Fantagraphics Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Wandering Son Vol. 2 is a great sophomore collection from Takako; I feel like the slightly choppy nature from the early chapters in Vol. 1 is gone, and Takako’s starting to expand the cast and the plot in a way that provides more of a dramatic bite. Based on the class trip sequence in this volume, Takako’s just getting ready to make Wandering Son a lot more heavy and less idealized for the characters. If it goes anything like we see here, we’ve got a hell of a ride ahead of us. With…

A new limited-edition R. Crumb etching is now available from Wildwood Serigraphs, featuring the final panel from the story "Whiteman Meets Bigfoot" in Home Grown Funnies (collected in the currently out-of-print The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 8), completely redrawn for this edition.

As we guessed, Lost Cat will indeed be the title of Jason’s next book after Athos in America. He confirmed the title today on his blog along with this, the first panel of the story. Check out his other posts for more teaser artwork and his thoughts on various films and other subjects. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about it (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Wandering Son Vol. 2 by Shimura Takako 228-page black & white (with some color) 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $19.99presented in traditional right-to-left format; original Japanese title: 放浪息子 (Hourou Musuko)ISBN: 978-1-60699-456-6 "Well, I haven’t read the first volume yet, but everyone says that the transgender manga series Wandering Son is…

The first Online Commentary & Diversions post of the year might very well end up being the longest: • List: Humorist and television personality John Hodgman, asked to name his 5 favorite comics in an open Q&A session on his Tumblr blog, says "Love and Rockets: I don’t like to choose between brothers, but Jaime Hernandez is one of the greatest drawers of human faces and human want on the planet." • List: Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man by Carl Barks is #39 on The A.V. Club 's list of "most anticipated entertainments of 2012": "Only…

Joe Sacco traveled to India in 2010 to report on rural poverty there for a French magazine; now New Delhi-based magazine The Caravan presents the story in English for the first time. (Via The Comics Reporter, who rightly warns of the former site's unwieldy reading interface.) [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

Drew Friedman illustrated "Dave Barry's Year in Review 2011" for this past weekend's edition of the Washington Post magazine, with the cover and 8 spots (including H.R.H. Queen Rupert below) which can be seen in a slideshow on the WaPo website. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

Surprise! One more sneak peek for you today, this time from ComicsAlliance, who present 8 pages from Tony Millionaire's latest book 500 Portraits, with a panoply of cartoonists and comics-related subjects.

The last of Robot 6's trifecta of sneak peeks of our upcoming books is comprised of 5 pages from our long-awaited collection of Joost Swarte comics Is That All There Is? Thanks to the Robot 6 gang for having us participate in their anniversary festivities!

Next up in Robot 6's anniversary previews parade, Glitz-2-Go, compiling nearly 40 years of Diane Noomin's DiDi Glitz comics — the first time these underground essentials have ever been collected! Read 5 pages here.