Online Commentary & Diversions (through yesterday; we're a bit behind):

• Review: "...[E]ven [Basil Wolverton]'s throwaway work — in this case, half-page gag strips (emphasis on the 'gag') that appeared in Fawcett's Captain Marvel titles during and after World War II — is fully worthy of rediscovery. Like a Bizarro Dr. Seuss, Wolverton packs each Culture Corner with goofy, rhyming advice... While silly and inconsequential, these strips revel in the subversive, surrealist glee that would develop more fully in Wolverton's later output for Mad and others, a style that would help unlock the inner cretin inside everyone from Robert Crumb to Peter Bagge. ...Fantagraphics has to be applauded for tenaciously keeping Wolverton and his eye-gouging, subliminally influential work from slipping through the cracks of comics history. [Grade] B+" — The A.V. Club

• Review: "...Tardi’s [It Was the] War of the Trenches is the most powerful comic I’ve read on World War One since Charley’s War... The black and white art is perfectly suited to the era being covered... while Tardi, not for the first time, proves himself a master of expression, the looks on the faces of the men caught up in the war speaking absolute volumes... It’s a hugely powerful work, both moving and horrific and filled with anger for the suffering and injustices one group of ‘civilised’ humans can visit upon another... [A]s the last voices of those who were actually there are fading into silence works like this are needed to remind us of the monstrous acts we can be capable of in service to the beasts of jingoism and nationalism and hubris, that we should read them and take cautionary lessons from them. Never forget." – Joe Gordon, The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

• Interview: Avoid the Future has an illuminating talk with Joe Daly: "The environment is surreal, in that it combines the fantastical with the urbane. I try to meld these two sides together into a continuum that supports both the phantasmagoric  and the banal, in a naturalistic kind of way. On a conceptual level, I’m also interested in combining extreme stupidity with a bit of cleverness (which the title ‘Dungeon Quest’ is supposed to invoke)." There's also a glimpse of Dungeon Quest Book 2!

• Interview: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon grills Ben Schwartz, editor of The Best American Comics Criticism, saying "It's the kind of volume that starts fights... but that's okay and it's part of the fun. There's a lot of good work in the book and one or two absolutely inspired choices. Anyone with an interest in comics should at least give it a flip-through, and anyone with an interest in writing about the medium should use it as a springboard to discover a host of excellent new favorites." Schwartz on pitching the book: "Gary was the most skeptical. Early on he asked me if I seriously thought I could fill a whole book with good writing on comics. He sent me his essay 'The Death of Criticism.' Nice to know that's on your publisher's mind!"

• Interview: Canada's National Post has a Q&A with TCAF special guest Jim Woodring: "My name is Jim Woodring and I’m a cartoonist. I’m going to TCAF by invitation, with an assist from Fantagraphics Books, my publisher. I have a new book out called Weathercraft and I’m going to answer questions about it.

• Plugs: At The Cool Kids Table, Rickey Purdin runs down some recent acquisitions, including a couple volumes of Mome ("constantly entertaining") and the Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales free comic ("...this free sample is PROBABLY about to set me on a path of Woodring fanaticism. Well played, Fantagraphics.")

• Plug: "Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle is that rarest of comic books: It's actually, genuinely a comic experience, with several guaranteed laugh-out-loud moments per issue." – Paul Constant, The Stranger

• Plug: Comics Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson spotlights Mark Kalesniko's Freeway in a roundup of upcoming graphic novels

• Links: Love & Maggie present a "monster-sized" edition of their exhaustive Love and Rockets link roundups

• Police blotter: "Man dressed as Snoopy in 'worst attempted jail-break ever'" (via our own Eric Reynolds)

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• A new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beond strip by Kevin Huizenga

• From Steven Weissman, this week's "I, Anonymous" and the piece that gives the Butter and Blood art show at GR2 its name

• At last, those misty color backgrounds that Frank Santoro's been posting make sense

• A midday visit to the lake by Debbie Drechsler

• Two new illustrations by Sergio Ponchione, including... the world's first Muslim online sex shop? (completely SFW)

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• Don't miss Bunny Quacker, Josh Simmons's counterpart to his Quacker Bunny above, at his & Wendy Chin's Quackers blog — he's just as grumpy

• A montage of new Frank drawings by Jim Woodring... is that our first glimpse of Frank's female counterpart that Jim's mentioned? Also, Jim would like to see you at TCAF

• More glimpses and test images for Derek Van Gieson's Mome story "Devil Doll"

• Jon Vermilyea shows off the printed cover and pages of his new Pizza Time zine

Yes! For the first time ever, Fantagraphics will be heading to the great white north for this year's Toronto Comic Arts Festival.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and yes, I'll confess, I'm looking forward to trying one of those Canadian donuts I've heard so much about.

