Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Good grief, all you art bloggers sure stay busy over the weekends… • Man, remember the awesome comics that Tower Records' Pulse magazine ran back in the 1990s, like this one from Frank Santoro? • A piece by Richard Sala for an Oz-themed art show at Gallery Meltdown in L.A. which opened on Saturday (Steven Weissman's in it too) • Speaking of Steven Weissman, here are some ideas he's working on • Nautical sketches circa 1950s by Jim Flora • Two from Jim Blanchard, who describes the commissioned drawing at top as "Definitely the high point of my art career…

In like a lion with Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Thank God then for Almost Silent, a new collection repackaging some of Fanta’s older Jason books — some of which are no longer in print in their original format — as an anthology the same size, shape and design as Low Moon. … Buy it to read the stories, keep it to restore order and balance to your bookshelf." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama • Review: Avoid the Future collects and expands on their first 10 Twitter micro-reviews of Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s: "More than…

Due to circumstances beyond our control we are late in presenting our weekly batch of new online strips: Revisiting the baby theme in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …ancient mysteries in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and Steven Weissman calls this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip "Shut Up Island."

For your viewing and clicking pleasure: • What better way to start things off than with a full dozen sketchbook pages by Jim Woodring? Put down some plastic to collect your melted brain • This is just one of three adorable self-portraits by Tim Hensley • More wackiness from Derek Van Gieson

It's been a while since we've had a one-item Online Commentary & Diversions post: • Review: On Twitter, Avoid the Future is posting daily capsule reviews of every story in Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s.  The latest three: "'The Book of Falling' visually expresses the joy & ambiguity of falling objects. Favourite so far! … 'Night Beat'- The low-down on a city's least important events. Really fun; excellent use of the format. … 'Nart' #1- Thought-bubble pierced with dagger: Gags framed by truely appealing thick-line 'toon style."

Michael Kupperman and, apparently, 10 of Paul Hornschemeier (plus our pal Jeffrey Brown), are part of a big event for Marvel's Strange Tales anthology at Challengers Comics & Chicago Comics on Saturday, March 6. This is a rare Chicago appearance for Kupperman, so don't miss it! More details here.

I'm supposed to tell you to buy stuff direct from us but I'd feel like a jerk if I didn't let you know about these: $3.90! $1.68!! $1.52!! And as previously noted, Petey & Pussy is still $3.52. These deals end suddenly with no warning, so don't hesitate. (Thanks to Jacob for catching what I missed the first time.)

If I may speak to you in hushed tones for a moment: OK, so obviously we prefer it if you order our stuff direct from us, and if you order John Kerschbaum's Eisner-nominated Petey & Pussy you can still get one of the last few incredible free bonus packs with all 3 issues of The Wiggly Reader, a poster, and a signed bookplate. However, if you're strapped for cash, and we totally understand if you are, you can get the book for the price of a single issue of a comic book on Amazon right now.

They're real and they're spectacular: These are our first advance copies of the softcover edition of Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars (both covers!) and our new Basil Wolverton book The Culture Corner, both coming in April. We'll have better pics for you coming soon.