Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Meat Cakeby Dame Darcy 240-page black & white/duotone 7" x 10.25" softcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-346-0 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews For a limited time, receive a FREE issue of the Meat Cake comic when you order the collection! Choose from issues 14, 16 or 17 (15 is sold out) when placing your order. COLLECTING THE BEST STORIES FROM THE FIRST DECADE OF MEAT CAKE COMICS Dame Darcy is one of the most beguiling presences on the comics scene — musician, actress, cable TV star, fortune teller, dollmaker, and…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: The Book of Mr. Natural (Hardcover Ed.) by Robert Crumb 128-page black & white 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-352-1 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews This collection features over 120 pages of vintage Crumb comics starring the white-bearded, diminutive sage-cum-charlatan, ranging from charming, free-wheeling early '70s stories to the disturbing, controversial '90s stories (as seen in the Crumb movie), including the entire 40-page "Mr. Natural and Devil Girl" saga from Hup! (collected here for the first time in book form). Crumb's Mr. Natural is probably the most…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird by Tony Millionaire 104-page black & white 6.5" x 9" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-56097-917-3 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews Billy Hazelnuts is back for the first time since his acclaimed 2006 Eisner Award-winning debut. Life has settled back to normal in the old house. Becky and her mom are getting used to having Billy around, as he performs various household chores, utilizing his amazing strength. Nothing could be better, aside from a jumpy relationship with the cat. Until one day Billy hears…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Artichoke Tales by Megan Kelso 232-page monochrome 6.75" x 8.25" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-344-6 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews Megan Kelso has proved herself a master of the cartoon short story with Queen of the Black Black (1998) and The Squirrel Mother (2006). With Artichoke Tales, six years in the making, Kelso expands her range (and her page count) by creating a family saga spanning three generations and an entire continent. Artichoke Tales is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Brigitte whose family is caught between…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Saving the best for last, there’s Blazing Combat, an amazing collection of the stories from the short-lived cutting-edge mid-1960s Warren Publications series. … They’re all written by the outstanding Archie Goodwin, with a few assists, which for most fans would be reason enough to buy this comic all by itself. But then you throw in some of the most amazing art, all of it sharply and expertly reproduced, and you’ve got some real dynamite here. … And there’s fantastic bonus features… If all that doesn’t sell you on this as a must-buy, then you…

Courtesy of The Comics Journal contributor Gavin Lees comes this video of Jim Woodring's slideshow presentation of Weathercraft at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on May 22, 2010. Below, some still photos of the event. Jim signs copies of the book: Jim presents the slideshow to a rapt audience: Ellen Forney gets a boost to watch the slideshow (photo by Janice Headley): Back to the signing table: Jim’s Moëbius-strip comic on display: The new Anthologies shelf at Fantagraphics Bookstore, holding Mome, Weirdo, Kramer's Ergot, and many many more:

We recently noticed that our book You Call This Art?!! A Greg Irons Retrospective by Patrick Rosenkranz is currently going for at least $70 on Amazon. The book is very nearly out of print, but we still have the last handful of copies available for the cover price of $29.95! Irons was a psychedelic poster artist, underground cartoonist, book illustrator, and an emerging tattoo art virtuoso. This retrospective book spans his groundbreaking career, including obscure material and never-before-seen private work. Makes a great Father's Day gift! Why pay more? Click here to order.

Clips & strips from the last few days — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Michael Kupperman's cover art for the book Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus? by A.G. Pasquella • Gilbert Hernandez fanzine art from 1981 as unearthed by Frank Santoro at Comics Comics • ComicsAlliance presents selections from the 1991 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special • From Jim Woodring, Frank, Fran and the skullfruit • Leon explores the mystery of Poffo's Hat in this Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga • Another 1975 flashback from Bob Fingerman • This week's "I, Anonymous"…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Library Journal's Martha Cornog names You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler as one of "12 Graphic Novels for Father's Day": "A newly single parent trying to understand her middle-aged self, Carol Tyler sets out to find the real human being and the real soldier behind her World War II veteran dad's familiar and taciturn persona. Her colorful, historically detailed art re-creates the wartime period expressively, and this first in a trilogy inspires curiosity and empathy for those who serve but don't talk about it much. Everything is…

Catching up with Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Over the last few decades, Jim Wood­ring has been drawing a series of wordless, blissfully cruel slapstick fables, set in a world of grotesque entities and psychedelic minarets: half unshakable nightmare, half Chuck Jones cartoon filtered through the Bhagavad Gita. Weathercraft… flows so smoothly and delightfully from each image to the next that it’s easy to ignore that it has its own idea of sense, which may not jibe with anybody else’s." – Douglas Wolk, The New York Times • Review: "For those who find the work involving enough, Weathercraft will…