Yours truly will be manning the table, along with Denise and Helen from esteemed establishment The Beguiling. So, let me answer you now, "No, Eric, Gary, and Kim are not here," and "No, we're not accepting submissions, but please visit our website for details on how to submit your work..."

We'll be bringing a bevy of sweet, tasty, chewy... um, books for you to buy (dammit, sorry, still thinking about donuts), including:

• Artichoke Tales
• The Artist Himself: Rand Holmes Update: Oops, this one won't make it.
• Billy Hazelnuts & the Crazy Bird
• Captain Easy
• Meatcake
• MOME 19
• Prince Valiant, Vol. 2
• Set to Sea Update: Sorry, this won't make it either.
• Wally Gropius
• Weathercraft
• Werewolves of Montpellier

Swing by the Fantagraphics table (see map below) to pick these up, and get some books signed by our artists:

SIGNING SCHEDULE

Saturday 12:30-2:30: Jim Woodring (at The Beguiling signing tables)
Saturday 2-3: Blake Bell & Roger Langridge
Saturday 4-5: Dash Shaw

Sunday 12-2: Ho Che Anderson
Sunday 1-2: Roger Langridge
Sunday 2:30-4:30: Jim Woodring

(Times may be subject to last-minute change.)

And be sure to hit up some of these great panels, too:

SATURDAY

Feature: Daniel Clowes, James Sturm, Seth, Chester Brown, and Jim Woodring
11:30 – 12:30pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)

Five of the world’s most respected cartoonists in one room, on one panel! Moderated by Tom Spurgeon.

Spotlight: Paul Pope and Dash Shaw
12:00-1:00pm, The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, across the street from Toronto Reference Library)

TCAF Featured Guests Paul Pope and Dash Shaw are two of the most exciting creators in comics, mixing their influences and innovations to create groundbreaking work. Now Inkstuds Radio/Podcast host Robin McConnell will moderate a conversation between these two creators about the role that influences play in creating comics, ranging from traditional comics to film and music and from classical to contemporary works. This also includes a discussion of education, some key points in creating your own vision in comics, and an examination of how to make influences work and finding out where they lead you.

SUNDAY

Spotlight: Jim Woodring’s Weathercraft
12:30 – 1:30pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)

Jim Woodring’s cartoons chart a course through some of the most surreal imagery ever seen in any artistic medium, drawing visions from the realms of the subconscious to create a graphic world of dreams. But while his work may speak in the language of dreams, Woodring’s life has often led him into nightmare territory… Now venture into Woodring’s interior world with Weathercraft, the newest book in Woodring’s Frank world. Joining Jim Woodring will be journalist Sean Rogers, who will interview the author in a moderated Q&A.

The New Graphic Novelists: New Creators Transforming the Medium
Sunday, May 9th, 2:15 – 3:15pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)

There is a pantheon of great graphic novelists — folks who started thinking about comics as singular, book-bound creations.  But that concept has shifted since its conceptualization, and a collection of young creators are pushing the medium in fantastic new ways. Creators Joshua Cotter, Colleen Frakes, Ryan North, Dash Shaw, and Raina Telgemeier will discuss their experiences producing comics that alternately defy and embrace the term ‘graphic novel”. Moderated by Eva Volin.

Research and History: Inspiration versus Obligation
Sunday, May 9th, 3:00 – 4:00pm, The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, across the street from Toronto Reference Library)

A discussion about different approaches and uses of research from the hardcore to the writers of historical fiction. Inspiration versus obligation … for everybody. A lively discussion led by Kathryn Immonen, and featuring Stuart Immonen, Jim Ottaviani, Kate Beaton, Ho Che Anderson, Willow Dawson, and Matt Kindt.

