Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Wilfred Santiago is offering up this magnificent original page from 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente (page 179, to be exact) over on the eBay. The page depicts Clemente standing on second base saluting the crowd at Three Rivers Stadium after his historic 3000th base hit. Go, bid!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Even More Old Jewish Comedians by Drew Friedman 36-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-489-4 See Previews / Order Now Master caricaturist/portraitist Drew Friedman’s spectacular visual tribute to, well, old Jewish comedians returns with a third and concluding installment that throws its net a bit wider to include a few women (Olive Oyl voice Mae Questel, Ed Sullivan show regular Jean Carroll, and The Rise of the Goldbergs creator Gertrude Goldberg); a handful of more contemporary figures (Richard Belzer, whose Law & Order: SVU gig has eclipsed his stand-up…

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 elsewhere: Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane: Forming by Jesse Moynihan: Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new udpates!): Keeping Two by Jordan Crane: Maakies by Tony Millionaire: Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The initial cartoons in [Willie & Joe: Back Home] show Willie and Joe struggling to adjust to civilian life and usually failing, albeit not without letting out a sardonic quip…. Eventually Willie and Joe faded into the background, however, as Mauldin started focusing more on other problems facing returning grunts — a housing shortage, trouble finding work — and then rather savagely (and rather bluntly) went after racists and right-wing extremists…. The end result is a collection of cartoons that both read like the work of someone desperate to rage against perceived injustices as loudly…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review/Interview: Vice's Nick Gazin looks at The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 — "I expected that the quality of the Peanuts comics would be waning by now, but I’m still laughing at the jokes and recognizing the personalities of characters I know in the gang…. It’s a beautifully designed, thick, brickish volume with lots of memorable storylines…. All in all it’s a beautiful two years worth of Charles Schulz’s creative output. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you think." — and talks to Monte Schulz about his dad's work on the strip — "The early 80s…

The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 (and the 1979-1982 box set) is scheduled to hit comic shops next week and PREVIEWSworld presents a 5-page preview with strips from February-April 1981!

From designer Alexa Koenings here's the striking final cover design for Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler's Oil and Water, coming in late Fall/early Winter. It's similar to the preliminary design we've already shown you, with some small but important differences. We're hoping to have the bottom half of "OIL" printed with iridescent metallic stamping for that authentic oil-spill sheen, which should look pretty fantastic if it works out. We're also excited to share this advance praise we received from Jeff Lemire, creator of Essex County and Sweet Tooth: "Oil and Water is smart, informative and completely engaging. We experience the…

The Hidden by Richard Sala 136-page full-color 8.25" x 8.25" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-386-6 Ships in: August 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Is this the end of the world? How did it happen? Why did it happen? There is one man who knows… Take a walk with the dazed survivors of a mysterious worldwide catastrophe. They are bound for a place, somewhere in the desert, where a terrible truth awaits them. Richard Sala's books are "deliriously entertaining" (Rue Morgue Magazine), "cinematic and cheerfully over-the-top" (The New York Times Book Review), containing "brilliantly atmospheric art, full of shadows and…

Continuing to add new Mome contributors to the Flog fold, today we look at the work of Jesse Moynihan. Jesse's new book Forming Vol. 1, the first collection of his awesome webcomic, hits comic shops today (published by Nobrow Press out of the UK and distributed in the US by AdHouse): The latest page of Forming: Jesse also does storyboards for one of my 2 current favorite TV shows, Adventure Time! (Click the image to see the whole crazy pan down into the underworld.) There's a bunch more artwork you can see on his website: Here's a peek at Jesse's…