Jason shares his artwork for the back cover of his upcoming story collection Athos in America and it makes a fine counterpoint to the front cover.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...Shimura Takako tells this story in such a gentle, unobtrusive way, one might believe that this story flows naturally – as if it simply spun itself from nature and is the way it is supposed to be. I think Matt Thorn’s tidy translation, which goes down the mental gullet with such smoothness, is a big reason for how readable this is. Wandering Son is not flashy or aggressive, nor does it pander or try to be hip and stylish. Takako draws the reader in so quietly that some may be surprised to find themselves on a journey of discovery and exploration with these characters. It’s like seeing preadolescence for the first time or seeing it again through fresh eyes and a new perspective.... If only more comic books were so evocative and so clear in their storytelling like Wandering Son, an ideal comic book. Ages 8 to 80 will like Wandering Son. [Grade] A" – Leroy Douresseaux, I Reads You

• Review: "Of the three books collected in this volume [What I Did], Hey, Wait... is a really evocative portrait of how childhood experiences can affect one throughout his entire life, and The Iron Wagon (which adapts an early-twentieth-century Norwegian novel) is a pretty good murder mystery that makes good use of Jason's deadpan style, but it's the middle entry, Sshhhh!, that really sticks with me, immediately jumping to the top of my favorites among the cartoonist's works.... It's sad, wonderful, exhilarating work, a great example of how amazing Jason is at what he does, and how nobody else can do it like him." – Matthew J. Brady, Warren Peace Sings the Blues

• Review: "The plot often takes a sharp turn towards the absurd and downright crazy, but eventually the story always comes back to our heroine. Adele Blanc-Sec takes no crap... It’s really nice to see such a strong female character at the centre of all this mayhem, and her character really pulls the book together.... Tardi’s artwork is great to look at; his panels are vibrant and full of life. In his hands Paris 1911 is a busy metropolitan city still hanging on to its 18^th century spirit and facade.... The first volume of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec left me with more questions than answers, and volume 2’s release date of November seems all to far away! I look forward to reading more of Adele Blanc-Sec’s adventures." – Will Pond, Good Comic Books

• Review: "Glenn Ganges — the protagonist of the first volume of the series Ganges — is a dreamer, an eccentric, a loving husband, but first and foremost a restless man. Meaningless details do not give rest to him, he makes a mountain out of a molehill, and his fantasies replace the reality. Five stories under one cover are the five pieces of a day in the life of Ganges.... I’d like to meet this Ganges." – Ray Garraty, Endless Falls Up

• Interview: Fantagraphics Summer 2011 intern Ao Meng chats with Mome contributor Jesse Moynihan for his school paper, The Daily Texan

• Commentary (Audio): The Collected Comics Library podcast host Chris Marshall discusses our upcoming EC Comics Library series

• Conflict of Interest: Our own Eric Buckler shares details of our latest Pogo update in his "Indie Comics Digest" column for The Snipe

Jason has revealed the beautiful cover illustration for his next forthcoming book, Athos in America. At his blog he includes the initial thumbnail sketch, which I recall falling in love with when he first posted it a little while back. Title treatment and coloring are TK. The book will be in the same clothbound hardcover format as Low Moon.

Jason 2009 Exhibition Print – Signed
designed by Jacob Covey

16" x 22"  3-color silkscreen print
signed by the artist; ships rolled

The signed, limited-edition print for Jason's 2009 exhibit at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery features Athos, The Last Musketeer, on a lonely park bench, in artwork originally featured on the cover of The Comics Journal #294. Formerly available only at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, we are pleased to now offer limited quantities of this exquisite print via mail order!

Screenprinted in black, teal and metallic silver on heavyweight white paper.

Colorist Hubert is working away on the next Jason book, Athos in America, a Low Moon-style hardcover of all-new short stories scheduled for release around the end of the year. Meanwhile, I'm revving up my translatin' jets. Here's a sneak peek at a particularly intriguing (we think) page from one of the stories, still virtually wet from Hubert's virtual brushes.

If I were up on skate lingo I would be spouting the equivalent of "holy crap" here... Penguin has produced a series of limited edition skate decks featuring artwork from their Penguin Classics Deluxe line, including covers by Jason for Kerouac's Dharma Bums, Lilli Carré for Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Thomas Ott for We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. At Lilli's blog you can see a photo of her hoisting hers over her head. There was a Facebook contest where you could win one (which we learned of too late) and USA Today's report on the decks lists some promotional events on college campuses — no word on if/when you'll actually be able to buy these, though.

