Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Jeff Newelt names Leslie Stein's Eye of the Majestic Creature to Heeb Magazine's "Best of 5771: Comics" list, saying "What a treat discovering a new 'voice' that speaks to you as much as longtime favorites."

• Interview: Shannon Wheeler talks about Oil and Water in a Q&A with Portland Monthly: "Fishermen couldn’t fish, plants were dying, scientists didn’t know what the effects were, and tourism was crippled. In addition to the environmental damage, there was damage to people’s lives that is profound. We very much wanted to tell the human story."

We've got a gorilla-sized weekend coming up at APE: the Alternative Press Expo in beautiful San Francisco, CA! Come see us on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd at the Concourse Exhibition Center, and be among the first to get your mitts on these hot numbers:

 • Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks
• Pogo, Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder" by Walt Kelly
• Oil & Water written by Steve Duin; art by Shannon Wheeler

[ WE TOLD YOU SO!!! ]

• Nuts by Gahan Wilson
• The Frank Book [New Hardcover Ed.] by Jim Woodring
• The Cabbie: Vol. 1 by Martí

• Ganges 4 by Kevin Huizenga
• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson
• Prince Valiant, Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster

Oh, you want a comic signed by an awesome artist, do you?

Saturday, October 1st
12-1 PM            Jesse Moynihan
12-1 PM            Malachi Ward
1-3 PM              Mark Kalesniko
2-3 PM             Shannon Wheeler
3-5 PM             Leslie Stein
5-6 PM             Esther Pearl Watson
5-6 PM             John Pham

Sunday, October 2nd
12-1 PM            Mark Kalesniko
12-1 PM            Malachi Ward
1-3 PM              Leslie Stein
2-3 PM             Shannon Wheeler
3-4 PM             Esther Pearl Watson
3-4 PM             Jesse Moynihan

You can find us in our usual spot at tables 112-115. (Right by our good friends Jim Blanchard and J.R. Williams at table 116!)

[ Please note: this is a chopped-up map, just to give you an idea where you can find us!  The Concourse Exhibition Center is too wide to fit on the FLOG, so check out a PDF map here. ]

And panels! Boy, do we have panels!

Saturday, October 1st

2:00 PM //  The Comix Claptrap . . . LIVE!
Co-hosts Rina Ayuyang and Thien Pham record an episode of their enlightening, riotous, and controversial podcast, The Comix Claptrap LIVE at APE! For four seasons, Rina and Thien have interviewed comics artists in the indie comics scene about their work, creative processes, and experiences in the industry. Each show has included New Comics Wednesday beat reportage from fellow cartoonist Josh Frankel, and new favorite segment, The Comix Cranktrap, where they crank-call a well-known cartoonist listed in their Rolodex. Also featured on the panel: Mike Dawson, Scott Campbell, Levon Jihanian, and Esther Pearl Watson. This panel promises to be total mayhem!

3:00 PM // A Discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine
Critically acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling cartoonists -- and APE special guests -- Daniel Clowes (The Death-Ray, Ghost World, Wilson) and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Shortcomings) are both professional peers and friends, having met over a decade ago when both lived in the East Bay. TheComicsJournal.com editor and PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel talks to the two artists about their work, their friendship, and the comics medium.

4:00 PM // Spotlight on Shannon Wheeler
From stapling 21,000 minicomics, to shooting comic books with a .22, to creating operas, to publishing cartoons with The New Yorker, APE special guest Shannon Wheeler must be drinking too much coffee, man. Recently, his collection of rejected cartoons I Thought You Would Be Funnier won the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication. Wheeler and his trusty sidekick BOOM! Studios marketing director Chip Mosher talk about the best ammunition to use on a comic, Japanese bootleg shirts, and drawing dead granddads in fishnet stockings with swastika panties. Shannon Wheeler once also created Too Much Coffee Man, so they'll probably talk about that, too.

6:00 PM // Drawing Inspiration: The Secrets of Comics Creativity
Ever wonder where your favorite author or artist gets his or her inspiration? Now you can find out as moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director, CBLDF) joins APE special guests Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Craig Thompson (Habibi), Matthew Thurber (1-800 MICE), and Shannon Wheeler (Oil and Water), plus Tom Neely (The Wolf) for an in-depth discussion of what gets their creative juices flowing and the secrets of what inspires them.

