• Review: Newsarama on Jimbo's Inferno by Gary Panter: "Great designs and scratchy, kinetic action fill every single panel... Jimbo's Inferno is a truly beautiful comic book."
• Preview: OK Erok posts a few panels from our preview of Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 by Michael Kupperman (not out yet, despite what they say)
L to R: Gilbert Hernandez, Natalia Hernandez & Jaime Hernandez.
Fuck hyperbole. Just fuck it. It doesn't exist when it comes to Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez. Is there any doubt, ANY DOUBT WHATSOEVER, that they are two of the greatest cartoonists? I dare you.
The exquisite and lovely Jean Schulz signs copies of The Complete Peanuts. I've been left astounded, the handful of times I've had the good fortune to chat with Jean Schulz at Comic-Con. She radiates calm just by saying "Hello," and that's saying something considering the din and cacophony of Comic-Con.
At his booth, Jordan Crane "takes a call." Look at all that beauitful stuff!
Sammy The Mouse author zak Sally studies his phone. I'm not sure which day it was, but after the show we went to this burrito place for eats. I was in line to order and about every 30 seconds or so I'd hear some form of befuddlement or rage coming from our table and I'd look over to see zak laughing and cursing at his phone like a crazy person. So I took a picture.
There is no reason for a cup to be this large... I have certain dietary restrictions when I'm at Comic-Con... I must eat burritos every night and I insist on drinking pop from a bucket! Free refills!
• Review: For Robot 6, Chris Mautner waxes rhapsodic about Humbug: "It's very easy with a book of this nature to engage in wild hyperbole... And yet, how else to talk about a project of this nature, a large collection of work featuring some of the most stellar cartoonists of their day, originally edited by one of the most important and influential humorists (and I really don't think this is hyperbole here - I'd put him up there with Richard Pryor in terms of significance) of the 20th century?... Something should be said about the packaging and restoration work, which is nothing short of astounding... I think it’s pretty safe to say that this collection will be on my top ten/best books of 2009 list at the end of the year. Really, how could it not? Apparently I like it more than breathing."
• List: From GQ, another one of those ubiquitous "what to read after Watchmen" lists, this one with The Girl from HOPPERS by Jaime Hernandez ("Hoppers... makes Gotham and Metropolis seem as bland as Scranton"), Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco ("Graphic in every sense of the term... it’s the best argument around for comics as a journalistic medium"), and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw ("honest, meditative"), as well as work by Jessica Abel and Charles Burns
Read Love and Rockets en Español! This translated edition of The Education of Hopey Glass comes to us from our colleagues at La Cupula in Spain. We're pleased to offer this treat for L&R collectors and Spanish-reading fans in the U.S. (and around the world)! See the description in Spanish below:
Maggie está casi ausente en esta última recopilación de Love and Rockets ya que Jaime Hernandez se centra en Hopey, la amiga de toda la vida de Maggie, y en su ex novio Ray. Y además, un vasto reparto de secundarios: Grace, el otro amigo de Hopey; Elmer, un electrificante autoproyecto de gánster; el callejero y endurecido Doyle; la divertida "Angel de Tarzana"; la madura pero aún marchosa Terry, así como la misteriosa superheroína Alarma.
En una de las dos principales líneas argumentales, Ray persigue a la peligrosa y molesta "Voz de rana", aspirante a actriz y perpetuo desastre, por bares de mala muerte, callejones y convenciones de comics... Siempre a la espera de una última e inseparada consumación. Mientras, en "Día a día con Hopey," Jaime demuestra su maestría a la hora de representar el pálpito de la vida cotidiana en el retrato de Hopey luchando con su nuevo empleo y sos amantes que van y vienen. Una semana más en la galopante educación de Hopey Glass.
Jaime Hernandez pencils for New Stories #2 found on the backside of the original art for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day comic.
UPDATE: Jaime dropped a note to mention that this is from an old L&R issue. The guy's right! I saw Angel (not shown here) and thought New Stories but this would have been the end of the L&R2 run. And, of course, that's Frogmouth. Tempestuous Vivian Frogmouth.
• Profile: Paul Gravett examines (and recommends) the work of Mark Kalesniko in an article which also appears in Comics International
• Blurb: Jared Axelrod, applying his "10 Rules of Quality Superhero Fiction," declares Jaime Hernandez's story in Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 "one of the best superhero comics of the past year"
• Things to see: On his blog, Derek Van Gieson previews his work in the just-released Mome Vol. 14 (and keep exploring for a teaser of Mome Vol. 15)
• Things to see: On his blog, Dash Shaw presents a Bottomless Belly Button ex libris plate he created for French comics shop Super Heros (you may also have seen Jason Miles's photo of Dash at Super Heros here on Flog recently)
• Interview: du9 talks Bottomless Belly Button and Bodyworld with Dash Shaw; Belgian site XeroXed reprints the interview (in French) with some additional information
• Social networking: If you're on the Twitter, you can follow cartoonists Paul Hornschemeier and Mack White; meanwhile, we just got our 1,000th Twitter follower, who appears to be a fictional albatross named Fredrik Lotsie (and you could be our 1,014th)
