Fantagraphics Blog

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. (Please note we have several additional explanatory notes below as well!) The Frank Book (New Softcover Edition) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $34.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-500-6 The Frank Book (New Hardcover Printing) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.75" x 11.25" hardcover • $45.00ISBN:…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Feature: At Maclean's, Jaime Weinman gets to the bottom of Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: Through the Wild Blue Wonder, talking to co-editor Kim Thompson and calling the volume "the first book that gives a full sense of what it was like to read Kelly’s pioneering strip from the beginning. The first volume goes up to 1950, when Kelly began to incorporate more pointed humour…; the McCarthy character hasn’t shown up yet, but allegories about Communist witch-hunting already pop up. But the darker daily strips alternate with cheerful Sunday…

  So, a year or two ago, Tony Millionaire  tells us, "I've have over 500 portraits of people on my computer. Let's make a book!" We say, "Sure!" (Because this is what you do when Tony Millionaire says, "Let's Make a Book!")  We schedule the book for the end of 2011, and this spring we start to have a conversation about it between myself, Tony and Jacob Covey (designer and co-editor). Tony sends us about 500 files that he's pulled from his hard drive. Jacob and I start going through them. We soon discover that this book is going to be…

We're excited to announce that acclaimed Spanish cartoonist Max has a retrospective exhibition opening in Mexico this November! Panóptica will feature his work from 1973-2011, telling the story of the artist born as Francesc Capdevila, from his beginnings in the underground scene of Barcelona in the ’70s, to his work on El Víbora (The Viper) in the ’80s, to now!  The exhibit features 120 original pieces, including posters, childrens books, magazine illustrations, and more. Panóptica was previously shown at the MuVIM in Valencia, and will be moving to the Centro Cultural de España [ Guatemala, 18 col. Centro Histórico, Ciudad…

  Last week, Philip Nel  — my co-editor on our forthcoming Barnaby series , announced that his long-awaited bio of Barnaby (and Harold and the Purple Crayon) creator Crockett Johnson and his wife Ruth Krauss (the towering figure of children's lit responsible for such classics as The Carrot Seed, A Hole is to Dig, I Can Fly and so many others) finally has a title.  Nel's bio of Johnson & Krauss will be published next June by the University Press of Mississippi , and we're aiming to release our own Barnaby Vol. 1 simultaneously. It's going to be a great summer for Johnson fans. 

This drawing of Wonder Woman by Gilbert Hernandez is on eBay now for the benefit auctions for 2011 Women of Wonder Day (formerly known as Wonder Woman Day), the annual charity event that raises money and awareness for (anti-) domestic violence programs, taking place on October 30 this year. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots of new Things to See every day.]

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review/Interview: "Leslie Stein is a pretty lady who made a comic [Eye of the Majestic Creature] in which she is a cute/gross little humanoid with eyes that are like coins and a best friend who is a guitar. Her comical alter ego is named Larry Bear and her guitar's name is Marshy. They live in a house in a field, but it's pretty clear that almost everything they experience is some joked-up fantasized autobiographical story. It's hard to know what's based on reality and what isn't, and which characters are based on real folks…

Okay, so Joost Swarte threw me one last curve ball with this wordplay-heavy sequence. [click for larger version] The lady is complaining that the fall has broken her just-purchased "ballen" (round Christmas tree ornaments) and her "piek" (an ornament for the top of the tree), but both words have a sexual connotation ("balls" and "dick" if you will), resulting in a Beavis and Butt-head huh-huh-huh effect. "Balls" works easily in either language, but the "piek" follow-up stumped me for days (not least because I had to ask Joost to explain it, which he did). And then I figured it out….

Trina Robbins talks Nell Brinkley from Gavin Lees on Vimeo. If you happened to miss the delightful and informative slideshow talk the wonderful Trina Robbins gave about the great Nell Brinkley at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery back on October 8 (for instance, if you were at the Art Spiegelman talk that happened at the same time, or if you don't live nearby), never fear, our good friend and The Comics Journal contributor Gavin Lees captured it on video — watch above or over at his website Graphic Eye.

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson debuts in comic shops this week (looks like the Vol. 1-2 slipcase set will be arriving separately later) and PREVIEWSworld has a sneak peek with 2 pages of strips and 3 pages from the supplemental materials!