So i just received a package with the BRAND NEW Fall 2007 Season of books from First Second (thanks, Gina!!) and it's a doozy! An amazing line-up featuring Johann Sfar, Lat, Sarah Varon, Gipi, and the long-awaited Laika, by Nick Abadzis. WOW!

They'll be set up at booth 1635 in San Diego. All of these books are worth picking up. This has to be there most solid season to date. Under the sharp editorial guidance of Mark Siegel, First Second continues to impress. Kudos.

Meanwhile, Top Shelf will also be pimping our wares at San Diego in full-force. Chris and myself will continue our 10th Anniversary Celebration with a dozen cartoonists in attendance … all available to sign their new releases. Also, Renee French is no less than an honored guest of the con, and will be appearing on two panels.

Drop by the booth, meet the whole gang, and pick up a free 10th Anniversary Poster and Seasonal Sampler while you're there!

On Thursday from 12:30 - 2:00 Renee will be on the panel titled The Many Faces of the Graphic Novel, along with fellow Top Shelfers Andy Runton and Jeffrey Brown. Saturday, from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. is the Renee French Spotlight panel, in a conversation with Dan Nadel of Picture Box Inc.

Featured authors this year include:

Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots)
Renee French (Micrographica)
Matt Kindt (Super Spy)
Jeff Lemire (Tales from the Farm)
Andy Hartzell (Fox Bunny Funny)
Jeremy Tinder (Black Ghost Apple Factory)
Christian Slade (Korgi)
Andy Runton (Owly)
Robert Venditti (The Surrogates)
David Yurkovich (Death by Chocolate)
Jose Villarrubia (The Mirror of Love)
& last but definitely not least:
Eddie Campbell (Fate of the Artist)

• O.k. so i saw Spider-Man 3 a couple nights ago, and while i seem to be bucking the trend here, i'm going to come out and say that i LOVED it!! I won't argue about some of the details that were critically reviewed … where DID the Venom alien come from?; the Flint Marko character could have used more devolpment; yeah, "dark" Peter Parker was pretty freaking dorky; maybe there were too many storylines... But i feel that the genius of Sam Raimi and the heart of the story were right in harmony with my own personal Spider-Man. Slice out the song & dance routine (even though the story WAS being told marvelously here), and you've got one hell of a kick-ass action flick.

And i'm a guy no less, who always HATED Venom. It was so way far after my time. (Same with Big Wheels AND Transformers.) But as a vehicle to bring out the Dark Side of the Force in Petey, it served its purpose deftly.

So sue me! Viva Spidey!!

• James Kochalka:
"Here's some paintings I did while I was at Monhegan Island in Maine. You can't go anywhere without running into someone doing 'plein air' painting, so I joined in the fun. It's been an artist's colony for over a century I believe, and most of the important early american landscape painters worked there."

Beautiful work, James!

• My good friend Steve Ryan did the color painting of Alex Robinson's cover drawing for his forthcoming fantasy book, Lower Regions. Steve has been featured now in four issues of Heavy Metal, and i KNEW he'd be perfect for this gig. My inner fanboy is absolutely in love with this artwork!

• Jason Little and Myla Goldberg have made an addition to the family, along with little Zelie... introducing Kestrel Xesca Goldberg Little.

• The Spurge interviews Graham Annabel at The Comics Reporter. Good stuff.

• Sarah Morean reviews Jeremy Tinder's new mini-comic at The Daily Cross-Hatch.

• The new Funbook is ready! The release party will be the 8th of August at Holocene. Show Me the Pink is headlining (their last show ever!). Old Growth, Here Comes a Big Black Cloud, and Mustaphamond will also be playing. There will be giant posters to color with crayons galore. It will be also serve as a fundraiser for the genocide intervention fund.

The Portland Funbook #2 is 80 pages of coloring & activities from over 60 of Portland's best artists. Each issue will contain: an 80 page book with contributions from 60+ local artists, a 7" vinyl record with 12 one-minute songs from local musicians, 4 stickers, 1 temporary tattoo, and two 1" buttons and. Each book costs $5. $1 from each purchase will go to The Genocide Intervention Network.

• Finally, though i simply don't have the time to give these a proper review, the following new books in the collection come highly recommended.

The Rise and Fall of Yip the Wonder Dog, by Andy (Fox Bunny Funny) Hartzell. I found this at local comics & coffee shop Guapo. It's a delightful, wordless mini-comic with a tasty screenprinted cover, and published by Global Hobo.

Breaking Up, illustrated by Christine Norrie. Admittedly, i've yet to read this book yet (written by Aimee Friedman, published by the Scholastic imprint Graphix), but Christine's artwork is literally stunning! Wow. In the league of today's best female cartoonists, like Carla Speed McNeil and Colleen Coover, Christine is really really really one to watch.

Strapazin #87. The new issue of the brilliant Swiss comics magazine Strapazin arrived in my po box last week. I'd give my left pinky finger for this to be released (in English) to a wider North American audience. if you've ever wondered what the rest of the world's comics look like at their best, look no further than this.

