If you're gonna have an ideal society, you're gonna need some Ron Regé Jr. comics in it. Fortunately, The Cartoon Utopia is coming your way soon to show you the way with its visionary blending of sci-fi, philosophy, visual poetry, and social manifesto. We're pleased to be debuting Ron's latest eye-popping, mind-expanding opus at SPX next month, and it should be arriving in stores in late October. In the meantime you can feast your eyes on a 13-page excerpt and pre-order a copy here.

That's right, it's the first volume in an all-new, all-original fantasy saga by the great Lewis Trondheim! Advance copies of Ralph Azham Vol. 1: Why Would You Lie to Someone You Love? arrived here at HQ a couple days ago and here's your first peek at a copy. Ralph is an erstwhile "chosen one" who's gone to seed a little bit but is called back to adventure when his village is threatened by a horrific invasion force. Action and hilarity ensues! The book should be out in October — stay tuned for more previews, and be among the first to pre-order a copy now!

Delivered early yesterday, our advance copies of The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008, an innovative new collection that spotlights the intersection of art and language. If you're wondering "What is this 'vispo' of which you speak?" we have a nice big 35-page excerpt, including introductory essays by editors Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill, on the book's dedicated page, which you can peruse to get a sense of this fascinating art form — and of course we have more previews in the works. Scheduled for October release, the book is available for pre-order right now.

Pretty book alert! The first bound copy of Lilli Carré's story collection Heads or Tails showed up at the office late last week. It's a gorgeous package containing Lilli's short stories from Mome and elsewhere, along with new material. With a unique visual style and a literary, poetic storytelling sensibility, along with an experimental streak informed by her work in illustration and animation, Lilli is a singular young talent and we're thrilled to be collecting her comics work. The book is due in early November, give or take. Stay tuned for more previews & sneak peeks; learn more about the book and pre-order a copy (with a money-saving offer on Lilli's acclaimed 2008 debut The Lagoon) here.

Chris Wright writes: "My second book, and first 'graphic novel' Blacklung, will, if all goes according to plan, be debuting at SPX in September. I didn’t feel like drawing new comics one day, so I drew these promotional poster type things instead." It'd be nice to have some printed copies to give away at our SPX table — I'll see if we can make that happen. In the meantime, you can read a 12-page excerpt and pre-order a copy of the book right here.

I should've photographed them together to give the proper sense of scale, but here are your first glimpses of companion volumes The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here: Images from the Graphic Novel and Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook, and Me, both by Malcolm McNeill. In the former, see the stunning artwork McNeill created for his great "lost" unpublished collaboration with William S. Burroughs; and in the latter, read all about their collaboration in McNeill's own words — a story so great it had to be contained in its own book. Both books will debut at SPX next month and should arrive in stores in October; we'll have more previews to share before then. You can pre-order each book from us now and save $14 by purchasing them as a set.

The final book in Carol Tyler's Eisner and Ignatz-nominated, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-finalist You'll Never Know trilogy, Soldier's Heart, will be debuting at SPX next month and arriving in stores in October. We received our advance copies here at Fantagraphics HQ late last week and let me tell you, even just at first glance, Carol's artwork is even more breathtaking than the first two volumes, which, if you've seen them, is saying something. Stay tuned for more previews and pre-order your copy today.

Shipments of advance copies of more of our September books have been pouring into the office over the last couple of weeks and I've plunked them down on my desk here in our glamorous offices and taken a few snapshots for you:

Barack Hussein Obama, Steven Weissman's acclaimed webcomic now collected in this lavish hardcover! Part absurdist satire, part old-fashioned gag strip, part Lovecraftian horror, part thinly-veiled autobiography, all amazing!

Naked Cartoonists: Drawers Drawing Themselves Without Drawers — a hilarious and revealing collection of self-portraits of over 70 world-famous cartoonists in the buff, from the collection of Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel.

The Raven by Lorenzo Mattotti & Lou Reed — an inspired collaboration with Reed's words and Mattotti's images, based on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, now in a new paperback edition!

Also in a new paperback edition after several years out of print, Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977, collecting two decades of Crumb's personal correspondence. A powerful view into the mind of an artistic genius!

And we already gave you a peek at these from the floor of Comic-Con, but what the heck, here they are in our office:

Buz Sawyer Vol. 2: Sultry's Tiger by Roy Crane...

...and Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez. Woo!

Hello from San Diego, where we've unpacked the following never-before-seen debut books today (which will all be available to non-Comic-Con-goers in a couple of months at most):

Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez! Our esteemed colleague Heidi MacDonald of The Beat happened by as we were unpacking, saw our stacks of this new volume, and declared it "book of the show" already — you heard it here first!

Buz Sawyer Vol. 2: Sultry's Tiger by Roy Crane — The adventures don't slow down for our flyboy hero in the post-war years as he tangles with the titular femme fatale, tries to foil an insane ex-Nazi, goes in search of ancient Mayan treasure and gets kidnapped to Africa!

The Cavalier Mr. Thompson: A Sam Hill Novel by Rich Tommaso — we're pleased to be distributing this Kickstarter-funded, self-published graphic novel, a nifty early-20th-century period piece starring a hotel dick and a grifter who turns Big Spring, Texas upside-down.

We're expecting delivery of more hot-off-the-press debuts in the morning; in the meantime, booth setup proceeds apace in preparation for Preview Night opening tomorrow. It's a good thing these tables are strong.

Seeing is believing! After a loooooooooong wait we're extremely excited to finally be able to hold Gary Panter's Dal Tokyo in our hands as our advance copies were delivered late last week. This green monster (measuring over 16" wide) collects the long-running punk/sci-fi strip in all its confounding visual and verbal richness in one giant volume. We're looking forward to showing you more — stay tuned for our full set of previews. The book is scheduled to hit stores in September — if you buy it via our mail-order you can be among the first to get it if you pre-order now.