Sunday, October 2nd

12:00 PM // Indie Cartoonist Survival Guide: Part 3
Cartoonist Keith Knight moderates this panel (in its third appearance at APE), featuring a lineup of successful independent creators who share their stories, methods, techniques, trials, and tribulations concerning making a living as a so-called Indie Cartoonist. Shannon Wheeler (I Thought You Would Be Funnier), Dan Cooney (Dan Cooney Art), Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), and Rebecca Sugar (Pug Davis) all chime in.

The great Eric Reynolds will be manning the table, so come by and come buy! We'll see you at APE!

We've got our eye set on this majestic event: Leslie Stein will be signing this Friday, September 30th at The Escapist in Berkeley, CA!

We're teaming up with our friends at PictureBox to present this pre-party for APE: the Alternative Press Expo. Leslie will be signing copies of her latest Eye of the Majestic Creature, and she'll be joined by Matthew Thurber, signing the collected 1-800-MICE!

Meet them both, starting at 7:00 PM at The Escapist Comic Bookstore [ 3090 Claremont Ave. in Berkeley ], and say hi to our old intern, Sophie!

California! Get ready to look into the Eye of the Majestic Creature as Leslie Stein kicks off her West Coast mini-tour TONIGHT at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles!

The event starts at 7:00 PM, and the staff promises "boozy beverages" will be in supply. I'll bet Leslie will also have a supply of her latest comic, Eye of the Majestic Creature #5! It's a beaut!

Secret Headquarters is located at 3817 W. Sunset Blvd. Don't miss this rare West Coast appearance from this Brooklyn-based artist!

[ Hey, I promised you we'd have some photos from Kim's awesome wife, didn't I? -- janice ]

Kim Thompson's wife Lynn Emmert went to SPX and came back with a mini photo gallery. Kim wrote the captions.

Diane Noomin confronted with evidence of past crimes by looming fan.

Diane Noomin and Johnny Ryan signing away, as Conrad Groth (in striped shirt) practices the Groth charm.

Remember when comic book conventions were pretty much guys only? Do you miss those days?

Leslie Stein with her new book.

Paul Hornschemeier wields patented "please buy my book" puppy-dog gaze, honed by years of convention-going. Leslie, you should be paying attention!

End-of-convention exhaustion or imminent Cyclops-like death-ray eye blast? You decide.

• Paul Hornschemeier's rendition of the Ice King, from Zack Smith's enviable collection of Adventure Time-themed sketches

• Paul Hornschemeier is beginning to post teasers of his forthcoming Forlorn Funnies #1 along with the sketches at his The Daily Forlorn blog

• This drawing by Steven Weissman appears to be related to the current Barack Hussein Obama strip; plus his latest "I, Anonymous" spot

• Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day with Dame Darcy as she pays tribute to Adam Ant x 2 (plus Darryl Hannah in Splash) — this and more in her new blog update

• Sketches and illustrations by Max at his El Hombre Duerme, el Fantasma No blog

• The Creature (which you can buy) and a few sneak peeks at The Hidden on Richard Sala's Tumblr blog

• From Leslie Stein, an excerpt from the forthcoming Eye of the Majestic Creature #7

• "Gravity," a new painting by Malachi Ward

• Renee French zooms in on the gross part of a box of fruit; also we all feel like this sometimes

• From Steve Brodner: Ron Paul, Sen. Joe Manshin, Troy Davis (above; all with relevant info & commentary)

• Sketchbook stories by Anders Nilsen

• The Lovely Sparrows CD cover illustration by Derek Van Gieson (click to see wraparound)

Plus:

• Matthias Lehmann's sketches and notes for a new comics project

• Character designs by Bob Fingerman for a series of post-apocalyptic YA novels he's working on 

• An illustration for Bloomberg View by Victor Kerlow

• More mythological drawings by correspondence-course teacher Frank Santoro

• Sketchbook strips by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Wild-n-woolly sketchbook drawings by John Cuneo