Russell Patterson and the Patterson Girl
Sunday, May 9th, 4:30 – 5:00pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)

Russell Patterson got his start in Montreal as a newspaper cartoonist. He then went to Chicago, where he eventually made a name for himself as an illustrator of flapper era nightlife. His “Patterson Girls,” which appeared in magazines and various comic strips (Flossy Frills; Gloria Gets Her Man; The Patterson Girl), were intended as caricatures, and between 1925 and 1960 they go from being fun and liberated to being sexist and shallow. Jaleen Grove, editor of Top Hats and Flappers (Fantagraphics) traces this progression in the context of the entertainment industry and its exploitation of glamour, looking at how models used illustrators and vice versa to further their careers.

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Plug: In his coverage of Free Comic Book Day Paul Constant of The Stranger calls Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales by Jim Woodring "the best comic for adults" and adds "The Fantagraphics Store is an amazing, beautiful bookstore..."

• Plug: Thought Balloonists' Charles Hatfield says of Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales "Crikey, the best FCBD publication I've gotten since [2006]."

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• From Jim Woodring, a glimpse at his next book following Weathercraft, Congress of the Animals

• The genius of Johnny Ryan brings you "Tron of Finland"

• What Things Do begins serialization of Kevin Huizenga's Rumbling

• Gabrielle Bell continues and concludes reporting from her Stockholm trip

• Renee French does hilarious and alarming with equal aplomb

• Hans Rickheit presents Ectopiary page 22 and his description of this illustration is priceless

• Recent illustrations by Marco Corona: Sports! Magic!

• Character sketches from Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko

• I do believe the cabbit is a Josh Simmons creation on his & Wendy Chin's Quackers blog

• Here's a sneak peek at a future installment of Derek Van Gieson's Mome serial "Devil Doll"

Thanks to everybody who came out to see Jim Woodring and pick up copies of Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales on Free Comic Book Day at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery yesterday! I got there after the crowds had already thinned out, but it was a bustling afternoon. We hope everybody who wanted a copy of the comic was able to find one in their neck of the woods.

It's not as though you need any additional convincing to pick up our 2010 Free Comic Book Day offering Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales by Jim Woodring at your participating comic shop tomorrow (right?), but here are a few glimpses of the finished product to whet your appetite. (Click here if the embedded slideshow player below isn't displaying, or to view it larger in a new window.)

Don't forget, Northwesterners and visitors to Seattle can get their copy direct from the hands of Jim himself at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery tomorrow from 12-1 PM! At the store we'll also have copies of Drawn & Quarterly's FCBD 2010 offering YOW!, and likewise for Montrealers Librairie D&Q will have copies of Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales.

Mark your calendars! Desert Island in Brooklyn welcomes Kim Deitch for a signing and celebration of his new collection of The Search for Smilin' Ed! on Friday, May 14, 2010. Then, on Saturday, June 19, Jim Woodring will be in the house to meet fans and sign his new graphic novel Weathercraft. As usual with Desert Island, exclusive silkscreen show prints will be available at the events — that's a process picture of one of the screens for Kim's print above, and you can see the others on the Desert Island blog. We'll let you know more details as they become available, but in the meantime you can RSVP on Facebook for Kim here and for Jim here.

Jim Woodring will be a special guest at the Oslo Comics Expo, May 28-29, 2010 (info in English). Jim requests the pleasure of your company on his blog and reveals OH MY GOD IS THAT A T-SHIRT DESIGN I WANT IT.

Ahem. Jim's Weathercraft and Jason's Low Moon are nominated for 2010 Sproing Awards (Best Translated Comic and Best Norwegian Comic, respectively), which are awarded at the festival. Congratulations to both!

Saturday, May 1 marks the 9th installment of Free Comic Book Day. This annual promotion is intended to expose new readers to the medium and acknowledge loyal patrons with a free comic book produced especially for the occasion. Over 30 books in a variety of genres were produced for Free Comic Book Day this year.  

Fantagraphics Books’ contribution to Free Comic Book Day is a delightful comic by Jim Woodring sure to appeal to readers of all ages. WEATHERCRAFT and Other Unusual Stories showcases Woodring’s visionary approach to cartooning. Included is an excerpt from Jim’s forthcoming full-length WEATHERCRAFT graphic novel, a Woodring character guide, artworks rendered in his singular style, and other features. Yours for the asking at your local participating comic book retailer.