Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Due to holidays, vacations and conventions, our webcomics posting schedule is a little goofed up these next few weeks; our apologies. Blecky surfs the social networks in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan… It's the big, shocking reveal in this week's installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 51-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures…. And this week's Mon.-Fri. batch of Martin Kellerman's Rocky includes advice on dealing with a partner's intimacy-killing habits… and a birth!

Paul Karasik poses with his two "sons," the Fletcher Hanks collections I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! and what looks like an unbound proof of the forthcoming You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (debuting at MoCCA 2009). Proud papa.

Let's catch up on our Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Monologues [for Calculating the Density of Black Holes is] spare and scratchy where [Anders Nilsen's] other work was detailed; loose and spontaneous where his other work was considered; and funny where his other work was melancholy. It's interesting to see the many influences that inform Monologues; there's a bit of absurdists like Ionesco, elements of Tom Stoppard's wit and philosophical musings, stream of consciousness dada in the style of Tristan Tzara, and oblique New Yorker type gags with the scratchy looseness of James Thurber and Saul Steinberg." – Rob…

What a Christmas gift it is.

Find out more at BEA. 

Not only will Dame Darcy be appearing at our table at MoCCA, she's got a group art show, a lecture, a doll-crafting workshop, and several musical performances (including on the vaunted WFMU) out on the East Coast (mostly NYC) all throughout the month of June. Check the Dame's blog for the full schedule.

ERIC REYNOLDS

JIM BLANCHARD 

No Online Commentary & Diversions tomorrow if I can help it: I'm taking the day off! • Awards: Congratulations to Mome contributor Eleanor Davis for being nominated for this year's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer award (given out at the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic Con International) for her excellent Toon Books release Stinky! • Review: "The biggest surprise might be how good these stories are, even if they failed to take off in the way that, say, Superman did… [T]he Notes section at the end, written by editor Greg Sadowski, …is truly fantastic… His studious efforts are worth the…

Fantagraphics is on it's way to the Big Apple next week for Book Expo America 2009 (Stand #3422 in the W.W. Norton "pavilion") and we're bringing in tow a slew of previews of new Fall titles as well as hosting several signings:  KIM DEITCH (signing Friday from 2-3:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 7) MICHAEL KUPPERMAN (signing Friday from 12-1:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 8) DASH SHAW (signing Friday from 1-2:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 25) MONTE SCHULZ (signing Saturday from 2:30-3:00 in autograph area…