Today the floodgates of Online Commentary & Diversions have opened: • Review: "The way he turns narratives into advertisements, ends stories with some wacko randomly barging through a window, and abruptly drops gags only to pick them up and drop them again suggests that [Michael] Kupperman takes his cues from the surreality of the small screen — especially Monty Python's Flying Circus and its animated heirs on the Cartoon Network… Tales Designed to Thrizzle [Vol. 1] is a monument not only to silliness, but to craft… [T]he surreality of Monty Python becomes the surreality of Un Chien Andalou or Kafka….
New Forbidden Planet website
Our pals at Forbidden Planet NYC have launched a very nice new website that alt comix fans will enjoy, whether to scope out everything available from Fantagraphics, or to check out what just might be the most extensive zine/minicomic collection on the web since USS Catastrophe "downsized". Jason Miles and I checked out FP on our trip to BEA in June and the small press section, curated by Austin English, was truly non pareil.
Rick Altergott Vice Love
Rick Altergott fans rejoice! Rick has a brand new strip for Vice Magazine, and Nick Gazin interviews him too, saying "his work celebrates the kind of people that make your vagina curdle." See what Rick has to say about Frazetta, family, and fascinating creeps. Sample quote: "I seem to get ideas for sleazy content only, although I enjoy and appreciate all types of stories. I'm a pretty conservative person so it is weird that I have a reputation as a purveyor of gutter material."
Daily OCD: 7/15/09
A brief yet interesting installment of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Profile: "I loved comic books and, if you read enough of them, they’d give you a sort of caffeine high." – Jules Feiffer, in a lengthy conversation with NYC Graphic's Christopher Irving • Profile: Norway.com puts together the scoop on native son Jason and Low Moon • Things to see: Dylan Horrocks presents his story from Dirty Stories Vol. 2 online for your reading enjoyment (NSFW) • Things to read: A great essay by Tim Kreider for The New York Times "Happy Days" blog • Staff: New vispoems and…
Everybody Is Stupid… preview
True to their name, Previews is serving up a 6-page preview of Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me by Peter Bagge – eat it up!
Intern Escapades
Written by Jessica Lona, Gavin L., and Brittany Kusa. After a long hard day of drinking tea in the underground Fantagraphics comics library, tapping away at our keyboards transcribing conversations between famous cartoonists, we interns needed to unwind. How better to do this than by drinking booze and testing our knowledge of geeky things? We (Brittany, Gavin, Jessica, and our fearless leader, Kristy) tromped downtown to a lovely little pub to attend the Geeks Who Drink trivia night. It was tough to settle on a team name, not for lack of ideas, but because there are so many juicy possible…
Drew Friedman’s Three Stooges print
It's no secret we love a good Stooge (viz. our publication of The Six 3-Stooges biocomic, now out of print), so we're pleased to spread the word about Drew Friedman's new limited edition art print, The Three Stooges with Vernon Dent (Dent was a character actor who often played the Stooges' nemesis). A loving tribute from a true aficionado.
Now in stock: The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974, 1971-1974 Box Set / Slipcase
The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 (Vol. 12) By Charles M. Schulz TENNIS, ANYONE? BILLIE JEAN KING SERVES UP AN INTRODUCTION… AND WE CELEBRATE WOODSTOCK! The 12th volume of Peanuts features a number of tennis strips and several extended sequences involving Peppermint Patty’s friend Marcie (including a riotous, rarely seen sequence in which Marcie’s costume-making and hairstyling skills utterly spoil a skating competition for PP), so it seems only right that this volume’s introduction should be served up by Schulz’s longtime friend, tennis champion Billie Jean King. This volume also picks up on a few loose threads from the previous year, as…
NEVER ENOUGH BASIL
He endures…
Daily OCD: 7/14/09
Happy Bastille Day, France. Voici les Online Commentary et Diversions: • Review: "[Michael] Kupperman has been laffing it up for years via cartoons in the New Yorker and animation on Saturday Night Live, but his smart, droll, absurdist humor is best displayed in this compendium of the first four issues of [Tales Designed to Thrizzle]. Kupperman's wit and imagination is only heightened by the stiff, self-conscious woodcut style he often uses for art… The humor never lags in a book that is destined to be a comedy classic and is truly one of the funniest books in years." – Publishers…
