As part of our ongoing excitement for our soon-to-arrive giant 3-volume set Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, we're pleased to present two exclusive sneak peeks at the book!

First, read Neil Gaiman's delightful Introduction (found in the second book; Hef's is in the first one) on our website right here.

Next, download an exclusive 25-page PDF excerpt containing all of Wilson's strips from 1958-1959, including a series of strips spoofing Sherlock Holmes (8 MB). Enjoy!

A light load of Online Commentary & Diversions today:

• Plug: "Okay, I see a lot of books and comics passing my desk every week but ye gods this stood out – pre comic code Steve Ditko. Let me just say that again: STEVE DITKO!! ...Fantagraphics’ Strange Suspense: the Steve Ditko Archives [Vol. 1] goes on sale today, collecting material from the first couple of years of the now legendary comics god’s career; fabulous sci-fi, fatal femmes, lurid horror… And its a lovely looking hardback edition, the sort you give pride of place on your shelves (which is what we normally expect from the folks at Fanta, they know how to give class comics work plenty of love and present it well)." – The Forbidden Planet Interational Blog Log

• Interview: Paul Morton of The New Gay talks with Paul Karasik about chronicling the life and work of Fletcher Hanks: "I didn’t really choose to do this story. This story chose me. And it continues to choose me. So as much as I’d like to shake it, I’m sure something’s going to happen that’s going to pull me back down to it."

• Events: Don't forget, Dame Darcy is in Seattle this weekend — info and much more in her latest blog update

• Things to see: Steven Weissman pays homage to Johnny Ryan in his latest "I, Anonymous" illustration

• Awesome: Gahan Wilson, still changing lives (via Tom Spurgeon)

Wrapping up another week's worth of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Bookmark: Presenting the newly redesigned BobFingerman.com

• Feature: At the Washington Post blog Double X, Sasha Watson recounts the emergence of female underground and alternative cartoonists, talking to Trina Robbins, Carol Tyler, and others, with an accompanying slideshow featuring Tyler, Jessica Abel, Lilli Carré and 10 more

• Review: "I really love comics. Reading a collection like Joe Daly's Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, I'm reminded of just why. ... It's drawn like a combination of Tintin, Dilbert, and King of the Hill. It's hilarious, both in terms of the plot and the one-liners. So, like so many other great comics, it's sui generis. ... Daly's plots move at a breezy pace, but his art is sharply detailed, and drawn expertly from a variety of perspective points. The palette is vibrant and fun. ...[T]his is some seriously funny shit." – Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "Rickheit’s artwork [in The Squirrel Machine] is stunning, from the beautifully disgusting instruments to the ornate architecture. It’s like steampunk crossed with the animal-appropriating art of Damien Hirst or Ebony Andrews, with complicated machines adorned with the heads and torsos of unfortunate livestock." – Garrett Martin, The Boston Herald

• Review: "It's like a great adaptation of an old 1990s straight-to-video erotic thriller made unpredictable with a touch of magical realism. Hernandez's strength remains his depictions of women; like Love and Rockets, the female leads of The Troublemakers are both strong and believable, no matter how atypical their situations and dimensions may seem. – Garrett Martin, The Boston Herald (same link as above)

• Review...?: "Prison Pit is un-reviewable; it is what it is... [Johnny] Ryan is one crazy motherfucker, man — and I mean that in the nicest possible way." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Plug: Cartoonist Mike Lynch ogles the photos of Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons and shares a delightful Wilson anecdote

• Interview: Graphic Novel Reporter's John Hogan talks to Greg Sadowski, editor of Supermen! and our upcoming series of Golden Age reprints: "Any comic I want to read I can borrow from one of the collectors I know. I don’t need to own them. As you get older, you realize the folly of having too many possessions."

• Interview: Graphic Novel Reporter's John Hogan talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning author and well-known Love and Rockets fan Junot Díaz about his favorite comics; of course, L&R comes up

• Things to buy: The new Robert Pollard DVD, The Devil Went Home and Puked (a compilation of Guided by Voices and Pollard solo footage) is now available for pre-order

• Things to see: Tim Lane's "complete classic five Temptations" cut-outs

• Things to see: Sherlock Holmes vs. Moriarty by Kevin Huizenga

Back in June Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth and I were trouble-shooting ideas for packaging "Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons." Most of the ideas were unfeasible or enough of a gimmick that it felt distracting from the work. (Sure an iron maiden clamshell box is funny but do we really want the case to be that cumbersome?) As we axed ideas, so to speak, I kept returning to this classic gag of a man pressed under glass and was interested in how it echoed the idea that we're capturing the legacy of Gahan Wilson within this boxed set. A little research showed that we could make a slipcase with a plexiglass back so Gary and I agreed on the direction and I called up the legendary cartoonist to pitch him on the idea of drawing a self-portrait version of his old gag.

It turns out Mr. Wilson is a hilarious, engaging man to chat with but there was no convincing him to draw the portrait. He liked the idea just fine but felt that it was somehow impure to use artwork on the case that wasn't from the work inside. As my hopes faded I heard him suggest something I hadn't dared to ask: "If you want to take a picture we could do that." So the next minute I was on the phone to Gary. Would it hurt sales to have the grim visage of a trapped 79-year-old man staring out at the book buyer? Gary didn't care, he loved the idea more than he feared how it would be received. And it certainly wouldn't be ignored. So we had our solution.

