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Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Bleeding Cool uncovers a lost all-ages Roger Langridge rarity • Here's an auction page where you can zoom in on and pan around a scan of Jaime Hernandez original art from Love and Rockets #9 • This week's Maakies? Maais oui. Tony Millionaire is still posting them on Facebook for the time being while his website is rebuilt • Read "Time Traveling" from Ganges #1 at What Things Do; also from Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond strip and a curtain-lifting homage…

We missed last week's update, through nobody's fault but my own. Sorry about that! This week we are changing our approach somewhat. Steven Weissman's Barack Hussein Obama continues as usual but instead of a one-panel teaser we're bringing you the full strip — you'll still need to click through to see it at its original size, though. Plus, starting this week we're bringing you a variety of previously unpublished, unseen or out-of-print strips and stories from some of your favorite Fantagraphics artists! On with the show: Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): — "How Much Do…

At his Cats Without Dogs blog Jason posted a page from his next all-new graphic novel, The Isle of 100,000 Graves (written by Fabien Vehlmann), to be published in France by Glenat in March 2011 and in English by Fantagraphics in May of that year.

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Rip M.D. is like the marriage of Cartoon Network and horror comics (perhaps an EC title or something from Warren Publications), because it is nonsensical and kooky like an old Scooby-Doo cartoon, but also steeped in monsters, both of the supernatural and human variety, like a pre-code horror comic book. The best thing about Rip M.D. is the lead character, Ripley Plimpt. […] This is the perfect set-up:  a curious, brave kid and a world of monsters. Hopefully, there is more to come, but our first appointment with Rip M.D. is pure fun." –…

Summer 2010 interns Ian Burns, Melissa Gray, Jamie Hibdon, Kailyn Kent, Michael Litven and Christina Texeira put together a series of discussion questions about Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius for use in book clubs. As these questions are intended for those who have read the book, please be warned that contain spoilers [We've placed any spoilers behind the jump – Ed.].

How the Story is Told

Wally Gropius is broken up into a collection of small episodes that end with punch lines. How did this affect your reading experience, i.e. your engagement with the story and feelings for the characters?

What affect does solid color instead of detailed backgrounds have on the story? Did they affect the sense of "reality" in the comic?

Do all the visual and textual puns create their own narrative, or do they just exist for humor's sake? Do they add complexity to narrative?

Compare and contrast the punning in the sound effects of Wally Gropius with how other creators use onomatopoeia. How did you respond to that?

This interview was conducted by Comics Journal editorial intern Christine Texeira and proofread by TCJ's Kristy Valenti and myself. Thanks to all! –Ed.

Christine Texeira: This catalog is a reprinting of an original DeMoulin Bros. catalog from 1930, but there were other DeMoulin Bros. catalogs and earlier catalogs from competing companies (Pettibone, etc.) — why this catalog in particular?

Charles Schneider: Catalog #439 cannot be topped. It has nearly all of the devices ever created by the company. All of the stops were pulled out and the kitchen sink was thrown in. It is the best and final edition of this sort of thing and it's likes will never be seen again. It was, as historian John Goldsmith has stated, the "Christmas wishbook" of the DeMoulin Brothers. They put the most insane and ultimately super-wackiest things in it after YEARS of MADCAP creating. This was their final bid at creating lovingly crafted, truly inventive, deliciously surreal, nasty and often diabolically cruel works of art that were both appealed to the highest and lowest of aesthetics all at once. Often decadent dandies make the most merciless pranksters.

CT: Can you define exactly what "burlesque paraphernalia" and "side-degree specialties" are?

CS: They are props, devices, gags and gadgets designed to assist fraternal orders on creating dramatic, pseudo-esoteric initiation (or hazing) dramas.

CT: Can you give us a little history of pranks and fraternal organizations?

CS: Fraternal organizations discovered that they could gain members by increasing the fun and outrageous drama of the initiation "rituals." It is fun to be part of a "secret" club. And after going through a humiliating prank initiation, it was all the more fun to anticipate a friend's face — when he goes through the same gauntlet of goats and shocks!

CT: Specifically: fraternal organizations, like the Freemasons, never took part in any of these pranks — who did? How were they affiliated to established fraternal organizations, like the Freemasons?

CS: Groups such as The Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of the Maccabees, The Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias, The Improved Order of Redmen, The Elks, the Odd Fellows were just SOME of the groups that used the DeMoulin Bros. creations. Often, men would be members of multiple groups. Some people are just "joiners," and collect membership cards like badges. The[re] might be a member of the quite serious Freemasons, as well as groups which focus more on social interaction and networking.

CT: How were masks, wigs, beards, costumes, etc. used in "side-degree" initiations vs. traditional initiations?

CS: The wigs, costumes and beards etc. were used in the initiation skits. In fact, there are suggestions given for various costumes to be worn in connection with specific devices. Such as — wearing a donkey or tramp or "yellow kid" head while leading a man to his potential spiked and electrified doom.

Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s by various artists; edited by John Benson and Greg Sadowski 320-page full-color 7.5" x 10.5" softcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-343-9 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Of the myriad genres comic books ventured into during its golden age, none was as controversial as or came at a greater cost than horror; the public outrage it incited almost destroyed the entire industry. Yet before the watchdog groups and Congress could intercede, horror books were flying off the newsstands. During its peak period (1951-54) over fifty titles appeared each month….

We're still working on our official Small Press Expo announcement with our signing schedule, debut books, etc. (stay tuned!), but the programming schedule has been posted on the SPX website and features Gary Groth, Jaime Hernandez, Drew Weing, Kevin Huizenga, Roger Langridge, Tom Kaczynski, Gabrielle Bell, Frank Santoro, Jon Vermilyea, a panel about (but not including) Daniel Clowes and much more. Also note that, unless you come to our offices or one of our Bookstore events, this is your only chance this year to catch Gary Groth & Kim Thompson in the same place at the same time.

This is a can't miss show if you have the ways & means — Right Thing the Wrong Way: The Story of Highwater Books comes to Fourth Wall Project in Boston in October, featuring Megan Kelso, Jordan Crane, Kurt Wolfgang and other alumni of Tom Devlin's fabled and influential imprint before he joined D&Q. Opening reception's October 1st, 6-9 PM. Old skool. Poster image above by Marc Bell. Someone wanna pick me up the exhibition catalog?

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "There's lots to love in the latest gleeful offering from the pen of BUST's genius cartoonist-in-residence Esther Pearl Watson. …[T]he sturdily bound, sparkly cover encloses lavish, whole-page panels that allow for lingering close-up absorption of Watson's creation, which lovingly combines gross-out comic-book camp with bittersweet teenage nostalgia. […] Bursting with late-80s pop-cultural references and buoyed by the exuberance of Watson's flamboyant heroine, Unlovable, Vol. 2 is an irresistibly hilarious, tenderly drawn treat for your inner teen." – Renate Robertson, BUST   • Coming Attractions: Robot 6's Michael May looks ahead to November: "The Littlest…