Blurbs, "Babe" and big bucks in this episode of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book features two full-length stories, 'The Leaking Cello Case' and 'John Wesley Harding.' Both stories start off in the every day then morph into oddball mysteries that never go quite where you expect them to. As odd as some of the capers and misadventures get they are always conveyed with a kind of casual, deadpan poker face that manages to make them all the more believable. ... The art is a curious mix of cartoonish realism, and the city of Cape Town is vividly portrayed... Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read for the mystery/crime comic fan looking for something a bit different than the harder noir stuff that seems to dominate these days." – Brian Lindenmuth, BSCreview

• Review: "...[T]he appearance this week in bookstores of Hans Rickheit’s comix masterpiece, The Squirrel Machine, is a genuine milestone in the... artistic business of reconciling one’s inside to one’s outside, so much so that I must confess that I am truly taken aback by Rickheit’s entire effort, in the best sense of the word. This carefully constructed tale... strikes me as being one of the few original works of art that I’ve seen published in North America over the last two decades, on a par with the better work of Dan Clowes or Charles Burns. ... This is not a tale for the squeamish nor is it a tale for the literal-minded; it is very much a bravura performance in the tradition of Surrealism, or Fantastic Art, or even Symbolism... In short, strongly recommended!" – Mahendra Singh

• Feature: Matthew J. Brady presents "12 Things I Learned from Supermen!" including "In these stories, disbelief must often not only be suspended, but strung up and mercilessly whipped, then drawn and quartered"

• Events: At his blog, Tom Kaczynski (Mome) reports from the Zak Sally/John Porcellino reading/book launch in Minneapolis last weekend

• Things to see: Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine presents a Boody Rogers "Babe" story that does not appear in our Craig Yoe-edited Boody book (via Stephen Thompson at Yoe's Super I.T.C.H. blog)

• Things to see: Halloween greetings from Richard Sala!

• $$$: Via The Beat, somebody sold a mint slabbed copy of Albedo #2 (1st appearance of Usagi Yojimbo) on eBay for $5100, making it possibly the most expensive Fantagraphics comic ever sold (corrections welcome); Stan Sakai comments on his LiveJournal

Is July really over already? Hoo-ee, time sure flies when you're compiling Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Based on his research, interviews, and personal experiences in Palastinian Occupied Territories in 1991 and 92, [Joe Sacco]'s comic [Palestine] takes you there and gives you a first-hand account of the atrocities and suffering in the conflict with Israel. He gives you a close up visual rendering of the physical and emotional conditions of the people, who struggle daily for survival... Sacco has rendered the terrible conditions of life into a compelling and sympathetic artistic documentary. It is sad, but most good stories are sad... What’s better, his drawing is detailed and realistic, very approachable and interesting." - American in Auckland

• Review: "Either you think Michael Kupperman's stuff is hilarious or you don't. And if you don't, well, that's sad, because you suck and you have no friends... Kupperman has created a world with its own humor/"Dadaist" vibe, as he puts it in one meta-strip, and no critical breakdown can really relate its LOL-charm... Much of the charm resides in his art, heavily hatched, shadowed, stippled, and Benday-dotted in an old-fashioned style. He slams the retro up against his postmodern wisecracks, and it works nearly every time... This new omnibus of all four of his can't-miss gems from Fantagraphics not only makes it easy to get his out-of-print stuff, it's the only way to go—that's because the reprints are in color for the first time, and it just looks really nice." - Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "The Wolverton Bible is a collection of drawings that Basil Wolverton did for Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. I've been hoping for a collection of these drawings for ages... What a great collection. The drawings are nicely printed, very black, on nice white paper... The book is sturdy and feels good... This is a windfall. It's a wonderful additon to any art collection." - Garth Danielson, Primitive Screwheads

• Interview: "[Craig] Yoe revels in the hidden histories of comics, and not just because they’re money at the movies. In Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers, published by Fantagraphics earlier this year, the historian has helped uncover one of comics’ left-field treasures. 'Boody’s comics could survive a nuclear holocaust,' Yoe wisecracked. 'Silliness, sex and surrealism. Why can’t all so-called comic books be like this?'" - Scott Thill, Wired

• Preview: Previews spotlights a selection of pages from the latest volume in The Complete Peanuts (1973-1974)

• Plug: Joe Matt holds forth on camera about our Popeye series (and his favorite DVDs) for Amoeba's "What's in Your Bag?" video series

• Plug: At Akimbo, Robert Dayton mentions the Trevor Von Eeden review in The Comics Journal #298

• Things to see: Tom Kaczynski draws Zak Sally (and reports from the release party for Zak's new album Fear of Song)

• Comic-Con/Things to see: Rickey Purdin's Watchmen con sketchbook filled up with FBI artists (Johnny Ryan, Esther Pearl Watson, Jordan Crane) and friends (Mark Todd, Sammy Harkham & more) at San Diego (via Sean T. Collins)

• Comic-Con: There's a special Fantagraphics guest star in Drawn & Quarterly's con photos

Pay attention: there's some must-read stuff in today's Online Commentary & Diversions!

• Review: "Castle Waiting #15 - I love that Linda Medley is completely ignoring what makes her setting so interesting for the D&D set and focusing on the characters." - Kevin Church

• Review: "Although aiming at twenty-somethings also interested in getting laid, getting wasted and getting rich, [in Rocky Vol. 2] Kellerman nonetheless manages to move beyond the ever-fertile grounds of the battle of the sexes, bodily functions and morning-after guilt-trips to produce a lot of work that is truly fresh, funny and uniquely personal." - Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

• Review: "Just like Heartbreak Soup and Locas, Luba is hard to put down, and Beto’s art gets better as it gets more experimental... there’s tons of good material here, and the humongous format can’t be beat in terms of bang for your buck." - The A.V. Club

• Review: "The 'family history' graphic novel subgenre can feel overdone at times... but volume one of Carol Tyler’s autobiographical You’ll Never Know is the kind of smartly conceived, affectingly personal work that makes comics and memoirs look fresh... Carol Tyler works wonders with colored pencils and offbeat page designs... the breadth of her visual imagination is so impressive that... overreach is excusable. Also impressive: the thematic complexity of You’ll Never Know... [Grade] A-" - The A.V. Club

• Review: "The handsome hardcover collection The Brinkley Girls brings together a generous sampling of [Nell] Brinkley’s work, leaning heavy on her stories of industrious women and the he-men they love... Brinkley’s art is so drop-dead gorgeous that readers may long to razor out every page to hang on the wall. [Grade] A-" - The A.V. Club (same link as above)

• Review: "...the fantastic Brinkley Girls hardcover put out by Fantagraphics... you would be doing yourself a favor by checking it out. Curse you Fantagraphics, I'm trying to save money you bastards." - This Is Why I Hate You

• Review: "Sally gets the cover in this 11th volume of The Complete Peanuts... Schulz is still in top form here in my opinion. There are few books I laugh at more, or enjoy more thoroughly than these fine collections. Highly recommended!" - Todd Klein

• Preview: Our advance hype for Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 has been translated to Español by Cuidadano Pop

• Preview: Robot 6 runs through our Fall/Winter catalog, offering commentary on each upcoming title. A must-read!

• Profile: In The Jewish Standard, Gary VandenBergh looks at the life and career of his father-in-law, Will Elder. Another must-read!

• Interview: The Inkstuds radio program talks with Craig Yoe about his most recent editorial projects, including Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Interview: The CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog talks to Ellen Forney and her collaborators in the Capitol Hill art walk about last night's event

• History: Fantagraphics rules 1989-1990 in the "Modern Timeline of Events within the Comics/Movies Industry" from New Destiny Comics

• Things to see: Arlen Specter by Drew Friedman for The New Republic

Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers
Edited by Craig Yoe

Bizarre, wacky, weird, wild and sexy — these are just a few of the adjectives that describe the cartooning of Boody Rogers. Before there were underground comics, Boody Rogers dug deep into breaking the rules; before their was low-brow art, Boody created art that hit hard below the brow. Rogers’s pen and ink outré raucousness was wrapped into great stories, beautifully drawn art, and hilarious gags. Fans of Boody Rogers’s Golden age comic book stories span generations of cartoonists, from Robert Williams to Art Spiegelman to Johnny Ryan. Spiegelman printed Rogers’s work in RAW magazine and recently it also appeared in the anthology book Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries (Abrams). Here at last is a single book devoted to this cult comics hero, collecting Rogers's best Sparky Watts, Babe and Dudley stories, as well as much more. This beautifully designed tome also includes an introduction and comic-strip appreciation by editor Craig Yoe (Arf).

