Let's start out with a little showin' off!

• Mr. Gahan Wilson was kind enough to contribute this astonishing page to my Yoda theme sketchbook. (Mr. Wilson having been one of my favorite cartoonists since I was about 8 — 3 decades — this was an unparalleled thrill.) I just scanned and uploaded about 50 previously unseen Yodas — of particular interest to Fantagraphics fans may be (chronologically) T. Edward Bak, Bob Fingerman, Derek Van Gieson, Kurt Wolfgang, From Wonderland with Love contributors Christoffer Zieler & T. Thorhauge, Sara Edward-Corbett, Gary Panter, Trina Robbins, Lewis Trondheim, Roger Langridge, Frank Santoro, R. Sikoryak, and Anders Nilsen... and that ain't even the half of it!

• Speaking of Gahan, Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents a selection of his mid-1970s newspaper feature Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics

• The latest Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga

• Speaking of Kevin H., here's some manner of Wild Kingdom "remix"

• A happy flower (1943) and an odd creature (1993, not shown here) by Jim Flora

• John Pham is readying some artwork for an upcoming solo show at GR2 (stay tuned for an announcement — image yoinked from Facebook)

• Drinky Crow, by Mother Nature (ganked from Tony Millionaire's Facebook) — somebody call the Vatican

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary, page 11 , plus layouts for the cover of The Comics Interpreter #1

• For The Nation, Steve Brodner on that shitty recent Supreme Court decision

(...And this didn't get posted on time either. Yeesh!)

I'm still trying to figure out how to handle frequent art bloggers like Renee French and Debbie Drechsler (below). Pick one post to highlight each week? Any suggestions or preferences?

Also, some credit: I think I was inspired subconsciously to start these "Things to see" posts by Robot 6's Comics Cavalcade posts.

• Twelve original collages by Robert Pollard for the Guided by Voices release Suitcase 3, for sale on eBay

• Earth tongues by Debbie Drechsler

• Two films and an animated drawing (not shown here so as not to spoil it) by Lilli Carré

• Dash Shaw's Britney Spears

• At What Things Do, part 4 of "This Already Happened" by Steven Weissman

• Heermann's Gull by T. Edward Bak

Oh no, I had this Online Commentary & Diversions update all set to go and then I forgot to post it... Earth to Mike!

• List: At Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!, our favorite little stuffed bull continues the annual Fun Fifty countown. At #36, Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1: "Ditko expert Blake Bell collects several dozen of Steve's 1950s work from Charlton and other publishers, plus plenty of amazing covers, in a thick, hardy collection with glorious gory and ghoulish Ditko comics from front to back. This thing's a gold mine!"

• Review: "...T. Edward Bak's almost comically named 'Wild Man, Chapter 2 -- A Bavarian Botanist in St. Petersburg, Part One'... is the story to which I kept returning long after the publication entire [Mome Vol. 17] should have been swapped off of my end table for something less worked over. ... I hope there's more." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "Next to Scott Pilgrim [Prison Pit: Book 1] felt to me like the western comic that’s got closest to properly understanding the energy of manga, rather than simply aping the surface elements. ... It’s the best art I’ve seen Ryan do in his career, more focused and while it mainly maintains a four-panel-a-page rhythm, when he breaks from that to do a splash page or change the panel rhythm, he does to great effect. If you’re going to do a splash page, it might as well be of a monster made of sperm or a barbed penis." – Brian Smith, Awesome Engine

• Plug: "Hot damn, a new Jaime Hernandez Love & Rockets digest. Those books are the perfect blend of form and function." – Sean T. Collins on Penny Century

• Plug: Tiny Showcase talks up Lilli Carré ("We've been in love with her work for ages now") following the release of her new print last night

• Coming Attractions: ICv2 previews our upcoming August release of Buz Sawyer Vol. 1: The War in the Pacific by Roy Crane

• Interview: Inkstuds host Robin McConnell says "I really enjoyed this chat with Zak Sally. If you are not already reading his work, you will want to after listening to this."

• Events: For Comics Comics, Dash Shaw reports from Angoulême: "At festivals like this you find yourself jetlagged in a taxi with José Muñoz and you’re thinking 'holy shit, what do I ask José Muñoz? What do I ask José Muñoz?!' and you end up just bugging him about random things. Try to milk those ten minutes for as much as you can."

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Mome Vol. 17 - Winter 2010
By Various Artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

The acclaimed anthology continues with the concluding chapter of Paul Hornschemeier's third graphic novel "Life with Mr. Dangerous" (following his acclaimed books The Three Paradoxes and Mother Come Home), which has been running in MOME since the first issue. Meanwhile, Bottomless Belly Button creator Dash Shaw and MOME regular Tom Kaczynski collaborate on a mind-bending science-fiction story, "Resolution," where "reality" exists as a virtual world and people live through their avatars. Olivier Schrauwen delivers a surrealistic gem titled "Chromo Congo"; Derek Van Gieson delivers a horrific WWII story, "Devil Doll"; Renee French's "Almost Sound" returns, as does Ted Stearn's "The Moolah Tree" starring Fuzz & Pluck; plus new work from Kurt Wolfgang, Laura Park, Rick Froberg, Sara Edward-Corbett, and T. Edward Bak. Covers by Paul Hornschemeier.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 11-page PDF excerpt (3 MB) with a page from every artist in the issue.

120-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-302-6
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Tomorrow at 6:30 PM at the Multnomah County Central Library in Portland OR, T. Edward Bak gives a presentation about his in-progress story "Wild Man," about naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, currently being serialized in our quarterly anthology Mome. More info here. If I lived there I would totally go!

Another hot tip via Zack Soto: T. Edward Bak has a new art blog enigmatically titled °Ø° (or antizerogravity) full of his sketches, illustrations and preview pages from his Mome serial "Wild Man."

Hi from San Francisco!

Janice puts the finishing touches on our table setup

Looky all them books. Spot the debuts!

Frank Santoro & Jon Vermilyea, ready to ROCK (and sign issues of Mome)!

T. Edward Bak & Dash Shaw

Lilli Carré took a break from signing her newest book at the Little Otsu table to visit with John Pham and check out Sublife Vol. 2

Fantagraphics is storming APE this weekend in San Francisco. Come check out a slew of new books and get 'em signed by some amazing cartoonists!

FANTAGRAPHICS SIGNINGS AT APE:

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

NEW BOOKS INCLUDE:

As an added bonus, DASH SHAW is an official APE guest this year and will be signing copies of his new book, THE UNCLOTHED MAN IN THE 35TH CENTURY A.D. For anyone who buys the book at one of his Fanta signings during APE, Dash will do an original PAINTING on the front cover! You will not want to miss out. 

Mome Vol. 16 - Fall 2009
By various artists; edited by Gary Groth & Eric Reynolds

This issue features several of our favorite alternative comic artists of the last 15 years, bringing us great joy. Archer Prewitt is the first, with an all-new “Funny Bunny” strip created in between his active musical career. “The Moolah Tree” is the new Fuzz & Pluck graphic novel from Ted Stearn, following Fuzz & Pluck and Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville, beginning serialization here. We are equally proud to debut new work from Renée French, whose work is also featured on the front and back cover of this issue. And Nicholas Mahler debuts to ask "What Is Art?" (translated by secret weapon Kim Thompson).

Also: the second chapter of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man - The Strange Journey - and Fantastic Accounts - of the Naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, from Bavaria to Bolshaya Zemlya (and Beyond)"; a new "Cold Heat" story by the team of Ben Jones, Frank Santoro & Jon Vermilyea; Dash Shaw interprets an episode of "Blind Date" into comics form; and new stories from Lilli Carré, Conor O'Keefe, Laura Park, Nate Neal, and Sara Edward-Corbett, with incidental drawings by Kaela Graham.

112-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews