Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include 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. (Please note we have several additional explanatory notes below as well!) The Frank Book (New Softcover Edition) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $34.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-500-6 The Frank Book (New Hardcover Printing) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.75" x 11.25" hardcover • $45.00ISBN:…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Feature: At Maclean's, Jaime Weinman gets to the bottom of Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: Through the Wild Blue Wonder, talking to co-editor Kim Thompson and calling the volume "the first book that gives a full sense of what it was like to read Kelly’s pioneering strip from the beginning. The first volume goes up to 1950, when Kelly began to incorporate more pointed humour…; the McCarthy character hasn’t shown up yet, but allegories about Communist witch-hunting already pop up. But the darker daily strips alternate with cheerful Sunday…

This drawing of Wonder Woman by Gilbert Hernandez is on eBay now for the benefit auctions for 2011 Women of Wonder Day (formerly known as Wonder Woman Day), the annual charity event that raises money and awareness for (anti-) domestic violence programs, taking place on October 30 this year. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots of new Things to See every day.]

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review/Interview: "Leslie Stein is a pretty lady who made a comic [Eye of the Majestic Creature] in which she is a cute/gross little humanoid with eyes that are like coins and a best friend who is a guitar. Her comical alter ego is named Larry Bear and her guitar's name is Marshy. They live in a house in a field, but it's pretty clear that almost everything they experience is some joked-up fantasized autobiographical story. It's hard to know what's based on reality and what isn't, and which characters are based on real folks…

Trina Robbins talks Nell Brinkley from Gavin Lees on Vimeo. If you happened to miss the delightful and informative slideshow talk the wonderful Trina Robbins gave about the great Nell Brinkley at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery back on October 8 (for instance, if you were at the Art Spiegelman talk that happened at the same time, or if you don't live nearby), never fear, our good friend and The Comics Journal contributor Gavin Lees captured it on video — watch above or over at his website Graphic Eye.

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson debuts in comic shops this week (looks like the Vol. 1-2 slipcase set will be arriving separately later) and PREVIEWSworld has a sneak peek with 2 pages of strips and 3 pages from the supplemental materials!

The hardcover reprint and new softcover edition of Jim Woodring's The Frank Book are headed to comic shops this week (and the hardcover print run is already sold out from the distributor — and from us — so grab it if you see it!), and PREVIEWSworld presents a 7-page sneak peek from the book!

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web: — Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size — and no, this was not drawn after yesterday): And elsewhere: The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE: Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane: Cochlea & Eustachia by Hans Rickheit: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Forming by Jesse Moynihan: Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new strips this week): Maakies by Tony Millionaire: The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Ganges #4 is the Godfather Part II of comics about insomnia: the rare sequel that tops the already excellent original…. Here he returns to the sleeplessness well, but this time around Glenn’s mental avatar remains relatively stationary (though Glenn himself does plenty of wandering around the Ganges family manse), allowing Huizenga to instead burrow down deep into some of the most unpleasant sensations a bored and overtired brain is able to conjure. Folks, he does this so well…. The… comic maintains [a] dizzying blend of writing and drawing power, with alarmingly familiar sensations…

• Above, Michael Kupperman gives a snippet of his Mark Twain impersonation for the Traveling with Twain project (dance, Twain, dance!) • Listen as Michael Kupperman is the guest on the Wonderful, Thanks comedy podcast to discuss the episode theme of "Adventure" [Note: their download link looks to be incorrect at the moment, so here's the correct one]