Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Esteemed Washington, DC bookstore Politics & Prose has posted their list of "Favorite Graphic Literature of 2011": "It seems sort of cruel to celebrate the final issue of Mome, Fantagraphics’ premier anthology of comics. But one can hardly resist such a celebratory finale. As to be expected, Mome Volume 22 packs a wallop, throwing in a mind-bending array of cartoonists, some Mome regulars, some first-time contributors. Some favorites: Joe Kimball’s 'Secret Hand,' Tim Lane’s 'Belly Gunner,' Eleanor Davis’ 'Nita Go Home' and 'Loving Bin Laden' by James Romberger. As always, this is a…

In this month's issue of Booklist you can find praise for three of our recent releases: Nuts by Gahan Wilson: "One of the greatest gag cartoonists, whose monthly contributions to Playboy may prove that magazine’s most durable legacy, Wilson gave National Lampoon something to be remembered for, too — his only comic strip, collected here. Titled to echo Charles Schulz’s great newspaper feature full of kids who think and talk like adults, the six-paneled Nuts develops a realistic situation from out of memory (the strips typically begin with the word “remember”). All the fully visible characters are children, mostly boys,…

The eagerly-awaited new issue of Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle hits comic shops next week and Diamond's PREVIEWSworld website offers up an exclusive peek at 3 pages from the issue!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The book is lovingly made and the strips presented with care and pleasure. But is it any good? Oh yes. It's funny and charming, bursting with witty wordplay and vivid characters you love immediately. You can see the influence the Marx Brothers and Krazy Kat and Mark Twain had on Pogo and its love of silly grammatical puns and Southern dialect. And you can see the influence Pogo had on Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes… In short, read Pogo and you can immediately see it slide into the pop cultural matrix and how…

Drew Friedman has a wonderful, photo-packed account of his time with the great Jack Davis in New York City a couple of weeks ago at the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival, including a recap of the panel discussion with Davis he co-hosted at the festival with Gary Groth. Go, read, be delighted! (Photo by Ryan Flanders.)

We were thrilled to be able to present living legend of comics and illustration Jack Davis in conversation with Gary Groth at the Strand Book Store in NYC a couple of weeks ago, and now we can share the excitement via the Strand's video of the event posted on their YouTube account!

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about it (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. 500 Portraits by Tony Millionaire 192-page black & white 5.75" x 7.5" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-473-3 "500 Portraits is a collection of drawings by the mighty Tony Millionaire of various people, some famous, some not so famous. I’m sure it all will be exquisitely rendered." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas tops Deb Aoki's list of the Most-Anticipated New Manga of 2012 at About.com Manga: "This 3-volume story from 1974 has been on many manga connoisseur's wish lists for years, so it's a real joy to see that Fantagraphics will be publishing the entire saga in English in one volume." • List/Review: Manga Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson ranks Wandering Son the #2 Best New Manga of 2011 and recommends Volume 2 in her review: "Shimura Takako’s young figures are adorable. They look unspoiled, with their future ahead of…