We have an update to our schedule of Fantagraphics-related events at this year's Bumbershoot festival: our own Nico Vassilakis will be participating in the Pecha Kucha multidisciplinary arts showcase tomorrow at noon. Looks fascinating!

[Artwork by Jim Woodring — click for larger version and see below for more photos]

Comics connoisseurs can view "Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" for free this Friday, September 3 from 11:00 [correction:] noon to 7:00 PM in the Olympic Room on the Northwest corner of the Seattle Center grounds near Key Arena.)

The exhibition features 3 generations of cartoonists from the city that gave birth and momentum to the alternative comix movement. More than 250 artworks and artifacts are on display, with a comix reading lounge, a continuous screening of David Moore's seminal Hooked on Comix documentary, and cartooning demonstrations by Friends of the Nib and Bureau of Drawers. All Bumbershoot visual art shows are free on Friday, and hizzoner the mayor will tour the exhibitions in the afternoon.

Bumbershoot, Seattle's annual Labor Day weekend arts festival, looks promising this year. In addition to the comix exhibition, there's the daily Flatstock poster show, a special preview of the anxiously-awaited Jesse Bernstein documentary I Am Secretly an Important Man on Saturday, a concert by Hole, featuring the lovely and talented Courtney Love on Sunday, and the equally lovely and talented Tony Millionaire on Monday. Hope to see you there.

[Artwork & artifacts by Lynda Barry]

[Artwork & artifacts by Peter Bagge]

[Jason T. Miles assembles the Profanity Hill installation]

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• On Facebook Esther Pearl Watson gave this glimpse at her new work-in-progress graphic novel, a "Lady Rambo" style action-adventure!

• A self-portrait circa late-1990s and another uncollected strip by Jason; also, he's blogging about the films of Audrey Hepburn, beginning with Funny Face

• Jim Woodring presents "A matinee from CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS"

• Drew Friedman recounts an evening at Mickey & Val Rooney's variety show

• Sergio Ponchione did the album cover & interior art for the debut album by Orangeproject

• Noah Van Sciver gives another glimpse at his book-in-progress The Hypo

• Deepest, sincerest condolences to Laura Park on the loss of her beloved and handsome cat Lewis

• Josh Simmons puts a Quacker between two Buns; also, Flexi-Quacker

• From Renee French: thumbnails, guys with mitts, something shadowy with maybe a bunny

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 37

• John Kerschbaum's Cartoon Boy wraps up his current adventure — mmm, that's good denouement

• Matthias Lehmann updates his blog with nearly a dozen recent illustrations

• Steven Weissman takes another crack at that "Truman Capote" strip

• Oh Frank Santoro. His latest cut-n-paste job is decidedly NSFW. "Marvel Team-Up" indeed

• Welcome to Dame Darcy's dollhouse — this and more in her latest blog update

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea pages 124 & 125

• Illustrated border and hand-lettering by Richard Sala for a written piece by Nick Tosches, 1996

• An untitled Jim Flora painting from 1964

• A new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond strip by Kevin Huizenga 

• Send Jim Blanchard your address and he'll happily send you one of these old postcards

• Sexual harrassment and chocolate figure in part 3 of Gabrielle Bell's "Comic-Con Comicumentary"

• Mark Kalesniko's third variation on "Tina in a Polka-Dot Dress"

• Steve Brodner presents a rejected New Yorker illustration

• Our Talented Staff Dept: office manager Stephanie Hayes is now posting flora & fauna sketches at The Gentleman Scientist

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "A refreshing counterpoint to the vampire meme... In true Jason form, Werewolves of Montpellier neatly packs a chockful of romance, recreational crime, and existential thrills in this full-color 48-pager." – Space 15 Twenty

• Review: "Norwegian cartoonist Jason's book The Last Musketeer is the kind of whimsy that's easy to do wrong and nearly impossible to get right, but Jason gets it very right indeed. ... It's a story that follows a dreamlike, comic logic, always silly and always fun, and every page has several large grins waiting to jump onto your face as you read." – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

• Review: "It should go without saying that if you’re at all interested in women’s comics or manga, you should buy [A Drunken Dream and Other Stories]. But in all honesty, I think even if you just like comics and beautifully-told stories, this should be a part of your bookshelf. ... Hagio’s art is, of course, constantly gorgeous. ... Thorn’s translation definitely seems to be true to Hagio’s stories. He is obviously a great admirer of her and he does her justice. ... This is a beautiful book by an incredible creator. Whether or not you knew of Hagio before or this is going to be your introduction to her, it’s a book you need to have." – Eden Miller, Comicsgirl

• Review: "Underground comics were once the bastard stepchild of the industry. ... These days though they get their due as actual art, and their slouch towards respectability gets a big boost with Fantagraphics Books’ The Artist Himself: A Rand Holmes Retrospective. The collection combines a fascinating biography of Holmes... with chapters of his finest work... The Canadian rarely gets his due among comics aficionados, but The Artist Himself should go a long way toward putting this underground legend on the list of greats." – Alonso Duralde, Modern Tonic

• Review: At The Comics Journal, Bart Croonenborghs looks at the work of Olivier Schrauwen: "Here are some keywords though for the unintiated: Belgian, comic genius, graphical masterblender, darkly ironic, perfectionist."

