Fantagraphics Blog

PW offers up a generous 11-page excerpt from Wilfred Santiago's upcoming graphic biography 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente, flashing back from the playing field to Clemente's Puerto Rico childhood.

No, really.  He does. Join Kim on Wednesday, March 23rd at 7:00 pm, as he presents a screening of the 1963 Jean-Luc Godard masterpiece, Contempt, at Seattle's Central Cinema. As he explains, the screening is "Part of their regular 'let a prominent Seattleite choose their favorite movie and talk it up' feature. If you've never seen Godard's Contempt, it is well worth seeing in a theatrical setting (in this case projecting from a Blu-Ray disc, which is the next best thing to a actual film), so grab your chance. If you've seen it, you probably know that it's always worth…

Dig this slideshow of Carol Tyler and the kids of Amelia High School in Cincinnati as Carol does the artist-in-residence thing in freshman English class. Here's Carol's take on her Screened-in Porch blog. Lucky kids!

I just mentioned Mome contributor Tom Kaczynski's small-press publishing concern Uncivilized Books in passing; see his wares here (from Tom and fellow artists Dan Wieken, Jon Lewis & Gabrielle Bell) and follow the Unciv blog here and even (gasp) on Twitter. (Above: Unciv mascot/spokesentity Adalbert Arcane.) Next time I see Tom at a comics fest I'm buying 'em all.

• More from the mid-aughts Arthur magazine archives: "Trauma Valley" (not to be confused with Profanity Hill) by our own Jason T. Miles and "Post-Election Funnies" from John Hankiewicz, Megan Kelso and others • Dame Darcy started a new illustration series inspired by her new Southern-Gothic surroundings; that and more in her latest blog update • The unpublished first version of Daniel Clowes's portrait of Bill Murray for GQ (shown on the Clowes blog alongside the final version) • Warren Beatty as John McCabe by Jim Blanchard • The true-life story of Bambi Bembenek as illustrated by Richard Sala for…

From Jason, an as-yet uncolored page (and a bit of behind-the-scenes info) from the 5th of 6 stories in his upcoming book Athos in America (due late this year). For past glimpes, search Flog for "Athos".

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Though the episodic flow and gung-ho patriotism of the strips are simplistic in both content and conception, the depth they lack is greatly made up for by the vast, epic compositions that contain Crane’s spring-coiled bigfoot cartooning, the explosive you-are-there immediacy of his dogfights and shootouts, and the sensuous intensity of form and shape he brings to gorgeous women and vehicles of war alike. […] Crane worked in broad strokes, which is what made him a great cartoonist; but in Buz Sawyer he also sometimes discovers quieter places, ones truly worthy of the…

Following their vinyl figurines of music/literary visionaries Bob Moog, Raymond Scott, and Allen Ginsberg, all of which were designed by Archer Prewitt, the good people at Presspop have pressed Prewitt into service again for a new figurine of dub inventor Lee "Scratch" Perry, coming this summer! Above, Archer's concept art (final product subject to change).

The Comics Journal is proud to announce the relaunch of TCJ.com with new editorial oversight. Redesigned, reorganized, with an incredible lineup of new contributors — it's pretty amazing. Read a welcome message from new editors Dan Nadel and Tim Hodler (formerly of Comics Comics) here; our press release is here. There's a lot to see already.