Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Moto Hagio, whose work might officially be classified as shōjo manga, …is apparently one important, daring renegade in the manga world. This handsome collection that encompasses almost four decades (from 1971-2007) of Hagio’s short stories comes complete with a thorough, illuminating interview with Hagio conducted by the volume’s translator, Matt Thorn. […] Hagio’s collection of 10 short manga stories [A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is] filled with unexpected twists and endings." – Terry Hong, BookDragon (Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program) • Review: "Malkasian weaves her story carefully [in Temperance], pulling the different…

Could it be? Peter Bagge's Hate Annual is… back on an annual schedule? We'll be soliciting it for sometime in Spring 2011 — just 12 months (or less!) after the last issue! And oh yeah, how 'bout that cover! Jeezum crow!

Mome Vol. 20 – Fall 2010 by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds 120-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-365-1 Ships in: October 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now We have reached the landmark 20th volume of Mome. For those of you who read the box scores, that’s 5 years, 20 volumes, 72 artists, and 2,352 pages of comics. Much is new in this anniversary volume. Fantagraphics' flagship anthology now boasts a new design courtesy of art director Adam Grano (who also chips in a few pages of art), and we have 4 other artists making their…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Zippy: Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg by Bill Griffith 216-page black & white/color 8.5" x 8.5" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-389-7 Ordering Info & Previews In Zippy’s latest collection of daily and color strips (with additional pages!), the tour of “Dingburg” continues; we drop in on dozens of Dingburgers and observe them in their natural habitat. The city “inhabited entirely by pinheads” can be seen as a metaphor for the world we live in today — or not. In any event, we watch as Zippy the Pinhead and his fellow Dingburg residents…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s by various artists; edited by John Benson and Greg Sadowski 320-page full-color 7.5" x 10.5" softcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-343-9 Orderin Info & Previews Of the myriad genres comic books ventured into during its golden age, none was as controversial as or came at a greater cost than horror; the public outrage it incited almost destroyed the entire industry. Yet before the watchdog groups and Congress could intercede, horror books were flying off the newsstands. During its peak period (1951-54) over fifty titles…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Fire & Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics by Blake Bell 192-page full-color 9" x 12" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-166-4 Ordering Info & Previews This book is available with a signed bookplate as a FREE premium! The bookplate has been uniquely designed for this book, and each bookplate is printed on acid-free cardstock and hand-signed by the author Blake Bell and Bill Everett's daughter, Wendy Everett! (Click here for more books available with signed bookplates.) Please select your preference above before adding the item to your…

Aspiring animators, join Stephen DeStefano for a 3-session intensive course in "How to Do Storyboards for Animation" at MoCCA in NYC starting November 22. Stephen's been in the animation biz for almost 20 years and his resume is out the wazoo. (Of course, we love him best for his graphic novel Lucky in Love. And The Venture Bros.) More info at the MoCCA website.

In addition to our regular strips from the Steves this week, it is our distinct privilege to bring you an exclusive video view and looping animation of Jim Woodring's Moebius strip comic: — Monday's Strip by Stephen DeStefano (view larger) Originally run as an experiment on Stephen's blog starting in 2008, Monday's Strip is re-presented here. — Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): — Moebius strip comic by Jim Woodring (view larger sizes): Video: Photo courtesy the artist: Looped animation:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview: For Suicide Girls, Alex Dueben, who says "Dame Darcy is a renaissance woman. The Idaho-born artist has crafted a broad and powerful body of work. […] She is an artist in the finest sense of the word," gets the full scoop from the artist herself: "I come from a family of cowboy poets in Idaho who played music, painted and wrote. So I was always exposed to art as a normal part of life. I began drawing sequential stories when I was two. My great Grandma Marler was a cowgirl and a school…