Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...Yeah! is a surprisingly delightful fun fantasy of kicky pop music, weird alien fans, and evil twin competition bands.... Witty, high-spirited, and thoroughly fun, it’s the greatest Saturday morning cartoon adventure that never was. Although originally in color, Fantagraphics has reprinted the series in black-and white. It’s a sound artistic (Gilbert’s art is bold and vibrant in its original inks) and economic (keeping the price under $20) decision, and while purists may argue otherwise, a black-and-white Yeah! will appeal to teens, young girls, and manga fans: a whole new market for this sadly under-lauded comic." – guest contributor Bully the Little Stuffed Bull (with help from John DiBello), Robot 6

• Plug: Greg Burgas, for his monthly browse through the Previews catalog for Comic Book Resources, notes "Our Dread Lord and Master will be happy, because Fantagraphics has the seventh issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle on page 297. It stars Quincy, M.E.! Of course it does."

• Plugs: Panel Patter's Rob McMonigal spotlights a number of our 2011 releases as recommendations for SPX purchases, saying "It is stupidly easy to spend money with Fantagraphics, because they put out so many great books every year."

• List: Leading off Chris Mautner's "Six Great Superhero Comics by Unlikely Cartoonists" at Robot 6, it's Daniel Clowes's "The Death Ray" from Eightball #23 and Jaime Hernandez's "Ti-Girls Adventures" from Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-2

• Links: Another comprehensive roundup of Love and Rockets-related links at the Love & Maggie blog

• Reviewer: For The Wall Street Journal, Alexander Theroux reviews Tom Perrotta's novel The Leftovers

Daniel Clowes has been awarded the very prestigious 2011 PEN Literary Award for Outstanding Body of Work in Graphic Literature. Congrats Dan, and well done PEN Awards judges.

These two books are available at comic shops today — and to order direct from us — at new reduced prices! This is not a sale but a permanent price reduction! They're the exact same books as before — the only thing that's changed is the price tag.

We've lowered the price of Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes from $39.99 to $25.00! This deluxe hardcover includes the original graphic novel, the Oscar-nominated screenplay of the film adaptation, and tons of bonus artwork and ephemera.

And we've slashed Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons by 40%, from $125.oo to $75.00! This hefty 3-volume set collects Wilson's complete Playboy work in full color, all wrapped up in a unique slipcase with a plexiglas window.

A few blog mentions:

"There’s also a nice $25 super-deluxe edition of Ghost World and a new $75 edition of that great Gahan Wilson Playboy collection that you really should get cause it’s totes awesome." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"...[N]ew and what one guesses is more attractive pricing for the Ghost World edition and the Gahan Wilson boxed set, both of which should be in just about any serious cartoon library." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Crush the ones you love with Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, a three-volume slipcased set now repriced to $75.00. Also, Dan Clowes’ Ghost World: Special Edition is now $25.00. Diamond does not have the new Jacques Tardi (Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot ) listed for release, but keep an eye out!" – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal

Russ informs us that punk legend Exene Cervenka of X fame dropped by Fantagraphics Bookstore on Monday evening with Phil Alvin of the Blasters to do some record and comix shopping. Visiting Seattle to perform at Neumos with X bandmate John Doe, Exene was reportedly pleased to find a copy of Talk to Her, a collection of interviews conducted by Krisitne McKenna. Exene is interviewed, along with counterculture celebrities like Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Allen Ginsberg, Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Chrissie Hynde, Joe Sacco, Elvis Costello, Walter Hopps, and Richard Hell, among others. The book includes portraits of interview subjects by Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Tony Millionaire and more. Pick one up. You won't be able to put it down.

P. S. Fans of X, The Blasters and other pioneering punk rawk acts would do well to get Destroy All Movies!!!: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film, which includes interviews with Exene and John Doe, a forward by Richard Hell, and chronicles countless cultural milestones. Essential.

Daniel Clowes fan Kevin Scully shared this pic of his brand-new tattoo of the Value Ape mascot from Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron with us on Twitter just in time for us to tell him — and all of you — about this: our pal Alvin Buenaventura, who's editing the forthcoming book The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist for Abrams, is searching for any and all tattoos of Clowes artwork for possible inclusion in the book! See all the submission details here, and share your Eightball ink with the world!

At his blog, Jason writes "My German publisher, Reprodukt, is celebrating their 20 years of existence by having an exhibition in Berlin. They have asked their artists to draw a page from one of the books that have been published, a book by another artist. I chose to do a page from Daniel Clowes' Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron." That sound you just heard is me and a few thousand other comics nerds collapsing with the vapors.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Twentieth Century Eightball (3rd Printing)
by Daniel Clowes

100-page 6.75" x 10.25" black & white/color softcover • $19.00
ISBN: 978-1-56097-436-9

See Previews / Order Now

Twentieth Century Eightball collects the very best humor strips from Eightball, written and drawn between 1988 and 1996. Included within are such seminal strips/rants as "I Hate You Deeply," "Sexual Frustration," "Ugly Girls," "Why I Hate Christians," "Message to the People of the Future," "Paranoid," "My Suicide," "Chicago," and over three dozen more. Other favorites include "Art School Confidential," one of Clowes' most popular strips of all time, which was adapted into a major motion picture that re-teamed Clowes with Ghost World director Terry Zwigoff. Also included is Clowes' hilariously Freudian deconstruction of professional athletes, "On Sports," which caused a stir in San Antonio when reprinted in the city's most popular weekly paper, prompting an advertising boycott and demands for the paper to be destroyed by local sports fans. Also on display is Clowes' absurdist sense of humor, from strips like "Zubrick and Pogeybait" and "Hippypants and Peace-Bear" to "Grip Glutz," "The Sensual Santa," and "Feldman."

