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The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book By Joe Daly Set in sun-drenched Cape Town, South Africa, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book — featuring two full-length stories, “The Leaking Cello Case” and “John Wesley Harding” — is stuffed to the gills with mystery, suspense, action, adventure, conspiracy theories, cool cars, and excellent weed as Dave and his freeloading pal Paul, well-meaning stoners in the tradition of Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar, thwart criminal malfeasance even as they ponder the larger questions, such as, “What steps can I personally take to help protect the Earth and the species that…

Prison Pit: Book 1 By Johnny Ryan Prison Pit is an original graphic novel from the pen of Johnny Ryan, best known for his humor comic, Angry Youth Comix. Prison Pit represents a marked departure from AYC or his Blecky Yuckerella weekly comic strip, combining his love for WWE wrestling, Gary Panter’s “Jimbo” comics, and Kentaro Miura’s “Berserk” Manga into a brutal showcase of violence, survival and revenge. Imagine a blend of old-fashioned role playing fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons crossed with contemporary adult video games like Grand Theft Auto, filtered through Ryan’s sense of humor. The book begins…

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 By the Hernandez Brothers The Hernandez Brothers are back with the second eye-popping volume of Love and Rockets: New Stories, your annual 100-page dollop of all-new L&R material. In the concluding 50-page half of Jaime’s outrageous, acclaimed, full-on superhero mash-up “Ti-Girls Adventures,” our protagonist, rookie do-gooder Boot Angel, learns more hard lessons about becoming a superheroine. Eventually, just about the entire cast gets together in a big family reunion that unexpectedly takes place in Maggie’s tiny, messy one-bedroom apartment. Sandwiched between the concluding chapters of Jaime's story, Gilbert turns in two mind-benders of his…

Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life By Bruce Paley & Carol Swain A UNIQUE TAKE ON THE SUMMER OF LOVE GENERATION, THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ACCLAIMED GRAPHIC NOVELIST AND HER PARTNER, WHO LIVED IT Bruce Paley turned 18 in 1967 during the Summer of Love, putting him on the front lines of the late-1960s youth movement. Paley’s tumultuous journey took him from being a Jack Kerouac-loving hippie in the 1960s, on the road with his 17-year-old girlfriend, dropping acid at Disneyland, living in a car, and crashing with armed Black Panthers at the infamous 1968 Democratic…

We received the list of our nominees for this year's Ignatz Awards. It's a good lookin' list, and we're especially proud to have staffer Jason T. Miles nominated for Outstanding Comic! As is traditional, we've put all of our nominated titles on sale — 15% off for a limited time! Click here to browse & buy. Recipients of the brick will be announced at SPX on September 26. For all the nominees, head to the SPX website for the official announcement.   Outstanding Artist Tim Hensley, Mome (Fantagraphics), Kramer's Ergot #7 (Buenaventura) Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics/Coconino) Josh Simmons, Mome (Fantagraphics)…

A new week brings an avalanche of new Online Commentary & Diversions: • Profile: For the Philadelphia Inquirer, Tirdad Derakhshani looks at the past, present, and future of Prince Valiant: "The release Tuesday of Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938, the first in a new series of gorgeously printed, hardcover Valiant collections from Fantagraphics Books, served as a bittersweet reminder of the century-long rise and eventual decline of a great American art form, the comic strip." • Review: "…Al [Columbia] decided to dredge up old ghosts, unfinished pieces, trifles he had thrown away then reconsidered and offered them up to us…

Hans Rickheit drew this advertisement for The Squirrel Machine which appears in the new issue of The Comics Journal and posted it on his blog. Now I can re-post it here and plug 2 things at once!

Johnny Ryan takes a bath in haterade. See the whole thing here.

If you've been trying to hunt down the early, out-of-print issues of Dame Darcy's Meat Cake, they'll soon be available as self-published individual issues and the 3-issue compilation pictured above. More info and ordering links are on Dame Darcy's blog.

  Presently the only way to get a cool Fletcher Hanks coloring book (with a swell cover by Charles Burns) is to either order "You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!" via Fantagraphics OR get a copy by showing up at one of Paul Karasik's signings. At these signing Paul will be presenting "The Fletcher Hanks Experience," an illustrated tour over the brutally surreal Hanks landscape narrated by Fletcher Hanks, Jr. August 26, 7:30: Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Tisbury, MASeptember 3, 5:00: West Tisbury Library, West Tisbury, MASeptember 16, 7:00 The Strand Bookstore, NYC, NYSeptember 27 SPX, Small Press Expo, Bethesda, MDOctober 18 7:00: Politics and…