We've got a gorilla-sized weekend coming up at APE: the Alternative Press Expo in beautiful San Francisco, CA! Come see us on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd at the Concourse Exhibition Center, and be among the first to get your mitts on these hot numbers:

 • Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks
• Pogo, Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder" by Walt Kelly
• Oil & Water written by Steve Duin; art by Shannon Wheeler

[ WE TOLD YOU SO!!! ]

• Nuts by Gahan Wilson
• The Frank Book [New Hardcover Ed.] by Jim Woodring
• The Cabbie: Vol. 1 by Martí

• Ganges 4 by Kevin Huizenga
• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson
• Prince Valiant, Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster

Oh, you want a comic signed by an awesome artist, do you?

Saturday, October 1st
12-1 PM            Jesse Moynihan
12-1 PM            Malachi Ward
1-3 PM              Mark Kalesniko
2-3 PM             Shannon Wheeler
3-5 PM             Leslie Stein
5-6 PM             Esther Pearl Watson
5-6 PM             John Pham

Sunday, October 2nd
12-1 PM            Mark Kalesniko
12-1 PM            Malachi Ward
1-3 PM              Leslie Stein
2-3 PM             Shannon Wheeler
3-4 PM             Esther Pearl Watson
3-4 PM             Jesse Moynihan

You can find us in our usual spot at tables 112-115. (Right by our good friends Jim Blanchard and J.R. Williams at table 116!)

[ Please note: this is a chopped-up map, just to give you an idea where you can find us!  The Concourse Exhibition Center is too wide to fit on the FLOG, so check out a PDF map here. ]

And panels! Boy, do we have panels!

Saturday, October 1st

2:00 PM //  The Comix Claptrap . . . LIVE!
Co-hosts Rina Ayuyang and Thien Pham record an episode of their enlightening, riotous, and controversial podcast, The Comix Claptrap LIVE at APE! For four seasons, Rina and Thien have interviewed comics artists in the indie comics scene about their work, creative processes, and experiences in the industry. Each show has included New Comics Wednesday beat reportage from fellow cartoonist Josh Frankel, and new favorite segment, The Comix Cranktrap, where they crank-call a well-known cartoonist listed in their Rolodex. Also featured on the panel: Mike Dawson, Scott Campbell, Levon Jihanian, and Esther Pearl Watson. This panel promises to be total mayhem!

3:00 PM // A Discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine
Critically acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling cartoonists -- and APE special guests -- Daniel Clowes (The Death-Ray, Ghost World, Wilson) and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Shortcomings) are both professional peers and friends, having met over a decade ago when both lived in the East Bay. TheComicsJournal.com editor and PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel talks to the two artists about their work, their friendship, and the comics medium.

4:00 PM // Spotlight on Shannon Wheeler
From stapling 21,000 minicomics, to shooting comic books with a .22, to creating operas, to publishing cartoons with The New Yorker, APE special guest Shannon Wheeler must be drinking too much coffee, man. Recently, his collection of rejected cartoons I Thought You Would Be Funnier won the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication. Wheeler and his trusty sidekick BOOM! Studios marketing director Chip Mosher talk about the best ammunition to use on a comic, Japanese bootleg shirts, and drawing dead granddads in fishnet stockings with swastika panties. Shannon Wheeler once also created Too Much Coffee Man, so they'll probably talk about that, too.

6:00 PM // Drawing Inspiration: The Secrets of Comics Creativity
Ever wonder where your favorite author or artist gets his or her inspiration? Now you can find out as moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director, CBLDF) joins APE special guests Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Craig Thompson (Habibi), Matthew Thurber (1-800 MICE), and Shannon Wheeler (Oil and Water), plus Tom Neely (The Wolf) for an in-depth discussion of what gets their creative juices flowing and the secrets of what inspires them.

Sunday, October 2nd

12:00 PM // Indie Cartoonist Survival Guide: Part 3
Cartoonist Keith Knight moderates this panel (in its third appearance at APE), featuring a lineup of successful independent creators who share their stories, methods, techniques, trials, and tribulations concerning making a living as a so-called Indie Cartoonist. Shannon Wheeler (I Thought You Would Be Funnier), Dan Cooney (Dan Cooney Art), Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), and Rebecca Sugar (Pug Davis) all chime in.

The great Eric Reynolds will be manning the table, so come by and come buy! We'll see you at APE!

Remember that documentary that Eric was talking about last week, featuring interviews with Dan Clowes and Ivan Brunetti?

