Fantagraphics Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Robot 6's Chris Mautner names "The six most criminally ignored books of 2010," including: "1) Captain Easy Vol. 1 by Roy Crane. …I consider this to be one of the big publishing events of 2010. […] The Sunday pages in this book are full of high energy, action and slapstick." "4) High Soft Lisp by Gilbert Hernandez. […] Those who feel that Hernandez’s work relies too much on female objectification and fetishization need to read this book to understand how self-aware he is of that fact and its real-world consequences." • List (Audio):…

Coming up on The Comics Journal website: The Bob Haney interview concludes as the longtime DC writer talks about the failure of cartoonists to unionize, The Brave and the Bold and collaborating with Ramona Fradon on Metamorpho. Also: Reviews of Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter Thompson, Marvel's Strange Tales Vol. II and Pablo Holmberg's Eden. And check out The Panelists , a new blog merging the brainy best of Jared Gardner's Guttergeek and Craig Fischer and Charles Hatfield's Thought Balloonists. Image from Gonzo ©2010 SelfMadeHero

At his News and/or Head Lice blog, Paul Hornschemeier posted photos of the installation in-progress of the New Chicago Comics exhibit opening this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Top: Paul & MCA curator Michael Green. Above: Anders Nilsen, Lilli Carré & Green. Not pictured: Jeffrey Brown.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: At The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log, Wim Lockefeer's top 10 Best of the Year includes The Culture Corner by Basil Wolverton: "This book got me laughing out loud across the decades." • Review: "I’m not sure how exactly one goes about recommending a book like [FUC_ __U _SS __LE], as it’s not only not for everyone, it’s kind of sort of not for anyone, which ironically makes it perfect for some someones. (Panel four of page 9 is perfect for 21st century comics historians; as it is surely the most intentionally provocative…

(Photo: Jody Hoy) Comic-Con International announced a new batch of Special Guests for the 2011 show July 21-24 in San Diego today, and we're pleased to report that the list includes Joyce Farmer, creator of the acclaimed graphic memoir Special Exits. Joyce joins Bill Schelly and Frank Stack among the Fantagraphics guests at CCI. We're excited!

Via AICN Anime comes word that the anime adaptation of Shimura Takako's Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko) which debuts on Japanese television on January 13 will be available on the web from anime streaming site Crunchyroll in the United States and other countries. See Crunchyroll's announcement with more information here; their series page is here; and our previous post with a YouTube trailer is here.

A brand new animated Yikes! cartoon from Steven Weissman and his talented team. Hurrah!

There's a new short Underworld animation by Kaz & friends for your viewing pleasure. (Meta note: We're starting an "animation" tag with this post. Probably should have started one a long time ago!)

Zak Sally from mn original on Vimeo. Zak Sally's appearance on Twin Cities Public Television's weekly arts series MN Original (which we originally reported about here) is now available to view online. See pages from Sammy the Mouse #4 in progress! (Thanks to The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log for the tip-off.)

The Seattle Weekly asked hometown 'tooners Peter Bagge, Jeremy Eaton (who did the cover, above), Pat Moriarity and Jessixa Bagley to comment on Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn's first year in office in comics form. (Thanks to Larry Reid for the tip-off!)