Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Plugs: Cynthia Clark Harvey of the Phoenix New Times looks at "Noteworthy Graphic Novels by Women," including C. Tyler's You'll Never Know — "The first two installments of Tyler's wonderful trilogy, a memoir about her father's WWII soldiering and its effects on her family, were on best and award lists. I liked Book 1 and loved Book 2, leaving me on tenterhooks for Book 3…" — and Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons — "…as I look at O'Connor's early cartoons, I'm sure I'll be thinking: What if she were working today? What if she'd been…

Sorry this slipped through the cracks last week, everyone! Last Wednesday's comic shop shipment included the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1943-1945 by Ernie Bushmillerintroduction by Daniel Clowes 336-page black & white 8.5" x 8.5" flexibound softcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-360-6 "This is lovely material, lovingly presented, as satisfying a production-style execution of a strip collection as I've seen in a…

"forty dave cooper characters for Paris, 2011" Serigraph Print, edition of 85 19.5 x 27.5″ Rivoli paper, acid free, 280 gr. 1 colour $78 More info, close-up and signing pics, and a link to buy are all on Dave's blog. Suh-weet.

Rob Walker, co-founder of the Significant Objects project, was a guest on today's episode of Public Radio International's Studio 360 with host Kurt Andersen (who also happens to have contributed a story). Andersen interviewed Walker on location at Vintage Thrift in Manhattan and the two chose three new Objects for listeners to assign Significance to in Studio 360's Significant Objects story contest. Listen to the segment here or embedded below: And hey, designer extraordinaire Jacob Covey just finalized the two — yes, two! — covers for the book. That's right, because we're crazy, we're publishing the book collection with two…

You know, Trubble Club, the weird and wonderful jam comics produced by a Chicago-centric collective of the same name that includes Fanta-family folks Lilli Carré, Laura Park and Jeremy Tinder among many others. After 4 minicomic collections they've put together a doozy of a package for Vol. 5: a full-color Sunday funnies-style newspaper of all-new strips. They've brought in a few ringers to participate in addition to their regulars, AND it comes with a silkscreen print. You can buy a copy for 8 bucks from The Post Family online shop. Chicagoans can buy it at Quimby's. I got my order…

What happens when you have to miss a couple of days of the comics internet is that it takes you almost the whole rest of the week to get fully caught up on Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Library Journal's Martha Cornog gives a nice shout-out to Carl Barks and recommends Oil and Water by Steve Duin & Shannon Wheeler as one of "30 Graphic Novels for Earth Day 2012": "Wheeler’s atmospheric, ink-washed greys capture eccentric residents from crabbers to a pelican-rescue team, and Duin’s script catches the ironic resiliency of people exploited by the very industry that feeds…

Due to privacy concerns I'm slightly uneasy about posting photos of other people's babies, but this is too good not to share, so I'll just leave it anonymous and say that it came via Kevin Huizenga, who says "Wanted: more readers like [this]."

I just had to cross-post this from our Tumblr blog because it's too, too good: Jason pays homage to Moebius and George Herriman, saying "I should have been working on my new book. Instead I drew this." We forgive you, Jason. (Curiously, Max also has a pretty great Moebius/Herriman tribute.)

Another huge honor for Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics editor Michel Gagne and his video game creation Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet: last week the game picked up the GAME British Academy Video Games Award for Best Debut Game! (You may recall that just last month it won the 2011 International Animated Film Society Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game.) You can read an interview with Michel at the BAFTA Guru website and see a video clip of the game's victory at the award ceremony here. And if you're in Seattle you can congratulate Michel…