Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Holy smokes, there's no shortage of Online Commentary & Diversions today: • Review: "…Prison Pit… is nothing less than a continuous, no-holds barred, violent assault on the eyes. It is literally one god damned, bloody fight scene after another… The book's genius lies in Ryan's sheer nerve and imagination in setting up these battles; he constantly ups the ante in the most bizarre and inventive ways possible. … Ryan's love of body functions goes into full gonzo mode here. …you've got a book where body horror extends far beyond the repulsive into the truly sublime and inspired. … Despite the…

Unofficial Gary Groth History Week continues, this time at ComicAttack.net, where Ken Meyer Jr. looks back at Gary's pre-Fantagraphics Fantastic Fanzine, specifically issue #10, with lots of background and commentary from Gary and a PDF download of the full issue. Looks like Ken will be looking at more issues of FF in the future, too, so we'll be sure to alert you when that happens.

Jonas Seaman was there at the Johnny Ryan Prison Pit opening/signing/performance and contacted us to share his large and impressive set of photos from the event. Amazing stuff, Jonas, thanks!

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Where has Joe Daly been hiding? … The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book… brings us… a tasty blend of cleanly detailed art straight out of Herge, hipster stoner humor and a couple of mysteries that work just as well in Cape Town as they would in the Los Angeles of Robert Towne's Chinatown or Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer stories." – John Mesjak, my3books • Review: At Robot 6, Tom Bondurant gives his impressions partway through The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book: "So far I've gotten through the relatively-short first story, 'The Leaky Cello Case,' and…

In a testament to the strip's artistic durability and lasting influence, The Complete Peanuts continued its domination of the Best Domestic Reprint Project category at the Harvey Awards, with the 1967-1968 and 1969-1970 volumes taking home the series's 4th award in 5 years this past weekend at the ceremony at Baltimore Comic-Con. It is our continuing honor to be able to bring these books to you. The Beat has the full list of winners.

Paul Hornschemeier points out on his blog that the McSweeney's-edited More Things Like This is out; this collection of drawn-and-written humor includes Paul, Anders Nilsen, and Jeffrey Brown along with the likes of "Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Vonnegut, Edward Gorey, Henry Darger, David Mamet, David Byrne, Basquiat, Leonard Cohen, Robert Crumb, and too many others to list," as Paul puts it. Wowza.

Your must-read link of the day: at Comics Comics, Jeet Heer presents a scan of a 1972 Washington Post profile of 17-year-old Gary Groth. Plus ça change: Gary still types with two fingers, and still forgets to close the door. (Also: evidence that the cliché of using sound effects in comics-story headlines dates back at least 37 years.)

Left: Ajax Wood IS Ardent Vein IS Cannibal Fuckface. Right: man of the hour Johnny Ryan. Saturday night will definitely go down as one of the most memorable events in the history of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery thanks to Ardent Vein's incredible performance/reading of Chapter 1 of Johnny's Prison Pit Book 1. If you weren't one of the lucky people who witnessed it in person, behold, we've put it on YouTube in two parts! Lots more photos in our Flickr set here.