Via Facebook:

"Jim Woodring has finally finished drawing WEATHERCRAFT, a sprawling Manhog epic chock full of torture, tyranny, enlightenment and amnesia, and will celebrate by bringing a carton of Devil Dogs (the confection, not the wurst) to Cafe Racer tonight. Come on down!"

Weathercraft is scheduled to come out Spring '10. Photo by Mary Woodring.

On his blog, Paul Hornschemeier presents some teasers from his Mome swan song, the final chapter of his "Life with Mr. Dangerous" serial, which will appear in the forthcoming 17th volume of the anthology. And look, there's the cover, also by Paul!

• Lists: Graphic Novel Reporter's "Graphic Novel Picks for Fall 2009" has Al Columbia's Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days as a pick for Tweens, while The Squirrel Machine, West Coast Blues, and The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD are on the Adult Fiction list

• Review: "...[T]hese extraordinary visions from a different, four-colour era [in You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!] are as bold and striking as they are violent and strange.... Classic comics from a different age." - Grovel

• Review: "This new book from Fantagraphics of Femke Hiemstra’s work [Rock Candy] is gorgeous. The cloth hardbound book has a nice die-cut cover and the inside is jam packed with Femke’s works including tons of paintings and drawings alongside loose sketches.... The way the sketches are juxtaposed with the finished work in the book makes me feel like I’m getting an insider’s view. If you're a fan of 'pop surrealism,' this is a book for you." - Julia Rothman, Book By Its Cover

• Review: "I said, 'It seems to me that when comics become abstract, they really cease to be comics and become, for all effective purposes, simply abstract art.' But this anthology [Abstract Comics], in its best work as well as in its not-best, shows that that's not true. Comics really are a coherent enough medium to support their own tradition of abstraction. That tradition doesn't quite exist yet. But, in this anthology, [editor] Andrei [Molotiu] shows conclusively that it could." - Noah Berlatsky, The Hooded Utilitarian

• Review: "...magnificent reproductions, done in a sturdy hardcover [Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938] with oversized pages and entirely restored colors and shadings (indeed, those of us who’ve seen Prince Valiant reprint editions in the past will need some mental time to adjust to how much we’ve been missing)." - Steven Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly (via Steven Hart)

• Commentary: At Comics Comics, Jeet Heer offers some follow-up thoughts to Dan Nadel's previous essay on Prince Valiant

• Interview: Adrian Kinnaird of From Earth's End talks to Abstract Comics contributor Draw: "I had an epiphany. The gutter is where all the action in a comic takes place, it's where the reader creates the comic reading experience.... I wasn't trying to create effects, I was trying to create a visual representation of what happens in the gutter of a comic."

• Preview: Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool looks ahead to our February '10 release King of the Flies: Hallorave by Pirus & Mezzo: "King Of The Flies looks like it should disturb and entertain on an equal basis."

• Preview: Akileos Editions will be releasing a translated edition of Blazing Combat in France

• Things to see: At the Covered blog, Steven Weissman's Zip-a-Toney take on Superboy #116

• Things to see: The clown appears to be the "food" in this scenario, from Tim Lane

We just turned in our listings for the October issue of Previews, for our releases scheduled for December. The issue won't be out for a few more weeks, but you can get a first look at what's on tap right here! Spoiler alert: it includes King: The Special Edition by Ho Che Anderson, the Newave! anthology of 1980s underground minicomix, the new volume of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace, a new edition of the out-of-print 12th volume of The Complete Crumb Comics, Uptight #4 by Jordan Crane, and Chocolate Cheeks by Steven Weissman! Another great month full of great comics -- the Fantagraphics juggernaut juggers on!

At his blog, Derek Van Gieson presents some haunting teaser images from parts 2 and 3 of "The Devil Doll," his WWII story (written by Michael Jada) which will be serialized in upcoming volumes of Mome.

Portable Grindhouse won't be out until the late holidays but after a long delay I'm pleased to finally be sending Jacques Boyreau's baby off to press. What seemed like a good suggestion at the time-- to present these old beat up video tapes as austere artifacts (my "Richard Avedon" presentation according to Jacques)-- turned into a nightmare of production. But at last, rest easy VHS fans, this thing is going to press.

Featuring 200 pages of spreads showing the front and back of video boxes selected by Jacques, the book will also come inside a light cardboard slipcase, video box style. (Note, that's not the cover above (nor is the image at Amazon), that's just Flog filler.)