Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

This is a scan of the cover painting by Steven Martinez for Gilbert Hernandez's March 2011 original graphic novel Love from the Shadows (part of the "Fritz films" series), before being formatted for the cover, having the title treatment applied, etc. (If you saw a different version of the cover on The Comics Reporter yesterday, that was the preliminary version. The final cover design is still in the works.) If, as I did, you don't know who Steven Martinez is, let Kim Thompson school you: "The brother of graphic designer/Tarantino pal Gerald Martinez (who developed the Big Kahuna burger logo…

Free fun! Celebrate the ronin rabbit and the impending release of Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition by putting some gorgeous Stan Sakai artwork (and design elements based on Jacob Covey's stellar book design) on your desktop. 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." (We don't know what the procedure is for iPhones, but if you have one, you probably do, right?) For lots…

Look what just turned up: a handful of copies of the first hardcover edition of The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 11: Mr. Natural Committed to a Mental Institution! This means that we now have all 3 editions of this volume in stock and available to order: the original hardcover, the deluxe signed hardcover, and the 2008 softcover reprint. Quantities are very limited so act fast if you want it.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Punk and the movies met when the former was very young. When punk eventually grew up, the movies still insisted on viewing it as a child. Their union, nowadays perverted by mutual materialistic bloat, has been rather like an arranged marriage: long-lasting, with moments of real understanding, but fundamentally fraudulent. Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly's hefty new tome Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film chronicles this tragicomedic marriage in A-Z encyclopedic form encompassing more than 1,100 movies, 450 pages, and lots of vintage promotional imagery." – Dennis Harvey, San…

Destroy All Movies!!! contributing writer and former Scarecrow Video employee Andrew Toms writes about his involvement with the book on the Scarecrow blog: "Let me start off by saying that it’s not a requirement to have a fondness or even familiarity with punk or new wave music to really appreciate this book. While Destroy All Movies is rooted in being the ultimate (and only) record of punk appearances in film, this hilarious premise is more a testament to the decade and its influence on the films that were born from it. The 80′s, along with the few years that bled…

ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO 2010 from chris anthony diaz on Vimeo. Chris Diaz is back with another adorable video from the floor of APE 2010. See me and Janice acting goofy, Tony Millionaire, Dan Clowes and a bunch of other happy comics people. Ah, nostalgia. Thanks Chris!

Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition by Stan Sakai 1160-page black & white/color 2-volume hardcover 7.5" x 11" x 3" slipcased set • $100.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-154-1 Ships in: December 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Created in 1984 as a supporting character for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo has vaulted to the very forefront of iconic modern comics characters and is a perennial favorite amongst young boys and adult fans. Usagi Yojimbo chronicles the action-packed wanderings of a masterless samurai (a “ronin”) in feudal Japan — as told with funny-animals. (If PIXAR and the late Akira Kurosawa…

Enjoy "Good Grief: The Story of Peanuts", a half-hour BBC Radio 4 audio documentary on Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts, hosted by Pete Paphides, who talks to Jean Schulz and members of Schulz's family as well as fans like Chris Ware, Chip Kidd and Russell T. Davies, interspersed with vintage clips of Schulz himself and audio from the Peanuts TV specials. (Via Bleeding Cool.)

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol. 1: Pterror Over Paris and The Eiffel Tower Demon by Jacques Tardi 96-page full-color 8.5" x 11.5"  hardcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-382-8 "Being Fantagraphics’ fourth entry in its current effort at bringing the great Jacques Tardi to English, this time starting up a full-scale sub-series dedicated to the artist’s long-running, rather droll evocation of turn-of-the-century fictions, centered on an…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "I wasn't expecting to be blown away by Destroy All Movies!!! […] I was sure I would get tired of reading it after a few pages. The opposite happened — I got hooked and couldn't stop. Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly, the editors of this mind-bending reference of cinematic trash culture, are obsessives to be sure…, but not the kind who exhaust you with eye-glazing otaku trivia that doesn't matter to anyone but other obsessives. Instead, their reviews (written by Carlson, Connolly and their cohorts) are accessible, insightful, entertaining, and funny in a…