• Profile: Santiago Garcia uses the release of The Search for Smilin' Ed by Kim Deitch as "an excuse to get an overview of the latest productions of this extraordinary author, who belongs to the first generation of the West Coast underground and has not stopped working from the 60s until now." (Translated from Spanish; via Bill Kartalopoulos)

• Interview: Larry Reid's appearance on The Marty Riemer Show podcast is now archived for your listening pleasure

• Commentary: The Hooded Utilitarian's critical roundtable on E.C. Segar's Popeye continues as Chris Mautner takes a tangential look at the topper strip Sappo

Our own Larry Reid will be appearing on The Marty Riemer Show webcast/podcast (hosted by the former KMTT morning show host) tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM to talk about the big Bumbershoot comic art exhibit he's curating. Tune in! The other guest on the program: Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire. Larry moves in influential circles, y'all.

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

We've been collecting more photos from Comic-Con in 3 (so far) Flickr galleries (1, 2, 3). Here are some highlights!

From our own Eric Reynolds:

Jean Schulz with her Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award at the Eisners.

From our own Adam Grano:

Moto Hagio sketching.

Jaime Hernandez says howdy to Dave Gibbons.

Adam meets Matt Groening.

Sadtrooper.

From Pink Cow Photography:

The Hernandez clan.

From Jody C.:

Carol Tyler, with Tim Hensley at left in the background.

From Exhibit A Press:

Stephen DeStefano.

From Bridie Macdonald:

Ben Schwartz & son, with Andrei Molotiu at left.

Great stuff! If you know of any good shots we've missed, let us know.

My picture-taking fell off on the last day of Comic-Con as things got even more hectic with last-minute wheeling & dealing, including our Sunday-only 20%-off-everything sale. Here are a few things I managed to capture:

Peter Bagge chats with Scott McCloud (while our own Eric Reynolds and D&Q 's Jessica Campbell watch from a distance)...

...and with Jeffrey Brown, visiting from the neighboring Top Shelf booth (while our own Jason T. Miles confers with Sparkplug's Dylan Williams in the background).

Pete keeps his Inkpot trophy handy while Stephen DeStefano diligently signs and sketches.

Carol Tyler's rad handmade Nancy brooch.

Above, Moto Hagio & Carol Tyler's final whiteboard doodles, and below, table doodles by Carol, Andrei Molotiu, & Natalia Hernandez:

And it was over! Here's me & Janice, all packed up & ready to go, with mixed feelings. Thanks to our booth neighbors at BloodFire Studios for this last shot (and for loaning us their handtruck at the very beginning):

We did a few things differently this year, most notably a smaller booth and smaller staff, but sales and enthusiasm seemed to be greater than last year. And while there are "teachable moments" every year, this was overall as smooth and successful a Comic-Con as I can remember in my brief history with the company. Thanks to all the staff, volunteers, artists, family members, professional colleagues and especially the fans who helped make Comic-Con 2010 another great show!

We just uploaded a mess of photos from recent Fantagraphics events to our Flickr page. In reverse chronological order, starting with last night's Dame Darcy exhibit opening and Meat Cake signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery:

Click here for more photos, including shots of all the artwork.

From June 5th, Esther Pearl Watson & Mark Todd's visit to the store for our holiday weenie roast (with grill-meister Larry Reid):

More photos here.

And lastly, on July 3rd, at an undisclosed location, the triumphant return of the Fantagraphics shooting outing:

Check out the Flickr group for more photos by Jim Blanchard & Adam Grano.

I was excited to see this photo posted on Twitter by Kristin Hersh yesterday, with Gilbert Hernandez's cover art for her upcoming memoir Rat Girl, to be released by Penguin in the U.S. on August 31. Besides being a phenomenal songwriter and performer with Throwing Muses, 50FOOTWAVE and solo, Kristin is one of the best storytellers and writers in the performing arts biz, no lie, and she has some amazing tales to tell. This book is a must-get.

UPDATE: I just found out it was colored by our own Jacob Covey! It just keeps getting better.