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Hey, haven't done one of these in a while… presenting this week's free preview, a downloadable 19-page excerpt from Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes, a first-ever collection of work from the notorious Underground primitive. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. (As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up…)

More "Behind the Scenes": Part of the sheet of Jason lettering for the translations in "Pocket Full of Rain." There wasn't much to translate so Jason just wrote it all out on a single sheet of paper. A fun bit of ephemera that went along with this stray bit of text.   

Below this post, Mike Baehr announced the release of Walt Kelly's Our Gang Volume 3. The covers for this series are being drawn by the great Jeff Smith, as tributes to one of his idols. A lot goes on "behind the scenes" when producing these collections. You may note that the purple cap pictured seems just a little bit more detailed than the rest of the kids' clothes. In this case lawyers from Another Publisher had seen an advance copy of the cover and required four variations on the cap before they were satisfied that it didn't infringe on a…

Our Gang Vol. 3 By Walt Kelly Walt Kelly created dozens of Our Gang stories by the end of its 59-issue run in 1949, the year he quit comic books to switch careers a final time — as syndicated artist/writer on the immortal newspaper strip, Pogo. In Our Gang’s third volume, Kelly begins to hit his stride by relying more on original ideas than following trite MGM scripts which had lacked in charm since the departure of producer Hal Roach in 1938. Keeping alive the wit that had been absent from the film series, this volume contains eight adventures of…

Move over MAUS, PERSEPOLIS, JIMMY CORRIGAN, PALESTINE, et. al. — there's a new, epic graphic novel forthcoming in 2009 that is certain to be the toast of the tastemakers. Picture a mash-up of Gary Panter's JIMBO and John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, with a little bit of WWE Wrestling thrown in. It could only come from the pen of one man. No, not John LeCarre! Yes, that's right, can you smell what JOHNNY RYAN is cookin'? Let's just say it's gonna make 300 look like FUN HOME. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing your 2009 National Book Award Winner:     UPDATE: Oh, and…

  It seems everyone from the Seattle Times to the NY Times is singing its praises lately, so we will, too: All hail Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. If you are visiting Seattle, schedule time to visit. And I'm not just talkin' about the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Great beer, great food, great coffee, great comics, great music, great art, great buildings and more. Pictured above: a vintage Hat & Boots shot, one of Georgetown's most peculiar attractions. Below pics of the iconic Georgetown Pharmacy and of Rhea Patton in the Fanta gallery by my pal Kurt Schlosser.    

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 installment features Francesca Ghermandi, who is justly lauded in her native Italy but remains underappreciated here in North America. Hopefully that will change with her new graphic novel Grenuord, coming soon from Fantagraphics. The Wipeout One of the brightest lights in the modern Italian comics firmament, Ghermandi infuses her work with a gorgeous full-color palette of stylized graphics and a decidedly…

I enjoyed this interview with my old pal Jim Blanchard; it was one of the more nuts and bolts interviews with Jim that I've read. And plus you get to look at shit like this:  There's even scans of original art that Jim owns, from Clowes to Altergott. Oh, and that's a Billy Joe Shaver portrait by Jim, above.

  Tim Lane has a blog, and is posting a new weekly strip on it. Not familiar with Tim Lane? You will be soon. 

Join us at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday, July 12 for the lively Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack. This is a good opportunity to view our spectacular new exhibition "Now Serving Cheesecake: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-Up." A real crowd pleaser. Lots going on in Georgetown at what has become one of our region's most colorful cultural outings.