Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

It's your Friday installments of our three weekly webcomics! Giant monster attack! in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …inquiring minds want to know in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and the veep guest-stars in this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip from Steven Weissman!

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Like a Dog compiles several of [Zak Sally's] stories from the last 15 years in one sweet, annotated hardcover. I'm amazed by how the styles vary — one minute Sally can talk about working in a punk-rock T-shirt shop, the next he's going on about Dostoevsky — but most stories are quite compelling and, man, the guy is just so cool. Sally is an intensely personal writer, and I appreciate how much he reveals about himself within these pages. His work can get a little messy sometimes, but I say that's just another reason…

Anders Nilsen provides the cover image for the new issue of Smoke Signal, the free comics newspaper put out by Desert Island, which will debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this weekend. Get a bigger, readable version of this image at Anders's blog.

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 6th volume of our complete reprinting of Hank Ketcham's unparallelled run on Dennis the Menace, featuring a week-long visit from grandpa and panel after panel of Ketcham's exquisitely funny cartooning. Download an exclusive 30-page PDF excerpt containing a full month of strips right here. Also up for pre-order now: the box set containing the 5th and 6th volumes, and the slipcase by itself for those who have purchased the volumes separately. These items are scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship later this month and in stores (excluding the slipcase by…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: For The Barnes & Noble Review, Douglas Wolk picks his 5 "Best Graphic Novels of 2009," including You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("…indelible, majestically composed images. Compassionate but unsparing…") and Luba by Gilbert Hernandez ("Fiery, wildly raunchy, deliriously complicated, and bubbling over with life") • Gift Guide: At Comic Book Resources, Steven Grant's holiday recommendations are Fantagraphics-heavy, heaping praise on West Coast Blues, Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol., Blazing Combat, Locas II, and The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion: "Don't mean to be a shill…

…this time in Norway, under the translated title Værverk, from our good friends at Jippi Forlag. North Americans can secure one of twenty "scalped" signed and sketched-in copies direct from Mr. Woodring, and/or wait for the Fantagraphics edition this coming Spring.

This Saturday, get yourself to Williamsburg for an incredible comics event! With a lineup of guest artists including (from the extended Fantagraphics family) Gabrielle Bell, Charles Burns, Kim Deitch, Michael Kupperman, Mark Newgarden, Gary Panter, David Sandlin, Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw, R. Sikoryak and many many more, an amazing slate of programming, and a stellar group of exhibitors, all organized by our esteemed pals and colleagues at Desert Island and Picturebox, the first annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is an absolute can't-miss! (Except we won't be there, wah.) Click here for all the info, including schedule, directions, and the…

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 17th volume of our quarterly anthology Mome, featuring the conclusion of Paul Hornschemeier's "Life with Mr. Dangerous," a sci-fi tale written by Tom Kaczynski and drawn by Dash Shaw, and new stories and artwork from Olivier Schrauwen, Derek Van Gieson, Renee French, Ted Stearn, Kurt Wolfgang, Laura Park, Rick Froberg, Sara Edward-Corbett and T. Edward Bak. Download an exclusive 11-page PDF excerpt containing a page from each contributor right here. This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in about two weeks and in stores roughly the same time…

Only 2 months until Groundhog Day. Online Commentary & Diversions: • Link: Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder & Cory Doctorow for including The Wolverton Bible and Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 on the "Boing Boing Gift Guide 2009: comics/art books" • Review: "Although the five stories in Low Moon appear to have very little in common, the glue that holds them together is Jason’s sublime artwork, a clear line approach inspired by Hergé (and dozens of other influences), and the artist’s consistent application of certain stylistic techniques and visual tropes. … He is an artist who understands the mechanics and…