Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

What says romance more than comics? If there is anything, we don't want to know about it. Once again we're offering a special selection of romantic and/or erotic gift books with which to woo your sweetie this Valentine's Day. From classic romance comics to cutting-edge erotica, from sweet to twisted, from timeless to unexpected (zombies?), these comics are fluent in the many dialects of love. From now through the day in question (February 14, 2010), SAVE at least 15% on all of our Valentines Day gift selections!

In celebration of the Martin Luther King Day national holiday, we are pleased to offer a special sale on King – A Comics Biography: The Special Edition by Ho Che Anderson. All this week, pre-order this book (due at the beginning of February) for 25% off the cover price. This offer runs through the end of the day Friday, Jan. 22.

Tell us how you really feel, Johnny.

Here's a late addendum to our preview/pre-order announcement for Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson: some Tammy Pierce for your computer or mobile phone screen! (Or if you prefer Tammy Vol. 1 style in hot pink, we've got that too.) Just click on the size that matches your monitor resolution and the image will open in a new window; if you're on a PC, right-click the image and select "Set As Background"; if you're on a Mac, control+click and select "Set As Desktop Background." (We don't know what the procedure is for iPhones, but if you have one, you…

Friday webcomics — ain't we lucky we got 'em? A real classic New Yorker-style joke in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …Blecky's reaction is, surprisingly, completely appropriate in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and, well, this week's Barack Hussein Obama bt Steven Weissman pretty much leaves me speechless.

Some excellent Online Commentary & Diversions to round out the week thanks to Omnivoracious and The A.V. Club: • List: Amazon's Omnivoracious blog names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw a top-10 Comic of the Decade, and also names The Complete Peanuts, Love and Rockets Library, and Mome as Comics Archives and Anthologies of the Decade • List: On Meltdown Comics' Meltcast podcast, Chris Rosa declares Low Moon by Jason his Absolute Best of 2009 "without a doubt," with additional commentary from his cohosts (begins around 2:26:21) • List: And on the Meltcast Best of the Decade episode, Hey, Wait… by…

Now available for preview and pre-order: Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson, the second and concluding installment in the hilarious saga of hapless high school underdog Tammy Pierce and her seemingly never-ending series of humiliations and heartbreaks. Watson nails the story's 1980s middle-America milieu with affection and devastating accuracy. Download an exclusive 20-page PDF excerpt right here (3 MB). This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in roughly 4-5 weeks and in stores roughly the same time (subject to change). View a photo & video slideshow preview of the book embedded here. Click here…

Our own multifarious Jason T. Miles appeared on the Inkstuds radio programme today to discuss his comics, his new Seattle-centric zine distro venture Profanity Hill (Seattle-area zine makers: Jason wants you! Everyone else: go buy some stuff already), and toiling in the Fantagraphics salt mines — listen here.

Is this it for Online Commentary & Diversions today? I guess so: • Review: "Jacques Boyreau’s book [Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box] pays tribute to… imperfection. Not only is its cover — well, the cover of the book’s slipcase, at least, designed to look like a videocassette — but the photos inside showcase boxes in far from mint condition… All of this helped take me back to my VHS days, but it’s mostly the garish art that did it — lurid snatches of visual salesmanship, many of which have been burned in the back of my…