144-page full-color 7.5” x 10” softcover • $19.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

• Review: The A.V. Club "Comics Panel" likes Mome Vol. 14, saying of two featured stories, "Both [Dash Shaw and Lilli Carré] combine striking illustration with a nuanced sense of place and character for a winning mix of the classic and the progressive."

• Review: At the same link, The A.V. Club "Comics Panel" finds Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers "wild" and says the stories "read like uneasy fever dreams punctuated by cornpone gags. They aren’t funny ha-ha or funny strange, they’re funny with a touch of madness."

• Review: Italian site Il Sole 24 Ore says our collection of Mort Walker & Jerry Dumas's Sam's Strip is "exceptional... As always, the presentation of Fantagraphics is superb and worth sharing," according to the Google translation

• Profile: Gurldoggie spotlights Dame Darcy in anticipation of her appearance at our store tomorrow night

• Interview: Video blog 3-Minute Egg talks to Zak Sally at the MOMEntum exhibit opening at MCAD last weekend

• Interview: Newsarama talks to editor Craig Yoe about Boody

• Things to see: The Fabuleous Fifties presents a nice selection of uncollected Sparky Watts newspaper strips by Boody Rogers

• Michael C. Lorah's "Top Eleven: Best of 2008" at Newsarama includes The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez and Deitch's Pictorama by the brothers Deitch

• On Jog's "Twenty 'Hot Ones' from 2008" best-of list: Mome Vol. 12 (#18), Angry Youth Comix #14 by Johnny Ryan (#9), and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga (#7)

• Comic Book Resources' new multi-author blog Robot 6 presents their "favorite comics of 2008," which include Tom Bondurant's choice of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw; Chris Mautner giving Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" by E.C. Segar the top spot; and Tim O'Shea including The Lagoon by Lilli Carré and Daddy's Girl by Debbie Drechsler

• The Oklahoman's "top 10 periodical comic book series of 2008" places "the comics of Kevin Huizenga" at #4

• In their "Bull Tongue" column for Arthur Magazine, Thurston Moore & Byron Coley check out Town of Mirrors by Robert Pollard and declare it "stunning"

• Newsarama talks to Craig Yoe about Boody Rogers and our upcoming Yoe-edited collection of Rogers's work, Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should Be Good" spotlights the comics of Michael "Tales Designed to Thrizzle" Kupperman

• LIT MOB looks at The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• The Northwest Science Fiction Society takes note of Beasts! Book 2

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents part 2 of their 3-part interview with Bob Fingerman

• Douglas Wolk has started sharing pages from his convention sketchbook; here's Roger Langridge

• Looking for our books in Tokyo? When Comic Books Ruled the Earth recommends Tower Records in Shibuya

• According to Boing Boing, "snoopy" is the 192nd worst password of all time (beating out "buddy" but just behind "chester")

Editor Craig Yoe is seeking material for The Great Anti-War Cartoons, a 120-page black & white hardcover we're publishing next year. Visit Craig's site for more information and a preview slideshow.

While going through some of Craig Yoe's comic books here at the office I came across a particularly great example of the old pulp coloring. Why they didn't bother to just build the entirety of the suit's black color with cyan I don't know... (That's a Boody Rogers comic page.)

 UPDATE: "Jacob, Man, you and Frank Santoro should have a blog where you just say stuff that doesn't make sense to anyone." - Tom Devlin.

We're begining production on a collection of Boody Rogers comics, edited by Arf's Craig Yoe (who I recently learned lives in the castle that was used as the girls school on the TV show The Facts of Life). Opening up the first comic on the stack I saw some scratchy handwriting at the bottom of the first page and thought about how many comics I come across that are defaced by kids' scribbles.

Then I realized this old comic isn't from my collection or yours, it's from Craig Yoe's collection. So of course that's Boody's handwriting...