Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Spotted by Kim Thompson, here's an item currently being offered on Amazon for $2,608.78 in worn, "acceptable" condition. What kind of rarity could demand such a price? A rare Golden Age comic? Squint below, or just click for a full-size version. Vendor names have been obscured to protect the guilty. While I'm at it, here's something else amusing I spotted last week: Cops confiscate contraband Crumb comics! Are they just now auctioning off the assets of a head shop they busted 40 years ago? (Note: I was too wary of scams & spam to actually click the link; go to…

Normally I just link these in the "daily links" post, but this entry from Robert Goodin on the Covered blog, "covering" Carl Barks, is my favorite so far. Did Rob start that blog just so that he could eventually post this and pwn all the other contributors? (Did I really just say "pwn" on Flog?) Only kidding, but I do love it so. Rob also has a delightful short story in the upcoming Vol. 15 of Mome to look forward to.

All-Clowes edition! • Review: "I found the main characters relatable enough that when more or less out of nowhere… the sci fi/psuedo-super hero elements kick in, it's a shock to the system that threw me but that I also cared about. In not that many pages, Clowes had got me invested in these kids, so no matter how bizarro the next act was, I was in for a pound… There really is some smart stuff said in the course of this narrative about human nature, growing up and power…" – Ben Morse, The Cool Kids Table, on Eightball #23 by…

Presented this week for your enjoyment: Blecky has a recipe for awesomeness in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan… That unknown menace is still menacing in this week's installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 50-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures…. And more mismanaged girlfriends, hangovers and snark in our current 5-day chunk of Martin Kellerman's hilarious Swedish smash-hit Rocky, updated Monday-Friday!

All this week and next week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 – Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box Vol. 1; a re-release of Willie & Joe: The WWII Years; The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion by Brian M. Kane; and Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch has complete, must-see coverage of Tuesday's Humbug event with (L to R above) Arnold Roth, moderator Gary Groth and Al Jaffee at the Strand Bookstore in NYC, including full audio of the talk, video clips, and more photos. Thanks Brian, and great job!

Lots of review love from The Stranger this week: • Review: "Blazing Combat… [is] packed with gloriously miserable… war stories covering everything from the battle of Thermopylae to Vietnam… all beautifully captured by comics legends like Archie Goodwin, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, and Gene Colan in appropriately murky grays… Fantagraphics has slapped together a nice, hefty… hardbound collection that's worth a read, whether you're a comic nerd, war buff, one-legged veteran, or one of those snooty I-only-read-graphic-novels types. Bombs away." – Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, The Stranger • Review: "Miss Lasko-Gross's autobiographical comics are the best in the field since [Lynda] Barry…

"Neither of us is proud of it," says New Yorker cartoonist Zachary Kanin about his comics jam with Dash Shaw, as posted on the New Yorker "Cartoon Lounge" blog.

"Poison River, a graphic novel by Gilbert Hernandez, gave me a master lesson in real writing. It was beautiful beyond words and violent and tender and heartbreaking. From that moment on, I knew what kind of writer I wanted to be. It's the great unknown novel of the 20th Century." – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), "Life-Changing Art," Baltimore Magazine We're very grateful to Diaz for his public love of Love and Rockets, and Oscar Wao is definitely recommended for L&R fans. (Crass commercialism: Poison River is available in its own volume as…