Company is located at 1221 E. Pike Street in Seattle. It's the end of the world as we know it, and the end is BEER!

The latest Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Feature: At Print magazine, Michael Dooley spotlights the new 13th issue of Squa Tront — "...Squa Tront has set itself out to explore every facet of EC's history, through stimulating, in-depth journalism, scholarly analyses, critiques, bios, interviews, and, of course, illustrations. Under the supervision of its current editor, John Benson, it has established a high standard for fanzine professionalism, in both literary content and production values." — with a generous sampling of images and an interview with Benson: "But really, as far as Squa Tront goes, what sustains my interest most is probably my love of print media and the pleasure of creating a physical package."

• Plug: "A new issue of Squa Tront is a rare and special event, not to be missed." – Bud Plant

• Review: "Oftentimes the first volume of an archival project gets greeted with a lot of ballyhoo while later volumes fail to get any ink, even though the later books represent the subject in question better than the earlier, more fumbling work. So let this serve as notice that the third volume of the Blake Bell-edited series [The Steve Ditko Archives] is the best one yet, showing Ditko in 1957, about to turn 30 and learning to deploy his distinctive faces and abstract shapes in the service of stories with real flow. ...[T]he nightmarish visions of stories like 'The Man Who Lost His Face' and 'The Last One' are classic Ditko, with off-kilter panel designs and anguished figures conveying a sense of sanity slipping away." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "...Blood of Palomar is a thrilling book... Hernández’s writing and artwork are excellent. The black-and-white pen work is perfect — there are a vividness and richness to the action, story, and scenes already that would likely be drowned in color. With 34 characters and multiple story threads, a first read can be dizzying, yet all is exquisitely kept in balance. Though certainly most characters are not given much depth, the large cast gives the sense of a real community. The main characters are complex, flawed, and fascinating.... Blood of Palomar haunted my thoughts long after I finished reading." – Michael Stock, The Capeless Crusader

• Plug: "How to best demonstrate the awesome might of Fantagraphics' new Johnny Gruelle collection, Mr. Twee Deedle?... It's more akin to flipping the pages of a wallpaper sampler than a collection of historic comics.... It dominates the largest clear surface in my house — the kitchen island — like a B-52 bomber somehow parked astride an aircraft carrier's deck. And then you open it up. ...[T]he art on the page is massive, but filled with delicate details.... Many of the strips are illustrated from eye-level of small children, and the natural world around the characters seems almost life-sized." – John Mesjak, My 3 Books

• Plug: "Comics have long been home to a variety of races, be it alien or underground or from an alternate dimension. But in the 100-plus year history of comics, one of the toughest for creators to portray accurately is that of black characters. And now Fantagraphics is putting back in print a key work examining that strained relationship, Fredrik Strömberg‘s Eisner-nominated Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History." – Chris Arrant, Robot 6

• Interview (Audio): Pat Thomas was on BBC Radio's Front Row Daily last Friday talking about his book Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 — follow the link and "it's the one that says 'Tracey Emin; news from Cannes' — I'm on for about 10 minutes at the end," instructs Pat

• Commentary: Robot 6's Chris Mautner takes you back to "Comics College" with another of his handy reader's guides, this time to the work of Charles Burns