Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Your midweek Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Crude but powerful drawings; an eye-shattering color palette; helter-skelter plotting, often with anticlimactic, fall-off-a-cliff endings; unintentionally manifested author obsessions; stupendous indulgence of schadenfreude, terror and glee at the misery of humanity, salted with some token morality. Yes, that's the Fletcher Hanks formula for a unique, unforgettable, Golden Age comics masterpiece, and all these bizarro traits are indeed on glorious display here [in You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!]…" – Paul Di Filippo, Sci Fi Wire • Plug: "I'm very impressed with Fantagraphics's restart of this wonderful series [Prince Valiant]. The…

I believe I'm reading this announcement from Manu Larcenet correctly (the Google translation isn't much help) that Les Rêveurs will be translating and publishing our Krazy & Ignatz collections — the first time Krazy Kat has been published in French! [Oops, not quite — corrected in the comments!] (And Larcenet's photo spread of our editions is quite lovely, no?)

Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray By Jaime Hernandez In this second big omnibus collection of his ongoing tales of the “Locas,” Jaime Hernandez continues telling stories featuring his main characters Maggie, Hopey and Ray. This volume picks up shortly after Maggie and Hopey’s long-awaited reunion at the end of the first Locas. Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthood with a real job (as a teacher), while a demoralized, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabag apartment building where she continues to wrestle with…

Abstract Comics: The Anthology By various artists; edited by Andrei Molotiu Abstract comics? Don’t all comics tell stories? How can a comic be abstract? Well, as it happens, beginning with the experiments of Saul Steinberg, through some of the more psychedelic creations of R. Crumb and Victor Moscoso, and with increasing frequency in recent years, cartoonists and other artists have played with the possibility of comics whose panels contain little to no representational imagery, and which tell no stories other than those that result from the transformation and interaction of shapes across the layout of a comic page. Reduced to…

Another batch of photo previews for you: Mome Vol. 15 – Summer 2009, which just hit stores last week. Watch the preview in the slideshow player embedded below; if it's not visible to you, or to see it full-screen (recommended), click here; if you don't like slideshows, browse here.

  As part of the whole Obama-as-the-Joker poster kerfuffle, Rush Limbaugh criticized Drew Friedman's Bush-as-the-Joker illustration for Vanity Fair (above); David Corn reports at Politics Daily.

In case you couldn't tell from all the "Plugs" in our "Daily OCD" posts the last couple of days, we've got 2 big new hardcover collections hitting comics shops this week: Abstract Comics: The Anthology Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime Hernandez You know the drill: Check out our previews at the links above, give your local shop a ringle-dingle to confirm availability, and then give them your hard-earned money for these hefty hunks of comics heaven.

Online Commentary & Diversions, we got 'em: • Review: "An eye-opening cornucopia of visual storytelling styles traversing a wide variety of narrative avenues, this anthology [From Wonderland with Love] gives a strong representation of contemporary Danish comics as a thriving comics culture. Largely surreal, the work is tough to nail down, but much of it is lighthearted even when dealing with very dark issues; it's devoid of the self-conscious self-referentialism that so often dogs American comics both genre and literary… An essential volume for those interested in comics' global development and newest voices." – Publishers Weekly (starred review) • Review:…

The wait is over! Love and Rockets: New Stories #2, which debuted to a sell-out response at Comic-Con, is now available for pre-order. The second issue of L&R's new annual 100-page format features the conclusion of "Ti-Girls Adventures" by Jaime and two brand new stories, "Hypnotwist" and "Sad Girl," by Gilbert. You can download a 10-page PDF sneak peek, featuring 5 pages from each brother, at our product page, which also has all the other info you need to know about the book. Pre-order now for late-August delivery; it will be in stores in September (subject to change). PLUS! We've…