Noted comics historian Roger Sabin, author of Phaidon's Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels, calls Eightball a "corrosively satirical vision of an America cracking apart, and confirms Clowes as a worthy successor to the underground greats of the 1960s." While Clowes' legion of admirers continues to grow along with the author's maturity as an artist, many longtime fans frequently cite Clowes' bitterly humorous work to be amongst his very best. With over 40 pages in color and many of these strips having been out-of-print for years, Twentieth Century Eightball has proven to be one of Clowes' most popular books of the twenty-first century.

2003 Harvey Award Winner, Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work

Cineplex Manager: What the hell is wrong with you?
Enid : What? I was just joking around with the customers. It's my schtick.
Cineplex Manager : Well, lose it! And why aren't you pushing the larger sizes? Didn't you get training about upsizing?
Enid : Yeah. But I feel really weird. It's pretty sleazy.
Cineplex Manager : It's not OPTIONAL!
[he leaves her]
Enid : [rolls her eyes] Jesus.
[a customer comes up to the counter]
Soda Customer : Hi, can I get a medium 7-Up?
Enid : Medium? Why sir, do you not know that for a mere 25 cents more you can purchase a large beverage? And you know, I'm only telling because we're such good friends, medium is really only for suckers who don't know the concept of value.

-- Ghost World, 2001

Ohmygod. The film version of Ghost World celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Yeah, I'll just give you a second to feel really weird and old about that, like I feel right now. When Fanta Marketing Director Mike Baehr and I first moved to Seattle in 2001, we immediately went to the now-defunct Neptune Theatre to see this film before we even unpacked the moving truck! 

Anyway.

Fantagraphics is teaming up with Reading Cinemas and the San Diego Film Critics Society to present a special 10th Anniversary screening of Ghost World at the Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15 on Saturday, July 23 at 9:00 PM, in glorious 35mm! Thank you, Scott!

Admission is only $5 lousy bucks, and there will be a post-screening Q&A and discussion after the film! 

And do I even need to mention that we'll have the Ghost World: Special Edition and other fine Daniel Clowes books at Booth #1718 at the San Diego Comic Con?

For us out-of-towners, the Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15 is located at 701 5th Avenue, within walking distance from the San Diego Convention Center. Mike and I will definitely see you there.

Update: OHMYGOD, and did I mention actress THORA BIRCH will be there?! Yes!!! Let's ask her for the behind-the-scenes scoop on Dan! Trust me people, you're gonna want to get your tickets early... This WILL sell out.

During a pig roast party in Georgetown last Saturday night, Jim Woodring and Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid ran into the proud owner of Fantagraphics old delivery truck. At a 1991 signing at Fallout, this white Econoline van was adorned with exquisite images by Woodring, Daniel Clowes, the Hernandez Brothers, Peter Bagge, Roberta Gregory, Aline Komisnky-Crumb, Michael Dougan, Paul Mavrides and R. Crumb, who lettered his famous "Keep on Truckin" phrase on the front bumper. The van was sold for a song and sat derelict for years, but the owner reported that restoration of the historic vehicle began two weeks ago. We'll keep you posted.

Twentieth Century Eightball (3rd Printing)
by Daniel Clowes

100-page 6.75" x 10.25" black & white/color softcover • $19.00
ISBN: 978-1-56097-436-9

Ships in: July 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Twentieth Century Eightball collects the very best humor strips from Eightball, written and drawn between 1988 and 1996. Included within are such seminal strips/rants as "I Hate You Deeply," "Sexual Frustration," "Ugly Girls," "Why I Hate Christians," "Message to the People of the Future," "Paranoid," "My Suicide," "Chicago," and over three dozen more. Other favorites include "Art School Confidential," one of Clowes' most popular strips of all time, which was adapted into a major motion picture that re-teamed Clowes with Ghost World director Terry Zwigoff. Also included is Clowes' hilariously Freudian deconstruction of professional athletes, "On Sports," which caused a stir in San Antonio when reprinted in the city's most popular weekly paper, prompting an advertising boycott and demands for the paper to be destroyed by local sports fans. Also on display is Clowes' absurdist sense of humor, from strips like "Zubrick and Pogeybait" and "Hippypants and Peace-Bear" to "Grip Glutz," "The Sensual Santa," and "Feldman."

Noted comics historian Roger Sabin, author of Phaidon's Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels, calls Eightball a "corrosively satirical vision of an America cracking apart, and confirms Clowes as a worthy successor to the underground greats of the 1960s." While Clowes' legion of admirers continues to grow along with the author's maturity as an artist, many longtime fans frequently cite Clowes' bitterly humorous work to be amongst his very best. With over 40 pages in color and many of these strips having been out-of-print for years, Twentieth Century Eightball has proven to be one of Clowes' most popular books of the twenty-first century.

2003 Harvey Award Winner, Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work

Download and read a 12-page PDF excerpt (2.2 MB) including "Art School Confidential," "Cool Your Jets," "Ectomorph," "The Truth" and "Ink Studs."

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