The Chronicles of Conan volume 12. To a 14 year old, wimpy-assed Brett, coming off of his "fat" years, discovering first the pulpy paperbacks and then the Marvel comics featuring Conan the Barbarian, this escapist fantasy was a salve on my tender ego. Dark Horse has been reprinting the entire Marvel run, beginning with the early Barry Windsor-Smith issues, and up through the brilliant John Buscema stuff. For my tastes, Buscema is as much THE Conan artist as Frazetta. His work on this title was sublime. And with this 12th volume, they bring my nostalgic run to a close, since after the epic Belit: Queen of the Black Coast saga, the comic's quality control quickly plummeted. But holy shit, these 12 books Dark Horse has done are sweet. The coloring is as good as it gets, and as far as i'm concerned (no offense to any of the creators involved), the new Conan comics don't hold a candle to this stuff. Thanks to Jeremy Barlow at Dark Horse for hooking me up.

The Art of BONE. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I really didn't imagine that the "art of" book for Bone would be anything special. Especially help up to the incredible Art of Hellboy and Art of Will Eisner books, also helmed by Diana Schutz (and designed by Cary Grazzini) at Dark Horse. I was so wrong. This is a masterpiece edition, and the perfect coda to the sweeping saga of Bone. Simply outstanding. Diana, i really owe you one.

is a total stud. I just watched tonight's episode of Bill Moyer's Journal on PBS, and it was an inspiration. At issue, "Tough Talk on Impeachment." Guests were Bruce Fein, a nationally and internationally recognized expert on Constitutional law, and John Nichols, author and political journalist who's been writing the "Online Beat" for The Nation magazine since 1999.

Consider, a host of attacks on the very constitution itself, from executive privilege and signing statements to extraordinary rendition, from the Plame leak to the suspension of Habeas Corpus and unwarranted SPYING on U.S citizens!!

THINK about just this short list of transgressions (and there are many MANY more), and the implications they hold. By Bush's self-proclaimed rule, he could, for reasons of his own, label YOU an enemy combatant, kidnap you from your home, spirit you away with a hood over your head to an unknown secret location on the other side of the globe, with no communication to or from anyone else … let alone a lawyer … and then set about torturing you.

THIS is constitutional? What gives? Or how about Bush's recent commutation of Scooter Libby followed by his subsequent order to Harriet Myers to spurn congress and NOT respond to a congressional subpoena, because he declares the authority not to? Our Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves. Hello, impeachment!

I worry about what kind of neo-fascist state my almost 3-year old kid might grown up in, if this behavior doesn't change... it truly frightens me. John Nichols said it well, when comparing the people of the U.S. to those of the Roman Empire and its state of mind which led to its collapse, by pointing out the difference between those who CHOOSE to live like good little subjects, not paying attention to the matters of state, letting themselves be entertained to death, with those who choose to live with a strong sense of civic duty, and demand responsibility of their elected leaders. Man, what's going on right now burns me so much! Too bad the corporate owned media refuse to fulfill their obligation as the Fourth Estate, and to hold our leaders accountable for their actions in the press, else more citizens might be as peeved as i am.

It's been at least a few months since i last wrote to my Congressman and my Senators... tonight's the night, baby!

It's been i think over a year, when the Republican-controlled Congress fuc*ed over PBS and Bill Moyer's brilliant program called NOW was cut in half, since he left the show itself and the spotlight, seemingly dispirited. Well Bill is back, and it's a better world for it. Check out the weblink for this particular episode and educate yourself. Then call or write your congressional leaders and demand action, that they uphold their duty and protect our laws and Constitution from a derelict Executive branch, as they were sworn into office to do.

• O.k., now that i'm down from the soapbox, here's some not so uplifting news making the rounds on the blogosphere... Comics are broken! No, comics aren't broken at all … the BUSINESS of comics is broken. This is the sentiment with the recent announcement that Cold Cut Distributors are selling their company. This does indeed suck. I've known and worked with Mark Thompson for over a decade. He will be missed.

And, like Slave Labor publisher Dan Vado (as read on The Comics Reporter), i have to admit to being somewhat cynical about all the hoopla and hype that the new graphic novel model in the book trade, coupled with a "healthier" direct market are indicators of stability across the board. When in fact my experience would seem to indicate that the glut of Marvel and DC titles currently flooding the market, as well as an overabundance of weak comics everywhere else has created a situation where it's really very difficult to get much support from the retail community for indy comics, except for only the biggest A-List books in a given season. (And certainly not entirely via the fault of the retailers themselves, what with non-returnable sales [in the direct market] understandably inhibiting a willingness to take risks on new titles, creators, or publishers.)

Granted, there are more excellent comics coming out now than maybe in the history of the medium, at least in North America. But with so many hundreds of books in print, the ratio against the good stuff is by orders or magnitude.

