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This is the week all our heads explode:  Tuesday, April 24th  • Portland, OR:  T Edward Bak will deliver a presentation on WILD MAN: The Strange Journey and Fantastic Account of the Naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, which was serialized in Mome!  He'll be joined by artist Vera Brosgol at the Portland Central Library. (more info) • Durham, NC: Joe Sacco will discuss "Comics and Journalism" at Duke University! More info about this event coming to the FLOG today! Thursday, April 26th  • New York City, NY: Award-winning Austrian cartoonist and animator Nicolas Mahler will be a special guest at the Austrian…

Now in stock in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: Popeye Vol. 6: "Me Li'l Swee'Pea" by E.C. Segar 188-page black & white/color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-483-2 See Previews / Order Now Order this book and receive this FBI•MINI comic shown at left as a FREE bonus! Click here for details. Limit one per customer while supplies last. Alas, E.C. Segar, arguably the funniest cartoonist to ever lay ink on paper, died at the age of 44, leaving less that a decade’s worth of strips featuring his immortal creation Popeye — so this…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Record collecting was an engagement with mystery. [Pat] Thomas understands this and his book, Listen, Whitey, which documents the pieces — both lauded and obscure — of the recording element within the Black Power movement of the 1960s and ‘70s…. These small discs were part of the overall effort that allowed African Americans to get real information about the Black Power Movement, to let them know they weren't alone, to show them ways to be involved, to stoke ideas and energy, and to provide catharsis. Thomas mines this territory to construct a richly…

It's a homecoming tonight for our editor Pat Thomas, who is back in town in the middle of his book tour for Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975! And it's an extra special event, because it's also a benefit for the Life Enrichment Bookstore, Seattle's only Black-owned and operated bookstore. It has been in business for more than 17 years and has provided healing, history, support, and transformation through educational workshops, book clubs, and celebrations. Join Pat there tonight, Friday, April 20th, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM! He will be doing a reprise of the tremendous…

Now in stock in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion by Hans Rickheit 144-page black & white/color 7" x 10" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-509-9 See Previews / Order Now Lovers of art comics know Hans Rickheit from his smashing graphic novel The Squirrel Machine (2008), but Rickheit has, for over a decade, been producing his own self-published comics — reaching into the deepest cupboards of the back-mind and culling these strange artifacts. He has been a basement-dweller, gallery troll, and a purveyor of forbidden notions. Originally distributed into the world as…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: For The Guardian, comics creators Bryan & Mary Talbot select their top 10 graphic memoirs, with Joe Sacco's Palestine at #4: "Sacco was trained as a journalist and singlehandedly created the genre of reportage in graphic novel form. Immersing himself in a situation, his in-depth reports use the medium of comics to its full potential. Like his Safe Area Gorazde or recent Footnotes in Gaza, Palestine follows his experiences as he investigates events and interviews residents, explaining the history, politics and dynamics of the place as he goes along. The palpable sense of…

Walt Kelly was old school: When he drew his comics, he first sketched them out in light blue pencil, and then proceeded to delineate them in his legendarily lush ink line. One huge advantage of this system was that he didn't have to erase any pencil lines (all that erasin' time adds up). Here is a sample. Another advantage is that it made them really cool looking! Carolyn Kelly, the editor of the POGO series, thinks so too, and since she had a selection of original POGO art from the strip's first years, she scanned several images that featured those…

In this month's issue of Booklist you can find reviews of three of our recent releases, excerpted below: Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives Vol. 1, edited by Blake Bell: "Dating from 1938–42, most [stories] feature superheroes designed to compete with the then-new Superman, such as Amazing-Man, who gained his powers from the Tibetan monks who raised him; the Flash Gordon-derived Skyrocket Steele; and Hydroman, who could transform himself into a waterspout. The stories and artwork are laughably crude by modern standards, although no more so than those in other comic books from the period. But even the earliest ones…

Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition, the deluxe, slipcased two-volume hardcover set collecting the complete first decade of Stan Sakai's long-running, beloved series, with bonus materials including a color cover gallery, a career-spanning interview and more, has sold through its print run and is now a collectible. However! We have received a small shipment of dent-and-ding copies returned from the distributor, so if you don't mind a slipcase with a bonked corner or other superficial damage and you love bargains, good news because you can buy one of them for $50 — that's half price — from our mail-order department or…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The names here are mysterious, but the book makes a good case for many of the artists to be better known, which seems to be its intent. Tommi Musturi’s 'Samuel' stories, for example, several of which are included, are colorful, wordless, and Zen-like in their focus on the here and now. Joanna Rubin Dranger’s 'Always Prepared to Die for My Child' is another highlight, with simple drawings that manage to convey a lot. And Jenni Rope’s minimalist stories, which nearly bookend the volume, are poetic and impressive…. The number of woman cartoonists is…