The next trick was having no budget (aka Fantagraphics Budget) and the need for a photographer willing to travel out to Gahan's studio to pull off the shoot within a few weeks time. I wasn't optimistic, but remembering the work of Seth Kushner's NYC photos of cartoonists I took a stab at conscripting not just a decent photographer but a truly talented one. Seth generously agreed to our modest arrangement and treked out to Sag Harbor with his camera and a man-sized panel of glass. In no time we had these amazing portraits that nailed the concept. (Plus we ended up with some great unpublished outtakes like this one of Gahan cradling a "baby" skeleton.)

On the production end, Playboy graciously gave us a wide berth on the design-- their only major dictate being the point size and typeface used for the art pages of the book-- so the final piece was just to pull off the tricky production Gary and I were envisioning. Our printer, Imago, worked with me at length on getting everything right and their efforts really completed the book. 

In the end, each book has a different Gahan portrait on the back cover so the framed image of the artist can be changed out and displayed on your shelf of honor. The front of the slipcase is pillow embossed (ie: the image is in layered relief, which doesn't photograph well here), the back cover is silkscreened plexiglass, and the book covers are all diecut with morbid icons, with matching tipped-in interior diecut pages.

To top it off, the Special Edition set is shrink-wrapped with a box of miniature reproduction cards sent from Gahan to Hugh Hefner and a glow-in-the-dark letterpress print reminding the owner, day or night, that the end of the world is coming.

And, yes, that gag is on page 666 of our stupifying collection of the master cartoonist's Playboy work.

We are pleased to announce that we are now taking online pre-orders for Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons and Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons - Collectors Edition, and that we are offering the regular edition NOT ONLY with an exclusive, limited-edition signed 3-color silkscreen print (pictured below – while supplies last) BUT ALSO at a special discounted price!

Attendees at this year's SPX had the opportunity to pre-order the regular edition at a discounted post-paid price of $100 (cover price: $125) and collect the signed silkscreen print; we are extending this offer to all pre-orders direct from Fantagraphics by offering the edition for $92 + shipping (which should be $8 for customers within the U.S., unless you are a 20/20 Club member, in which case the shipping is FREE within the U.S. and you get an additional 20% discount). This discount applies ONLY to pre-orders and will end without advance notice when the set is in stock and ready to ship, sometime in December. In other words: don't dilly-dally!

Click here to pre-order the regular edition and receive your exclusive print and discount; click here to pre-order the limited Collectors Edition, which does not come with the silkscreen print but does include exclusive extras of its own, including a glow-in-the-dark letterpress print and box set of holiday card facsimiles. Stay tuned to Flog for more information and previews of both editions, coming soon!

UPDATE: Whoops, I jumped the gun there on that teaser — justifiably proud art director Jacob Covey has a better reveal planned, so forget what you've seen here and stay tuned! Sorry Jacob!

If you've got pictures of Fantagraphics at SPX, let us know! Here's a few that we've found on our own or have been sent to us. Con reports abound on the web: Rob Clough has a good one to start with, and Sean T. Collins has audio from the Critics Roundtable panel featuring our own Gary Groth.

Let's lead off with a video of Gahan Wilson at the Ignatz Awards, courtesy of Tom Neely:

Gahan Wilson & Gary Groth by Flickr user mgrhode1

Carol Tyler by Flickr user mgrhode1

From Rafer Roberts, the Gahan Wilson/Carol Tyler panel

Another view, from Colleen Venable

Carol Tyler presenting at the Ignatz Awards ceremony, by Greg McElhatton

Gahan Wilson at the Ignatz Awards, by Greg McElhatton

Gahan Wilson by Scott Edelman

Find more photos in our Flickr gallery.

Here comes your Online Commentary & Diversions for today:

• Interview: We Love You So, the blog of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are movie, talks to newly-minted Ignatz winner Jordan Crane, saying "Presenting melancholy tales of workaday worries and broken relationships right alongside whimsical, child-friendly fare, Uptight provides a fascinating peek inside Crane’s constantly shifting thoughts, and never fails to entertain." From Jordan: "When I’m writing something I usually have a particular person in mind that I’m writing it for. Not a general thing like 'I’m writing for someone between the ages of 25 and 50' but rather an actual person."

• Plug: "Oh yes, it's finally here — Johnny Ryan's bloody sexual fight comic [Prison Pit Book 1], ...a two-fisted smash-up of international comics influence and the universal joy of tight-wound one-on-one combat, so tight that everything that comes out of a body becomes a weapon, and doesn't that have a way of mixing pleasure and pain? ... I liked this a hell of a lot." – Joe McCulloch, Jog - The Blog

• Events: Michael Cavna of the Washington Post lists his SPX highlights, including talking to Gary Groth and seeing Gahan Wilson

Online Commentary & Diversions, short but sweet:

• Plug: "Fantagraphics Books is now reissuing the first two years of Prince Valiant in the rich original colors — the pages are reproduced from Foster’s own engraver’s proofs. Every panel packs a one-two punch. A witch named Horrit once prophesied that Val would 'never know contentment,' but fans of the strip will find it here." – Cullen Murphy, Vanity Fair

• Review: "There hasn't been a bad time to be a fan of Los Bros Hernandez since they started making comics almost 30 years ago, but it's sure a good time to be a fan now.... [I]t's clear that the brothers are both still full of stories, and here [in Love and Rockets: New Stories] they take advantage of the new format to try out a number of new ideas, with a high rate of success. Looking forward to 2010." – Christopher Allen, Comic Book Galaxy

• Profile: At Graphic NYC, Christopher Irving enjoys a nice long chat with Gahan Wilson: "Circus freaks were also a big influence. My father used to take me to the circus, and though I loved circuses, what I really wanted to see was the sideshow. I dug the sideshow."

• Events/things to buy: Find out what's new with Dame Darcy — includes teacups and a lecture at Pacific Northwest College of Art