Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Otto Messmer

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Today's spotlight features a great collection of classic comics starring an all-time beloved cartoon character, as drawn by his original creator, Otto Messmer. Nine Lives to Live: A Classic Felix Celebration Best known as an animated cartoon character, Felix the Cat has also had a tremendously successful run in his own newspaper comic strip. Now, gathered here is a generous sampling of…

Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Matthias Lehmann

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Today we're featuring another recent award nominee (Best U.S. Edition of International Material, 2007 Eisners) that we want to put back in the spotlight: the mind-bending debut from French artist Matthias Lehmann. Hwy. 115 A road movie featuring two detectives, René and Agatha, on the tracks of Robert Illot, a.k.a. "The Heimlich Killer," a serial killer whose modus operandi is to suffocate…

Blogosphere roundup for 7/18/08

No update next week due to Comic-Con, but the next one will be a two-fer. In this week's web reviews: • The Stranger weighs in on Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button • Sean T. Collins looks at Mome Vol. 11 • The Toronto Star, Newsarama, Javier Hernandez, ComicMix and Maclean's on Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell – see this previous Flog post for even more recent links related to this book • On the NPR website, Laurel Maury looks at Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin; The Miami Herald also takes…

Chocolate Cheeks for 7/18/08

Steven Weissman brings us something new! Starting today and running each week through late February/early March 2009 we'll be bringing you in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story begins right here! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Sneak peek video & photos: Abandoned Cars

Our week of video and photo teasers of upcoming releases continues to continue with Abandoned Cars, the debut collection from the young and scarily talented Tim Lane (whom you can meet at Comic-Con!). Watch the video above, and take a closer look in our photo gallery. Finale on Monday!

Avoid the Hyatt.

If you're attending Comic-Con next week and looking for a place to drink, fuck the Hyatt. There are about 1700 better, cheaper places to drink in downtown San Diego, anyway. I liked Tom Spurgeon's take on this controversy this morning. Oh, and if you live in Oklahoma, please don't vote for this asswipe. If so, you'll be supporting lousy cartooning on top of bigotry.