Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Underwood is a new literary audio zine which presents short stories in a 12" vinyl format, a beautiful idea made even more beautiful by Jordan Crane's gatefold artwork for the current edition. Scans and info from Hard Format, link via our own Jacob Covey.

At his blog, Drew Friedman wishes Robert Crumb a happy 67th birthday with a selection of his favorite Crumb work and his cover illustration for The Life & Times of R. Crumb. Happy birthday Bob, and congratulations for picking up the Harvey Award for Best Artist over the weekend.

Kim Deitch will be keynote speaker at Graphic Engagement: The Politics of Comics and Animation , a conference presented by the Comparative Literature Program at Purdue University in Indiana this Friday, September 3 at 4:30 PM, with a signing to follow. Kim says "I'll have some original art for sale — if you are in the neighborhood, stop by!"

This would be hard to believe if there weren't the photos to prove it: "Behind the scenes of the second promotional short film for the graphic novel The Sanctuary — filmed on location on the 63rd floor of the Empire State Building!" Nate Neal, you nut!

Rip M.D. by Mitch Schauer & Michael Vosburg et al. 88-page full-color 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $12.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-369-9 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Rip M.D. is the debut graphic novel from The Angry Beavers creator Mitch Schauer, a creepy, fun-filled all-ages adventure introducing Ripley Plimpt, an eleven-year-old boy whose ordinary life is turned upside-down when he discovers that monsters are not only real, but are also in desperate need of his help to overcome their very real problems. One foggy night, while searching for monsters in the cemetery behind his house, Ripley finds and…

Tony Millionaire's been plugging his Maakies t-shirts available from I Love Waterloo, so we will too! There's a bunch of designs (that last one is my favorite), plus limited-edition signed posters. Do some weekend shopping!

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Bleeding Cool uncovers a lost all-ages Roger Langridge rarity • Here's an auction page where you can zoom in on and pan around a scan of Jaime Hernandez original art from Love and Rockets #9 • This week's Maakies? Maais oui. Tony Millionaire is still posting them on Facebook for the time being while his website is rebuilt • Read "Time Traveling" from Ganges #1 at What Things Do; also from Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond strip and a curtain-lifting homage…

We missed last week's update, through nobody's fault but my own. Sorry about that! This week we are changing our approach somewhat. Steven Weissman's Barack Hussein Obama continues as usual but instead of a one-panel teaser we're bringing you the full strip — you'll still need to click through to see it at its original size, though. Plus, starting this week we're bringing you a variety of previously unpublished, unseen or out-of-print strips and stories from some of your favorite Fantagraphics artists! On with the show: Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): — "How Much Do…

At his Cats Without Dogs blog Jason posted a page from his next all-new graphic novel, The Isle of 100,000 Graves (written by Fabien Vehlmann), to be published in France by Glenat in March 2011 and in English by Fantagraphics in May of that year.

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Rip M.D. is like the marriage of Cartoon Network and horror comics (perhaps an EC title or something from Warren Publications), because it is nonsensical and kooky like an old Scooby-Doo cartoon, but also steeped in monsters, both of the supernatural and human variety, like a pre-code horror comic book. The best thing about Rip M.D. is the lead character, Ripley Plimpt. […] This is the perfect set-up:  a curious, brave kid and a world of monsters. Hopefully, there is more to come, but our first appointment with Rip M.D. is pure fun." –…