Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Abandoned Cars (Softcover Edition) by Tim Lane 168-page black & white 7.5" x 9" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-341-5 Ships in: April 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now This item is available with two different cover designs. Please indicate your preference when ordering. THE ACCLAIMED 2008 DEBUT, BACK IN PRINT IN A 2010 SOFTCOVER! Abandoned Cars is Tim Lane’s first collection of graphic short stories, noir-ish narratives that are united by their exploration of the great American mythological drama by way of the desperate and haunted characters that populate its pages. Lane’s characters exist on the margins of society—alienated, floating…

Blazing Combat (Softcover Edition) by Archie Goodwin & various artists 208-page black & white 8" x 10" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-366-8 Ships in: April 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now THE LEGENDARY ANTI-WAR COMIC COLLECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS ENTIRETY, NOW IN A 2010 SOFTCOVER EDITION. Written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by such luminaries as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, and Gene Colan, Blazing Combat was originally published by independent comics publisher James Warren in 1965 and ’66. Following in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales…

The Culture Corner by Basil Wolverton 160-page full-color 9" x 6.75" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-308-8 Ships in: April 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Did you ever wonder how to stop brooding if your ears are protruding? Or how to indulge yourself and snore without being a bore? Or for the masochists among you, how to sit on a tack? Or for the narcissists, how to contemplate the back of your pate? Or something as simple as how to get out of bed gracefully? Or something a bit more challenging like how to boot a fly off your snoot?…

Hate Annual #8 by Peter Bagge 32-page color/b&w  6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $4.95ISBN: 978-1-60699-373-6 Ships in: April 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Hate Annual #8 features a whopping new 20 page Buddy Bradley story where Lisa (everyone’s favorite psycho!) makes her first foray into show biz and gets way more than she bargained for! This issue of P. Bagge’s annual Hate also features strips compiled from his Discover Magazine gig: 5 biographies of scientists you’ve never heard of! — other than maybe Walter Reed, who’s well known only for that hell of a hospital named after…

Here's the new trailer for Luc Besson's movie adaptation of Jacques Tardi's Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec (hat tip to Boing Boing). Man that looks like a fun movie. As we've teased a bit in the past, our new translated editions of the Adele stories start coming out later this year. No U.S. release for the film has been announced yet, unfortunately.

Here comes your weekly batch of new online strips: An awkward dinner date in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …seriously, kids, don't try the stunt in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and Steven Weissman says "first one to say 'Broccili Obama' is a rotten  – oH SHIT" regarding this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip.

Well lookee here: Memoirs of a Scanner (Pillows Edition) from Damon Stea on Vimeo. • Watch carefully or you'll miss a certain cameo appearance in this clever video that Kim came across on The Daily Dish a few days ago • A Johnny Ryan drawing for a good cause • And the logo for that school? It's by Jordan Crane (the above two items via Steven Weissman on Twitter) • Three Men in a Tub's Ted Dawson posts this 1976 self-portrait by Charles M. Schulz. Dig those pants! (Via The Comics Reporter) • Hand-embellished purses (and bunny ears) made by…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "[High Soft] Lisp has its share of tender moments and tragic ones, although it’s relatively buoyant with humor throughout. … This is the stuff of soap operas, minus the melodrama. Lisp comes loaded with palpable emotions and heaps of honesty, even amid a cartoony backdrop." – Rod Lott, Bookgasm • Review: "Part one of a proposed trilogy, King Of The Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave is an extremely promising title from French crime comics artists Pascal “Mezzo” Mesenburg and Michel Pirus. … Its approach to violence and turmoil is surprisingly fresh, although the story bears…

We're no longer distributing Mineshaft, but we're happy to report that the essential underground comix zine is still going strong and the new 25th issue, with a cover by Sophie Crumb and featuring Peter Bagge, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch's review of papa Crumb's Genesis, Pat Moriarity and much more (see above), is at the printer and will be available from the publisher soon! If you order or subscribe now you can get $1 off select back issues — whatta deal!

In this week's New York Times Sunday Book Review, Douglas Wolk writes: "Peanuts always had a bite to it; Schulz’s favorite source of comedy was the anxieties and humiliations of childhood. Still, some of these strips are unnervingly bitter even for him, as when Marcie destroys Snoopy’s doghouse in a rage, then screams at Peppermint Patty that she needs to 'face up to reality.' It provokes laughter, of course, but shocked laughter: you can tell these kids aren’t going to grow up happy." "Jacob Covey’s design for E. C. Segar’s Popeye series is appropriately tall, imposing and sturdy, with a…