Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Kati With An I (trailer) from prewarcinema on Vimeo. It should come as little surprise that Leslie Stein, whose debut book Eye of the Majestic Creature premieres at MoCCA Fest next month, is also a musician, seeing as how one of the main characters in the book is a talking anthropomorphic guitar. Leslie's music is featured in the new documentary film Kati with an I — in the trailer posted above, it begins around the 1 minute mark. (Thanks to director Robert Greene for the scoop.)

Head to Diamond Comics Distributors' Previews website for an 8-page excerpt from Jacques Tardi's The Arctic Marauder (embedded in one of those nifty Issuu flip-through thingies — full-screen viewing is recommended).

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The saga of Roberto Clemente is well known to baseball fans yet it has been given new life in this stunning graphic novel [21: The Story of Roberto Clemente]… Santiago's panels have a sharp, cinematic feel and the compositions and framing give the readers a better sense of how dynamic and explosive the game is than any baseball movie. The wonder of this book is that it will appeal to kids and adults alike. Even non baseball fans will fall under its spell. The national pastime has been virtually untouched by the graphic…

Gary Panter did this sweet flyer for an upcoming show with his band Devin Gary & Ross (info at the link).

We are pleased to share the news that Joyce Farmer's graphic memoir Special Exits has been nominated for the 2010 NCS Division Award for Graphic Novels! The winner will be announced at the 65th Annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet on May 28, 2011 in Boston, MA. Congratulations Joyce! (We're also rooting for Stan Sakai, nominated in the Comic Books division for his ongoing (formerly-Fantagraphics) Usagi Yojimbo series!)

Thanks to Flog commenter Alberto Garcia for pointing this out — it's an old Stephen DeStefano illustration of Popeye repurposed for the cover of last month's issue of the research journal Cell Metabolism, in a scan posted at Nas Capas. (Forearm mitochondria and spinach can label added after the fact. Dig the "Swiss" typography.)

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Fantagraphics' collection Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s, edited by Greg Sadowski, is a wonderfully creepy hurtle through the exuberant, cheerfully gross and icky horror comics that prevailed in the golden, pre-Comics-Code era. …[T]he art is brilliant: indistinct piles of slimy viscera, purple-green zombies, skull-faced vampires and demons, Satan in a dozen guises, witches and occult symbols, creatures from the eleven hells of the darkest mythos of the human spirit." – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing • Review: "Considering how much I enjoyed the first four years, when Foster was still…

From our colleagues over at Yale University Press comes this great video trailer for their new edition of Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti.

The Cartoon Bank Blog's new interview with cartoonist Shannon Wheeler gives you your first glimpse at his artwork for Oil & Water, which we are publishing this Fall. Wheeler explains the book: "Mike Rosen, a manager at the Bureau of Environmental Services, Watershed Division, organized a group of writers, scientists, activists, environmentalists, teachers, and students to go to the Gulf Coast to get a better understanding of the oil spill and its implications. It is possibly the greatest manmade disaster in our history. Steve Duin, metro columnist for The Oregonian, is fictionalizing our side of the story to build a…