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Gary Groth just emailed me some copy regarding the forthcoming 300th issue of The Comics Journal and I simply want to run it verbatim, because it sounds pretty damn great:  We paired established, influential creators with rising stars and asked them to talk about the changes the comics medium has been going through during the eventful 33 years of the Journal's existence. Among the intergenerational dialogues to be overheard: alt wiz Kevin Huizenga and reigning Maus king Art Spiegelman; the most convention-shattering cartoonist/publishers of their respective hemispheres Kramers Ergot's Sammy Harkham and L'Association's Jean-Christophe Menu; celebrated Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons and award-winning…

 "COMICS SAVANTS" EXHIBITION OPENING AUGUST 8 — FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY CELEBRATES SEATTLE ALTERNATIVE CARTOONISTS July 29, 2009 – SEATTLE, WA. Since relocating to Seattle from Southern California 20 years ago, Fantagraphics Books has remained committed to nurturing and promoting the diverse practitioners of alternative comics in the Northwest. The country's most successful purveyor of challenging comics routinely employs local cartoonists and publishes the work of regional artists which has contributed to Seattle's international reputation as the unrivaled center of alternative comics. To celebrate this association, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents "Comics Savants: A Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" opening…

Here's today's batch of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Comic-Con: More on the big show from Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch & The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon • Comic-Con: We love you too, Tom • Comic-Con: Looks like Kelly Kilmer scored a bunch of great stuff at our booth on Sunday  • Review: "The first four issues of Michael Kupperman's awesome comedy comics zine Tales Designed to Thrizzle have been collected into a single hardcover volume that is a superdense wad of funny, surreal, bent humor… This is weird, funny, Subgenius-esque toilet reading that will keep you very…

I've seen a few bloggers link to my comicon post yesterday and say it's a huge red flag for the future of indie comics at the con. Re-reading my post, it probably sounds more dire than it could have. We actually had a pretty successful show. Not our best ever, but a solid one. I think last year was our most successful ever, and you simply can't repeat that every year. I had been steeling myself in advance for a major downturn this year given the economy and it simply didn't happen. We saw a minor dip, and although the economy likely played a…

Another big Fanta week at comic shops! Look for the following titles on the shelves of your preferred emporium: The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 (Vol. 12) by Charles M. Schulz The Complete Peanuts 1971-1974 Box Set by Charles M. Schulz The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 9 by Robert Crumb Mome Vol. 15 – Summer 2009 Skin Deep (New Softcover Edition) by Charles Burns We always recommend contacting your local shop to confirm availability, and hit our handy links up there to get more info on each title. Happy Wednesday hunting.

More Online Commentary & Diversions from yesterday, today and last week — and thus we are caught up: • Review: Comicdom reviews Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 by Michael Kupperman in Greek; Google attempts to translate • Plug: Certain Fantagraphics employees will be excited to learn that Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh is a fan of Daniel Clowes and Eightball, as revealed in Brian Heater's interview at The Daily Cross Hatch • Plug: "You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!, the second and final collection of Fletcher Hanks’ Golden Age superhero and adventure comics work, …is a…

Ace Hal Foster biographer Brian M. Kane (author of the forthcoming Definitive Prince Valiant Companion from Fantagraphics) just pointed out a fascinating fact to us: The Syndicate color proofs that we are using for the first time for our brand new edition of Prince Valiant have yielded at least one instance of a page that was originally toned down (presumably by the Syndicate) and has, in the 71 years since then, never been printed in Foster's original, unexpurgated, slightly more bloodthirsty version! Compare and contrast these two versions of page 50: While panel 3 is essentially the same in terms…

Every year when much of the staff heads down to San Diego, there are always a few poor souls who have to stay behind and (theoretically) hold down the fort, answer phones, get books out the door to printers, etc. But how much work really gets done? This year we installed hidden cameras and decided to monitor the emails of those who stuck around. It's not pretty: If you see a sudden surge in sloppily produced books from Fanta in about three months, you'll know it was because the entire art dept (including Adam Grano, above) worked drunk during Comicon…

Between Mike Baehr's excellent tweeting all weekend, and Mike and Jason Miles' most excellent collection of photos from the weekend (which I'm sure you'll be seeing as the week unfolds), I don't feel compelled to write a proper con "report" but I do have a few observations. Although we had a good show and I personally had a pretty good time, this was the first year I felt the weight of Hollywood's cult of celebrity encroaching not only on the exhibit hall but also the sales of at least the independent publisher area we inhabited. The pre-show hype of advance…

Oh boy, let's start our post-Comic-Con Online Commentary & Diversions catch-up: • Comic-Con: Coverage of our con announcements and happenings from Douglas Wolk for Rolling Stone, Paul Constant at The Stranger, and Chris Mautner of Robot 6 • Review: "…Jason elevates his skewering of filmic genres to a whole new level in his latest collection, Low Moon, which sees his unique takes on film noir, westerns and screwball comedy.  All of the tales are informed by his signature clean lines, bright colors, sparse dialogue and taste for a particularly brutal brand of slapstick humor and occasional moments of dark, incisive…