Fantagraphics Blog

Drew Friedman's heavenly new portrait of Swedish wrestler-turned-thespian Tor Johnson is now available as a limited-edition fine art print from Drew Friedman Fine Art Prints. Who wouldn't want Tor's floating head decorating their home? No one worth knowing, that's who. In a few months you'll also be able to find this image on the back cover of the new edition of Drew's first comics collection (co-written by his brother Josh) Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental, coming this Spring!

This portait of Lou Reed by Tony Millionaire, included in 500 Portraits, is also part of Tony’s “Yuletide Gallery” of original artwork for sale. Why not treat that special someone (and/or yourself) to some lovely Tony artwork for the holidays? If you have a spare twelve-hundred bucks laying around, you're welcome to get me that Yoda piece.

Pogo: Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips – Through the Wild Blue Wonder by Walt Kelly is officially released in comic shops this Wednesday, Nov. 23! See this and 4 more sneak-peek pages at PREVIEWSworld.

One question we are asked occasionally (but not often enough) is "What's Rick Altergott up to these days?" Well he's serializing a new comic, "Miss Juniper's Dating Disasters," at VICE and here's the freshly-posted Part 2. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

Join Michael Kupperman tomorrow night, Tuesday, November 22nd, for the second installment of his new monthly comedy series The Crime Stoppers Club, a collaboration with Kate Beaton! This month, they welcome special guests Lauren Weinstein, Bridey Elliott, Lizz Hickey and Russell Christian for a night of hilarious abandon and storytelling at Luca Lounge [ 222 Avenue B, NYC ]. Fight crime with The Crime Stoppers Club every month in New York City — you can follow them here on Facebook!

Mmmm! Cheese biscuits and Love & Rockets sure go great together, as a buncha folks found out this past weekend in Charlotte, NC!  Our friends at the comic shop Heroes Aren't Hard to Find hosted a discussion group for The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. — concentrating on Death of Speedy and Flies on the Ceiling — and it looks like it was a ton of fun! See what I mean??? And, hey, there's cartoonist Dustin Harbin back there in the stripes! Nice to see a book from the original collection was brought out for the discussion! Hi to you, too, Maggie!…

This sketchbook portrait of Carl Barks by Paul Hornschemeier is the most recent entry on Paul's sketch blog The Daily Forlorn. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Scene: At Examiner.com, Christian Lipski reports from the Oil and Water book release with Steve Duin, Shannon Wheeler, Mike Rosen and Tom Orzechowski at Bridge City Comics in Portland last Wednesday: "Wheeler described the give-and-take nature of his meetings with Duin, during which they would talk about the best way to illustrate the author's script. 'I'd push for certain things, and Steve would push back,' said the artist. 'Sometimes he'd want something more subtle and I'd think it would need to be more over-the-top, or the other way around. We had good discussions.'"   True…

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web: — Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): And elsewhere: The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE: Amazing Facts… and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga: Forming by Jesse Moynihan: Humblug by Arnold Roth (2 new strips this week): Maakies by Tony Millionaire: Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim (scroll up and down at the link for additional updates): What's in the Backpack by Victor Kerlow:

Bid on this original art by Stephen DeStefano for the cover of a Dutch Mickey Mouse comic — proceeds go to benefit Suz Strick, who suffers from endometriosis. (You can see some more of Stephen's Mickey artwork in the back matter of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island.)