Wednesday, April 3rd

• Seattle, WA:  Well, read the sign! Jen Vaughn, our most marvelous Marketing/PR/Outreach Fiend, is teaming up with her best friend Nomi Kane for a comics art show at Chocolati Cafe [ 1716 N. 45th Street ]. Join them for the opening reception tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, but even if you can't, you'll still have until Friday, May 3rd to see their exhibit! (more info)

Friday, April 5th

• Brooklyn, NY:  Join Dash Shaw at Desert Island for an exhibition of original art, a signing of 3 New Stories, the unveiling of a beautiful new print, and it's Dash Shaw's birthday! Cake! (more info)

Saturday, April 6th

• New York City, NY:  MoCCA MoCCA MoCCA! Come visit us at tables B64, B65, C80, C81, with special guests Bill Griffith, Dash Shaw, James Romberger, Kim Deitch, Leslie Stein, and Marguerite Van Cook! And catch a panel with Bill Griffith at 1:00 PM today. (more info)

Sunday, April 7th

• Brooklyn, NY: It's your last day to check out A Little Knotty, an art show by our own Dave Cooper showing at the Cotton Candy Machine! Take in the original watercolored drawings, inkings, new prints and fun merchandise while you can! (more info)

• New York City, NY: And it's your last day to visit us at MoCCA, at tables B64, B65, C80, C81 -- right in front as you walk through the main entrance! (more info)

Join Dave Cooper tonight, Friday, March 8th for the opening reception of his art show A Little Knotty at the Cotton Candy Machine in Brooklyn! Dave, himself, will be in attendance to sign your well-worn copies of Bent or Ripple! 

He'll be joined by artist Troy Nixey, debuting his own show Dead Inventors, and the two gentlemen will display original watercolored drawings, inkings, new prints and some fun merchandise. The reception runs from 7:00 to 11:00 PM.

If you can't make it this Friday, the exhibit will be on display through April 7th, 2013.  Tara McPherson's Cotton Candy Machine is located at 235 South 1st Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, near the Bedford & Lorimer L, Metropolitan G, and Marcy JMZ Subway stops.

Word's been buzzing around for a while that Dave Cooper & Johnny Ryan were developing an animated show for kids together and once we picked the pieces of our heads up off the floor we've all been eager to see the results. Well here it is, and now we have pieces of head all over the place again. PigGoatBananaMantis! was written by Johnny, art-directed by Dave, and animated by Nick Cross. (See the full list of credits on the YouTube page.) What do they call this, a pitch reel? Demo? I dunno, but whatever cable network executive passed on this is an IDIOT.

Fantagraphics won't be at this weekend's Heroes Con ourselves, but some of our artists sure will be! If you're in the Charlotte, NC-area, head out to the Charlotte Convention Center and meet 'em in the "Indie Island"!

• Jeffrey Brown | AA-417
• Dave Cooper | AA-515
• Colleen Coover | AA-113
• Jaime Hernandez | AA-415

• Roger Langridge | AA-220
• Jim Rugg | AA-537
• Rich Tommaso | AA-422
• Drew Weing | AA-444

You can even catch our artists in some panels, if you're so inclined!

Saturday, June 23rd

• 12:30 PM // Approaches to Humor, Room 203A: Sure the Convention is HeroesCon, but let’s never forget the funny side of the comic book world.  Join The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald as she sits down with three of the very best cartoonists in the business.  They are able to me us smile and even laugh out loud Roger Langridge (The Muppets, Fred the Clown) and Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) and newcomer Tim Rickard (Brewster Rockit: Space Guy).

• 2:00 PM // Echoes of ‘82, Room 209: This year, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Heroes Con, cartoonist Ben Towle and blogger Craig Fischer turn their attention to 1982, and ask: What are the comics, and comics events, from 30 years ago that continue to influence comics culture today? Ben and Craig zero in on three — Destroyer Duck #1, Love and Rockets #1, and the demise of Warren Publications early in 1982 — and they’ve asked an all-star roster of creators (Jaime Hernandez, Louise Simonson) and commentators (Stergios Botzakis, Toney Frazier, Heidi MacDonald, Andrew Mansell) to join them in discussing these and other comics. We’ll also beam in some off-site commentary from Kirby experts Steve Bissette, Geoff Grogan, Charles Hatfield, John Morrow and James Sturm. With a lineup like that, how can you resist pulling on your leg warmers and joining us for the fun?

