Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Catching up with the last two installments of The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour from John Kerschbaum — curse you, RSS-less ACT-I-VATE! • Say it ain't so: the last New Character Parade strip by Johnny Ryan EVER! • The new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond is brought to you by the letter F — what is it with Kevin Huizenga and that letter lately? • Our counterparts over at D&Q have the rejected (!!!) cover for the Fortune "500" issue by Chris Ware • Dan…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Commentary: At The Groovy Age of Horror, Richard Sala, Josh Simmons and others answer the question "Can comics be scary?" It's a good read (via Robot 6) • Reviewer: Bob Levin is a guest reviewer at Comic Book Galaxy this month

A late-ish addendum to our launch of Joe Daly's Dungeon Quest, Book 1: we're pleased to now offer that book together with Joe's previous book, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, for a special discounted price of $29.99 (a savings of about 6 bucks)! Two books full of intrigue, action, weird characters and stoner humor delineated in stunning, hyper-detailed clear-line cartooning. Order right here and we'll ship you both books when Dungeon Quest arrives in our warehouse (and if you've already placed an order for both books individually, contact us and we'll adjust your order).

Dungeon Quest, Book 1 by Joe Daly 136-page black & white 6" x 8.25" softcover • $12.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-347-7 Ships in: May 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now One day Millennium Boy decided to grab his hobo stick, his bandanna, and his Swiss Army knife, bid his mom goodbye, and head off on a quest for adventure. Joined by his best friend Steve (weapon: baseball bat; clothing: wife beater, cargo pants and sandals), they soon find themselves in a violent altercation with two other adventure seekers. It ends badly for their antagonists (“Whoa, check it out, dude! You actually knocked…

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • A new Vice comic by Johnny Ryan • Steven Weissman's new series of Stinckers is taking shape • On his Clip Joint blog John Hankiewicz says "My lithograph No Argument is part of the 30th Annual National Print Exhibition at Artlink Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The show, now open, runs until May 26th. More information here." • From Frank Santoro, what I can only assume are process pics of some color backgrounds using airbrush or spray paint… they're pretty, whatever they are • Get yourself a…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "At every turn, and every turn of the page, in Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune:  The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 1 from Fantagraphics, the reaction is the same: Good Lord, but Roy Crane could draw. …There are countless pleasures in this first volume of the Captain Easy Sunday pages." – Steve Duin, The Oregonian • Review: "Of course, the Bradleys story remains the best reason to pick up any of these Hate Annuals, and this time Bagge doesn’t disappoint; even though I still can’t stand Buddy in his Popeye the Sailor look, this…

Join Dash Shaw & Paul Karasik in conversation about Dash's new book Bodyworld at the Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, on Wednesday April 21 at 7 PM. Both guys will be signing books after the talk so bring your Bottomless Bellybuttons, Unclothed Men, Civilized Planets and Evil Creations. More info here.

Weathercraft by Jim Woodring 104-page black & white 7" x 9.75" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-340-8 Ships in: May 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now For over 20 years now, Jim Woodring has delighted, touched, and puzzled readers around the world with his lush, wordless tales of “Frank.” Weathercraft is Woodring’s first full-length graphic novel set in this world — indeed, Woodring’s first graphic novel, period! — and it features the same hypnotically gorgeous linework and mystical iconography. As it happens, Frank has only a brief supporting appearance in Weathercraft, which actually stars Manhog, Woodring’s pathetic, brutish everyman (or everyhog),…

It was our great pleasure to once again host hometown hero Peter Bagge at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery and to welcome the great James Sturm all the way from Vermont for a joint signing and book release on Saturday evening. Unfortunately some technical difficulties put the kibosh on James's planned multimedia presentation but it was a lively evening regardless, with a great turnout of fans and Seattle cartooning luminaries alike. Above: David Lasky chats with James, Fantagraphics' Janice Headley rocks the register, and Peter takes a breather. Check out some more photos on our Flickr page.

Friday evening means a new batch of online strips: Salem F.D. to the rescue in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …Wedgie receives some "wisdom" in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and this week's is by far the weirdest installment of Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman yet.