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Eye of the Majestic Creature by Leslie Stein 128-page black & white 7.5" x 11" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-413-9 Ships in: April 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Eye of the Majestic Creature is a collection of semi-autobiographical and fantasy-based comics that combine dry humor, psychedelia, and emotion to show the viewpoint of one person’s world internally and externally. The story follows a young girl, Larrybear, and her talking acoustic guitar Marshmallow on their adventures through the countryside, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. While Larrybear struggles to connect with strangers, her friends, and her family to various degrees…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Does this make Special Exits seem like a downer? Good. It is a downer. It's also funny and touching, and gratifyingly cleareyed about the messy emotions involved in caring for aging parents. […] It's no spoiler to reveal that Special Exits doesn't have a happy ending. After all, no one gets a happy ending. But thanks to the hard work and loving care of Laura — and some heaven-sent hospice workers — her parents die more gracefully than many. And thanks to the thoughtful writing and art of Joyce Farmer, their lives and…

Relevant recent updates from the Repaneled blog, where artists reinterpret panels from other artists' comics: • Anthony Vukojevich repanels Robert Goodin's "The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung" from Mome Vol. 19 • Joseph Harper repanels Jason's The Left Bank Gang  • Steven Weissman repanels O SEGREDO DO ESPAD ÂO (Le Secret de l'Espadon); Edgar P Jacobs, 1947

Blake Bell updated his blog last weekend with a couple of bits of Bill Everett Archives news: first, a plea for help with some credits, and second, news of some rarely-seen story illustrations (such as the above) recently uncovered for inclusion in the books.

Michael Kupperman (a.k.a. @MKupperman) will follow you on Twitter for 90 days (maybe more if he likes your tweets, I guess), retweet you once, mention you in a tweet, and draw your portrait if you are a) a UK resident and b) the winner of this eBay auction benefitting the UK's great charity organization (or should I say "organisation") Comic Relief. Cor blimey, guv'nor!

We found out about this event too late to notify you about it in advance, but Drew Friedman had a book release extravaganza for his new book Sideshow Freaks from Blast Books at The Drama Book Shop in NYC last week where he was interviewed on stage by Irwin Chusid, with special guest appearances by Todd Robbins, Larry Storch, and James Taylor (not the singer) and an introduction by the one and only Joe Franklin! The whole thing was captured on video in 6 parts — part 1 is embedded above and here are part 2, part 3, part 4,…

At Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources, as part of their "Month of LGBT Comics" feature, Brian Cronin presents a sampling of 10 pages from Shimura Takako's Wandering Son Vol. 1 and reviews the book: "It is astonishing how well Shimura brings things to a slow boil, until the story is bubbling with emotion. You really feel the pain that Shuichi is going through as he deals with the fact that he is, well, you know, a she. There is a real sensitivity to this work that I found extremely appealing. Shimura really captures the awkwardness of it…

Yep, yet another way for you to follow us! In additon to Flog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. we now have a Tumblr blog. We've noticed a bit of a burgeoning community there and it seemed like it might be fun what with the "liking" and "reblogging" and whatnot, so what the heck. We're still getting into the swing of things and learning as we go (and we may yet change our design theme) but I think hopefully we're doing it right so far and we invite you to check it out and maybe follow along. (I should also note that…

As previously reported, Fantagraphics is gearing up for the 2011 MoCCA Fest in New York City, April 9-10! And not only will we be joined by Peter Bagge, Michael Kupperman, Ted Stearn, Leslie Stein, Stephen DeStefano, and Gahan Wilson, but we just added Kim Deitch, Drew Friedman, Mark Newgarden, Nate Neal, Derek Van Gieson, and Sara Edward-Corbett to our signing roster, too! More details (along with a signing schedule) to follow soon!  See you there!

Francophiles and Fantagraphics followers unite! On Saturday, March 12, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery hosts "Better Tardi Than Never: How France's Greatest Living Cartoonist Took a Mere 32 Years to Break Through to American Audiences." It examines the life's work of Jacques Tardi. Organized by Fantagraphics Books co-publisher, editor, and Tardi translator Kim Thompson, the exhibition includes pages from the artist's earliest English translations in 1977 to the present. Thompson began translating Tardi in 1983 with an excerpt from It Was the War of the Trenches in RAW #5. He became a tireless advocate of this extraordinary artist, translating and publishing…