Daily links: 3/23/09

I think I might start posting weekend updates — these Monday roundups are getting bananas… • Review: We received a wonderful endorsement of Supermen! from Bud Plant, which we've proudly placed on the product page • Review: John Mitchell on Supermen!: “Supermen points to a time when comic books were a new and exciting form — admittedly low brow in presentation, but filled with visual and narrative leaps that would affect how we told stories visually for decades to come… This book chronicles the exciting, silly, fun and experimental world in which these kinds of [superhero] characters were forged — fairy…

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4 (New Printing): Preview & Pre-Order

Now available for preview and pre-order: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4: "Mr. Sixties!" Back in print with the first new softcover edition of this volume in 12 years! This one has Zap #0-1, "Keep on Truckin'," and a bunch more Crumb classics and rarities from the heady hippie days. Essential! This book is scheduled to be in stock in early April and in stores approximately 4 weeks later. View a photo & video slideshow preview embedded here. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

PRINT Thinks You Should Pay Attention to Eleanor Davis & Josh Cochran

Congratulations to two talented Beasts! artists for making the list of Print magazine's annual 20 people under 30 to watch in the visual arts. The links below will take you to Print's write-up about each artist.  Eleanor Davis' work in the words of Françoise Mouly: "It’s very imaginative and funny and fanciful, but it’s also very thoroughly worked out. She’s not afraid to be clear."  Josh Cochran's work  in his own words: "It’s good to have a recognizable look. It’s even better if I can transcend it." My thanks again to these two for contributing their visions to Beasts!

The Comics Journal #297: Preview & Pre-Order

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 297th issue of The Comics Journal, featuring extensive interivews with Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois creator (and Sam's Strip writer) Mort Walker and French artist Emmanuel Guibert (Alan's War). Plus a gallery of art by pioneering caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson, reviews and many more features. Check out the full table of contents here and in the preview slideshow photo & video slideshow preview embedded below. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

Webslinger FAIL

This weekend I visited my parents in California, and this is the house directly across the street from them. According to my father, "That goddamn eyesore's been there for over a year." No further explanation was provided.

“Rocky” by Martin Kellerman – #465

{mosimage} Fritz the Cat meets Jane Austen!?! This mostly autobiographical daily strip details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his layabout pals and neurotic girlfriends. Basically, it’s the pottymouthed animal-headed Seinfeld-esque comic strip we’ve all come to love. A smash hit in its native Sweden, presented in English for the first time. Join us Monday through Friday for a new daily strip, with a rolling archive of a week’s worth of strips. “It’s being acclaimed as the funniest Swedish comic of our time, but it’s more than that. Rocky is the long awaited generation novel that no…

Blazing Combat: Read the Introduction

Comics scholar (and Fantagraphics co-founder) Michael Catron wrote a short but sweet introduction to our new forthcoming collection of Blazing Combat, and now you can read it here on our website in advance of the book's release.

Blazing Combat – Introduction by Michael Catron

{product_snapshot:id=1719,true,false,true,left} THESE ARE STORIES YOU NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO READ. Stories that show the human cost of war, that battle is frequently futile, that good men do die for no good reason. Who said you shouldn’t read these stories? The U.S. military. The American Legion. Any number of magazine wholesalers who control what goes on sale. In 1965, when Blazing Combat burst onto the scene, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was just beginning to escalate. Blazing Combat’s realistic depiction of soldiers under fire — in the chaos of battle, in the no-holds-barred, no-man’s-land of instant imminent death —…