Fell a little behind on my photo blogging but here are some sights from the floor at Comic-Con International yesterday:

Sweet Maggie ink! Jaime was impressed with this one (as were we all).

The line for the Gilbert Shelton & Dave McKean signing stretched all the way around the booth.

Dave McKean and his cool watch (and hey, it's Anthony Vukojevich, Mome vet Rob Goodin and Tom Neely in the background).

The dapper Mr. Shelton (and those guys again).

Monte Schulz dropped by to chat with Gary.

The No Straight Lines signing with Ed Luce, editor Justin Hall, Dylan Edwards and Trina Robbins.

Somebody brought an old Who's Who in the DC Universe for Trina to sign the page with her Cheetah illustration. That lady's done it all!

Another DC character also made an appearance at the No Straight Lines signing. (At least I think that's Poison Ivy.)

Matt Groening showed off his pal Gary Panter's Dal Tokyo while Akbar & Jeff walked past in the background. Matt recounted for us how he helped save the strip from being dumped at the L.A. Weekly back in the 1980s by arguing that it's one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century.

Eric shows off Johnny Gruelle's Mr. Twee Deedle to Matt, who was particularly taken with Gruelle's "birds-eye view" strips in the book and walked away with it under his arm.

Shannon Wheeler was signing Oil and Water before he even had a chance to sit down.

Shannon joined Mark Kalesniko at the signing table.

Our homie John Roderick dropped by and picked up Significant Objects and the new softcover edition of Joost Swarte's Is That All There Is?, confessing that he'd love to have Swarte do the cover art for his next album.

By the way, my co-workers have photos & tales of their own that they'll be posting when they get back to the office... RIGHT GUYS?

Artist Johnny Ryan

Marketing Director Mike Baehr

Artist Tom Neely

In a hilarious concept devised by fellow Mome artist Robert Goodin, Fantagraphics artists, employees and friends celebrated the SDCC debut of Belgian cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen’s first American book The Man Who Grew His Beard by adding their own chins to the cover! (But, hey, where's Rob's beard in all of this?)

Fantagraphics is puttin' the "comics" back in Comic-Con as we head to San Diego this week with a slew of scintillating signings, almost two-dozen dynamite debuts, and a collection of comics sure to please any comics fan... and fill those enormous free tote bags they give away at the door.

First up, DEBUTS!

• Love & Rockets New Stories 4 by Los Bros Hernandez
• Mark Twain’s Autobiography by Michael Kupperman
• Prison Pit Vol. 3 by Johnny Ryan
• Mome 22, edited by Eric Reynolds
• The Raven by Lou Reed and Lorenzo Mattotti
•  The Art of Joe Kubert, edited by Bill Schelly
• Setting the Standard: Alex Toth, edited by Greg Sadowski
• Esperanza by Jaime Hernanadez
• Like A Sniper Lining Up His Shot by Jacques Tardi
• Gil Jordan, Private Detective: Murder by High Tide by M. Tillieux
• The Pin-Up Art of Humorama, edited by Alex Chun
• Drawing Power, edited by Rick Marschall and Warren Bernard
• Sibyl-Anne vs. Ratticus by R. Macherot
• Willie & Joe: Back Home hardcover and Willie & Joe: The WWII Years softcover by Bill Mauldin
• The Armed Garden by David B.
• Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 (Vol. 16) by Charles Schultz
• Even More Jewish Comedians by Drew Friedman
• The Hidden by Richard Sala
• The Man Who Grew His Beard by Olivier Schrauwen
• Nuts by Gahan Wilson

Next up, SIGNINGS!

Thursday, July 21st:
1:00 - 2:00 PM    Joyce Farmer / Esther Pearl Watson
2:00 - 3:00 PM    Bill Schelly / Robert Goodin
3:00 - 5:00 PM    Gilbert Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
5:00 - 6:00 PM    Frank Stack / Paul Hornschemeier

Friday, July 22nd:
11:00 - 12:00 PM    Joyce Farmer / Bill Schelly / Tim Hensley
12:00 - 1:00 PM    Floyd Norman / Wilfred Santiago / Frank Stack
1:00 - 3:00 PM    Gilbert Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
3:00 - 4:00 PM    Paul Hornschemeier / Anders Nilsen / Esther Pearl Watson
4:00 - 5:00 PM    Mark Kalesniko / John Pham / Malachi Ward
5:00 - 7:00 PM    Johnny Ryan
5:00 - 6:00 PM    Jon Vermilyea
6:00 - 7:00 PM    Robert Goodin

Saturday, July 23rd:
12:00 - 1:00 PM        Wilfred Santiago / Bill Schelly
1:00 - 2:00 PM        Joyce Farmer /  Frank Stack
2:00 - 4:00 PM        Paul Hornschemeier / Johnny Ryan
3:00 - 4:00 PM        Esther Pearl Watson
4:00 - 5:00 PM        Mark Kalesniko
4:00 - 6:00 PM        Gilbert Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
6:00 - 7:00 PM        Robert Goodin / Jon Vermilyea / Malachi Ward

Sunday, July 24th:
11:00 - 12:00 PM   Joyce Farmer / Jon Vermilyea / Esther Pearl Watson
12:00 - 1:00 PM    Mark Kalesniko / Frank Stack
1:00 - 3:00 PM    Gilbert Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez

All the action awaits you at our usual spot, Booth #1718!

And don't miss our amazing PANELS!  I won't get into all the details, because Mike did so earlier here on the FLOG, so click on the date to see our previously posted full rundown on each panel!

Thursday, July 21st:
• 12:30-1:30     Spotlight on Bill Schelly [Room 8]
• 1:00-2:00     CBLDF Master Session 2: Shannon Wheeler [Room 30CDE]
• 2:00-3:00     Love and Rockets — Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez [Room 9]
• 2:30-3:30     Joyce Farmer: Special Exits, A Memoir [Room 4]
• 3:30-4:30     Spotlight on Frank Stack  [Room 4]
• 6:00-7:00     Comics for Social Justice: The Making of Oil and Water [Room 9]

Friday, July 22nd:
• 10:30-11:30     Comics Arts Conference Session #5: Critical Approaches to Comics: An Introduction to Theories and Methods— Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan with panelist, Andrei Molotiu. [Room 26AB]
• 1:00-2:00     Comics Arts Conference Session #6: Wordless Comics with Andrei Molotiu. [Room 26AB]
• 12:00-1:00     CBLDF Master Session 3: Jaime Hernandez [Room 30CDE]
• 1:00-2:00     Publishing Queer: Producing LGBT Comics and Graphic Novels with moderator Justin Hall  [Room 9]
• 1:00-2:30     The Golden Age of the Fanzine moderated by Bill Schelly. [Room 24ABC]
• 10:30-11:30     Cartoon Network Comedy: Regular Show/The Problem Solverz and More! The Problem Solverz talent includes Ben Jones, John Pham, and Jon Vermilyea. [Room 6A]

Saturday, July 23rd:
• 10:00-11:30     50 Years of Comic Fandom: The Founders with Bill Schelly [Room 24ABC]
• 11:30-12:30     Bill Blackbeard: The Man Who Saved Comics with Trina Robbins [Room 24ABC]
• 12:30-1:30     Fantagraphics 35th Anniversary  [Room 24ABC]
• 1:00-2:00     Spotlight on Anders Nilsen [Room 4]
• 2:30-3:30     The Art of the Graphic Novel with Joyce Farmer (Special Exits, A Memoir) [Room 24ABC]   

Sunday, July 24th:
• Nothing. Come shop with us!

PHEW! And, can you believe it? This is only the beginning! Stay tuned to the Fantagraphics FLOG, Twitter and Facebook for important (we mean it!) Comic-Con announcements all week long! 

Two weeks to catch up on!

