Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Alex Toth worked in a multitude of genres while at Standard (crime, romance, and horror among them) and they are, to the last one, collected here. Also, Toth’s Standard work has been reprinted somewhere between infrequently and not at all, and to have it all collected (and collected beautifully; the digital restoration keeps the original look perfectly) in this work fills in a sizable gap in comics history. Bravo for Fantagraphics…. If you’ve ever wanted to see what the 'big deal' is with Alex Toth, I can think of absolutely no better place…

The great Spanish cartoonist Max contacted us to let us know he has a new blog, El Hombre Duerme, el Fantasma No, where he's posting his illustrations and designs as well as updates on his upcoming graphic novel Vapor, which we will be publishing in Spring 2012. There's a pretty decent amount of stuff up already, so check it out and we'll be keeping an eye on future updates!

• Convention sketches inspired by song lyrics is a pretty great idea, and an Atlanta comic fan named Erich collects them and posts them on his blog. Above: Lisa Leavenworth + Mudhoney by Peter Bagge (hat tip: CBR) • Noah Van Sciver illustrates the Denver Westword's "hipster's guide to sports" • More Jack Davis fun from Will Pfeifer's Today's Inspiration blog, as Pfeifer presents a bunch of Davis-illustrated "Funny Valentines" Topps cards (hat tip: The Comics Reporter) • Victor Kerlow draws Julie Hagerty and Albert Books in Lost in America for The New Yorker • Eleanor Davis presents a preview…

As we pointed out a week or 2 ago, Jason has been posting some rough sketches and handwritten dialogue, along with brief comments on background and storytelling technique, for each of the stories in his upcoming book Athos in America on his Cats Without Dogs blog. Here's the complete set: "So Long, Mary Ann," "The Brain That Wouldn't Virginia Woolf," "Tom Waits on the Moon," "A Cat from Heaven," "The Smiling Horse" and the title story "Athos in America."

A double dose of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race To Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson will be warmly received by comics aficionados but should also intrigue Disney animation buffs who aren't necessarily plugged into comic strip history. Editors David Gerstein and Gary Groth have not only scoured the planet for the best surviving artwork on Gottfredson's first epic continuity, which ran in newspapers from April to September of 1930; they've provided background essays (by a raft of experts), vintage press materials and artwork to put it into the context of Walt Disney's burgeoning career,…

Some Small Press Expo staff and guests visited the Library of Congress to check out some of their cartoon archives on Friday before the show — these photos are all ganked from the SPX twitter feed: L to R: Jim Woodring, Diane Noomin, Jonathan Barli of Rosebud Archives, and our pal Bill Kartalopoulos L to R: Roz Chast, a Library of Congress staffer identified only as Martha, and Jim Woodring checking out some William Steig cartoons SPX Executive Director and Drawing Power co-editor Warren Bernard Here's a slightly embarrassed-looking Jim at the show modeling the highly-covetable SPX tote bag which…

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web (Super late! Totally my fault, sorry!): — Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): And elsewhere: Amazing Facts… and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga: Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane: Cochlea & Eustachia by Hans Rickheit: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new udpates): Maakies by Tony Millionaire: What's in the Backpack by Victor Kerlow:

Word comes over the Twitter wires that "Browntown" by Jaime Hernandez, from Love and Rockets: New Stories #3, has won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Story at tonight's ceremony at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. Congratulations to Jaime for this richly-deserved recognition! And they better get another brick ready for Jaime next year for "The Love Bunglers Parts 3-5" in New Stories #4. Just saying. Updated to add: Additional congratulations to new Mome contributor Joseph Lambert for picking up 2 big awards, Outstanding Cartoonist and Outstanding Anthology or Collection for I Will Bite You!

Jim Woodring makes a pre-SPX stop at venerable Washington, DC independent bookstore Politics and Prose at 7 PM tonight to present and sign Congress of the Animals! More details here!