• NPR recommends Mark Kalesniko's Mail Order Bride to "see you through your turkey coma"

• Kevin Church describes John Kerschbaum's Petey & Pussy as "sort of a Chuck Jones retelling of The Aristocrats"

• I Love Rob Liefeld looks at Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga

• Pol Culture examines Popeye Vol. 3 by E.C. Segar

• The Comics Reporter looks at The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Wart might be calling Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw the best graphic novel of the year; the Google translation from French is a little confusing... but they certainly like it

• Tom Kaczynski's "Doodle Dump"

We just wrapped up the next MOME (Vol. 14), out next spring. This issue features quite a doozy: Lilli Carré's "The Carnival," a 32-page full-color graphic novella (featured on the cover above). It's an elegant follow-up to her new graphic novel, The Lagoon, and between both stories it's clear that Carré is a major talent to watch. 

In the meantime, look for MOME Vol. 13 to hit stores next month. 

• Dash Shaw's animated trailer for Bottomless Belly Button is now available to watch on ComicBookTrailers.com (in addition to on our own site)

• Speaking of Bottomless Belly Button, Matthew Brady takes a good look at the book

• Congratulations and good luck to Linda Medley for being named a finalist (and the only American on the list) for the Prix de la Critique 2008 by the Association des Critiques et Journalistes de Bande Dessinée for Château l'Attente, the French edition of Castle Waiting

• More stunning sketchbook pages from Anders Nilsen

• Austin English has some very nice things to say about Lilli Carré's The Lagoon

• Ellen Forney has some bad-ass Brazilian jiu-jitsu desktop wallpaper for you to download

• Stickers and Donuts declares "Ray Fenwick is my boyfriend"

• Brian Ralph asks: "Did Charles Burns make this mask?" Note: Pee-Wee Herman is involved

After a couple of quiet weeks we're back with a vengeance at your local comics shop this week with the following titles scheduled to arrive:

• Castle Waiting Vol. II #13 by Linda Medley
• Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn
• The Lagoon by Lilli Carré
• Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum 

As usual, check the links for more info and previews. (Note that the new Castle Waiting is in stores before we have it in stock ourselves.)

• Webcomics avatar/fictional comic shop clerk Lydia includes The Lagoon and Petey & Pussy in her staff picks this week in The Rack

• Here's a transcript of Gary Panter's panel discussion with C.F. and Dan Nadel at the Tokion Creativity Now Conference

• Sequart looks at Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• Syndicate Product gives a quick overview of The Complete Peanuts

• Wart plugs the January 2009 release of the French edition of Jason's Pocket Full of Rain (in French)

• The Phoenix compares The Drinky Crow Show (debuting this weekend!) to its source material, Tony Millionaire's Maakies

• Wow, check out this amazing mosaic made of Peanuts strips at the Schulz Museum (photo by David Lasky)

• The Stranger has lunch with The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• On Blog Flume, Ken Parille offers critical counterpoint to some of Blake Bell's analysis of Steve Ditko's later work in Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko

• Vitrola looks at Explainers by Jules Feiffer (in Portugese; Google translation here)

• The San Antonio Current looks at Mome Vol. 12, Krazy & Ignatz 1943-1944, and Comic Arf

• I Love Rob Liefeld reviews Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• Your comics-icons-mashup street art of the day

• Here's photos of Dame Darcy's post-APE appearance at Isotope Comics...

• ...and a photo from J.R. Williams of himself with Jim Blanchard and Daniel Clowes at APE

• Nuvole Parlanti discusses (in Italian) the Ghost World graphic novel and film

• The Chicago Reader has the first review of Lilli Carré's The Lagoon

• Newsarama looks at The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez

• Sometime Comics Journal contributor Noah Berlatsky discusses his favorite parts of the latest issue (#293)

The Lagoon
By Lilli Carré

A family is seduced by a mysterious creature's siren song that can be heard emanating from the lagoon after dark in talented young cartoonist Lilli Carré’s first long-form work, and how each member reacts to the song in The Lagoon is the crux of the story. For the wise — or pixilated — Grandpa, the song reminds him that, in the time he has left, he must pause to respect, appreciate, and fear nature. The song hints at something that Zoey, the daughter, is too young to fully grasp. And the song lures the sexually frustrated mother, and eventually, her husband, into danger... Carré experimented with nib pens and brushes while drawing this black-and-white graphic novel, giving the art a different feel from her previous, Eisner-and-Harvey-Award-nominated story, Tales of Woodsman Pete. The Lagoon was influenced by the films Creature from the Black Lagoon and Night of the Hunter, but reads more like the gothic, family narratives of Flannery O’Connor or Carson McCullers. Rhythms — Grandpa’s taps, the ticking of a metronome — are punctuated by silences that pace this “sound”-driven story. Older teen and adult readers are invited to imagine the enigmatic creature’s haunting, ever-shifting tune as it reverberates through weedy waters, eventually escaping the lagoon to creep into windows at night.

80-page black & white 7 3/8" x 9 3/8" hardcover • $14.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

Today we're presenting a preview look at the haunting debut graphic novel The Lagoon by Lilli Carré. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

The following books are now available for pre-order! Click the cover images for more info about each book. And of course we'll be bringing you previews as the release dates get closer. All are expected to arrive between now and the end of October. For more, see our Upcoming Arrivals page.

(Coincidentally, today is Joe Kubert's 82nd birthday!)

And new editions of these out-of-print books by Jason: