Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "21: The Story of Roberto Clemente brings together comics and baseball, two of America's most popular conveyers of epic mythology. Author Wilfred Santiago also incorporates elements of classical and avant-garde jazz in his sinuously illustrated narrative of Clemente's life. It takes an imagination as rich as Mr. Santiago's to tap into various mythological languages to tell the Pittsburgh Pirate's iconic story… Instead of dwelling on sources of obvious resentment, Mr. Santiago defaults to illustrating Clemente's humanity. We're treated to close-ups of his most noble and ignoble moments. The artist refuses to treat him…

It's been a while since we featured a fan tattoo here, and here's a good one: a somewhat-faded old-school Lloyd Llewellyn, surrounded by a more recent banner that reads "Commemorating 15 Years Of This Tattoo." That may be the first meta-tattoo I've ever seen. Thanks to Joe Garden, who works behind the scenes at The Onion, for sending this in.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Plug: "Drawn in expressionistic black, white, and Pirates gold, this biography of the slugger and humanitarian [21: The Story of Roberto Clemente]… drives home the impact he had on fans and friends." – Dan Kois, Vulture — New York • Commentary: At his Sekvenskonst blog, Joakim Gunnarsson examines Buz Sawyer Vol. 1: The War in the Pacific by Roy Crane from a production & restoration standpoint, and the book's editor Rick Norwood provides some explanation and context in the comments section

nadel | clowes from chris anthony diaz on Vimeo. Our biggest Bay Area booster Chris Diaz has passed along this video for us to share with you: the Daniel Clowes spotlight panel at last year's Alternative Press Expo, with host/inquisitor Dan Nadel. It's an epic Dan-à-Dan! Chris has some more great clips up on his Vimeo page too. Thanks Chris!

Well here's a pretty sweet illustration gig: Paul Hornschemeier's cover for the super-buzzy book The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel, which collects the super-buzzy @MayorEmanuel Twitter feed. Paul talks a bit about it on his blog.

Zak Sally's Kickstarter project for his self-published, self-printed edition of Sammy the Mouse Vol. 1, collecting the first 3 Ignatz Series issues, has met its funding goal with plenty of time to spare! You still have 16 days to put in your pledge, and you'll be guaranteed a copy of the book and some great pledge incentives at various funding levels. Happy news!

We thought that the image on the inside covers of the new book by Jason & Fabien Vehlmann, Isle of 100,000 Graves, might make a spiffy desktop background image… and we were right! Things are about to get real interesting for this band of bored, presumably tipsy pirates. Just click on the size that matches your monitor resolution and the image will open in a new window; if you're on a PC, right-click the image and select "Set As Background"; if you're on a Mac, control+click and select "Set As Desktop Background." For lots more wallpaper selections, find recent ones…

Isle of 100,000 Graves by Jason and Fabien Vehlmann 56-page full-color 7.25" x 10.25" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-442-9 Ships in: May 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Five years ago, little Gwenny’s father found, inside a bottle, a map with instructions on how to reach the mysterious Isle of 100,000 Graves and its legendary treasures — and then he vanished. Now Gwenny, having stumbled across another bottle-shipped map, enlists the dubious help of a shipful of pirates, sets out to find the island, and her long-lost dad. Little does she realize that the Isle comes by its ominous name…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Joe McCabe of FEARnet names "Five Horror Graphic Novels You Need to Read," including: "The black-and-white scratchboard art of German comics creator Thomas Ott is without peer among today's comics artists. That Ott can also tell one helluva fun horror short story is almost icing on the cake…. This omnibus volume [R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004] collects his three out-of-print albums… I've never read a Thomas Ott tale that was anything less than fantastic. Highly recommended." "…[Richard Sala] has carved his own niche as perhaps the most twisted but brilliant cartoonist working in comics…