Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Just dropped off at the office today: our advance copies of A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio. It's pretty! Designer Adam Grano has outdone himself on this one, and of course the contents are gorgeous too. Pick up your copy at Comic-Con next week and have it signed by Moto Hagio — she'll be there all 4 days! It should be widely available next month.

Looky here, it's the first advance copy of Too Soon? Famous/Infamous Faces 1995-2010 by Drew Friedman, which arrived in the office yesterday. Yes, we'll have copies for sale at Comic-Con! It should be widely available around the beginning of September.

The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 (Vol. 14) by Charles M. Schulz introduction by Alec Baldwin 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-375-0 Ships in: August 2010 (subject to change) This item will be available for order on its release date. Stay tuned for updates. As the 1970s wind down, the last two recurring Peanuts characters have fallen into place: Snoopy’s brother Spike and the youngest Van Pelt sibling, Rerun. But that doesn’t mean Schulz’s creativity has diminished; in fact, this volume features an amazing profusion of hilariously distinctive new one- (or two-) shot characters! For instance, in…

We have two new releases scheduled to find their way to comic shops this week. You can check out extensive previews for each book at their respective links below so you can be an informed consumer before taking your money down to your local shop. As usual, we'll let the blogosphere do our plugging for us: Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes Introduction by Charles Schneider; essay by William D. Moore; appreciation by David Copperfield 240-page black & white/color 6.5" x 9.75" softcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-367-5 "…[A] mail-order tome of electrical cages, creepy costumes, and…

; Our pal David Lasky has posted photos of Jim Woodring and Megan Kelso (at right above) from Grandma Zapp's Rolling Thunderheart Mountain Variety Show which took place on June 15. You can see all his photos from the event here, and we created a gallery featuring Jim, Megan and Larry Reid here.

Periodic (and tardy… so busy) clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Lorenzo Mattotti World Cup illustrations posted at the Forbidden Planet International Blog • Bob Fingerman posts a couple of concept illustrations for his in-progress prose novel The Hell of It • Dash Shaw posts some storyboards for his in-progress animated film The Ruined Cast • Last week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman; also, if you want to see the scanned version of the current Barack Hussein Obama strip, it's here; also, the greatest Little League team photo ever • From Frank Santoro:…

Jaime Hernandez wrestles with Love and Rockets #16 while Gilbert sinks his teeth into issue 15 circa 1986 in this, one of a handful of vintage photos recently posted by Carol Hernandez to the Love and Rockets Facebook page.

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Weing produces a classic tale of the sea and self-discovery in his graphic novel debut [Set to Sea]. … Presented almost like a Big Little Book for grownups, with one lovely panel per page in a small volume, the hero's journey in this tale isn't particularly unpredictable, but Weing's mastery of both small details (the hero's waxing and waning love affair with language) and sweeping vistas (from the glaciers to a steaming port city) gives it richness and emotion. … Weing's E.C. Segar-influenced drawings elevates what could have been an oft-told story into a…

Drinky Crow + TMBG + booze = dook dook dook dook! Now available again, says Tony Millionaire. Only 10 bucks! [Ed. note: This is the first post to be tagged in our new "merch" category, which we should have started a long time ago.]

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "After hearing his name lauded for many years, Werewolves of Montpellier was my first excursion into the world of Jason, the renowned Norwegian-born artist known for mixing whimsical anthropomorphic characters with introspective and often quite heavy storylines. Now I understand what my friends have been raving about for years. Jason’s artwork is sparse and the story is a masterpiece in simplicity. … At times heartbreakingly sad and laugh-out-loud funny, this story just feels like real life… but with werewolves. … These characters are hopeless, hilarious, tragic and beautiful – probably a lot like you…