Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Here's the official announcement for the book signing in San Francisco, just part of Dave's West Coast book tour this fall: The Cartoon Art Museum welcomes award-winning cartoonist and illustrator Dave Cooper on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 as he celebrates the release of his new book, Bent, published by Fantagraphics Books. Please join Cooper at 7:00pm for a brief discussion of his career in the Cartoon Art Museum’s galleries, followed by a signing in the museum’s bookstore. Copies of Bent will be available for purchase onsite. Please call 415.227.8666, ext. 310 to reserve a copy. More info here.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…A Drunken Dream and Other Stories… is a deeply impressive — and immersive — piece of work that's full of complex emotional truths. And deep weirdness. […] I dug this, and I think many, many people not conversant with manga will, too. Stylistically, it's a curious mix: Her linework gives each page a sense of openness, conjuring a world of light breezes, flowers and sunshine, even as her characters struggle with inner darkness. This darkness can take many forms: doomed eternal love, grief, guilt or — in the collection's most satisfyingly creepy/affecting tale…

I've never seen The Guild, but Gilbert Hernandez did a cover (above) for an upcoming comics one-shot from Dark Horse focused on the character named Vork, reports Robot 6, and hey, any excuse to post some Beto on Flog!

Following Johnny Ryan's art show at Mishka in Brooklyn last week, they've put a whole bunch of his originals and other merch up for sale on their website, including pages from and the original cover art for Prison Pit Book 2! Go, consume.

The nominations for this year's Lulu Awards have been announced and Miss Lasko-Gross & Carol Tyler are both in the field of candidates for Lulu of the Year, "For the creator, book or other entity whose work best exemplifies Friends of Lulu’s mission statement." Congratulations to both! The online ballot is here.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles (with one possible exception — see below). Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Lucky in Love Book 1: A Poor Man's History Script by George Chieffet; art by Stephen DeStefano 120-page monochrome 6.5" x 8.5" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-354-5 "Stephen DeStefano — remember him from ''Mazing Man'? — and George Chieffet's graphic novel is the first of a two-volume project about a young man finding his way in the political and…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Anyone coming to this volume [of The Complete Peanuts] looking for the rumored decline that is supposed to have happened in the second half of the 1970s might shut the book after its last page slightly confused. Energized by the Peppermint Patty/Marcie duo's emergence into the prime of their own vitality as characters and as a classic comic-strip team (I'd never thought of it before, but there are obviously elements of Easy and Tubbs there), Schulz's dailies were as strong and funny as ever." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter • Review: "…[N]ot…

Just found in a neglected cranny in our warehouse, the following 6 issues of The Comics Journal, previously thought to be sold out! There are some classic issues in this batch, including the notorious Groth vs. McFarlane throwdown, the "Violence in Comics" issue featuring Wertham & Woodring, and some rare early Dan Clowes sketchbook pages. There's only a handful of each so get them while you can: #68: Two panel discussions with Frank Miller, Denny O'Neil, Louise Jones, Roy Thomas, Julius Schwartz, Jim Shooter, and Len Wein. X-Men cover by Kevin Nowlan; a Guide to Holiday Animated Specials; Rick Marschall;…

Here's a great resource I hadn't come across before: The Acme Novelty Archive, a slightly obsessive and quite nicely designed repository of the work of Chris Ware, compiled and presented by Adam Kempa.

Pick up the latest issue of Rue Morgue Magazine for an exclusive print-only 5-page feature by April Snellings on Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s, which provides historical context, quotes from editor Greg Sadowski and comics historian Peter Normanton, and of course lots of lurid and grisly images from the book: "The full-colour volume reprints more than three dozen of the very best non-EC [horror] titles… Some of these stories pack a punch even by today's jaded standards."