Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Even though Peanuts's peak was sometime back in the sixties these books are still coming out and you know what? They're still good. I keep waiting for a sharp decline in quality to hit but I'm still enjoying seeing Snoopy blissfully living out his fantasies, Charlie Brown being unable to ever be happy, Lucy being a jerk, etc. […] This book suddenly made me want to go back in time very, very hard. I want to live in Peanuts so bad. Fuck my life. Someone help get me out of this life." –…

Life with Mr. Dangerous from Paul Hornschemeier on Vimeo. Paul Hornschemeier's Mome serial "Life with Mr. Dangerous" comes to simulated life in this spiffy animated trailer made for the collected edition coming next month from Random House/Villard. Paul has some brief notes about it on his Forlorn Funnies blog. Mark your calendars: Paul's coast-to-coast book tour brings him to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on June 18!

Love and Rockets über-collector Thomas Rehhoff wanted to get in on the fun of sharing superhero sketches by Xaime & Beto and sent along a link to this fantastic vintage collaborative piece from his collection, with Luba as the Bat and Maggie as Robin. Check out Thomas's whole collection of L&R originals and feel the jealousy!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Erotic, harrowing, graphically violent, and astonishingly grim, Love from the Shadows sees Hernandez plunging ever further into his own heart of darkness. […] Every line is heavy with sadness, with the desire of the character, and the character within the character, and the artist, and the audience, to escape. But if there’s one message you can draw from Gilbert Hernandez’s comics, it’s that once you enter that cave, there’s no going back. Christ, what a fucking book." – Sean T. Collins, The Comics Journal • Review: "Clearly Taking Punk to the Masses will…

Via Ryan at Same Hat: "Our buddy Johnny Ryan is finishing up PRISON PIT 3 as we speak :)" He's right on schedule — it's due out in October.

It's been a while, so let's catch up: • New diary strips & sketches by Lewis Trondheim • Artwork from Kurt Wolfgang's work in progress Pinokio plus some Mome meta-commentary and other sketches and characters at New Bodega • Laura Park designed this placemat for fellow Chicago Mome-ster Jeremy Tinder's impending nuptials, and also this cool t-shirt design for The Mountain Goats & Jon Vanderslice • At her Screened-in Porch blog, Carol Tyler presents “Will Work for Food” from The Job Thing — page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 • "Crabby," a 3-pager by Tony Millionaire,…

I'm hoping to get a chance to do a post on my whole Stumptown Comics Fest haul, but one of the things we picked up was the Living Things series of lovely little pamphlet mini-art books from Little Otsu, including this one by Lilli Carré and other volumes by Hannah Waldron, Jo Dery, and Lizzy Stewart. You can order Lilli's here and find the others easily from there.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. (We're also seeing reports that Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #9 may be showing up in some comic shops in the East & Midwest, though it's not on this week's list.) See more about each book at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Safe Area Gorazde: The Special Edition by Joe Sacco 272-page black & white 7.75" x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-396-5 "Joe Sacco's acclaimed and award-winning comic journalism about the Bosnian war gets Fantagraphics' gorgeous, special edition treatment." – Benn Ray (Atomic…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview: At Torontoist, Courtney Clinton talks to Lorenzo Mattotti about The Raven and other topics in advance of his visit to the city for TCAF: "For me, it comes naturally to portray solitary characters. In the end we are all alone and at a certain point we have to confront this idea. Solitude can also be an inability to communicate with others. It’s probably something I as an artist feel more than most, even if I try to fight these feelings. On a positive note, in a moment of concentration solitude can help us…