• Percy Gloom changed his Facebook profile picture to this portrait I hadn't seen before

• Andrei Molotiu posted a big batch of sketchbook drawings to his blog

• A new image from Ben Catmull's current project

• Matthias Lehmann shares a few pieces from his current art show and some photos of the installation

• Dig Paul Hornschemeier's new logo for the Comedy Bang! Bang! (formerly Comedy Death Ray) podcast/comedy show

• A newly-drawn splash page (along with the original version from 15 years ago) by Tim Lane for the upcoming 3rd issue of Happy Hour in America, along with some musings on craft

• Sergio Ponchione's Professor Hackensack returns to discuss matters scientifical in the new issue of Linus

• Kevin Huizenga's jaw-dropping comic from Kramer's Ergot 7 is now up at the newly-revived What Things Do; Kevin offers some notes and commentary on it at his New Construction blog; also, a possibly new Glenn Ganges glimpse

• A recent drawing by Renee French, who it should be noted seems to have moved her more extemporaneous sketches and photos over to her new Posterous blog

• A sneak peek of something by Josh Simmons

• Anders Nilsen is working on some collaborative paintings with Sonnenzimmer for an upcoming exhibit — more glimpses at Anders's blog, more info here

• Hey, I know those dogs! It's Robert Goodin's Idget & Toaster fending quite well for themselves in the zombie apocalypse in a panel from Rob's story in the banned-in-Canada anthology Black Eye

• Tony Millionaire posts Drinky Crow's first published appearance , from 1993

• Unexplained illustration by Johnny Ryan

• Nate Neal draws Hans Rickheit's Cochlea & Eustachia

• Eleanor Davis draws Aphasia from C.F.'s Powr Mastrs for the Picturebox fan forum — see the amazing hair salon mural she did with David Mack too

And more Things to See from the past week:

• At Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, sketches, illustrations, movie reviews and a great series of posts on his cartooning heroes, some of which may surprise you

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new print by John Hankiewicz

• Artwork, dolls, prints, and hey, they're on sale in the latest Dame Darcy blog update

• Drew Friedman spotlights recent illustrations and pays tribute to some of his favorite fellow cartoonists at his blog

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• A recent current-event sketch by Steve Brodner

• A Mome outtake page and lots more drawings by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• New sketch, new illustration by Tom Kaczynski

• New Trubble Club!

It's been a while, so let's catch up:

• New diary strips & sketches by Lewis Trondheim

• Artwork from Kurt Wolfgang's work in progress Pinokio plus some Mome meta-commentary and other sketches and characters at New Bodega

• Laura Park designed this placemat for fellow Chicago Mome-ster Jeremy Tinder's impending nuptials, and also this cool t-shirt design for The Mountain Goats & Jon Vanderslice

• At her Screened-in Porch blog, Carol Tyler presents “Will Work for Food” from The Job Thing — page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5

• "Crabby," a 3-pager by Tony Millionaire, plus "George R. Binks" and Billy Hazelnuts in color

• New artwork, dolls and other news in Dame Darcy's latest blog update

And more Things to See from the past 2 weeks:

• Illustrations, sketches, old strips and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new lithograph by John Hankiewicz

• Kevin Huizenga posted things on his blogs Fight or Run and The Balloonist

• Drew Weing posts the title lettering for the Serbian edition of S‍et to Sea and photos of Eleanor Davis painting a mural on his blog

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway and more artwork at his blog

• "The Strangest Story You Ever Heard in Your Life" wraps up at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog, plus illustrations at Mondobliquo

• Strips, illustrations and updates from Noah Van Sciver

• Recent illo jobs by Ray Fenwick on his Flickr page, including one for an article by Suze Orman in Oprah's mag — that's high profile!

• Drawings & photos by Renee French

• Recent illustrations and sketches, with commentary, by Steve Brodner

• Daily storyboards & production art from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• A coloring test for a work in progress by Robert Goodin

• Recent sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

• Nate Neal's monthly men's mag strip

Robert Goodin does Johnny Ryan 's Prison Pit at Covered. Duuuuuuuude.

