Just as we received our office copies of the new issue of Previews, we've already submitted our March 2010 releases for the next issue, and as always we just can't wait to give our website readers an exclusive first look at our offerings! It's another big month — heck, I guess they all are — with 9 books & comics headed your way. We've got us another Jacques Tardi masterpiece (pictured above), the next volume of The Complete Peanuts, a brand new Hate Annual from Peter Bagge, another great collection of Walt Kelly's Our Gang, our new collection of the earliest Krazy Kat Sundays, and a great, never-before-reprinted Basil Wolverton rarity, plus an R. Crumb classic in hardcover for the first time, and softcover reprints from Tim Lane and Jack Cole! Here's the scoop.

FANTAGRAPHICS & EDITOR GREG SADOWSKI PARTNER ON SIX NEW BOOK COLLECTIONS OF CLASSIC COMIC BOOK MATERIAL

Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce that it has struck a deal with comics historian and editor Greg Sadowski to produce six new collections of classic comic book material for the Seattle publisher. Sadowski is a Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated editor who has previously overseen the publication of the acclaimed collections SUPERMEN: THE FIRST WAVE OF COMIC BOOK HEROES 1936-1941, as well as B. KRIGSTEIN and B. KRIGSTEIN COMICS. He is a former staff editor and designer for Fantagraphics Books and currently works freelance from his home on San Juan Island in Washington State's Puget Sound.

"Greg has written one of the landmark cartoonist biographies (and only the first half yet!) with B. Krigstein, and the collections of comics from the '40s and '50s that he's edited for us — B. Krigstein Comics and Supermen!, to date — have been meticulously assembled, with an eye toward selection, flow, and accompanying historical text. We're pleased that he's got such an ambitious agenda ahead," says Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth, who acquired the books.

The books will be released one per season, beginning with FOUR COLOR FEAR: FORGOTTEN HORROR COMICS OF THE 1950s in June 2010 and produced in collaboration with comics historian John Benson (SQUA TRONT). The second book, due in Fall 2010, will be a collection of legendary artist Alex Toth's work for Standard Comics in the 1950s. The remaining books will be release in subsequent seasons, with exact schedules to be announced. The full list of books follows after the jump below.

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All this week and next week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes a new softcover edition of The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole; the anthology From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium; our first two Jacques Tardi reprints, You Are There and West Coast Blues; and This Side of Jordan, a new prose novel by Monte Schulz. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

• Parka Blogs talks about the Beasts! Print Show

• Iconoctlán reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham (Google translation)

• MEGATONik looks at Popeye Vol. 2: "Well Blow Me Down!" by E.C. Segar

• Comics & Graphic Novels features The Complete Peanuts 1963-1966 Box Set

• Sean T. Collins examines The Mystery of Woolverine Woo-Bait by Joe Coleman

• Newsarama noted Jack Cole's birthday last week by recommending some books of his work, including ours

• Newsarama also previews You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!, our next collection of the comics of Fletcher Hanks (coming next year)

• Les Lectures de Raymond examines the French edition of Paul Hornschemeier's The Three Paradoxes (Google translation)

• Look for mentions of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw, Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, and a couple more of our books in The Comics Reporter's "Five for Friday: Remembering 2008" reader-response post

• Similarly, there's a lot of our titles (too many to list here) on The Daily Cross Hatch's "The Best Damned Comics of 2008 Chosen By The Artists"

Post-APE catch-up!

• We haven't had a chance to listen to this ourselves yet, but we are told that British comedy genius and known Fantagraphics fan Graham Linehan (Big Train, The IT Crowd, Father Ted) sings our praises in this interview with The Sound of Young America

• Flickr users Inkyhack and Christopher Diaz (a.k.a. "mr. diazzler") share their APE photos

• Publishers Weekly "Comics Week" reviews David Levine's American Presidents just in time for Election Day (scroll about halfway down)

• Reason reviews Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester by Bob Levin

• Blogger Kevin Schulke takes note of The Complete Peanuts

• The Daily Cross Hatch talks Election 2008 with Tim Kreider

• Alan David Doane talks with Ivan Brunetti (audio download)

• Noah Berlatsky presents his Comics Journal review of Jack Cole's Betsy and Me

• In The Week, author Deb Olin Unferth names Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse a "best book"

• New animated Peanuts shorts on iTunes, huh?

• Johnny Ryan presents: insulting fan art!

THE CLASSIC ART OF CARTOON PIN-UP OPENS SATURDAY, JUNE 28

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Fantagraphics pin-up expert, Alex Chun, is doing a rare presentation on Jack Cole and his Humorama brethren TONIGHT in Burbank. If you're into mid-century cartooning (or just purty ladies), this is not to be missed.