Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. (We're also seeing reports that Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #9 may be showing up in some comic shops in the East & Midwest, though it's not on this week's list.) See more about each book at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Safe Area Gorazde: The Special Edition by Joe Sacco 272-page black & white 7.75" x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-396-5 "Joe Sacco's acclaimed and award-winning comic journalism about the Bosnian war gets Fantagraphics' gorgeous, special edition treatment." – Benn Ray (Atomic…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview: At Torontoist, Courtney Clinton talks to Lorenzo Mattotti about The Raven and other topics in advance of his visit to the city for TCAF: "For me, it comes naturally to portray solitary characters. In the end we are all alone and at a certain point we have to confront this idea. Solitude can also be an inability to communicate with others. It’s probably something I as an artist feel more than most, even if I try to fight these feelings. On a positive note, in a moment of concentration solitude can help us…

The Batgirl, Heck Yeah! blog strikes again with this 2002 sketch of "the original Bat-Girl" by Gilbert Hernandez. These are all from the personal collection of Rico Renzi, who saw our post of Jaime's sketch earlier today and rushed to add Gilbert's this evening. Thanks Rico!

Maggie Chascarillo (somewhat embarrassedly, it seems) dons (or doffs?) the Batgirl costume in this 2006 convention sketch by Jaime Hernandez recently posted on the Batgirl, Heck Yeah! Tumblr. UPDATED: Hey, there's one by Steven Weissman too!

St. Louis! Are you ready for a calvacade of whimsy and wonder?! Tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 20th, The Magic Dwindler, Esq. (aka Tim Lane!) kicks off a monthly series at Subterranean Books entitled The Whirling Gypsy Comicarouselesque Revue & Burlesque. As he explains on his blog, it's "loosely based on traditional carousel comic performances, but are also meant to facilitate explorations and experimentation in inventive ways of bringing comics – or I should say pictures and words – into the realm of performance." The Whirling Gypsy… will whirl every third Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at Subterranean [6275…

 Today's Online Commentary & Diversions, continued: • List: In light of the impending end of the anthology, Robot 6's Chris Mautner names "The six best stories in Mome" (to date… there's one issue yet to go) • Review: "Hernandez of Love and Rockets continues his obsessive study of faux Z-movies featuring L&R character Fritz, a lisping, freakishly large-chested post-ingenue. This latest offering [Love from the Shadows] is imaginatively staged, beautifully drawn and deftly dialogued, with odd discordant undertones and psychosexual notes that include incest and insanity." – Richard Pachter, The Miami Herald • Review: "More stoner/fantasy silliness from Daly. There…

An unexpected technical glitch has necessitated the splitting of today's Online Commentary & Diversions in twain, so part 2 follows immediately: • Review: "Fantagraphics Books rolls on with their hardcover library collection The Complete Peanuts, with the latest installment spotlighting 1979 and 1980. […] In Charlie Brown, one sees a character with life still left ahead of him, so the myriad indignities he suffers are tempered by the thought that things could only get better. Had it been an adult character, the question would have been, 'Why hasn’t this guy drank himself to death by now?' …[T]he Complete Peanuts collection…

The Strand, who are obsessive about documenting all their events on video, bless 'em, have posted numerous clips from their pre-MoCCA "Strandicon" spate of comics-related panels and presentations, including The Comics Journal panel with (L-R above) Dan Nadel & Tim Hodler of TCJ.com, TCJ executive editor/Fantagraphics honcho Gary Groth, and token artist Kim Deitch. The Beat has already done all the heavy lifting of compiling and embedding the clips into a single blog post, so we'll throw it over there for all your viewing enjoyment.

Well here's some wonderful news, as reported by The Comics Reporter: the great Stan Sakai has received the 2011 Cultural Ambassador Award by the Japanese American National Museum. The news release is here, and on Facebook Stan says (with typical understatement) "Senator Dan Inouye was seated at the table next to ours. He is third in line for the presidency, so secret service was around. Food was excellent." Congratulations and well deserved, Stan! (By the way, this year's Stumptown Comics Fest is barely over but Stan has already been lined up as a special guest for 2012!)

On his Here Lies Richard Sala blog, Richard Sala posted this drool-inducing photo of original pages for his forthcoming graphic novel The Hidden, along with an update on the status of the book, which is now complete and undergoing production. He also points out an eerie incidence of life imitating comics, which, if you know his work, is rather ominous.