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Arrived at our warehouse and ready to ship: King of the Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave By Mezzo & Pirus 64-page full-color 9" x 12.5" hardcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-320-0Add to Cart • More Info & Previews Set in a suburb that is both nowhere and everywhere, King of the Flies is a glorious bastard, combining the intricacy and subtlety of the best European graphic novels with a hyperdetailed, controlled noir style derived from the finest American cartoonists. Mezzo and Pirus, previously best known in Europe for a series of cynical, brutal gangster stories, have abandoned their guns and gals for this…

A heaping helping of Fantagraphics is due to arrive in comic shops this week. More info and your rundown of blogospheric plugs follows: High Soft Lisp (Love and Rockets Book 25) By Gilbert Hernandez 144-page black & white 6.5" x 9.75" softcover • $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-318-7 At Comics Alliance, Douglas Wolk calls it "The most riveting, chilling graphic novel I've read so far this year" and "a great, shockingly dark piece of work." At Comics Comics, Joe McCulloch describes this correctly as "the newest of Fantagraphics ‘classic’ line of tall(-ish), thin(ner) softcovers, an all-Beto book collecting short stories featuring the…

If I had 20 bucks to spare I would totally buy this new Esther Pearl Watson print from Tiny Showcase right now. Get yours before it sells out — proceeds go to the Autism Society.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • More kids-book spoofs from the dream team of Johnny Ryan & Julia Wertz • Speaking of Johnny, he uploaded this E.T.-meets-Destro drawing without explanation • Various sketch ephemera from Anders Nilsen • Renee French celebrates 2 years of daily art-blogging today and the world reaps all the reward

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Flashlight Worthy asks various comics bloggers to name some Great Graphic Novels By Women About Women: David Welsh says "[Linda] Medley's Castle Waiting is as funny and generous a mash-up of fairy tale and feminism was you could wish for. … Medley focuses on quiet moments that reveal character rather than constructed intersections of fairy-tale tropes. Her small observations about human (or mostly human) nature are always warm and potent…" • Review: Comics Comics' Joe McCulloch looks back at Paul Ollswang's out-of-print 1992 comic Doofer: Pathway to McEarth: "I’d say they don’t make ‘em…

At ComicAttack.net, Ken Meyer Jr. looks at another piece of historical Gary Groth juvenilia, the 12th issue of Fantastic Fanzine from 1970 (that's the full-color cover by Robert Kline above), saying "I hope you will be interested in all the elements that make this fanzine such a great representative of the enthusiasm, the imagination, the skills, and the fun that fueled fandom at this time." You can download the whole issue as a 62.1 MB PDF file at the link.

Publishers Weekly presents a 6-page excerpt from Jim Woodring's new graphic novel Weathercraft today! Observe as a newly-enlightened Manhog explores the Unifactor and encounters a startlingly familiar face.

Discovered in a cranny in our warehouse: Jim Vol. II #1-6 Pack by Jim Woodring six 24-page b&w/color comic books with signed plate • $20.00 UPDATE: Sold Out! It is with pride and pleasure that Fantagraphics Books presents the second "volume" of Jim, Jim Woodring's comix autojournal. Combining the best aspects of Woodring's now out-of-print Jim magazine (most of which is available in The Book of Jim) with his work in Tantalizing Stories, the new Jim was released on a regular quarterly basis in the deluxe part-color Eightball format. Woodring's work in Jim is derived primarily from his richly detailed…

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources: • Dame Darcy is selling framed original spot illustrations from Frightful Fairytales in her Etsy shop for crazy cheap (if they're not already all sold). How can you resist Zombie Jesus? • Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond keeps bubbling along with Kevin Huizenga's latest • Thank goodness Renee French is giving the teeth a rest — this guy's name is Rocky • From Hans Rickheit, page 17 of Ectopiary and another unpublished Cochlea & Eustachia strip • All those nutty Derek Van Gieson pages I've been…

Online Commentary & Diversons: • Review: "A marvel… [Supermen!] is a non-stop visual delight as much for the art as for the colors as for the audacious (sometimes by default) layouts: A way of doing comics that would soon disappear and would return only in the 1960s and 1970s with the ascent of American underground comics, for the early days of comic books were like the underground: Everything was possible, especially the impossible. You absolutely must buy this book…" – Jean-Pierre Dionnet (co-founder, Les Humanoïdes Associés; translated from French) • Review: "King of the Flies is a very surreal and…