Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "[King of the Flies Vol. 2:] The Origin of the World, as its title… signals, is a little more mature in its provocateur stance, but there’s still plenty of envelope pushing. The characters have grown richer and more varied… and the narrative more focused, with fewer bodies to keep track of. The art, certainly a highlight of the last book, features some clever use of color to indicate fantasy and the supernatural, both of which appear more extensively this go-round. Consider it, on the whole, analogous to Friday the 13th Part II: a…

Marvel enlisted Paul Hornschemeier's design skills for the cover of their trade collection of Strange Tales II — check out better views & get more info at Paul's blog. I especially like the treatment of the "Parental Advisory" on the back. Nice job Paul!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "[Wolverton's] pictures, distinguished by his usual copious hachuring and cross-hatching, are illustrative, not comedic, entirely straight and, sometimes, a little terrifying. …[In The Wolverton Bible] you… get some of the most stunning black-and-white images of Biblical stories ever produced." – R.C. Harvey, The Comics Journal • Interview: MTV Geek talks to John Kerschbaum, whose The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour strip from Act-i-vate is being re-run on the site: "I'm in the early stages of an all-age graphic novel that I think will be quite different from anything I've done before. It's an…

All of the artwork from Tony Millionaire's current exhibit at Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn is up to see — and purchase! — online, along with the above-pictured limited-edition set of 4 silkscreen prints. And why not also read a review of the exhibit by Jon Gorga at The Long and the Shortbox of It (via The Comics Reporter)?

Above, one of two variant covers by Johnny Ryan for the new issue of the Spanish edition of Vice magazine. The second, you'll see, is war fantasy at the opposite extreme, Johnny-style.

R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004 by Thomas Ott 192-page black & white 6.25" x 10" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-417-7 Ships in: March 2011 (subject to change) —Pre-Order Now This omnibus collection of Thomas Ott’s short shock-ending horror stories — imagine E.C. Comics done with no words, and executed in an impossibly lush black-and-white scratchboard style — collects a dozen stories originally published in three (now out of print) thin European style “graphic albums” (Tales of Error, Greetings from Hellville and Dead End) during the 1980s and 1990s, plus 8 previously uncollected tales, including "The Breakdown" from Fantagraphics' Mome anthology and Ott's…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Hell fuckin’ yeah. New Prince Valiant. Fantagraphics really does these reprints right. While they could easily pump out lazy reissues of the same poorly recolored old strips like everyone else did before them, they actually go ahead and find the original colors and it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Unless you were reading Prince Valiant in the newspaper back in the early 40s. […] The whole story is sick as hell from beginning to end. […] What a book! For thirty bucks you get to own some of the prettiest comics that…

I'm just going to copy & paste Gabrielle's explanation from her blog, where you can learn more, see a bigger image, and find out how to order: "To celebrate Kevin Kinsella’s upcoming release of Poems From Childrens Island from Lightful Press, Tony has created this poster of Green Verses-which was featured here last May, as well as in The Believer."

It's the final episode of the season (but hopefully not the series) for the animated adventures of Steven Weissman's "Yikes!" gang! Relive all the episodes here.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "I’ll admit that Blecky Yuckerella isn’t a comic for everyone, and that Johnny Ryan’s sense of humour is definitely an acquired taste. However, if you’ve got a sick sense of humour, like I have, you will laugh your ass off non-stop, as you read this hilarious collection from cover to cover. I loved it so much that I actually contacted Johnny Ryan by email and purchased the original artwork for the very last Blecky strip from him. If that’s not a seal of approval, I don’t know what is!" – Edward Kaye, Hypergeek…