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Wandering Son Vol. 1 by Shimura Takako 208-page black & white/color 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-416-0 Ships in: June 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a…

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators 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. Approximate Continuum Comics by Lewis Trondheim 160-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-410-8 "An earlier stab than Little Nothings at comics-as-diary from the prolific cartoonist (and constantly hilarious comics-diarist) Lewis Trondheim, who draws himself as a slightly ruffled bird." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance "Lewis Trondheim’s Approximate Continuum Comics were…

  Meanwhile, attendees of Lollapallooza 2008 are still looking for the comic book signing.  Via Showbiz Imagery & Chicanery , thanks for the tip to Grottu.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "It's a smart-looking book, and the choice to go color-free really allows Gilbert Hernandez's cartooning to shine. But make no mistake: this is vintage Bagge. Sure, we're minus the delicious Buddy Bradley angst, and the goofiness is rated PG, but the increasingly ridiculous situations that the girls of Yeah!… get themselves into [are] very much in Bagge's wheelhouse…. Yeah! also has in spades something that HATE! rarely, if ever, did: cuteness. Some of the hijinx and situations that the band finds itself in are, well, adorable. Hernandez's pen is as much to credit for…

Hey Chicago! This Saturday, May 28th, cartoonist Wilfred Santiago will be at Chicago Comics signing his latest graphic novel 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. Wilfred Santiago signs 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. Chicago Comics is located at 3244 N. Clark Street, and the signing starts at 3:00 pm!

Queen of the Black Black by Megan Kelso 168-page black & white 7" x 9.25" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-459-7 Ships in: June 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Before her comics were serialized in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (“Watergate Sue,” 2007) or released by Fantagraphics Books (Artichoke Tales, 2010), Megan Kelso was a classic DIY cartoonist/publisher, who crafted and self-published her popular minicomic Girlhero from 1991 to 1996. Queen of the Black Black, which collects these early Girlhero strips (as well as a few from other sources) and was originally published in a limited edition 12 years…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: Race To Death Valley kicks off Fantagraphics’ latest series of vintage newspaper strips… About halfway through the [first story] arc, …Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse begins to develop the characteristics that would sustain it for decades to come: a fast pace, frequent narrow escapes, and an industrious hero who throws himself fully into every endeavor, in ways that both get him into trouble and help get him out. …Gottfredson… took the broad idea of a good-natured mouse and sketched in his own attitudes about hard work, courage, and the importance of…

Jordan Crane has posted two pages' worth of his long-simmering serial "Keeping Two" over at his webcomics site What Things Do.

On his blog, Drew Friedman posts: "My illustration for an article in the latest Billboard magazine about late night talk shows competing for musical guests, re-casting the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. Left to right: Paul (Jimmy Fallon), Ringo (George Lopez), George (David Letterman), John (Conan O'Brien)."

Jason reports on his blog that he is finishing up the lettering on "Tom Waits on the Moon," the last story to be completed for his next book Athos in America. "No, there is no Tom Waits and no moon in the story. Possibly there is a guy called Tom," he says. Dang. In an earlier post he says he's bringing the pages to Paris tomorrow for scanning — then Hubert colors them, Jason draws the cover, and that's a wrap for the art on the book!