At his blog, Jason writes "My German publisher, Reprodukt, is celebrating their 20 years of existence by having an exhibition in Berlin. They have asked their artists to draw a page from one of the books that have been published, a book by another artist. I chose to do a page from Daniel Clowes' Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron." That sound you just heard is me and a few thousand other comics nerds collapsing with the vapors.

At his  blog Jason shares the first glimpse of Hubert's coloring for Athos in America (shown with the French dialogue). Hubert gets the spotlight with an interview in the upcoming Jason Conquers America, for which Jason has posted the front and back cover illustrations. Also since the last time we checked in with Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, he's posted a bunch of reviews of '80s films, a moving piece on the Oslo bombing attack, more older illustrations and some new sketches.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "As with Chun's earlier volumes in the series, it is fantastic to see this work brought back. The original digests were pervasive and invasive...they once arrived by the pallet to newsstands all over the country, but because of their risque and sexist slant, they've been Orwelled right out of our world. It is nice to see them presented here as the art they were. Other than their super-busty raunch (and the occasional spanking) the girly gags of Humorama have aged well because they were hidden for some fifty years. They are also harmless, sometimes woman-friendly and FUNNY." – Jim Linderman, Vintage Sleaze

• Review: "Isle of 100,000 Graves represents his first true collaboration, with writer Fabien Vehlmann providing a template that is a remarkable complement to Jason’s deadpan style.... At a crisp 57 pages, Vehlmann and Jason cram a surprising amount of plot and character development into this graphic novella, yet the book has a pleasantly unhurried pace and plenty of room for gags.... The secret hero of this book’s success is the colorist Hubert, who brings a vivid richness to the book that gives it a quality not unlike that of Carl Barks’ work.... The result is pure storytelling pleasure, a kind of narrative eye-candy that is doubly attractive for its sense of restraint and Vehlmann’s deadpan story beats." – Rob Clough, The Comics Journal

• Review: "I never thought I could look at Poe in a way that was fresh. Poe has been done a thousand times and, while it’s always fun to watch someone else do their thing with Poe’s work, it tends to all go pretty much the same. [The Raven] is different, though. This is scaling back layers of dead flesh — Poe’s, Reed’s and Mattotti’s — and then grafting all of the raw, naked skin together to make a creature that is both disturbing and beautiful.... Knowing that this work came from a musical, I thought perhaps I might be missing a large piece of it, experiencing it through only one sense. I was wrong, however — Mattotti’s art combined with the inherent lyrical quality of the writing to make a more beautiful song than anyone could sing." – Lyndsey Holder, Innsmouth Free Press

• Review: "Fenwick's use of fonts is fascinating, as he seems obsessed with their aesthetic and decorative qualities as a way of eliciting a certain kind of reaction.... Fenwick slips between the absurd, the thoughtful, the existential and the sublime from page to page, keeping the reader off-balance but engaged.... Mascots flips from image to image with a dream logic that's sometimes whimsical, sometimes creepy, sometimes weird and always vivid. It's that vividness that gives the book its energy and an almost hallucinatory quality. Readers should not expect a coherent narrative but rather simply enjoy the ride." – Rob Clough, High-Low

• Review: "Josh Simmons picked an interesting way to write a graphic novel... Jessica seems to be a child in an abusive situation but either she’s found how to stay sane within her own imaginary world with a host of friends or she’s found a way to fight back. I’m not sure if her courage is a shield or a weapon. [Jessica Farm is a]n interesting life project and I think, well worth a read." – Terry Grignon, Golbing

• Interview: From the archives, The Comics Journal presents Gary Groth's great, historic 1993 interview with Jim Woodring

• Quote of the Week: At The Comics Journal, R. Fiore's review of Luc Besson's film adaptation of Tardi's The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec contains this bon mot: "My rule of thumb is that making a movie out of a comic strip is like making a love song out of a blowjob: You may well make a perfectly decent love song out of it, but it will lack the characteristics one values in the original experience."

The new Diamond Previews catalog is out today and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in October 2011 (give or take — some release dates have changed since the issue went to press), plus a full-page Featured Item spotlight on Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks! We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions.

In addition to our first Barks Library book you'll find hotly-anticipated titles like the second volume of Shimura Takako's Wandering Son; the husband-wife duo of Bill Griffith: Lost and Found – Comics 1970-1994 and Diane Noomin's Glitz-2-Go ("Certified Cool"!); our big Jack Davis art book; a surprise comic book treat for Jason fans, Jason Conquers America; and our already-acclaimed next book of rock-n-roll writing, Kevin Avery's Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson. See them all here!