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Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is pleased to host an exhibition and publication party for NEWAVE! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s on Saturday, January 30 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. This event promises to be both entertaining and enlightening. The public is invited to join us for this festive reunion of influential independent cartoonists. Self published mini comics in the 1970s and 1980s were the direct descendants of the Underground Comix movement of the 1960s hippie era. Early practitioners photocopied, stapled and distributed their miniature zines at comic book conventions and emerging comic book specialty shops. The immediacy and…

    I spotted a comics-related cameo while watching Pedro Almodóvar's hilarious Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown last night. Look! It's Bucky's friend! Captain America! Please also note the Almodóvar-esque photograph. Snort!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Hotwire Comics Vol. 3 By various artists; edited by Glenn Head The Harvey and Eisner nominated anthology of action, thrills, chills and trangression is back with a third volume! Anything goes in Hotwire, eschewing literary high-mindedness for a pure, gut-wrenching viscerality that you can tune in and rest your brain on after a long day. Hotwire the third leaps off the page from the get-go with David Sandlin’s “Infernal Combustion,” about boozing it up in a broke-down caddy, and Tim Lane’s bit of freight-hopping grit, “Spike.” Underground comics legend Mary Fleener…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1961-1962 (Vol. 6) By Hank Ketcham Dennis vaults into the 1960s with his anarchic spirit still intact. As always, this book is a series of unrelated panel gags (with the exception of one week-long story involving Dennis’s mild-mannered grandpa), but what gags! Hank Ketcham is legendary for being one of the most exquisitely skilled cartoonists of all time, and each and every panel is a small masterpiece of design and draftsmanship. Dennis the Menace 1961-1962 features Dennis’s long-suffering parents, the Wilsons, his dog Ruff, his…

Brief Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Publishers Weekly names It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi, Weathercraft by Jim Woodring, and Nancy is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942-1945 by Ernie Bushmiller to be among "The Big Graphic Novels of 2010" • Reviewer: At Comics Comics, our own Jason T. Miles geeks out over Steve Ditko • Things to see: At What Things Do, the second installment of Steven Weissman's "This Already Happened" • Things to see: Hey Richard Sala completists, you've got a hammerhead shark toy to track down… that is so rad I can't even stand…

On the new episode of The Sound of Young America podcast, host Jesse Thorn talks to the great Gahan Wilson. Listen with the embedded player below or at the link above.

Paul Hornschemeier has posted a handful of panels from Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1, coming in November, over at his blog. Urine pants ahoy.

This Great Show includes some of the best and boldest talents working in comix today. Here's a chance to see original art work by Glenn Head, Danny Hellman, Mark Dean Veca, David Sandlin, Tim Lane, Jayr Pulga, Chadwick Whitehead, Sam Henderson, Mary Fleener, Rick Altergott, R. Sikoryak, and Mats!?…. Many of these exciting artists will be on hand to meet you, discuss their work, and their insights into the comics scene. HOTWIRE's contributors have graced the pages of the very best comix anthologies — such as RAW, R. Crumb's WEIRDO, SNAKE EYES, DRAWN AND QUARTERLY, as well as mainstream publications…

You read that right! Following the Chocolate Cheeks book release/exhibit opening at Floating World in Portland on Feb. 4, Steven Weissman will be trundling up to Seattle for a signing wingding at our flagship Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, Feb. 6, and it looks like he'll be bringing some artwork & prints & such with him for selling. We'll probably be making a more formal announcement as the date draws nearer, but mark your calendars now!

We hear the event was gangbusters! Here's Gahan signing a copy of the Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons collection. Strand TV footage will be up on the Strand's YouTube page in the next week, so we'll be sure to bring you that when it's available. Photo by Christina Foxley, courtesy the Strand — click for a larger version.