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We just got our advance copies of Ellen Forney's Lust here at the office. Ellen picked hers up yesterday and posted this photo on her blog (Spongebob band-aid and all). Looks sharp! It'll be available in January; you can pre-order it now.

The First Post excerpts Jason's latest comic masterpiece, the graphic novella I Killed Adolf Hitler. This is one of my favorite Jason books yet, a genre-bending time travel story that is a masterpiece of economy. Jason gets in and gets out like nobody's business. No chicken fat here. Read these first ten pages and see for yourself.

A handful of photos from Friday's opening of "Charles M. Schulz: Unseen Peanuts" at the Fantagraphics Bookstore can be seen by clicking the photo below:

As the designer of Paul Karasik's "I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets" I can tell you that there were dozens of directions considered for this cover design. I share Karasik's reverence for Fletcher Hanks and this final, spare white cover design [above, left] resulted from our joint response to how Hanks' work is most succinctly communicated. At the core his style is awkward but unmistakable and carries with it a baron, iconic force. His superheroes are omnipotent and dramatically unpredictable/unknowable.

Fantagraphics manda!, originally uploaded by Besacalles. The Flickr user who won our contest to be the 1000th person to add us as a contact posted this nice photomontage of her winnings. She chose Camille Rose Garcia's The Magic Bottle and John Benson's Confessions, Romances, Secrets and Temptations. You're welcome, Besacalles!

Dear Friends, After nearly a dozen years of selling comic books for the Publisher of the World's Greatest Cartoonists, I must sadly announce that I am (voluntarily) moving on to other — non-comics — pastures. When I started at Fantagraphics back in 1996, I had no idea what to expect from the comic book world. I was a naïve young pup just looking for a publishing job. Over the years I've learned a lot from the job (mostly by trial and error) and made a lot of good friends (and a few enemies). I have spent half of my 20's…

With uncanny timing, this article in the Asia Times uses J. Wellington Wimpy as a metaphor for some sort of financial-market phenomenon that goes straight over my head. (Via Spurge.)

Popeye Vol. 2: "Well Blow Me Down!"by E.C. Segar Our second volume (of six) of the acclaimed hit series collecting the entirety of E.C. Segar's original Popeye (a.k.a. Thimble Theatre) comic strips begins with a foreword by Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and continues with an introduction by noted film and cartooning critic Donald Phelps. This second volume features work from 1930 to 1932, and most notably includes the debut of Segar's second greatest character: J. Wellington Wimpy. Wimpy stands as a one-of-a-kind icon some 70 years after his creation, the most likeable lowdown cad ever to grace the comics…

You can understand why, for a fleeting moment, I was confused about Jaime Hernandez concerning himself with my sexual life.

Just had to grab some Simpsons screencaps featuring Fantagraphics product placement: