In celebration of the arrival of the inaugural class of MFA in Comics graduate students, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco will host a summer guest speaker series featuring some of comics' most talented creators.

On Friday, July 5th, CCA kicks off the series with a bang, with special guest Cathy Malkasian! Cathy will be discussing her work in the animation industry, as well as her most recent book, Wake Up, Percy Gloom!

This lecture will take place on CCA's San Francisco campus in the Graduate Writers Studio at 195 De Haro Street. 

And then on Friday, July 26th, CCA closes out the month-long series with Dash Shaw! Dash's discussions on his work and his latest book, New School, are not to be missed. 

Dash's discussion will take place on CCA's San Francisco campus in the Timken Lecture Hall on 1111 Eighth Street.

Both lectures begin at 6:00 PM! More information about the MFA in Comics program available at cca.edu/mfacomics.

Join us this weekend at CAKE at Center on Halsted in Chicago from Saturday, June 15 through Sunday, June 16th! Table 13-14 is the place to be. We're pumped to announce our special guests, Kim Deitch, Ben Catmull, Charles Forsman, Leslie Stein, Josh Simmons, Tom Kaczynski, Lilli Carré, and Noah Van Sciver! Check out our lush signing schedule:

Saturday, June 15th

Leslie Stein               11:00am-Noon
Chuck Forsman      Noon-1:00pm
Lilli Carré                  1:00pm-2:00pm
Kim Deitch               2:00pm-3:00pm
Ben Catmull             3:00pm-4:00pm
Noah Van Sciver    4:00pm-5:00pm
Josh Simmons        5:00pm-6:00pm

 Sunday, June 16th

Tom Kaczynski      11:00am-noon
Noah Van Sciver   Noon-1:00pm
Kim Deitch              1:00pm-2:00pm
Chuck Forsman     2:00pm-3:00pm
Josh Simmons       3:00pm-4:00pm
Leslie Stein             4:00pm-5:00pm
Ben Catmull           5:00pm-6:00pm

We have some lip-bustin' new books to debut at CAKE.

• The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley by Kim Deitch

• The End of the Fucking World by Charles Forsman

• Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2 by Leslie Stein

• The End by Anders Nilsen

• Wake Up, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian

• Good Dog by Graham Chaffee

• The Daniel Clowes Reader edited by Ken Parille

aaaannnnd Wandering Son Vol. 4 by Shimura Takako

Our cartoonists will be partaking in programming throughout the weekend, so check out their panels! 

On Friday, June 14th Kim Deitch has a signing from 6pm-8pm at Chicago Comics. (3244 N Clark)

Saturday, June 15th

Noon-1:00pm // Chris Ware: Special Guest Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan - the Smartest Kid on Earth, which received the Guardian First Book Award and was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial of American Art. His most recent book, Building Stories, was voted a 2012 Top Ten Book of the Year by the New York Times, Time Magazine and Publishers Weekly. Jake Austen, editor of the vital and influential Chicago cultural magazine Roctober, will host Mr. Ware in conversation, speaking on Ware's career and his connection to Chicago and its living comics history.

3:00 - 4:30pm // Eyeworks: Parallel Lines: The Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation is a film festival with a focus on abstract animation and unconventional character animation. The festival programs showcase outstanding experimental animation of all sorts: classic films, new works, and rare masterpieces. Founded in 2010 by Alexander Stewart (Library Book, Sideral) and Lilli Carré (Heads or Tails, The Lagoon), Eyeworks is held annually in Chicago, with additional curated programs presented in Chicago and other cities throughout the year. The Eyeworks program showing at CAKE this year, Parallel Lines, features animated work that highlights an overlap between alternative comics and experimental animation. The screening will include both classic and contemporary works on this theme, showcasing narrative and graphic parallels between the two forms. Immediately following the screening there will be a Q&A, with presented animators Kim Deitch, Kevin Eskew, and Leif Goldberg.

Sunday, June 16th

12:30 - 1:30pm // Mega-Solutions to Micro-Publishing: Oily Comics: In the current expansion of the micro-publishing field, Special Guests Oily Comics is a premiere imprint. Operated by Chuck Forsman (The End of the Fucking World, Snake Oil) and Melissa Mendes (Lou, Freddy), Oily Comics features some of the best talent in alternative comics. Joining them on stage will be fellow Special Guest Michael DeForge (Adventure Time, Elizabeth of Canada, Lose), and German cartoonist, Anna Haifisch (The Buddies, Future Tense). CAKE co-organizer Max Morris will moderate this exciting discussion.

2:00 - 3:00pm // Kim Deitch: Special Guest Kim Deitch came from a legacy in the animation field and continues to form a legacy of his own. From the hey-day of the undergrounds, through the breakthrough of Raw, Kim Deitch remains a seminal force in alternative comics. Deitch will be speaking about his new book, The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley, out this year from Fantagraphics. He will be joined by Caitlin McGurk (Good Morning You), librarian at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.

3:30 - 4:30pm // Intimate Anxiety: Beyond the shock tactics of portraying "inappropriate" subject matter in comics, we find the medium is exquisitely suited for grappling with explicit content, unchained from the trappings of taboo. Intimate Anxiety focuses on three artists' ferocious visions of sex and death, made all the more visceral through gorgeous and painstaking details. Special Guest Phoebe Gloeckner sets the standard for work that probes these realms. From her experimental memoir, Diary of a Teenage Girl, to her iconic illustrations for RE/Search to her current work dealing with the ongoing femicide in Cuidad, Juárez, Gloeckner continues to confront difficult realities with groundbreaking graphic integrity. Julia Gfrörer's art vibrates off of the page while crafting oblique erotic worlds laced with terror. Through sparse text and a perfect sense of visual timing, Gfrörer's comics, such as Too Dark to See, Flesh and Bone and Black Is the Color bring language to the unspeakable. Joining them will be Special Guest Heather Benjamin, whose obsessively rendered drawings aim straight for the jugular vein. Author of the cult art zine Sad Sex and contributor to the prolific output of Collective Stench, Benjamin's art delves headfirst into complicated scenarios that are emotionally fraught and sexually feral. Moderated by Caroline Paquita, author of Womanimalistic and founder of Pegacorn Press, Intimate Anxiety is a conversation about the power and truth that lies within impropriety.

So come visit Jacq and all our cartoonists at tables 13-14 this weekend at CAKE! 3656 N Halsted, Chicago, IL 60613

Legendary comics "herstorian," Trina Robbins, is bringing a chunk of her astounding collection of women's comics to the Women’s History Museum of California in San Diego this summer!

(The entire collection has NEVER been shown, she notes!)

Wonder Women: On Paper and Off explores the avenues women have made in the comic and graphic industry.  This exhibition follows the history of women in comics starting in the 20th century — as artists and characters — through today’s cartoon and graphic illustrations.

The exhibit, which opened this past Friday, June 7th, also features contributions from contributions from Joyce Farmer, Mary Fleener, Carol Lay, Ron May (collector), Peiter Ortiz (collector), Mimi Pond, and Andrea Tsurumi.

On Thursday, July 18th at 7:30 PM, Trina will be joined by Mary, Carol, and Ramona Fradon, for a panel discussion of their experiences of working in the comic industry, followed by a signing of her upcoming collection Pretty in Ink: American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013!

The Women's Museum of California is located at 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16. The exhibit runs through Sunday, September 1st, 2013.

The Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York City is hosting an exhibition of portraits by Charles Burns that were published on the cover of The Believer magazine between 2003 and 2013, and that's cool, but y'know what's even cooler? The accompanying exhibit: Before & After Portraits from Black Hole!

In these comic grotesque portraits, themes of adolescent alienation and sexual awakening mingle with imagery of mutation, disease, and violence. Each smiling, yearbook-style portrait is accompanied by a Dorian Gray-like counterpart, picturing the same teenager with some troubling facial alteration.

Go, and take in all the exquisite work of the master Charles Burns! The Adam Baumgold Gallery is located at 60 E. 66th Street in New York City. The exhibit runs through July 26th, 2013.

Chicago hosts some hometown love for their prodigal son Daniel Clowes with the exhibit Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, opening June 29th at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago!

This retrospective of Clowes's work presents more than 125 original drawings and artifacts. You might remember when the exhibition first appeared at the Oakland Museum of California Art -- the city that Chicago-born Clowes now calls home -- but, the show will be expanded significantly for its MCA Chicago presentation!

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is located at 220 E Chicago Avenue, just one block east of Michigan Avenue, in the heart of the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. The exhibit runs through October 13, 2013.

Pull up a stool to our entry in Hazradfactory's famous Power Tool Races at the Georgetown Carnival this Saturday. The Fantagraphics Bar Car blends Pina Coladas while leisurely tooling down the track. (The resulting cocktails will be served to race officials following each run.) Inspired by the mid-century motifs of Shag, Fantagraphics Bookstore's annual entry is going for cool, not speed. Come watch us win.

The Power Tool Races commence at noon and continue all afternoon, concluding with a delirious demolition derby. Enjoy an afternoon of free entertainment including acrobats, aerialists, brass bands, tall bikes, belly dancers, stiltwalkers, fortune tellers, burlesque acts, beer gardens, drag shows, interactive art, carnival games, and 17 bands on 4 stages (featuring Bonneville Power and Tom Price Desert Classic with Fantagraphics own Martin Bland.) Noon to 8:00 PM in Seattle's festive Georgetown arts community. 

It's the Love and Rockets European Vacation! 

After his appearance at Comica: The London International Comics Festival, the great Jaime Hernandez heads to Denmark as a special guest of the 2013 Copenhagen Comics Festival!

This Saturday, June 1st and Sunday, June 2nd, Jaime will be at Øksnehallen, signing your well-worn copies of Speedy Ortiz Dør or Mekanix or other translated titles that have an "o" with a slash through it!

Øksnehallen is located at Halmtorvet 11, situated in the heart of the old meat district in the centre of Copenhagen.

Legendary Italian illustrator and cartoonist Lorenzo Mattotti is making a rare stateside appearance TONIGHT, Thursday, May 30th, at the Society of Illustrators in New York City!

Join Lorenzo at 6:30 PM as he presents his latest work, OLTREMAI, and as he discusses his life as an illustrator -- including his work on the Eisner-nominated The Crackle of the Frost, and The Raven, his collaboration with Lou Reed! 

Tickets are $15 non-members, $10 members, $7 students/seniors. The Society of Illustrators is located at 128 East 63rd Street.

We're excited to announce that Love & Rockets co-creator/living legend Mario Hernandez will be a special guest at the Third Annual Latino Comics Expo in San Francisco. 

Join Mario on Saturday, June 1st & Sunday, June 2nd for the nation’s first convention focusing on Latino creators and Latino-themed subject matter at the Cartoon Art Museum.

All events are open to the public and are included with paid admission to the Cartoon Art Museum at 655 Mission Street, near Yerba Buena Gardens between New Montgomery and Third Street in San Francisco. 

The colorful Georgetown Carnival arts festival enters its 7th year with an eclectic array of entertainment reflecting the sensibilities of one of Seattle's liveliest neighborhoods. This free, family friendly event features diverse music, interactive art, acrobats, circus acts, carnival games and confections, as well as Hazardfactory's world famous Power Tool Races. The fun is from noon to 8:00 PM on Saturday, June 8 in the heart of the historic Georgetown industrial arts corridor.

Don't miss stiltwalkers, aerialists, tall bikes, brass bands, and rock ‘n' roll. Young performers from Georgetown's School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts will be joined by youthful musicians from the Seattle Drum School on the Carnival Stage. Artists from Georgetown's Equinox Studios present intriguing art activities. Sandbox Sports hosts a children's beach party. Students from nearby Cleveland High School screen short films. "Minions" from Despicable Me 2 wander the Carnival grounds. Kids win wonderful prizes at creative carnival games.

Thrill to the spectacle of customized power tools drag racing side-by-side in Hazardfactory's infamous Power Tool Races, concluding with a cacophonous demolition derby. This year's Fantagraphics entry will be unveiled at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, June 1. Sweet!

More than 15 bands perform on 3 stages, including Tom Price Desert Classic (featuring Fantagraphics own Martin Bland), Cute Lepers, The Billy Joe Show, Rocket Surgery, The Gum, Dead Man, and more, along with the grand opening of the Sub Pop Mega Mart in advance of their Silver Jubilee celebration in Georgetown on July 13. The Stables Midway Sideshow and Georgetown Brewing Beer Garden features mature entertainment including burlesque dancers, drag queens, and lounge acts. An additional beer garden is located at the Georgetown Trailer Park Market of Curiosities and music stage.

Plan to spend your whole summer in the enchanting Georgetown district!