Saturday, June 23rd

• 3:30 PM // Dave Cooper & Dave Johnson, Room 208AB: Two great artists sit down to talk technique, inspiration and influences.  And what is better than a Dave?  Two Daves!!! That’s what.  This is going to be a great hour.  Join us. 

It's an official announcement: Dave Cooper has entered into a development deal with TELETOON and Radical Sheep Productions for The Bagel and Becky Show, an animated TV program based on Bagel's Lucky Hat, Dave's children's book under his nom de plume Hector Mumbly. Dave says "just keep in mind this is 'development' not 'going into production' yet. Please cross all your fingers and toes for me over the next several months!!" Congrats and good luck Dave!

In more Dave news, check out this badass silkscreen poster he did for a 2010 Mastodon gig, which you can now buy from him (and don't forget about his "weekly art offering" too):

"forty dave cooper characters for Paris, 2011"
Serigraph Print, edition of 85
19.5 x 27.5″
Rivoli paper, acid free, 280 gr. 1 colour
$78

More info, close-up and signing pics, and a link to buy are all on Dave's blog. Suh-weet.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Any new work from Norwegian cartoonist Jason is worthy of a comics fan’s full attention, but the new, all-original short-story collection Athos in America is one of the best books of Jason’s career, which automatically makes it one of the best books of this year." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "...Joost Swarte... brought a nose-thumbing avant-garde sensibility to 'ligne claire' style Eurocomics in the ’70s and ’80s, even before he landed stories in the seminal art-comics anthology Raw. Is That All There Is? collects nearly 150 pages of Swarte’s most groundbreaking work... With his architectural sense of design and his punk-rock attitude, Swarte fused craft and nihilistic flippancy in stories about adventurers, harlots, musicians, and scientists, creating true 'modern art.'" – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "About all that was missing from Blake Bell’s 2010 Bill Everett biography Fire & Water was extended samples of Everett’s artist’s actual comics. Bell now remedies that by serving as editor on Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives Vol. 1... These publications rode the superhero wave initiated by the companies that would later become DC and Marvel, and while they didn’t withstand the test of time, they’re still a kick to read, buoyed by their no-nonsense action plots and by Everett’s propensity for drawing narrow figures poised to commit acts of violence." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: At The Unshelved Book Club, Gene Ambaum looks at Joe Daly's The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book in that site's unique format

• Review: "This collection is the ultimate love letter to all those 1960s kid comic books, but with a modern twist.... Each person is a well-defined character with strong flaws and backgrounds. With so much diversity, there is bound to be at least one character you will like.... If you are looking for a kid-friendly book with some charm, go ahead and pick [Yeah!] up." – Kevin Brown, City Book Review

• Profile: Steve Appleford of the Los Angeles Times (via a few of their suburban affiliates like the Glendale News Press) visits Tony Millionaire in his garage studio: "In his introduction to 500 Portraits, Millionaire writes that life experience has taught him that 85% of all people are 'bogus' or worse. In the garage, he describes himself as misanthropic, but admits his drawings often suggest otherwise. 'As it turns out, you can tell by looking at these portraits, I obviously love people — even the [jerks]. Hitler's done very lovingly,' he says. 'I think it's nice to have the juxtaposition of my disgust for humanity mixed with my obvious love for humanity. You can't draw like that if you really hate something.'"

• Profile: The Ottawa Citizen's Bruce Deachman catches up with Dave Cooper: "'There are different facets of my creative mind,' he says. 'I feel I need a lot of contrast, so I have all these things happening, but they’re all necessary to make me feel satisfied. It’s got to be this big pot happening, with everything boiling at once. It’s therapy for me,' he adds. 'I don’t see ever wanting to retire from the thing that I love to death.'" There's a short video, too, which Dave has posted on his blog

• Plug: Robot 6's Brigid Alverson is partway through Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals: "Woodring’s art has a real solidity to it and like the best surrealists, he creates unreal shapes and figures that seem real—he has figured out how to make new bodily orifices that mimic the old and yet are totally different. Like visions in a dream, they are convincing and false at the same time."

• Plug: CHS Capitol Hill Seattle has a great feature on and chat with Cathy Hillenbrand and our upcoming retrospective celebration of her publishing venture Real Comet Press

• List: Bill Jones of Pads & Panels names his Best Comic Books of 2011 including Isle of 100,000 Graves...

"Jason teams up with Fabien Vehlmann to craft a dark comedy about someone following a mysterious map in a bottle to and island where something strange is happening. The premise itself is a spoiler, as it’s a laugh-out-loud moment when the reader finds out what is going on. Jason’s work is as stellar as ever, just with a lot more dialogue this time around."

...and Safe Area Gorazde: The Special Edition:

"Safe Area Goražde wasn’t a new book in 2011, but the special edition it got last year was enough to earn it a spot on this list. Joe Sacco reigns as the preeminent comics journalist, and Safe Area Goražde is another great reason why."

• Frank "caught in the loving tendrils of the sun" by Jim Woodring; also "Hopelessly outclassed" and "The descent into wealth"

• A Grotesque "family portrait" and Mr. O'Blique postcards that Sergio Ponchione will be giving away to lucky attendees (I think? the autotranslation's a little iffy) at an upcoming festival in Italy

• Ooh, a Jason/Lewis Trondheim exquisite-corpse wraparound cover for a 2004 issue of Belgian comics fanzine Totem; this and film review potpourri at Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog

• Sketches and process peeks at Forlorn Funnies #1 at Paul Hornschemeier's The Daily Forlorn

• Focus book by Kevin Huizenga

• Steve Brodner's portrait of Art Pope for The New Yorker (with process sketches); plus sketches of Lamar Alexander and Chris Christie; all of the above with Steve's commentary

• Speaking of The New Yorker, Paul Karasik got a cartoon in there! Congrats Paul! (via Facebook)

• A whole buncha Stephen DeStefano animation artwork for various projects here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, plus Sea Hag

• Noah Van Sciver presents a spooky story from the latest issue of Blammo

• Movie night Richard Sala-style (year unknown); also some cozy reading and The 7 Deadly Sins

• Tim Lane's poster for the St. Louis International Film Festival (along with its conceptual inspiration)

• Steven Weissman and Jordan Crane are putting together an elementary school haunted house for some LUCKY KIDS and here's Steven's flyer for it with Jordan's logo for the school (from Steven via email); also from Steven, his latest "I, Anonymous" spot and Stincker sketchin'

• A fun Dave Cooper gig poster for his friend's band (via Facebook)

• This comic cover by Chuck Forsman is a fake, but I wish it wasn't

• A buncha silly Star Trek doodles by Tim Kreider

• Jim Varney smiles down from heaven on Johnny Ryan

• Prison Pit fan art by Sergio Zuniga (at Johnny Ryan's blog, along with one previously posted here)

• Prison Pit fan art by Fréderic Fleury via Twitter

• Mark Twain-via-Michael Kupperman fan art by Dyna Moe (via Facebook, where the artist's profile pic was taken in front of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery)

• Speaking of Fantagraphics Bookstore and Facebook, here's a panel from a comic in progress by Csaba Mester featuring the former location posted at the latter location

Plus:

• Another Bob Fingerman character design

• Speaking of Facebook yet again, a Victor Kerlow illustration on the subject

• Jupiter and Saturn by Frank Santoro

• Many recent illustrations by Max at his El Hombre Duerme, el Fantasma No blog

• Recently discovered previously unseen woodblock prints circa 1939 by Jim Flora

• Lilli Carré's new looping animated logo for the Eyeworks animation fest is pretty great (tee hee, the "W" is boobs)

• A portrait by Nick Drnaso

• A whole ton of stuff from Ray Fenwick's website popped up in my RSS reader and I'm not sure how much of it is new but why not go check it all out anyway

• Straw dog on a bed by Renee French

• Computer sketches (that is, sketches done on the computer) by Eleanor Davis

• Trubble Club is always fun even if we can't tell who drew what

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Celluloid is a challenging work, not so much in how it is read, but in how it pushes at the boundaries of what we call a graphic novel and what we consider erotica.... Considered as a visual ode to the erotic imagination, Celluloid is a powerful work of grace and deviance in its explorations. McKean has crafted a new grammar for comic book storytelling, bringing the printed page as close to a live performance as possible while still using the graphic narrative form to accomplish what no other medium can." – Greg Baldino, Rain Taxi

