Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

 Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources: • Drew Friedman strikes straight to the heart of the zeitgeist in his new cover illo for The Nation • Tim Hensley takes you through his process for creating the cover lettering for D&Q's new Tatsumi book • This week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman • This week's Maakies from Tony Millionaire • We've featured this Robert Goodin piece before but it's up on the Covered blog today • At Three Men in a Tub, Ted Dawson presents the original art for a 1933 Popeye vs. Bluto…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Ghost World feels like a really apt bit of social history to me now, rather than a piercing look at real life.  I believe it, but I believe it happened, not that it happens, at least not quite this way, at the age shown here. But, what is timeless is the theme that crops up towards the end: the unsettling feeling one gets when contemplating the lurch into adulthood." – Christopher King, Timmy's House of Sprinkles • Plugs: The bloggers at Comics And… Other Imaginary Tales comment on our offerings in the current issue…

Blab Bargain Bundle by various artists; edited & designed by Monte Beauchamp seven 120-page full-color 10" x 10" softcover volumes • $84.00More Info & Ordering Details Monte Beauchamp's annual darling of the graphic design and illustration world is a spectacular collection of cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design. Blab!'s list of contributors past and present reads like a Who's Who of the contemporary visual art world. We're pleased to present the following seven volumes together for one low price: $12 per volume — around 40% off the combined cover prices. Below is a brief description of the contents of each…

Two of Portland's most venerable comics-related institutions need your help: First, the Independent Publishing Resource Center is having a Spring Membership Drive. They have various levels of membership — the Zine of the Month program sounds pretty awesome. Our pals at Sparkplug have posted an eloquent plea from IPRC member and Mome artist T. Edward Bak — please go check it out and then sign on up! Also, Jason Levian of the paradisical Floating World Comics is raising funds via Kickstarter for printing costs of the next issue of Diamond Comics, the awesome broadsheet comics anthology he publishes and distributes…

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources: • "The Bowery Hillbillies" — Drew Friedman's cover illo for this week's New York Observer • Laura Park continues her Geek Love illustrations at Picture Book Report • Almost missed these Johnny Ryan/Nick Gazin jam comics at Vice (thanks Sean T. Collins) • Presented without context by Olivier Schrauwen • Renee French's mouth drawings continue to skeeve me out, yet I can't look away • At What Things Do , read the first part of "Look Out for Big Della," excerpted from Steven Weissman's White Flower Day

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Reading this book was like unearthing a trunkload of old baby pictures… if the babies in question would eventually grow up to become Mad Magazine and Rat Fink. …[L]ike a Buddy Holly song on an oldies station or WWII-era tattoo flash, some art just stands the test of time and becomes classic. Basil Wolverton’s Culture Corner is a one-of-a-kind work and definitely falls into that category. [Grade: A]" – Chad Derdowski, Mania • Review: "For some time now, Norwegian cartoonist Jason has been on my shortlist of recommended artists for the uninitiated. … The…

Johnny Ryan's in an art show 3-way at GRSF with Le Merde & Matt Furie, opening April 17. It sounds like Matt may be showing some Johnny fan art — I'd love to see his take on Blecky Yuckerella.

Slated to arrive at comic shops nationwide this week: The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13) By Charles M. Schulz 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-345-3 Checking in with the comics bloggers' new-release roundups, Comics Comics' Joe McCulloch notes "The intro here is by Robert Smigel, which will probably be good." At Comics Alliance Douglas Wolk says "Words cannot tell you how much I love this era of Charles M. Schulz's masterwork. So forget it." (Nicely done, Douglas.) Comic Book Galaxy 's Alan David Doane says "New Complete Peanuts is… always great news." Don't forget…

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources: • Formula for greatness: Babysitters Club spoofs written by Julia Wertz & drawn by Johnny Ryan • It's Roger Langridge's original cover to the never-published Zoot #7 (most of which was eventually collected in Zoot Suite) — read more about it   • For the Venn diagram intersection between numismatists and Snoopy-philes, it's the British Virgin Islands commemorative coin celebrating the 60th anniversary of Peanuts (reported by Coin News, via The Daily Cartoonist)

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Booklist's Ray Olson names the Top 10 Graphic Novels of the past 12 months, including You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("Alt-comics veteran Tyler fully demonstrates her artistry in a book about her father’s WWII experiences, her childhood and present struggles raising her daughter, and her growing realization of war’s long-term effects on soldiers and their families.") and A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross ("With washed and faded and wildly varied artwork and writing that sounds utterly like a teen’s voice, Lasko-Gross makes high-schooler Melissa’s late-teen…