Well, I just got word from our friends at the Northwest Film Forum here in Seattle that it's screening there through September 29th! Holy crap, go see it.

APE: Alternative Press Expo is only a week-and-a-half away, on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco, CA!  Start making plans now to check out panels featuring these Fantagraphics artists:

Saturday, October 1st

3:00 PM // A Discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine
Critically acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling cartoonists -- and APE special guests -- Daniel Clowes (The Death-Ray, Ghost World, Wilson) and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Shortcomings) are both professional peers and friends, having met over a decade ago when both lived in the East Bay. TheComicsJournal.com editor and PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel talks to the two artists about their work, their friendship, and the comics medium.

4:00 PM // Spotlight on Shannon Wheeler
From stapling 21,000 minicomics, to shooting comic books with a .22, to creating operas, to publishing cartoons with The New Yorker, APE special guest Shannon Wheeler must be drinking too much coffee, man. Recently, his collection of rejected cartoons I Thought You Would Be Funnier won the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication. Wheeler and his trusty sidekick BOOM! Studios marketing director Chip Mosher talk about the best ammunition to use on a comic, Japanese bootleg shirts, and drawing dead granddads in fishnet stockings with swastika panties. Shannon Wheeler once also created Too Much Coffee Man, so they'll probably talk about that, too.

6:00 PM // Drawing Inspiration: The Secrets of Comics Creativity
Ever wonder where your favorite author or artist gets his or her inspiration? Now you can find out as moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director, CBLDF) joins APE special guests Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Craig Thompson (Habibi), Matthew Thurber (1-800 MICE), and Shannon Wheeler (Oil and Water), plus Tom Neely (The Wolf) for an in-depth discussion of what gets their creative juices flowing and the secrets of what inspires them.

Sunday, October 2nd

12:00 PM // Indie Cartoonist Survival Guide: Part 3
Cartoonist Keith Knight moderates this panel (in its third appearance at APE), featuring a lineup of successful independent creators who share their stories, methods, techniques, trials, and tribulations concerning making a living as a so-called Indie Cartoonist. Shannon Wheeler (I Thought You Would Be Funnier), Dan Cooney (Dan Cooney Art), Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), and Rebecca Sugar (Pug Davis) all chime in.

Looks like you can find us at our usual spot at APE, tables 112-115! (And yes, as usual, our good friends Jim Blanchard and J.R. Williams will be at table 116!)

[ Please note: this is a severely truncated map, just to give you an idea where you can find us!  The Concourse Exhibition Center is too wide to fit on the FLOG, so check out a PDF map here. ]

So, get ready for another exciting APE and stay tuned to the FLOG for more details, including our signing schedule and list of debuts!

I can't remember when I first heard the "Shut Up, Little Man" tapes, but it was almost certainly a cartoonist who introduced me to them, specifically either J.R. Williams, Jim Blanchard or Peter Bagge, all of whom were connoisseurs of the "prank call" genre and sated my growing appetite for same in the early 1990s by making me mix tapes (including the also-essential "Tube Bar" recordings that catapulted "Red the Bartender" into infamy as the inspiration for The Simpsons' Moe Szyslak). The "Shut Up Little Man" tapes weren't phone pranks, per se; they were better! Two hateful drunks chewing each other new assholes, over and over again, in such eloquently vicious fashion! Little could these two awful men know how their vitriol was bringing others together. It seemed like every alternative cartoonist in America had heard these tapes by the early 1990s, so it seems only fitting that Dan Clowes and Ivan Brunetti would be amongst those featured in a forthcoming documentary on the great Peter and Raymond. I can't wait to see this. [CBR video link]

Philip Nel, co-editor of our forthcoming collections of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby, has revealed details about the first volume of the series (coming in June 2012) by posting the relevant pages from our Spring-Summer 2012 catalog on his blog. (Note that the cover design shown is not Daniel Clowes's actual design for the book.)

We're still planning on revealing more info about our complete Spring/Summer 2012 lineup in the near future — stay tuned!

Comics fans in Charlotte, NC, surely Heroes Aren't Hard to Find is your #1 comics shopping destination and surely you keep up with all the happenings there so this is surely not news to you, BUT ANYWAY they are having a discussion group meeting on September 24 to talk about Daniel Clowes's Ghost World, and they're offering a 10% discussion-group discount on Ghost World: Special Edition (which is already available in comic shops at a newly reduced price)! More info & details here.

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.