I think I might start posting weekend updates -- these Monday roundups are getting bananas...

• Review: We received a wonderful endorsement of Supermen! from Bud Plant, which we've proudly placed on the product page

• Review: John Mitchell on Supermen!: “Supermen points to a time when comic books were a new and exciting form — admittedly low brow in presentation, but filled with visual and narrative leaps that would affect how we told stories visually for decades to come... This book chronicles the exciting, silly, fun and experimental world in which these kinds of [superhero] characters were forged — fairy tales from the modern era."

• Review: Lady, That's My Skull takes lunch with The Wolverton Bible, saying "It is a fascinating look at the side of an artist that most fans are not familiar with due to the scarcity of the material."

• Review: My Year Online on Ted Stearn's first Fuzz & Pluck collection: "[I] laugh[ed] out loud at many points. This is all down to Ted Stearn’s genius in depicting expressions, his excellent slapstick timing and great storyboards, where you can never tell what will happen next..."

• Reviews: The blogger behind Fluid Motion has "been reading a lot of comics by Jason recently," offering micro-reviews of 3 of his books

• Review: Newsarama enthuses about Popeye Vol. 3 (scroll about halfway down): "As with previous volumes of Popeye, it's a cornucopia of mangled English, slapstick, violence and hamburger soliciting... Fantagraphics continues to knock it out of the park with their work on the production of these books... With his fun designs and slapstick exaggeration, Segar's art has always been a plus, and nothing about that changes here... It's packed with adventure and humor, strong art, inventive and complex stories, and features more slam-bang punching than any other ten comics. It is a true, to use a much abused word, classic."

• Review: Blogger Kevin Schulke particularly enjoys the hockey strips in The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Review: I'm not sure if this review originally ran in Rain Taxi or is original to the Powell's Books blog where it appears now, but: John Pistelli delves into The Lagoon by Lilli Carré: "The Lagoon's artisanal craftsmanship and child's-eye ironies reflect the baffled wisdom of a heroine too young to be foolish... it is a gorgeously bleak work for so young an artist."

• Interview: Baldur Bjarnason presents a 21-minute audio interview with el jefe Gary Groth recorded at the 2000 San Diego Comic Con

• Commentary: In re Strange and Stranger, here's some further Ditko analysis from Ken Parille at Blog Flume

• Commentary: Movement Point looks at pop cultural references in Peanuts, citing an obscure example from The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Things to see: Peter Laird presents a treat for Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT (*cough*Covey*cough*) fans: rough layouts for the Usagi/Leonardo crossover story

Adam Grano says, "I've been working here for more than six years and this is the first time I've been privileged enough to receive a note on Gary's personal stationery." I've been here 16 years years and I've never been so lucky; I'm enormously jealous. I'd like to believe that Gary designed it himself.

Gary Groth and Jason T. Miles head down to Los Angeles tomorrow morning for this weekend's BOOK EXPO AMERICA at the L.A. Convention Center (right next to the Staples Center - good luck avoiding the crush of rioting Laker fans when their team earns a trip to the NBA finals tomorrow night, gents).

Our booth numbers at the show are #1411-1413, in the W.W. Norton area, and we'll be showcasing basically our entire 2008 line, including previews of just about every title coming out for the rest of the year. We're also bringing along five our favorite sons to do signings on Friday/Saturday: 

FRIDAY 4-5PM in the AUTOGRAPH AREA
"GRAPHIC NOVEL SALUTE"

TONY MILLIONAIRE (Table 7) will be signing copies of The Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees, featuring Drinky Crow from Adult Swim's The Drinky Crow Show!

JORDAN CRANE (Table 8) will be signing copies of the all-ages hit, The Clouds Above, newly available in softcover!

JAIME HERNANDEZ (Table 9)will be signing copies of Love and Rockets, one of the most beloved comics of all-time, which re-launches in July as Love and Rockets: New Stories #1!

SATURDAY 1-3PM in the FANTAGRAPHICS BOOTH (#1411):

1:00-2:00PM: STEVEN WEISSMAN will be signing copies of the all-ages gem, Kid Firechief!

2:00-3:00PM: JOHNNY RYAN will be signing copies of the acclaimed adult humor strip, Blecky Yuckerella!

Also on Saturday, GARY GROTH will be participating in a "Graphic Novel BUZZ" panel. The panel will take place from 4:00 - 5:00 PM in Room 404B. Expect Gary to make some exciting announcements about a few future book projects, you heard it here first!