Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "A powerful eco-report, Oil and Water also manages to be a report on the gap between classes that isn’t about who has what, but rather about what 'having' means to different groups of Americans…. The large black-and-white images are realistic and create individual characteristics for the cast; its smudged texture is an excellent vehicle for the intrusion of oil on beaches, birds, livelihoods, and prospects for the future. Quick to read, but of lasting weight for readers from either side of the divide." – Francisca Goldsmith, School Library Journal • Review: "…Nelson wrote…

Can you think of a funny caption for this Gahan Wilson cartoon? Enter this week's New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest! [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots of new Things to See every day.]

There’s an update to this amazing bit of Tony Millionaire lore.

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks 240-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-474-0 Ships in: November 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Carl Barks's Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics are considered among the greatest artistic and storytelling achievements in the history of the medium. After serving a stint at the Walt Disney studios as an in-betweener and a gag-man, Barks began drawing the comic book adventures of Donald Duck in 1942. He quickly mastered every aspect of cartooning and over the next nearly 30 years created some of the most memorable…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "This slim volume is finely edited, and its narrative tone resides on the border between fairy stories and unbowdlerized folk tales. In other words, it is suffused with equal dismay and delight at the nature of the world. The drawings, printed in two crisp colors, would be worth the price of the book if it were stripped of words. Like Craig Thompson’s Habibi (which it precedes in its original publication date, pre-translation) and Umberto Eco’s Baudolino, it has a great deal of wonder in it, which it conveys in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way….

We got a couple of early advance copies of Wandering Son Vol. 2 by Shimura Takako here at the office a couple days ago — here's a couple of quickie snaps to tide you over until we get the full previews set up. This beautifully-told story has many eager and devoted fans and we're as excited to get it into their hands as they are to read it! Have you pre-ordered your copy yet?

Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder" by Walt Kelly 308-page black & white/color 11.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-56097-869-5 Ships in: November 2011 (subject to change) – Pre-Order Now Walt Kelly started his career at age 13 in Connecticut as a cartoonist and reporter for the Bridgeport Post. In 1935, he moved to Los Angeles and joined the Walt Disney Studio, where he worked on classic animated films, including Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia. Rather than take sides in a bitter labor strike, he moved back east in 1941 and began…

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. Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga 32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" comic book, with jacket • $7.95Part of the Ignatz Series "Kevin Huizenga has blessed us all with another issue of Ganges, totally unexpected and entirely wonderful. Let's not disappoint him." – Chris Butcher, The Beguiling "…Ganges #4 seems to me…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Analysis/Commentary: At The Hooded Utilitarian, Ng Suat Tong provides an illustrated and annotated (and necessarily spoiler-filled) guide to the flashbacks in Jaime Hernandez's stories in Love and Rockets: New Stories #4; Robot 6's Sean T. Collins adds his own thoughts • Travelogue: John Porcellino visited E.C. Segar’s hometown of Chester, IL and has a photo-filled report (including the possible real-life Jones Boys) at his blog