Fantagraphics Blog

We can't embed it here but head over to Facebook to check out the teaser for the in-progress documentary Comics Are Everywhere! featuring interview footage with Daniel Clowes, Esther Pearl Watson and Jaime Hernandez, plus lots of footage of our booth at last year's Comic-Con in San Diego.

Esperanza: A Love and Rockets Book(Love and Rockets Library: "Locas" Book 5) by Jaime Hernandez 248-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-449-8 Ships in: July 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Esperanza, the fifth volume of “Locas” stories by Jaime Hernandez, collects the remainder of the stories from the acclaimed Love and Rockets Volume II, picking up where 2010’s Penny Century collection left off. Taking its title from Hopey Glass's birth name, Esperanza follows the somewhat settled-down ex-punkette in her new life as a schoolteacher's assistant — which doesn't mean that her romantic travails have…

• Surely you're already following Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog where he posts artwork old and new (like his 1989 Elvis Costello illustration above), as well as concise and often very funny film reviews; now he's also posting his juvenilia at The Old Cat and the Dog where you can see his teenage takes on the Punisher, Lucky Luke, the Silver Surfer, Spidey etc. • Richard Sala gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the cover artwork for The Grave Robber's Daughter and posts a bunch of fantastic full-color concept art for as-yet unrealized story ideas • Leslie…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Like last year’s Weathercraft, Congress [of the Animals] is an all-original book-length tale of goings-on around Woodring’s distinctive universe, a kind of fussily malevolent Eden…. Frank is no longer simply the prototypical funny-animal; he has now become the everyman, too. It is in this capacity that we root for the rascal: his struggles against the workaday world are our own, as are his temptations, his trials, his longing for home and for some kind of domestic bliss." – Sean Rogers, The Comics Journal

Bounce on over to TCJ.com for another exclusive preview of The Comics Journal #301: an excerpt from the conversation between Thrizzler Michael Kupperman and MADman Al Jaffee!

* Other People's Publications** Yeah, You Know Me. Is it a cheat to spotlight Life with Mr. Dangerous by Paul Hornschemeier? I mean, technically, the book was released last month by Random House/Villard, but we did serialize it first in Mome. Obviously, I think it still counts, as there's something different about reading Life with Mr. Dangerous collected in this stylish hard-bound edition. Without the stops-and-starts of serialization, I found myself far more immersed in the world of Amy Breis, a lonely 26-year-old stuck in a dead-end job, living alone with her cat, and obsessed with the TV show "Mr….

Ran out of time on Friday's Online Commentary & Diversions, so it's combined with links from the weekend: • Review: "Now Fantagraphics has risen to the fore with [Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1:] Race to Death Valley… It’s a pretty spiffy package, sharply designed and full of smart, well-written essays that provide a rich portrait of the artist and his times, as well as some great comics…. As impressive as Gottfredson's work is, it's in the ancillary materials or 'special features' that makes this book really shine. Editors Gary Groth and David Gerstein have gone the extra mile here……

In this third installment of Rain Taxi's videos from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis last weekend, "Jim Woodring takes the giant nib off his 7-foot pen to ink in the details of his drawing as the audience (and assistant Zak Sally) regales him with jokes."

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: Amazing Facts… and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Maakies by Tony Millionaire: Truth Serum by Jon Adams: Underworld by Kaz & co. (click for animated strip):

Spanish cartoonist Jose Tomás (who's also responsible for this homage to Johnny Ryan) barrages Peter Bagge with some dumb questions about music and lettuce, mostly.