Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Lynn Johnston, who already shared her wonderful foreword for the new volume of The Complete Peanuts, shares some additional thoughts on Charles Schulz and his strip in this installment of her video podcast. (Via The Daily Cartoonist.)

Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 by the Hernandez Brothers 104-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-490-0 Ships in: September 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now After nearly 30 years, Love and Rockets just keeps getting better, and this issue of the annual 3rd incarnation finds the Brothers Hernandez at the peak of their storytelling powers. Jaime Hernandez's emotionally powerful stories in the last issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories ("The Love Bunglers" and "Browntown") were among the most critically-acclaimed comics of the year. In this new issue, Jaime ups the ante even more….

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Since… humor has emerged as such a tremendous, even defining part of Sala's appeal, I must confess that on a first reading, I was a little put-off to find it reduced to such a dim flicker. But on a second reading, with the understanding that he was exploring grimmer and more downbeat territory, other strengths grew more apparent — dreadful scenes of apocalypse, vistas of desolation, one truly appalling horror flashback set-piece, violence that feels more brutal than delirious, and tension between characters rooted more in how they treat each other than in…

Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga 32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" comic book, with jacket • $7.95Part of the Ignatz Series Ships in: August 2011 (subject to change) — This item will be available for order simultaneous to its release in comic shops. Can you make an exciting comic out of insomnia? Kevin Huizenga rises to the challenge as he depicts his alter ego Glenn Ganges wrestling with sleeplessness, trying to trick it by reading a particularly abstruse book, obsessively breaking his past, present and future life down to ever more hallucinatory, complex grids, and wandering around his darkened house trying…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…[T]he cartoons in Willie & Joe: Back Home capture Mauldin at a low ebb personally, and ferociously inspired professionally…. The material in Back Home is bitter but witty, and remarkable for its courage. Given the platform of a major syndicate, Mauldin used his moral authority — as a firsthand observer of atrocity, venality, and want — to try and make his complacent countrymen feel a little shame. Where his wartime cartoons had said, 'I am one of you' to grunts in the trenches, his post-war work said, 'What the hell happened to you?'…

If I were up on skate lingo I would be spouting the equivalent of "holy crap" here… Penguin has produced a series of limited edition skate decks featuring artwork from their Penguin Classics Deluxe line, including covers by Jason for Kerouac's Dharma Bums, Lilli Carré for Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Thomas Ott for We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. At Lilli's blog you can see a photo of her hoisting hers over her head. There was a Facebook contest where you could win one (which we learned of too late) and USA Today's…

Raise a glass: Tim Lane's self-published comic book series Happy Hour in America is about to make its triumphant return! The long-awaited third issue will soon be available through John Porcellino's Spit and a Half distro (where the first two classic issues are still available), and right now, as a tribute to the 10-cent origin of the comic book, Tim is offering the first 10 copies for one thin dime to the first 10 individuals who request one! Get on it, if it's not already too late!

At his blog, Jason writes "My German publisher, Reprodukt, is celebrating their 20 years of existence by having an exhibition in Berlin. They have asked their artists to draw a page from one of the books that have been published, a book by another artist. I chose to do a page from Daniel Clowes' Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron." That sound you just heard is me and a few thousand other comics nerds collapsing with the vapors.

The Art of Joe Kubert edited by Bill Schelly 232-page full-color 9.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-487-0 Ships in: September 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Joe Kubert is one of the great comic book artists. His career literally traverses the history of comics, beginning in 1938 when he became a professional at age 12, to today as one of the greatest draftsmen working in the field. Kubert is known and respected as much for his sinewy, passionate drawing as he is for his consummate storytelling skills. Over his 70-year career in comics, he has worked as an…