Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

No update next week due to Comic-Con, but the next one will be a two-fer. In this week's web reviews: • The Stranger weighs in on Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button • Sean T. Collins looks at Mome Vol. 11 • The Toronto Star, Newsarama, Javier Hernandez, ComicMix and Maclean's on Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell – see this previous Flog post for even more recent links related to this book • On the NPR website, Laurel Maury looks at Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin; The Miami Herald also takes…

Steven Weissman brings us something new! Starting today and running each week through late February/early March 2009 we'll be bringing you in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story begins right here! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Here's our schedule of signings and panels for Comic-Con International next week, all prettified by our Art Department. Click it for a readable size (and see here for the text version)!

Our week of video and photo teasers of upcoming releases continues to continue with Abandoned Cars, the debut collection from the young and scarily talented Tim Lane (whom you can meet at Comic-Con!). Watch the video above, and take a closer look in our photo gallery. Finale on Monday!

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Today's installment features the compelling 1999 debut from Chris Lanier. Combustion Combustion is a striking visual parable on War, drawn in an expressionistic woodcut style. This mature, poetic work by newcomer Chris Lanier holds its own with such best-selling and critically acclaimed graphic novels as Maus and Palestine. Elegant and subversive, at times harrowing, Combustion will intrigue and enlighten with its stark,…

Hector Mumbly : Dave Cooper :: Lemony Snicket : Daniel Handler Dave's also showing off his process and selling the original art from the book. (Hat tip: Meathaus.)

Our week of video and photo teasers of upcoming releases continues with Mome Vol. 12, the next installment of our quarterly-ish cutting-edge comics anthology. Watch the video above, and take a closer look in our photo gallery.

This week's free preview is actually 3 previews! We're bringing you 4-to-5-page excerpts from three upcoming installments in our Ignatz Series: Baobab #3, Delphine #3 (pictured above), and Grotesque #2. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. (As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up…)

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Today's installment features a rescued-from-obscurity rarity from comics great Gil Kane. Blackmark In 1974, Gil Kane created Blackmark as a paperback series for Bantam Books. Kane was a comics artist specializing in superheroes who had drawn every major character from Superman and Spider-Man to Green Lantern and Conan. Blackmark was his attempt to go "independent" and create a series which he would…

Made by our pals at Sparkplug and found via our pals at Drawn & Quarterly, the above map shows you where to feel the love (and do all your shopping) at Comic-Con next week. Click for the big version.