Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Make The Sanctuary blog your destination for previews and bonus material, like this exclusive story, from Nate Neal's forthcoming graphic novel of the same name.

Too Soon? Famous/Infamous Faces 1995-2010 by Drew Friedman 204-page full-color 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-357-6 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now "Too Soon?" you ask? It's a collection of the last 15 years' worth of Drew Friedman's illustrations, caricatures and portraits lampooning the rich, the famous, the infamous, and the never-will-be-famous. And — promise! — no "Friends." Too Soon? gathers Friedman's best, most strident and scathing work from some of the most popular publications including Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard,…

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • A long-awaited new installment of "Chapter Two: Unraveling" from Jordan Crane at What Things Do • From Jason, a hand-painted cigar case & matchbox, circa late 1990s, and an unpublished page from 1985 • Some sketches by Émile Bravo  • Drew Weing's Set to Sea page 129 • Tim Lane presents his updated introduction to Belligerent Piano as it appeared in Smoke Signal • Speaking of Smoke Signal, here's a panel from Jon Vermilyea's story for an upcoming issue • Debbie Drechsler catches a couple of hungry…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Meat Cake is a tour de force showcasing the most primal of passions! It is an issue of Creepy edited by Edward Gorey! It is a Gothic soap opera as written by Victorian lolitas! It is a celebration of love and hubris, beauty and decay! There is no other comic in the world that offers a titillating parade of mermaids, ghosts, sailors, sirens, faeries, witches and wolfmen in intriguing and compromising situations! You will be dazzled, you will be entertained, but above all, you will be enchanted!" – STORM (guest columnist), Robot 6 •…

At Comics Alliance, David Brothers presents a sampling of 6 pages from A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, saying "Moto Hagio is one of the greatest Japanese manga creators you've never heard of. …Hagio helped take the genre to new heights, incorporating science-fiction, boys' love, and mature themes of sexuality and gender. She not only blazed trails as one of the earliest female manga creators, but also proved to be particularly successful and critically-acclaimed over the course of her career in Japan. […] Fantagraphics' release of A Drunken Dream is only the first step of educating American manga fans and…

Prison Pit: Book 2 by Johnny Ryan 116-page black & white 6.5" x 8.5" softcover • $12.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-383-5 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now 2009's Prison Pit was an unadulterated smash hit upon its release at the 2009 Comic-Con International, and the balls-to-the-wall series returns with more action and mayhem like only Johnny Ryan can deliver — again starring CF, the shirtless outer space barbarian antihero who remains damned to the Prison Pit (a vast wasteland beneath the crust of a barren planet, populated by the worst of the worst, where violence is the only law…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Reviews: At Vice, it's time for another installment of "Nick Gazin's Comic Book Witch Hunt": "Name a funnier comic than Popeye. Wrong, idiot, there isn’t one. Not only is Popeye the best ever, but this volume of Fantagraphics Popeye series is the best one yet. Oh yeah? Name a better one. Wrong. … Like most great strips, Popeye has a strong philosophy. That philosophy is the world’s full of crooks. I wish there was a real Popeye to enforce some sort of rough fist-justice but I’m pretty sure there’s no justice and there’s certainly no…

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Michael Kupperman posted this "doodle" to Twitter • Go bookmark Émile Bravo's art blog — he posts daily (via The Comics Reporter) • More uncollected Jason strips: one from Mjau Mjau, one possibly unpublished (plus more Audrey Hepburn movie reviews) • Renee French's work from The Rock Show can be seen at the Meyer Gallery website; also, more guys with mitts and these • From Steven Weissman: This week's "I, Anonymous," sketchbook studies over on the Covered blog, and more sketchbook pages here and here   •…

Blake Bell makes the following announcement on his blog: "On Friday, August 27, 2010, come to the Toronto Fan Expo (running from Friday to Sunday) and see my slideshow entitled "Steve Ditko and Bill Everett: Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Daredevil & Beyond." The hour-long presentation begins at 5pm in Room 103A and features tons of imagery and commentary related to my two new books Fire and Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics (out in Sep.) and Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2 (out in Oct)." Blake will also be tabling at the show — click over for more…

Recently posted on Flickr by designer Paul Buckley (and brought to my attention by Richard Sala)… Great Expectations — Richard Sala: The Canterbury Tales — Ted Stearn: The Communist Manifesto — Killoffer: All beautiful! Looks like this latest round of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions hits stores toward the end of October.