Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

I've run out of time again! Hopefully we'll finally be caught up with our Online Commentary & Diversions tomorrow. For now, here's a few links that were sent to me: • Review: "…Low Moon is the best work I’ve seen from [Jason] yet… I don’t care that 'Emily Says Hello' is illustrated fiction, because it deserves to be on any year-end list of 2009’s finest crime stories, no matter what the format… One and all, these are excellently told tales from a unique talent." – Rod Lott, Bookgasm • Review: "[Nell] Brinkley was praised for her writing (it’s easy to…

YouTube user furryisthenewedgy has posted video of Paul Karasik questioning Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth at the "Ah, Humbug!" panel at the 2009 MoCCA festival. Paul says, "The sound is not very good, so in case you can't hear it, when I ask Al Jaffee the 'Stupid Question': "Are you Al Jaffee?", his 'Snappy Answer' is, 'No…I'm Paul Karasik!' Biggest laugh all night. The guy is 88."  Part 1: Part 2:

Still catching up with Online Commentary & Diversions. There's more, but I'm out of time, so more catch-up tomorrow! • Review: "The backbone of the family, and also its Achilles heel, Luba is a larger-than-life personality who jumps off every page, whether she's the focus of the segment or just a background player. [Gilbert] Hernandez collects over 100 stories here, ranging from graphic novellas to single-page episodes, with his usual dizzying cocktail of sexual intrigue, humor and soap opera-style angst." – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review – near end of page) • Review: "[You'll Never Know Book 1] becomes a meditation…

You may have been wondering, "Is there going to be any new material in Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius collection?" The answer: Oh yes there is.

Fantagraphics is pleased to present to the public our BLAD for Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, our 3-volume, 1000+-page slipcased hardcover set collecting half a century's work by the macabre master, due this October. (BLAD is the appropriately vampiric-sounding acronym for Book Layout and Design, a promotional piece made for the book trade which showcases upcoming books.) Click each page for larger, higher-res versions, which include specs, production details, excerpts from the introductions by Neil Gaiman and Hugh Hefner, and, of course, samples of the unparallelled artwork collected in the book.

Your Online Commentary & Diversions return from a short vacation. More catch-up tomorrow. • Review: "[C.] Tyler’s fluid, expressive linework, complemented by subtly overlaid watercolors, gives ideal visual expression to a narrative that’s at once sensitive and hard-nosed. [You'll Never Know, Book 1] is Tyler’s first book-length effort, but decades of drawing mostly autobiographical stories have honed her skills, enabling her to produce a work that ranks in quality with the graphic memoirs of Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis)." – Gordon Flagg, Booklist (Starred Review; no link) • Review: "Norwegian-French cartoonist Jason’s new book [Low Moon] is…

Two great C. Tyler multimedia features to share with you: first up, the Inkstuds radio programme has an extensive and lively conversation with Carol in downloadable and streaming audio. Next, the American Legion website presents a series of video interviews with Carol and her University of Cincinnati students detailing the program whereby the students collaborate with veterans on graphic memoirs of the veterans' combat experiences. Click here for the introductory article and here to jump straight to the video (screencap above).

The Online Commentary & Diversions never end: • Review: "The Alack Sinner stories are an accomplished example of crime fiction in comics, but that's not all they are."  – Robert Stanley Martin, Pol Culture • List: "I would recommend the Love and Rockets series by Jaime Hernandez. I liked seeing the progression and development of the series (it was started in the 80s). The art is fantastic and H.O.P.P.E.R.S. stands as a complete world unto itself." – Jillian Tamaki, on CBC Radio's Canada Reads: The Book Club "Top 10 Graphic Novels" • List: "Ghost World by Daniel Clowes [is p]robably…

I think we're all caught up on our Online Commentary & Diversions now: • Review: "It's impossible not to love Jason's hapless cartoon characters; they're dog-faced descendants of Charlie Chaplin in that way, usually placed into situations far beyond their control or understanding… The five stories that make up Low Moon, Jason's newest collection of comics, hark back to the classic golden age of film… Each story reverberates with the little eccentricities that Jason has built a career on (instead of gunfights, the cowboys in the title story battle over long games of chess). Remarkably, none of them seem over-the-top…

If you weren't able to peruse our advance preview copy of Abstract Comics at the MoCCA festival, now you can check out an extensive photo preview posted by editor Andrei Molotiu over at the Abstract Comics blog.