Relevant recent updates from the Repaneled blog, where artists reinterpret panels from other artists' comics:

• Anthony Vukojevich repanels Robert Goodin's "The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung" from Mome Vol. 19

• Joseph Harper repanels Jason's The Left Bank Gang 

• Steven Weissman repanels O SEGREDO DO ESPAD ÂO (Le Secret de l'Espadon); Edgar P Jacobs, 1947

Given my job it is strange for me to suggest that you give another publisher your money. But as a comics fan I really want this awesome-sounding project to get the help it needs and I'd be crazy not to plug it: Ryan Standfest's startup Rotland Press + Comicworks is raising needed funds via Kickstarter for the printing of the new comics anthology BLACK EYE: Graphic Transmissions to Cause Ocular Hypertension and jeezum crow, look at that lineup — that's just mind-boggling:

Stéphane Blanquet (France)
Ivan Brunetti (USA- Chicago)
Lilli Carré (USA- Chicago)
Max Clotfelter (USA- Seattle)
Al Columbia (USA)
Ludovic Debeurme (France)
Olivier Deprez (France)
Nikki DeSautelle (USA- Detroit)
Brecht Evens (Belgium)
Andy Gabrysiak (USA- Detroit)
Robert Goodin (USA- Pasadena)
Dav Guedin (France)
Gnot Guedin (France)
Glenn Head (USA- New York City)
Danny Hellman (USA- New York City)
Paul Hornschemeier (USA- Chicago)
Ian Huebert (USA- San Francisco)
Kaz (USA- Los Angeles)
Michael Kupperman (USA- New York City)
Mats!? (USA- Oakland, CA)
Fanny Michaëlis (France)
James Moore (USA- New York City)
Tom Neely (USA- Los Angeles)
Mark Newgarden (USA- New York City)
Paul Nudd (USA- Chicago)
Onsmith (USA- Chicago)
Emelie Östergren (Sweden)
Paul Paetzel (Germany)
David Paleo (Argentina)
Bruno Richard (France)
Martin Rowson (United Kingdom)
Olivier Schrauwen (Belgium)
Stephen Schudlich (USA- Detroit)
Robert Sikoryak (USA- New York City)
Brecht Vandenbroucke (Belgium)
Wouter Vanhaelemeesch (Belgium)
Jon Vermilyea (USA- New York City)

And original essays by:
-Jeet Heer (Canada), on S. Clay Wilson
-Bob Levin (USA- Berkeley, CA), on The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist by Michael O’Donoghue and Frank Springer
-Ken Parille (USA- Greenville, NC), on humor in the work of Steve Ditko
-Ryan Standfest (USA- Detroit), on Al Feldstein and “sick” humor at E.C. + interview with Al Feldstein

And a text by:
Roland Topor (France), 100 Good Reasons To Kill Myself Right Now, translated into English for the first time by Edward Gauvin

• Jason's commentary on this page of sound effects lettering for the English edition of You Can't Get There from Here (now seen in Almost Silent) is hilarious; plus more early strips, illustrations and film reviews at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• New artwork, illustrations and handicrafts and other news (she moved to Savannah, Georgia — be her new intern!) in the latest blog update from Dame Darcy

• Another early strip (from 1989) by Richard Sala

• A new sketch by Lilli Carré

• A new strip by Steve Brodner for yesterday's Washington Post

• "Connecticut" by Josh Simmons — ouch

• Several recent sketchbook pages by Anders Nilsen

• A glimpse at the final chapter of Derek Van Gieson's "Devil Doll" which will appear in Mome Vol. 22 this Spring

• I cannot imagine a better panel for Robert Goodin to have done for the Repaneled blog

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new print by John Hankiewicz at his Clip Joint blog

• Sketches by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Vintage Jim Flora illustrations, sketches & artwork at the Jim Flora blog

• More artwork from Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• Previews from the new Blammo and Mary Todd paper dolls from Noah Van Sciver

• Some excellent sketches at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Drawings, sketches, photos from Renee French

• Daily drawings and animation production artwork from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• An old sketch of a... Teletubby?... by Hans Rickheit

• Thematically similar new sketches by Eleanor Davis at her We Be Ouija blog

So Josh Blair and J.B. Sapienza started a blog called Rejected by Covered, which is what it says on the tin: artwork which Robert Goodin has turned down for his now-famous Covered blog. Funnily enough, the first entry on Rejected by Covered is by Rob himself.

Below, a new piece by Rob deemed worthy for Covered (and also for his holiday postcard — thanks Rob!).