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[ Hey, I promised you we'd have some photos from Kim's awesome wife, didn't I? — janice ] Kim Thompson's wife Lynn Emmert went to SPX and came back with a mini photo gallery. Kim wrote the captions. Diane Noomin confronted with evidence of past crimes by looming fan. Diane Noomin and Johnny Ryan signing away, as Conrad Groth (in striped shirt) practices the Groth charm. Remember when comic book conventions were pretty much guys only? Do you miss those days? Leslie Stein with her new book. Paul Hornschemeier wields patented "please buy my book" puppy-dog gaze, honed by years…

APE: Alternative Press Expo is only a week-and-a-half away, on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco, CA!  Start making plans now to check out panels featuring these Fantagraphics artists: Saturday, October 1st 3:00 PM // A Discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine Critically acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling cartoonists — and APE special guests — Daniel Clowes (The Death-Ray, Ghost World, Wilson) and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Shortcomings) are both professional peers and friends, having met over a decade ago when both lived in the East Bay. TheComicsJournal.com editor and PictureBox publisher…

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. The Armed Garden and Other Stories by David B. 112-page two-color 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-462-7 "The French artist David B. is one of my favorite living cartoonists–he bridges the visual realms of the real and the unreal like nobody else–and the two of these fabulistic stories that…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Into the '80s and no sign of the much-feared and long-rumored decline in quality in Charles Schulz's life's work that was supposed to come about 10 years earlier. The strips in this volume of Fantagraphics' series are stronger than ever. If there's a different quality to them it's because Peanuts is a mature strip now instead of a precocious, sometimes-astonishing one…. Schulz at this point still puts on frequent display his nearly unequaled ability to return to core character elements for a gag without seeming repetitive or didactic. Part of the richness of…

Michael Kupperman ponders the possibilities of Mark Twain's passing in this positively perfect print for Desert Island in Brooklyn. (My favorite possibility? Shot in the crotch.) Get your own copy of this historically accurate print on Thursday, October 13th, at the book release party for Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010.  Store owner Gabriel Fowler notes that if there are any prints leftover at the end of the night (unlikely!), they'll be available online. Keep an eye on all our Twain in the Membrane tour dates on the Fantagraphics Events page!

UPDATE: Corrected with updated date and time! The Northwest tour for Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind has been hitting some pretty rockin' places, from record stores to college bookstores, but tomorrow's event is totally classy! Join EMP curator/editor Jacob McMurray on Wednesday, September 28th at the Pan Pacific Hotel in downtown Seattle for a reading and discussion of the "grunge" era in a completely non-grunge-y locale! Your $30 registration includes a copy of the book, and complimentary appetizers. Seating and noshing starts at 5:30 PM, and the presentation starts at 6:00 PM.  RSVP to 206.654.5005 or…

We received the first bound advance copies of Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder" at the office today, and it is breathtaking! Truly an exciting day as we behold the fruits of this labor of love for the first time. We will, of course, bring you better and more detailed previews in the near future.

The Starstruck spin-off series Galactic Girl Guides is one of the most legendary of the "lost" comics orphaned by the collapse of Tundra/Kitchen Sink in the 1990s. When the plug was pulled, artist Linda (Castle Waiting) Medley was about halfway through the projected four-issue series, written by Starstruck co-creator Elaine Lee. There are few cartoonists who could go toe-to-toe with Starstruck artist and co-creator Michael Kaluta for sheer illustrative gorgeousness and maintain the exquisite graphic quality of that world, but as the pages below show, Medley was one of them. Why are we showing you these (aside from the fact…

This is one powerful event, indeed. This coming Saturday, September 24th, two crazy forces of talent will collide in one evening at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Editor Warren Bernard (you may know him as the Executive Director of SPX) will present a slideshow and discussion for his brand-new Fantagraphics title Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising. The exhibit of vintage advertising material looks tremendous, and Warren's slideshows are not to be missed! And the evening only intensifies in power with the addition of special guest, L.A.-based artist Tom Neely, who is currently on a west coast tour for…

Even robots need love, too, especially the giant ones. And on Saturday, September 24th, Giant Robot 2 kicks off the exhibit "Robots," a benefit for their esteemed gallery space in Los Angeles. Since opening their doors in 2003, GR2 has hosted exhibitions featuring many Fantagraphics artists on their walls, and this upcoming exhibit is no exception, featuring work by Andrice Arp, Eleanor Davis, John Pham, Mark Todd (whose artwork is shown above), and Esther Pearl Watson, among dozens of other incredibly talented folks.  GR2 shows don't push their artists into contracts, and attendance is always free. If you've ever enjoyed…