• A portrait sketch by Mark Kalesniko

• Recent storyboard work by Stephen DeStefano

Hair fresh from my shower, I walk into the Fantagraphics office, still in my robe. Gary has convened a meeting and is complaining vociferously about misuse of an intern, who was apparently given a job to perform above normal intern capabilities — or who had screwed up a job as a result, I'm not quite sure which. He starts quizzing me about it, and in fact I suspect it was me who gave this intern (note to current and past interns: it was none of you) a huge interview-transcribing job that is the issue, but I deflect the interrogation by pointing out that I just got up and need a moment to settle in. He subsides, at which point Leslie Stein (of Eye of the Majestic Creature fame), who is standing next to him, picks up a microphone and begins signing a pop hit, with full musical accompaniment. (Fantagraphics has a karaoke machine? I don't question it.) Her singing is excellent. I decide I need to find a specific Tintin album for some reason, and as I'm looking for it on the office bookshelves — I keep finding clusters of Tintin books, but the one I need is always missing — I realize that Leslie is singing a Britney Spears song. (I don't remember which one. It's not one of the big hits, like "Oops! I Did it Again" or "Womanizer," and not that awful new Autotuned one either.) I smugly think to myself, "I bet Gary has no idea that's a Britney Spears song." (That Gary, he's so out of it.) Leslie finishes the song to deserved applause from the staff. She starts into a second one. In the meantime my search has shifted over to a search for a Love and Rockets collection, with similar lack of success. I hear a dog barking in the distance. It is my dog Ludvig. I wake up; he's downstairs barking to be let out.

Dream guaranteed 100% accurate. For earlier dreams go here and here.

The last time I walked into the Fantagraphics office in a robe with wet hair was 1984. I am not (at all) a Britney Spears fan, although I do think this is pretty awesome.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 is both hilarious and very strange. The book exudes a unique mood of giddy amazement... Credit for both the mirth and oddness belong to cartoonist Michael Kupperman, who illustrated the book based on a manuscript he says was given to him by Twain. Given the fact that the off-kilter humour of the book is very similar to the sensibility displayed in Kupperman’s earlier work, notably his dada-esque comic book Tales Designed to Trizzle, the cynical might assume that Mark Twain is only the nominal author of this book. Yet it’s fair to say that the spirit of Twain hovers near the volume.... Aside from his debt to Twain, Kupperman belongs to the tradition of erudite humor that runs from Robert Benchley to Monty Python." – Jeet Heer, The National Post

• Review: "...[Eye of the Majestic Creature] is phenomenal.... The character, Larry, who is leagues more animatic and expressive than some of the characters around her (no doubt on purpose, as the character leaps out of each panel) is responsible for carrying the entire weight of the narrative through dialog. She does so fluidly, and through nuanced avenues.... I really enjoyed this collection, and I want to see more from this creator.... There is significant depth to this fantastic story about a girl, her guitar, and the quirks associated with staying alive." – Alex Jarvis, Spandexless

• Review: "Set to Sea is the kind of comic that you give to people you love with a knowing look that says 'read this, you'll thank me later.' The kind of book that is not exclusively reserved for aficionados of the comics art form. The kind of work that, by virtue of its poetry, leaves the reader in an emotional state once he's read the final page, and that simply demands to be flipped through again immediately so that the reader might breathe in this adventure's perfume for a little longer." – Thierry Lemaire, Actua BD (translated from French)

• Review: "Paul Hornschemeier uses the medium of cartooning [in The Three Paradoxes] as the message he is sending, as each new chapter in the book references different cartoon styles and axioms.... The skill of Hornschemeier is abundant on these pages, as he effortlessly transitions from style to style. Despite that, each style fits within the story; none is so strange that it breaks the reader out of the story.... The book gets a lot of information packed into its relatively smaller frame. The book’s presentation is similarly phenomenal...; it’s really solid and uniform.... I loved it. Well done, Paul." – Alex Jarvis, Spandexless

• Plugs: Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald's list of recommended recent comics and related books for Publishers Weekly includes The Art of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly ("The great war artist’s entire history is surveyed in spectacular fashion, along with critical commentary by Schelly") and Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips, Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder by Walt Kelly ("The whimsical, wise adventures of the residents of the Okeefenokee swamp are collected in a deluxe edition for the first time")

• Plug: "Fantagraphics has prepared a nice preview video for the fourth and final [Final??? Not at all — I don't know where they got that idea. – Ed.] issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories in stores soon. It features a 35-page story called ‘King Vampire’. Oh boy, if even the Hernandez bros succumb to the vampire craze, this really is the end of the world now, isn’t it?" – Frederik Hautain, Broken Frontier

I am pleased as punch to present to you the Fantagraphics low-down for the 2011 Small Press Expo, happenin' September 10th & 11th in Bethesda, Maryland!