• Review: "The story of baseball great Roberto Clemente is now in graphic novel form. After reading it, I would recommend it to everyone, especially to young readers. I plan to have my son read it one day, because Clemente's tale is an interesting one. The official title of the graphic novel is 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. It chronicles the former Pittsburgh Pirates' life growing up in Puerto Rico, his great baseball career, his humanitarian missions and tragic end to his life on Sept. 18, 1972. ...Clemente remains a bit of a mystery to those who never saw him play, but Santiago's graphic novel brings Clemente to life in glorious fashion, and is not be missed." – Mark Podolski, The News-Herald

• Review: "Murder By High Tide is by a the terrific French cartoonist Maurice Tilleux (a new discovery for me). Republished by Fantagraphics, this edition features two Gil Jordan detective stories. The artwork is amazing and Tilleux is clearly a master of the 'comic-dynamic' style... I really hope Fantagraphics makes a habit of reproducing these types of stories for an English-speaking market!" – Alexis E. Fajardo (Kid Beowulf)

• Profile: Italian blog Coca Colla has an art-packed survey of the work of Dave Cooper — even if you don't read Italian (or can't be bothered to autotranslate) there's tons of eye candy to ogle

Apologies for the long delay since the last roundup. I enjoy bringing you these posts but lately it's been hard to squeeze them in. I may need to figure out a new approach or something. Anyway, on with the show:

• "Unemployment" strips by Tim Hensley

• Hey, a new comic from Jonathan Bennett! Spin commissioned a 2-page strip from Jonathan as part of their commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind and posted it on Facebook (Via Spurge)

• Nate Neal has a new website you should bookmark/subscribe to, with lots & lots of updates, including comics in the video "Comix-O-Matic" format, sneak peeks of a new book he's working on and a whole mess more

• Drew Friedman spotlights those awesome "Cool Art Pencils" that Pentech put out in the early '90s

• Dave Cooper shares this rough preliminary sketch and a whole mess of reference photos (and behind-the-scenes shenanigans) for a new painting he's working on

• Richard Sala — now on Tumblr! Still some previously unshared updates on his Here Lies Richard Sala blog too

• Tim Lane illustrates the poster & program for the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase festival

• Lorenzo Mattotti also illustrates for a film festival, Annency Cinéma Italien; plus a New Yorker cover and Johnny Rebb

• Lilli Carré illustrates for the Chicago Reader and animates a Wallace Stevens poem at The Hooded Utilitarian

• You may have heard we've signed Noah Van Sciver's in-progress graphic novel about Abraham Lincoln, The Hypo — here Noah presents an excerpt

• Stephen DeStefano continues to fill up his new Tumblr with Popeye designs, sketches and other stuff

• The usual amazing stuff from Renee French

• Steve Brodner on the debt-ceiling debacle for the Washington Post and additional recent sketches at his blog

• Yes, it's a panel from Kevin Huizenga's eagerly-awaited Ganges #4

• Four weeks worth of Paul Hornschemeier's daily sketches at The Daily Forlorn

• As we enter the dog days of summer Wilfred Santiago's arctic fox is looking mighty cool

• Johnny Ryan gets in the Smurf spirit (Seal Team Smurf? Smurf Team Six? Smurf Team Smurf?) and draws his favorite bullies

• Yowie, this back cover to Stan Sakai's latest annual sketchbook — yowie!

And more Things to See since the last update:

• Glimpses of a new comic from Matthias Lehmann

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and more at his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A figure painting from a life drawing class by John Hankiewicz

• Dame Darcy's developed a propinquity for dolphins

• Debbie Drechsler returns to her nature-sketching blog Just Around the Corner

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• Sergio Ponchione gives some glimpses of his summer projects (if I'm interpreting the autotranslation correctly)

• Here's the blog of new Mome contributor Nick Drnaso

• Recent sketches (and aquarium videos) by Laura Park

• New drawings from Sophie Crumb

• Anders Nilsen 's book tour travel sketches

• Lots of updates on recent projects and an autobio-ish strip or two from Derek Van Gieson

• Anthony Vukojevich takes on Love and Rockets #1 at the Covered blog