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Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Michel Gagné… worked with Fantagraphics to produce this beautiful volume [Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics]…. Clearly, Simon and Kirby tried to bring as much excitement to primarily psychological and interpersonal goings on as to punching and flying, but the action can’t help but be more grounded and, therefore, limited. It’s impressive that any of the stories manage to sweep one up, and a few do, pulling the reader in rather than leaving him/her assessing art and writing from an appreciative distance. The variety on display here is impressive…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 1: The Early Years of Bitter Struggle (Expanded Softcover Ed.) by Robert Crumb 208-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-558-7 See Previews / Order Now This long out-of-print first volume of the multiple Harvey and Eisner award- winning Complete Crumb Comics series has been one of our most demanded reprints. Now, this landmark volume of Robert Crumb’s formative years not only returns, but also boasts a major discovery not included in prior editions: a never-before-published, 60 page “home-made”…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: The Complete Peanuts 1983-1984 (Vol. 17) by Charles M. Schulz Introduction by Leonard Maltin 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-523-5 See Previews / Order Now As Peanuts reaches the mid-1980s, Charles Schulz is still creating and playing with new characters, and in this volume Snoopy’s deadpan, droopy-mustached brother Spike takes center stage: Surrounded by coyotes in the desert where he lives and who are attacking him with rubber bands, he sends a frantic message to Snoopy who launches an expedition to save…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Athos in America… is even chunkier and more rewarding than Low Moon, which was itself a career high.… Fans will find much here to laugh at, applaud and be surprised by. If you've yet to sample the delights of Jason, there isn't a better place to start than here.… All together a wonderful compendium of Jasonia. An essential purchase for comics fans." – Peter Wild, Bookmunch • Plug: At It's Nice That, cartoonist Tom Gauld discusses some favorite books on his shelf, including Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler: "Jason is a Norwegian cartoonist…

It is with a heavy heart that we must report that Dale Yarger, a beloved and influential figure on the Seattle alternative-press and design scene with whom we had the pleasure of working for a number of years in the 1990s (he was Fantagraphics' senior designer for the first half of the decade, as well as on a later occasion), has passed away after a long, courageous battle with cancer. Dale was a man of uncommon skill, grace, and sweetness and his premature departure leaves a hole in the world and in our hearts. Our sympathy goes out to all…

Attention all fans of classic jazz and jazzy artwork: this classic Jim Flora album cover illustration is now available as a limited edition archival print from Jim Flora Fine Art.

Ugh, babies are gross! Steven Weissman's new Stinckers series "Chug Life" is now available in uncut production sheets, hand-pulled silkscreens on vinyl sticker material. Steven's got all the ordering deets on his blog. Frame 'em up for nursery decor or a swell baby shower gift. Individual cut stickers will soon be available in Stinckers vend-o-mats at select stores so you can slap 'em on your stroller or diaper pail or breast pump or whatever.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Any new work from Norwegian cartoonist Jason is worthy of a comics fan’s full attention, but the new, all-original short-story collection Athos in America is one of the best books of Jason’s career, which automatically makes it one of the best books of this year." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club • Review: "…Joost Swarte… brought a nose-thumbing avant-garde sensibility to 'ligne claire' style Eurocomics in the ’70s and ’80s, even before he landed stories in the seminal art-comics anthology Raw. Is That All There Is? collects nearly 150 pages of Swarte’s most…

It's Krista Soto (wife of cartoonist/Study Group editor Zack Soto) in full costume as Diane Noomin 's Didi Glitz recently! Why? I don't know! Some party occasion I guess! Because it's awesome is why!

Joyce Farmer loves L.A.! And she'll be discussing the reasons why on Thursday, March 15th at the Los Angeles Public Library as part of the panel "From the Outside Looking In: Writers Finding Their Place in Los Angeles." Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin will be moderating the discussion with Joyce and fellow L.A.-based writers Bernard Cooper, Lynell George, Marisela Norte, and Michael Tolkin. What does living in that city offer writers and book artists? What are the freedoms and the challenges of being outside the traditions and trends of literature? These questions and more will be pondered beginning…