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• Review: Inkstuds preps for a chat with Jaime Hernandez at Emerald City ComiCon tomorrow by catching up on Love and Rockets: New Stories #1: "The two brothers are certainly masters of the form and this is a great example of them having fun with their work." • Review: Sean T. Collins on Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941: "…[T]his… anthology of early superhero comics is, like Paul Karasik's Fletcher Hanks collection and DC's Jack Kirby omnibuses before it, a real 'here's how it's done' moment. Entertaining, left-field subject matter; eye-pleasing design; tactile paper stock; color technique…

Andrei Molotiu, editor of our forthcoming anthology Abstract Comics, the first book to trace the history and survey the contemporary landscape of abstract sequential art, has started a blog to showcase the book and other work by some of the book's contributors. Bookmark/subscribe at abstractcomics.blogspot.com. Above: Jacob Covey's cover design for the book (updated: now in 3D!).

If you thought you'd never see a new Love and Rockets comic book again: surprise! Our 2009 Free Comic Book Day offering is a preview of this summer's second annual issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories! Official description: "This preview edition includes a sizeable chapter of the second half of Jaime's amazing super-hero romp 'Ti-Girls Adventures,' as well as Gilbert Hernandez's typically unique 'Chest Fever,' both from the upcoming Love and Rockets: New Stories #2, plus selections from #1 and a new cover by Gilbert and Jaime!" Head to the FCBD website for an exclusive sneak preview download, and…

From this week's STRANGER…

• Awards: Entrecomics reports that La educación de Hopey Glass (the Spanish edition of The Education of Hopey Glass) by Jaime Hernandez is nominated for "Mejor obra extranjera publicada en España en el 2008" ("Best foreign work published in Spain in 2008") at Saló del Còmic de Barcelona, Spain's largest comics convention (yes, we have a handful of copies of the Spanish edition for sale) • Review of the Week: Pads & Panels on Johnny Ryan's XXX Scumbag Party: "It is truly unfortunate someone saw fit to publish this abomination." • Review: Art Blog by Bob on The Wolverton Bible…

The Dinosaur Gardens blog recently posted a full set of Basil Wolverton's "The Culture Corner" strips from Whiz Comics, 1945-1952. This seems like the right time to announce that we will be publishing these strips in book form later this year! Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner is currently scheduled for November 2009 and will be a 160-page full-color hardcover. In addition to showcasing our usual stellar restoration, design and production, our edition will also contain Wolverton's original pencil versions of each strip, which have been carefully preserved over the years, and demonstrate a looser, more spontaneous interpretation of the finished strips. Monte…

 Long live COMICS! Update: Now available for pre-order!

In Portland, Vancouver & Seattle!

Or Tool, or Lynyrd Skynyrd.

• Review: The Barnes & Noble Review takes a long, loving look at Humbug: "…[Harvey] Kurtzman and his cronies served up some of the smartest satire of the time, much of it as fresh today as it was when first printed… beautifully restored… [a] wonderful production from Fantagraphics… Every page… attests to one thing: [Kurtzman's] all-American genius as writer, artist, and editor." Related: The New York Times "Paper Cuts" blog comments on the B&N review • Blurb: Earz Magazine has a short update on Esther Pearl Watson & Mark Todd, including a mench of Unlovable Vol. 1