Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Wandering Son Vol. 2 by Shimura Takako 228-page black & white (with some color) 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $19.99presented in traditional right-to-left format; original Japanese title: 放浪息子 (Hourou Musuko)ISBN: 978-1-60699-456-6 Ships in: December 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now In the second volume of Shimura Takako's superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Shuichi spends a precious gift of cash from his grandmother on a special present for himself, a purchase that triggers a chain of events in which his sister Maho learns his secret, and Shuichi inadvertently steals the heart…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "A lot of the conventions with which we are familiar from Pogo were birthed during this period, and most of the characters with which we are most familiar have already been fully realized during the initial Dell Comics run. Walt Kelly’s wit and charm is unmatched in the history of sequential storytelling, and is in evidence here fully developed. I’d get this book for Jimmy Breslin’s introduction alone. Go. Read this. You’ll charm the pants off of yourself." – Mike Gold, ComicMix • Review: "Fan/historian Bill Schelly who, like Roy Thomas is from…

In the inaugural edition of Jim Woodring's new email newsletter (which can be subscribed to at jimwoodring.com), he reveals the future (as yet unscheduled) existence of Problematic, a collection reproducing artwork from the many Moleskine sketchbooks he has filled throughout the years. A bit of this artwork was reproduced in The Comics Journal #301, and a bit more can be seen here.

Grab your doodle pad and follow along with Jim Woodring's simple instructions for drawing his beloved protagonist Frank, including his "chow flaps" and "rings of pulchritude," revealing the truth about Frank's "gloves" and "shoes" along the way. (Via our pals at Boing Boing.)

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: About.com Manga's 2011 Best New Manga, as selected by Deb Aoki, includes Shimura Takako's Wandering Son Vol. 1 as Best New Seinen/Josei: Slice of Life: "Gender-bending is not unusual in manga, but it's rare to see transgender identity issues depicted realistically, not just as a plot gimmick. With her spare, elegant art and slice-of-life storytelling, Shimura tells a sweet and sensitive coming-of-age tale that opens your eyes and your heart to these kids and their unusual, but very real desires to be the boy/girl they know they really meant to be." • Review: "This…

Congratulations to Jim Woodring and the artist/writer team of Jason & Fabien Vehlmann, whose respective works Congress of the Animals and Isle of 100,000 Graves (in their French editions from L'Association and Glénat respectively) have been named Official Selections of the 2012 Festival International de la Bande Desinée (a.k.a. the Angoulême Festival)! In addition, the French-language edition of The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 (Dargaud) has been named to the Sélection Patrimoine list of classic reprints, and Ô Dingos, Ô Chateaux! by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Patrick Manchette (Futuropolis), which we plan to publish in English some time in the unannounced but not-too-distant…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: 500 Portraits by Tony Millionaire 192-page black & white 5.75" x 7.5" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-473-3 See Previews / Order Now 500 Portraits collects for the first time over two decades of portrait work by the beloved and award-winning creator of Drinky Crow’s Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts. Tony Millionaire’s gorgeous fountain pen illustrations, which mingle naturalistic detail with strong doses of the fanciful and grotesque, include the famous (Bob Dylan), the infamous (Abu Ghraib soldier/model Lynndie England), the fictional (Yoda), the animal kingdom (a cockroach),…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: The Austin American-Statesman's Joe Gross names Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 the best comic of 2011: "One of the wonderful things about seeing a masterpiece in the making is the mysterious feeling, the racing of the soul that takes place when it hits you that you are, in fact, seeing a masterpiece in the making…. Symphonic, tragic, revelatory, exciting and devastating as only great art can be, 'The Love Bunglers' is one of the best comics ever made." • List: Paste ranks Dave McKean's Celluloid at #5 on The 10 Best New…

All this week, Oil and Water artist Shannon Wheeler recounts his recent trip to Portugal via NYC for the "Cartoonist's Diary" column at The Comics Journal, with sketches from the trip drawn in a blank printer's-sample dummy of the Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons book. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

See an exclusive 10-page preview (including Jimmy Breslin's Foreword) of Pogo – The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder by Walt Kelly at Boing Boing, where Mark Frauenfelder says: "Presenting his characters as animals gave Kelly the ability to explore human nature without the distraction that cartoon humans would have bought along with them. His illustration style was warm, highly expressive, and detailed without looking crowded. It's hard to think of another newspaper cartoonist who equalled his talents. Kelly's daughter, Carolyn, designed and co-edited this 290-page anthology, and her love and admiration for her father…