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Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising 1870s-1940s edited by Rick Marschall & Warren Bernard 128-page full-color 9.5" x 13" softcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-399-6 See Previews / Order Now The history of the genre known as Cartoon Advertising is addressed for the first time in the oversized, full-color, 128-page, fully illustrated book Drawing Power. “There are many obscure masterpieces to be found lingering at the intersection of American Commerce and Comic Art,” says co-editor Rick Marschall. Drawing Power covers the years from the Gilded Age and the pioneer illustrated magazines of…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Alex Toth was a tale-teller and a master of erudite refinement, his avowed mission to pare away every unnecessary line and element in life and in work. His dream was to make perfect graphic stories. He was eternally searching for 'how to tell a story, to the exclusion of all else.' This long-awaited collection [Setting the Standard] shows how talent, imagination and dedication to that ideal can elevate even the most genre-locked episode into a masterpiece [of] the form and a comicbook into art." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This! • Review: "Shimura…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview? (Audio): Tony Millionaire appeared on host Benjamen Walker's radio show Too Much Information on WFMU — we haven't had a chance to listen yet so we don't know exactly what form it takes but you can download or stream the episode here • Profile: At GALO Magazine, Emily Crawford Misztal talks to Nate Neal and looks at his debut graphic novel The Sanctuary: "While the language and the ways of the characters in the book will be unfamiliar to readers, the motives that drive them are as old and familiar as the sun….

Chuck Forsman makes his Fantagraphics debut in the new (and final) issue of Mome. You may have noticed that his mashup of Jaws and Peanuts (which you can buy a print of) (oops, no, it's sold out!) (now there's a second printing!) has made a bit of a splash (no pun intended) lately. You can also find him all over the internet, with a website here, a blog (Snake Oil) here, an online shop with prints, minicomics, commissions and more, a Flickr page and a Tumblr blog. Plus Twitter!

Let me be clear here: Every word that follows is accurate. I answered the phone at Fantagraphics, and it turned out to be Ernest Borgnine. The main cause for his call was to check on an order, but he also talked a little about comics, and generally about how important it was to follow your dream. I wanted to tell him how much I loved The Wild Bunch, but he waved off any talk of his movies. "What a nice guy," I thought after I hung up, and went to tell Gary Groth. But I found Gary tearfully working on…

Apologies for the long delay since the last roundup. I enjoy bringing you these posts but lately it's been hard to squeeze them in. I may need to figure out a new approach or something. Anyway, on with the show: • "Unemployment" strips by Tim Hensley • Hey, a new comic from Jonathan Bennett! Spin commissioned a 2-page strip from Jonathan as part of their commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind and posted it on Facebook (Via Spurge) • Nate Neal has a new website you should bookmark/subscribe to, with lots & lots of updates, including comics in…

At his  blog Jason shares the first glimpse of Hubert's coloring for Athos in America (shown with the French dialogue). Hubert gets the spotlight with an interview in the upcoming Jason Conquers America, for which Jason has posted the front and back cover illustrations. Also since the last time we checked in with Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, he's posted a bunch of reviews of '80s films, a moving piece on the Oslo bombing attack, more older illustrations and some new sketches.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "As with Chun's earlier volumes in the series, it is fantastic to see this work brought back. The original digests were pervasive and invasive…they once arrived by the pallet to newsstands all over the country, but because of their risque and sexist slant, they've been Orwelled right out of our world. It is nice to see them presented here as the art they were. Other than their super-busty raunch (and the occasional spanking) the girly gags of Humorama have aged well because they were hidden for some fifty years. They are also harmless,…

We were totally thrilled to have In the Red / Volar Records band Christmas Island stop by the Fantagraphics Bookstore during their West Coast tour this past weekend! Ajax and I actually met their awesome drummer Lucy at the San Diego Comic-Con late last month, and she had mentioned that her band was gonna be playing The Funhouse in Seattle for Pizza Fest 2011! [Full disclosure: Ajax works the door at The Funhouse when not workin' the warehouse at Fantagraphics.] But I totally suck, and I missed the show and the ensuing pizza-eating contest! Dammit. Don't suck like I did:…

Lynn Johnston has generously placed her entire foreword to the new volume of The Complete Peanuts (1981-1982) online for everyone to read at her For Better or For Worse website (online headquarters for her beloved long-running newspaper strip). Read, enjoy, pass along and (of course) order the book here.