We're bringing so many beautiful new books with us, and most of these listed below aren't even in stores yet!

• The Armed Garden by David B.
• The Art of Joe Kubert, edited by Bill Schelly
• The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Vol. 2: The Mad Scientist and A Dusting of Mummies by Jacques Tardi

• Ganges 4 by Kevin Huizenga
• The Hidden by Richard Sala
• Like A Sniper Lining Up His Shot by Jacques Tardi

• Love & Rockets New Stories 4 by The Hernandez Bros
• The Man Who Grew His Beard by Olivier Schrauwen
• Mark Twain’s Autobiography by Michael Kupperman

• Mome 22, edited by Eric Reynolds
• Nuts by Gahan Wilson
• Prison Pit Vol. 3 by Johnny Ryan

• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse box set
• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson

And while you're at the Fantagraphics table, picking up these excellent new titles, why not get them signed by the artists? Many will be there! Check out our action-packed signing schedule below:

Saturday, September 10th
11:00 - 12:00 PM     Chuck Forsman / Jim Rugg
12:00 - 1:00 PM       Warren Bernard / Drew Weing
1:00 - 2:00 PM         Anders Nilsen
1:00 - 3:00 PM         Kevin Huizenga
2:00 - 4:00 PM        Johnny Ryan
3:00 - 4:00 PM        Diane Noomin
3:30 - 5:30 PM         Jim Woodring
4:00 - 5:00 PM        Ted Stearn
5:00 - 7:00 PM        Leslie Stein
5:30 - 7:00 PM        Paul Hornschemeier

Sunday, September 11th
12:00 - 1:00 PM      Chuck Forsman / Ted Stearn / Drew Weing
1:00 - 2:00 PM        Warren Bernard / Anders Nilsen
1:00 - 3:00 PM        Johnny Ryan
2:00 - 3:30 PM        Leslie Stein
3:00 - 4:30 PM        Kevin Huizenga
3:00 - 5:00 PM        Jim Woodring
4:30 - 6:00 PM        Paul Hornschemeier
5:00 - 6:00 PM        Diane Noomin

And surely you've taken note of our doozy of a panel schedule by now, right? If not, check it out on the Flog! Print it out, and carry it in your pocket, or perhaps stash it in this stunning Jim Woodring SPX exclusive tote bag? In fact, you'll wanna bring an extra tote bag to carry all our incredible debuts, plus, did I mention there will be some bargain boxes?

So, be sure to stop by and say hi to Kim, Gary, and Conrad! See you at SPX!

Leslie Stein has just published a new issue  of her wonderful comic book series, EYE OF THE MAJESTIC CREATURE. The first four issues were recently collected by Fantagraphics , and this is her first new issue since that book came out. Here's a description from the Etsy listing: 

Eye of the Majestic Creature #5: "Sister Carrie"

Larrybear has moved back to New York after having lived in the countryside. She finds herself employed at a dress shop run by an absentee boss in the East Village, and living with her old friend Seashell in an infested Brooklyn apartment. Of course, Marshmallow and her anthropomorphic friends are there too, but being magical they are not allowed to leave the house. Not that this stops Marshmallow, who is becoming increasingly depressed and drinking way too much.

On a nice winter day, roaming around Manhattan, Larry finds herself drawn to the Visionary Arts Museum, and is amazed to find they are having a retrospective of Victorian Sand Counters. Inspired, Larry begins to count sand seriously, but in a world where this is largely a forgotten art form, where can it possibly take her?

Quotes throughout by Theodore Dreiser, from his fantastic 1900 book Sister Carrie.

48 pages, color cover and back cover, black and white insides, Newsprint

I love this series. Buy this now! 

Leslie will be making appearances in late Sept./early Oct. on the west coast, including APE, so stay tuned for more info.