Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Everybody's getting excited for Free Comic Book Day tomorrow and to stoke your ardor even more we're pleased to present this loving real-life look at our Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse FCBD preview comic. Check out more previews and find participating comic shops at the FCBD website! (One place you're guaranteed to find it: Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle!)

You have hopefully read the first 3 issues of Zak Sally's astounding Ignatz Series comic Sammy the Mouse. Or maybe you've been "trade-waiting." Either way, you'll want to get in on the Kickstarter campaign for Zak's self-published, self-printed collection of those 3 issues. Yeah, we'd also like it if you buy the 3 issues from us. But this is the beauty of creators' rights and the DIY spirit! And you know that since the collection is coming straight from Zak it's going to be a beautiful product made with love. A twelve buck pledge gets you the book — jeez…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "This book in particular reprints a run where Mickey Mouse enters Pluto in a dog race and ends up getting mixed up with a banker who wants to foreclose on a friendly old couple, snooty society types, high-stakes gamblers and the mob. The mob, people. It's really great stuff, with a ton of adventure and action balanced out with the humor I was expecting, which really holds up even here in the next century, right down to the fun Vaudeville-style wordplay. I would've devoured this thing if I was a kid, and while…

This 42" x 36" Jim Woodring drawing, created with his giant pen at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, is being auctioned (along with other artworks) to benefit SKYDIVE, a local artist run center. (Via Marc Bell.)

Paul Hornschemeier hasn't even started his Life with Mr. Dangerous book tour and already he's hit a significant bump in the road, losing some key support at his other publisher. So now he's doing it DIY-style, raising funds via a sale in his online shop and just plain begging. He explains it all here. One of his tour stops is at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on June 18, so we definitely appreciate anything you can do!

Jason shares another uncolored page from his forthcoming book Athos in America, this time from the title story, at his blog. The French dialogue will be translated for our edition, of course. Basically, Athos is confused and overwhelmed by the noise, hustle and bustle, and strange food ("hot dog?") of New York City — the last line is "I feel old in New York."

Floyd Gottfredson, born on this day in 1905. I wish I could take credit for planning to post our Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1 previews on this day specifically, but it was pure coincidence! Above, Gottfredson in 1930; below, in 1975.

A strong comics contingent was present at last weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The L.A. Times Jacket Copy blog reports from the "World in a Frame: The Graphic Novel" panel with Daniel Clowes, Dash Shaw and Jim Woodring (above); Mark Kalesniko signed and met fans at the Hi De Ho Comics booth (below; more pics here); and no photos of Carol Tyler have turned up yet but she posted the sketch at bottom prior to her departure and relates a few non-festival experiences here (updated:) and more here. For more, Corey Blake also reports from the scene.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson 288-page black & white/color 10.5" x 8.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-441-2 Ships in: May 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Today's America knows Mickey Mouse as a gentle do-gooder. But in his 1930s heyday, Mickey rose to fame as an epic hero — a bold, adventurous scrapper battling mobsters, kidnappers, and spies! And Mickey’s greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, crafted by one of history's greatest cartoonists — Floyd Gottfredson. For 25 years, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse was a trendsetting adventure serial…