Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Willie & Joe: Back Home… is superbly done. Like many Fantagraphics releases over the years, this book easily could be placed in a personal library or on a coffee table for public viewing. In many ways, it can be described best as a piece of art and something to be treasured by collectors, comic-strip enthusiasts and military buffs alike…. The strips are a stunning mix of blunt political messaging with dark, satirical humor." – Michael Taube, The Washington Times • Review: "While manga isn’t usually known for its subtlety, Wandering Son is an…

Our good friends and colleagues over at Rosebud Archives have announced the forthcoming publication of Bully!, a collection of vintage political cartoons featuring Theodore Roosevelt (and not our Little Stuffed Bull pal), edited by Rick Marschall. What a great idea for a book, and it's sure to be produced with Rosebud's signature attention to quality and detail. (Don't forget, we offer a full range of Rosebud Archives products here on our website!) UPDATE: Rick Marschall contacted us with a correction: while Rosebud did production on the book and is selling ancilliary merchandise (prints and framed art of the book's vintage cartoons,…

Here's a birthday tribute to the great Roberto Clemente, born this day in 1934, from Wilfred Santiago, creator of 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente and posted on the 21 Facebook page.

The nominees for the 2011 Ignatz Awards were announced today and we're happy to share that our artists and publications received 5 nominations in 4 categories! We're celebrating in our usual way, by offering them to you our customers for 25% off for a limited time! Winners will be announced on Saturday, September 10 at SPX. And our nominees are… Dungeon Quest by Joe Daly • Outstanding Series Special Exits by Joyce Farmer • Outstanding Graphic Novel "Browntown" by Jaime Hernandez, in Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 • Outstanding Story You'll Never Know, Book 2: Collateral Damage by C….

The Man Who Grew His Beard by Olivier Schrauwen 112-page full-color 8.5" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-446-7 Ships in: September 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The Man Who Grew His Beard is Belgian cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen’s first American book after having staked a reputation over the last decade as one of Europe’s most talented storytellers. It collects seven short stories, each a head-spinning display of craft and storytelling that mixes early twentieth-century comics influences like Winsor McCay with a thoroughly contemporary voice that provokes and entertains with subversively surreal humor and subtle criticism of twentieth-century tropes and…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…[T]he [Comics] Journal returns in a new bricklike bookshelf format (seriously, this thing has like 600 pages!), anchored by a massive Robert Crumb interview, and a whole freakin’ lot of really strong criticism. I most especially liked the Cerebus retrospective by Tim Krieder…. Great great great read!" – Brian Hibbs, The Savage Critics • Review: "The artists that create worlds that start with the alphabet — these are the ones who have been getting in my head lately, motivating me to sort through my response to their art and settle my own ideas…

The September 2011 issue of monthly manga magazine Comic Beam contains the landmark 100th serialized chapter of Shimura Takako's Wandering Son, featured (as one might hope) on the cover. We got some catching up to do! She's also revealed the cover to a new 28-page comic which is debuting in Japan in a few days — if any fluent Japanese speakers would like to translate the details at those links and post them in the comments, we'd be most grateful!

Drew Friedman posted a roundup of recent illustration jobs on his blog, some of which we've already shared here but some of which is new, including… …Keef! for Readers Digest… …and Mayor of London Boris Johnson & British PM David Cameron posed as the "British Gothic" couple, for British GQ. Also don't miss the portrait of Drew's uncle.

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. The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 (Vol. 16) by Charles M. Schulz 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-471-9 The Complete Peanuts 1979-1982 Box Set by Charles M. Schulzdesigned by Seth two 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $49.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-472-6 "The…

Our warehouse manager Nico dug up this video of Will Elder's son-in-law Gary VandenBergh speaking on the phone with Grateful Dead frontman and delicious-ice-cream inspiration Jerry Garcia about Garcia's love for Elder's EC Comics and post-MAD work. It seems a good bet that part of this interview will find its way into VandenBergh's in-progress documentary about Elder.