Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Usagi Yojimbo Book 5: Lone Goat and Kid (New Softcover Edition) By Stan Sakai Now in a new softcover printing with a newly-designed cover! This fifth volume collects the epic-length "Blood Wings," in which Usagi battles a fearsome clan of ninja bats, while "Lone Goat and Kid" offers a cunning and affectionate parody of the famous "Lone Wolf and Cub" manga while doubling as one of Usagi's most dramatic and heartfelt adventures. "Frost and Fire" and "The Way of the Samurai" provide the psychological drama of this volume, which is rounded out by one of the most unique Usagi tales…

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 Swedish artist Max Andersson, whose work Charles Burns describes as "my kind of fun": Pixy Alka Seltzer and Angina Pectoris have all the luck — bad, that is. They've been ejected into the street because their apartment was put to sleep, Angina had to abort their child (the result of a malfunctioning Safe-Sex bodysuit) — how could it get…

Hey Canada, happy Canada Day! Canadians (specifically, Ottawans) can spend America's big national holiday on Friday, July 4, at the opening of an exhibit of Dave Cooper's preliminary pencil sketches for his paintings of pillowy women (see Overbite and Underbelly) at Galerie La Petite Mort from 7-10 PM.

Todd DePastino, editor of WILLIE & JOE: THE WWII YEARS by Bill Mauldin, appeared on the Mr. Media podcast on BlogTalkRadio this afternoon. Listen here!    

  Blake Bell, author of STRANGE & STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO, will appear as a guest on the live Mr. Media podcast on BlogTalkRadio this week (Wednesday, July 2) at 1:00 p.m. EST. This was rescheduled from June due to a power outage that prevented the originally scheduled interview. The Mr. Media podcast will be archived online, but those listening live may call in and talk to Blake and ask that long-awaited Ditko question you've never known the answer to. Call in at (646) 595-3135. Go here for more info or to listen to the show once it airs….

For one reason or another, every once in a while one of our books will slip under the radar and go under-appreciated, or maybe it made an initial splash but has since faded from the general consciousness. For the month of July, 2008, we're highlighting some of these "hidden gems" from our back catalog and encouraging you to discover some great but obscure books by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Click here for the full selection. (Sale ends at 11:59 PM Pacific time, July 31, 2008.) We'll also be spotlighting these books with a daily feature…

The venerable Inkstuds internet radio program kicks off a month-long focus on Canadian cartoonists by interviewing Hall of Best Knowledge and Mome cartoonist Ray Fenwick.

The Daily Cross Hatch has word on "Zines of the Cities," a great-looking retrospective of Minneapolis/Saint Paul zines now on display at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts gallery (1905 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404), featuring work by Zak Sally and Mr. Mike (no relation) among many others. And the Star Clipper Blog clues us in to the Mad Magazine Exhibit, currently on display at the St. Louis Artists' Guild in Clayton, MO. It's not stated which artists are included in the exhibit (Kurtzman? Elder?) or even what era, if any, the exhibit focuses on, but admission is…

Johnny Ryan dips his bucket into the archives again and hauls up another load of early Angry Youth Comix.