Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

The latest Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Known to her classmates at Georgia State College for Women as 'the cartoon girl,' Flannery O'Connor provided satirical illustrations GSCW's student newspaper, The Colonnade, and other school publications while earning a social sciences degree and planning a career in journalism. Executed in the high-contrast technique of linoleum cut from the fall of 1942 until her graduation in 1945, her cartoons skewering the denizens of the Milledgeville campus — roughly drawn but formally dynamic, and often accompanied by punchy, dialogue-driven captions — are the subject of a revelatory new book by O'Connor scholar…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: At Library Journal, Martha Cornog names "26 Graphic Novels for Pride Month 2012," including The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio… "This book is considered a pioneering example of shonen-ai (boys’ love), often referred to as yaoi in the United States. In a German boarding school, young Thomas Werner kills himself because of unrequited love for a schoolmate, who is in fact in love with Thomas, but secretly. Unpacking the emotional threads among the boys and their fellows leads to a sophisticated and beautifully drawn melodrama." …No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer…

Black Images in the Comics (Softcover Ed.) by Fredrik Strömberg 304-page black & white 6" x 6" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-562-4 Ships in: May 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now This book spotlights over 100 comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels to feature black characters from all over the world over the last century, and the result is a fascinating journey to, if not enlightenment, then at least away from the horrendous caricatures of yore. The book begins with the habitually appalling images of blacks as ignorant “coons” in the earliest syndicated strips (Happy Hooligan, Moon Mullins, and…

The latest Online Commentary & Diversions: • Commentary: "The completion of Fantagraphics's Krazy [Kat] Sunday series also means, quite possibly, the end of Krazy Kriticism — a brand of writing that, as far as I can tell, only the Kat engenders. Critic Gilbert Seldes first articulated its credo in the 1924 article 'The Krazy Kat That Walks by Himself.' After comparing Herriman to Dickens, Cervantes, and Charlie Chaplin, Seldes threw up his hands: 'It isn't possible to retell these pictures; but that is the only way, until they are collected and published, that I can give the impression of Herriman's…

Study Group editor/impresario Zack Soto recounts his trip from Portland to Seattle last weekend for the opening of the art show he curated at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, which remains on display through June 6. Head on over for fun-time stories and pics of comics pals! And if you haven't checked out the exhibit yet, get yourself down to Georgetown — it's a great show and there are still some pieces left for sale at ridiculously affordable prices!

What Is All This? (Softcover Ed.) by Stephen Dixon 568-page 5.75" x 8.25" softcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-527-3 Ships in: May 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Stephen Dixon is one of the most acclaimed authors of short stories in the history of American letters. His work, characterized by mordant humor and a frank attention to human sexuality, has earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Fantagraphics Books is proud to re-present his 2010 hardcover collection of short stories, What Is All This?,…

The opening of Drew Friedman's "My Way" art show at Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn last month was JAM PACKED! Drew's family was there! (Brothers Josh, Kipp & Drew; dad Bruce Jay & Kipp): A bunch of cool stuff was on display in addition to the art on the walls! Get the whole report and see a whole slew more photos at Drew's blog. Wish I coulda been there!

Late last year Gary Groth interviewed the recently-departed Maurice Sendak for the forthcoming next issue of The Comics Journal (#302, due toward the end of this year). At TCJ.com, Gary shares the story of how his encounter with Sendak came together along with a sneak peek of a few choice snippets from the interview.

Angelman by Nicolas Mahler 96-page full-color 7" x 9.75" hardcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-534-1 Ships in: May 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Easily the funniest super-hero comic to come down the pike since Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood’s “Superduperman!,” Angelman is Austrian cartoonist Nicolas Mahler’s sardonic take on super-heroes, their fans, the businessmen behind them, the current media obsession with them, not to mention fancy-ass “Ultimate” collections of dopey super-hero comics. Created by Korporate Comics in a flash of money-grubbing cynicism appalling even by their standards, Angelman’s powers (which include empathy and the ability to be a good listener)…

The latest Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "This thing [The Furry Trap] is a nightmarish monster. It's pretty great. …[W]hat Simmons does so well — without peer, honestly — is smash together sweetness and nightmare. Innocence and the most vile corruption imaginable. The stories are unsettling, but Simmons takes it three steps further than many other creators in this vein and then pushes the events into exceedingly horrific territory and then shows how unsettled even the characters are, when they realize the kind of world they live in…. Yeah, this stuff is really good, in surprisingly different ways from…