Our good friends and colleagues over at Rosebud Archives have announced the forthcoming publication of Bully!, a collection of vintage political cartoons featuring Theodore Roosevelt (and not our Little Stuffed Bull pal), edited by Rick Marschall. What a great idea for a book, and it's sure to be produced with Rosebud's signature attention to quality and detail.

(Don't forget, we offer a full range of Rosebud Archives products here on our website!)

UPDATE: Rick Marschall contacted us with a correction: while Rosebud did production on the book and is selling ancilliary merchandise (prints and framed art of the book's vintage cartoons, etc.), the book is being published by Regnery History of Washington DC. See the link for more info and a sneak peek!

Presenting a brand new book from our good friends at Rosebud Archives: Skippy Vs. the Mob. "This important new book collects, for the first time, the only continuity Percy Crosby ever drew in his widely-syndicated Skippy comics, and features a comprehensive essay by the artist’s courageous daughter, chronicling an astonishing history of fraud, persecution, and betrayal. Here, for the first time, is a story ripped from the headlines — a spiraling saga that grew far too large for one man to handle." Rosebud's Jonathan Barli showed me a copy at the MoCCA fest last weekend and it is a beautifully produced package. Read more about the book and order your copy here. (And don't forget, you can order many Rosebud Archives products here on our website.)

We're pleased to share the news about Skippy Vs. the Mob, a new book from our colleagues Rick Marschall and Jonathan Barli over at Rosebud Archives. Find out more about this classic Percy Crosby story on the Rosebud Archives blog.

Don't forget, you can order a selection of Rosebud Archives products (prints, portfolios, notecards, etc.) right here on our website.

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Of the artists that meant the world to me when I was young enough that lots of artists meant the world to me, Jaime Hernandez is the only one I know of that can still kill me dead with his newest and latest. Your mileage may vary, but Jaime's three-part story in the latest Love and Rockets brought to mind the same sweep of romance and regret and pursuit of all that's sweet in life as much as battered and broken insides allow that I remember all too well from the summer between my junior and senior years in college, when I would have put everything about my wonderful life on hold to climb into a black and white comic book for a little while. There are three or four panels in this newest effort worth some cartoonists' entire careers." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "Set to Sea is [an] auspicious debut... Weing's nameless, landlubbing protagonist aches to rhapsodize about the sea but discovers that something's missing. After dozing drunkenly on a dock, he awakes to discover he's been shanghaied. His adventures provide ample material for a volume of poetry in this hilariously violent picaresque tale." – Richard Pachter, The Miami Herald

• Review: "A book like The Best American Comics Criticism invites argument. If you put 'best' in your title, argument will follow. I’ve got arguments, but I wanted to start by praising both the editor, Ben Schwartz, and the publisher, Fantagraphics, for making the effort." - Derik Badman

• Review: "...[T]his story is one where Deitch tries to tie the various unruly strands of his many stories together. In a way, I almost prefer that these overlapping, nesting, and sometimes contradictory stories never really congeal, but The Search for Smilin' Ed is, like all of Deitch's work, a compelling and highly personal piece of work." – Robert Boyd, The Great God Pan Is Dead

• Review: "Although the images are very haunting, they are extremely beautiful. Pim & Francie is a pretty unique book. ... This book as a whole is actually quite creepy, haunting, scary, beautiful, and intoxicating. I seem to enjoy it more every time I look/read through it. With images on almost every single page, this book is worth a lot more than its cover price." – Steven Thomas

• Review: "Wally Gropius ...[is] John Stanley for the 21st century. Not that Stanley doesn’t work just fine in 2010, but Hensley is worthy of that sort of praise. I wish this guy was writing Archie." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "I loved this book and am glad I... could read something this wonderfully twisted... I really wish I could tell you what genre this is, but The Squirrel Machine defies that sort of commercial branding." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "Man, Joe Daly is awesome. ...[H]e is back with thunder in his pen and ants in his pants. [Dungeon Quest] is as good as Scrublands on page one and it just gets better and funnier, more bizarre and familiar (if you have ever met or hung out with Larpers) with each page turn. Welcome back, Joe Daly. You rule." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "The Troublemakers... is Gilbert [Hernandez] doing a Quentin Tarantino, in that he dips into a sleazy old unpleasant genre of crime exploitation films of the 60s and 70s and cherry-picks a bunch of the good bits and smashes them together and cooks them into a really sweet pie." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "The Culture Corner... is the biggest score for fans of Wolverton since the publication of the Wolverton Bible. I guess you could also say that this is the first reprint collection of Wolverton material since the Wolverton Bible if you wanted to nit-pick. Great stuff." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Plug: "I’m barely able to form coherent thoughts about Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. It’s an amazing collection of her work, and I hope it just causes an explosion of interest in her work." – David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon

• Plug: Sarah McIntyre took some lovely photos of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1961-1962

• Interview: At WFMU's Beware of the Blog, Kliph Nesteroff talks to Drew Friedman: "When I was talking to Albert [Brooks] at this party he said, 'Drew, did you know that Harpo's ex-wife married Frank Sinatra?' I said, 'No, it was Zeppo's ex-wife.' He said, 'No, no, it was Harpo's ex-wife.'  I said, 'No, it was Zeppo's ex-wife. Look, we have Andy Marx, Groucho's grandson standing right here. Let's ask him.' I said, 'Andy, which one of your uncles married Frank Sinatra's wife?' He said, 'Well, that was Zeppo's wife.' That's why I love L.A. It's handy to have Groucho's grandson [around] when you need him." (Note: audio of this conversation will be available from the Inkstuds podcast soon; we'll keep you updated)

• Profile: Seattle Times book editor Mary Ann Gwinn reports on the partnership between Rick Marschall's Rosebud Archives and Fantagraphics Books: "Now Marschall's company, Rosebud Archives, and Fantagraphics have formed a joint publishing enterprise that will draw from Marschall's immense collection, reclaiming the work of the great 20th-century magazine and newspaper artists for the 21st-century public."

• Commentary: At The Hooded Utilitarian, Shaenon Garrity kicks off a critical roundtable on Popeye with a 7-part appreciation: "Popeye hangs on, indestructible..., the last of a tougher, smellier, funnier breed."

• Reviewer: At Comics Comics, our own Jason T. Miles looks at something I'm also fond of: Andy Helfer & Kyle Baker's late-1980s run on The Shadow

Periodic clips & strips (normal posting schedule returns next week, probably) — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• On the Rosebud Archives blog, a rare Peanuts promotional flyer (Rosebud Archives at Fantagraphics)

• A video from Dash Shaw... some kind of teaser or something? Even if it's just a joke, it's pretty funny

• T. Edward Bak, Lilli Carré and John Hankiewicz (top to bottom) all have pieces in Pony Club Gallery's current print show The Great Outdoors (available for purchase here)

• This is one part of a three-piece screenprint by Eleanor Davis for a print show at GRNY

• A painting (background?) and collage by Frank Santoro

• From Kevin Huizenga: Burier vs. Exer at Fight or Run

"The doleful sirens are beginning to wail over on the ziggarat. Feeding time."

• Another short story from Gary Panter

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea, pages 106 & 107

• A whole bunch of watercolor portrait sketches by Marco Corona

• This week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane introduces a new character

• Mid-1950s magazine and record cover details by Jim Flora

• New Johnny Ryan art for sale on Comic Art Collective's recent additions page

• New bird sketches by Debbie Drechsler here, here and here

• "Girl in Orange Stripes" by Mark Kalesniko

• From Noah Van Sciver, a "homeless comic" and some old Blammo pages

• From Josh Simmons & Co., numerous Quackers and Randy Gander updates

• From Renee French: bird, dog, iPhone sketch (?), worm, woolyman, bird

• From Steve Brodner, birthday greetings to Calvin Coolidge & George W. Bush, plus Yankee Stadium sketches

• A few more things to consider from Anders Nilsen

• Page 31 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary; also, this is NSFW

• Robert Goodin draws the Fantastic Four — more please!

• A bunch of new drawings by Derek Van Gieson

• This week's Truth Serum by Jon Adams

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS AND ROSEBUD ARCHIVES ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP, LAUNCHING WEB SALES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL CARTOON ART IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS

SEATTLE WA, / DUMONT NJ, APRIL 8, 2010 --- Fantagraphics Books and Rosebud Archives have announced an agreement to market a wide variety of products related to vintage comics and posters, historical cartoons, advertising images, and illustration. The product lines will include prints, posters, framed art, books, stationery, and a hybrid format called the Rosebud PadFolio. The products are available for sale immediately on Fantagraphics.com:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/rosebud

 “We are proud to be allied with Fantagraphics, whose commitment to quality and the advancement of the graphics arts has been notable for decades,” announced Rosebud Archives founding partners Rick Marschall and Jonathan Barli. “Our own commitment to preservation, restoration, and high historical standards are a perfect match with Fantagraphics.”

Rosebud Archives releases will also include collectors’ editions of artwork created for, and featured in, Fantagraphics publications, including The Comics Journal and Nemo magazine. “The availability of Rosebud’s customized art objects is a perfect complement to the Marschall Books imprint we previously announced,” said Fantagraphics President Gary Groth. “Rick Marschall’s imprint will be a series of substantial volumes by individual cartoonists, thematic anthologies, and cultural collections of cartoon-related imagery. Rosebud will produce customized and short-run cartoons in various popular formats, which we’re very happy to provide on our website.”

Rosebud Archives was established in 2009 and has already released several lines of products that reflect the company’s vision. These early releases feature the work of George Herriman, ZIM, and Charles Dana Gibson; cartoon series by Gluyas Williams; prints of cartoons by Winsor McCay, Harrison Cady, and John T McCutcheon; and special art by Cliff Sterrett, George McManus, and Milt Gross. Specialty items include a “Krazy Kat” triptych and a Limited Edition portfolio of Marlene Dietrich photographic portraits. Boxed editions of works by great black-and-white cartoonists are issued under Rosebud’s “Shwartz and Weiss” imprint. Stationary items include notecards, postcards, and envelopes. Framed, frame-ready, and gallery-wrapped prints are also offered. The Rosebud Padfolio is a bound portfolio with detachable prints, a uniquely devised format.