Yeah, a precarious state we find ourselves in. I wish there were some answers. Clearly there needs to be more efficient methods of both retail and distribution. I love what i do, so i want a healthy marketplace. And God only knows, i'm NOT a believer in comics' sole future domain being online. I want to hold a book in my hands, feeling its pulpy goodness, the smell of ink on my fingers. And those are the kind of books i want to publish.

• Dean Haspiel has a new website dedicated to none other than his alter-ego, the beatnik super-hero Billy Dogma!

Rock!

• JULY SUPER SPY!

Tonight was the Super Secret Spy Art Exhibit at Subterranean Books. Wish i could have been there.

Matt Kindt’s newest art show ENIGMA MACHINE opened tonight … and was also a book release party to celebrate the release of his new book Super Spy. The show will run through September 9th.

Here’s what early reviews of Super Spy are saying:

“...one of the best comics I’ve read.”

“...invokes the feelings after reading Speigelman’s MAUS.”

“These spy stories are filled with pathos and longing -- Amelié meets Alfred Hitchcock in comics form. It transcends traditional spy fiction.”

• I've got a bunch of nifty books i want to mention, but i'd rather get even this short update uploaded. So stay tuned for some really cool books.

by Lode Devroe! Today 8 July 1947:

RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region!

Read more.

• The Center for Cartoon Arts has graduated its first class. This is great news.

James Sturm's press release:

The Center for Cartoon Studies graduated it's first class in May so what better time for one of my infrequent updates. As the school takes on a life of its own it has been increasingly difficult to write updates. At one point I felt like a new parent: I could wrap my arms around the school and understand its simple needs. I could show pictures and write about everything the baby was up to. The school, now a toddler, is stomping all over the place, in nine different directions at once and is kicking up a lot of dust (and still leaving me sleep deprived)!

So without further ado (or strained metaphor) here's a brief update:

Graduation: After two years of hard work, the pioneering class of eighteen "seniors", graduated on May 19! Parents and loved ones came to White River Junction from all corners of the country to celebrate the graduates' achievements. One highlight of the spirited and emotionally charged day was the great Patrick McDonnell's commencement speech. Patrick's comic strip Mutts is a true gem (and so too, not surprisingly, is Patrick and his wife Karen).

I Know Joe Kimpel: This site was created by CCS alumni Adam Staffaroni and Emily Wieja to showcase (and sell) the great work produced by CCSers. If you are curious to see what this next generation of cartoonists is making check it out.

CCS Now Offers Master of Fine Arts Degrees: This is huge for the school. Huge. Here's the skinny.

Summer Workshops: Beginning Monday July 9th, our third summer offering workshops for ages 16 and up. A second week (beginning July 16) was added due to demand. Participants came from as far away as England, San Diego, and Texas. There are a few spaces left if you or someone you know is interested. They are a lot of fun.

CCS, The Movie: Extremely talented documentary filmmaker Tara Wray's next project: CCS and White River Junction. Check out the trailer featuring CCS students, faculty member Steve Bissette, Art Spiegelman, and yours truly.

CCS Book Projects: CCS is involved in various publishing projects including working with Norton in redesigning Will Eisner's landmark instructional books. CCS's first book with Hyperion Books for Children, Houdini, The Handcuff King, by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi is out in stores and is receiving rave reviews. The next book in the series, Satchel Paige, Striking Out Jim Crow, by myself and Rich Tommaso, will be released in December. The third book in the series will be Thoreau at Walden by John Porcellino. The Houdini book can be ordered through Amazon. You can get a great read and support the school in one fell swoop.

Greeting Cards: CCS student work will be featured in a line of greeting cards next summer produced by Sunrise Greetings (an independent subsidiary of Hallmark Card). It was great working with Sunrise… the students sold lots of work and the cards look great.

Looking Forward: Next fall CCS is honored to have Jason Lutes as visiting faculty. Jason is the cartoonist responsible for the amazing graphic novels Jar of Fools and Berlin. Other guests will include Lynda Barry, Drew Weing, Eleanor Davis, Alison Bechdel, and Gary Trudeau. And that is just for the fall! And also in WRJ this year will be CCS's third Fellow, T. Edward Bak. Thanks to the LEF Foundation for keeping our fellowship program rolling along!

Congratulations: To Sam Gaskin and Alexis Frederick-Frost, two members of CCS first class who won the prestigious Xeric Award to publish their own comic. Tp the CCS's Sundays' crew for producing Sundays, a beautiful anthology that was one of the "buzz books" of New York City's MoCCA Comics Festival ( all these books available through Joe Kimpel). To fellow Vermont cartoonist and CCS visiting artist Alison Bechdel, on the success of her amazing memoir Fun Home. And Congrads to Phineas Roy Ollie, CCS managing director Michelle Ollie's new son who came early, in time to witness the CCS graduation.

• There's some great stuff in the current Diamond Previews catalog (although thankfully less than normal), including the following items i'll keep my eyes open for.

… Sunday Press (the guy who did that mammoth and gorgeous Little Nemo book) is releasing volume one of the oversized Gasoline Alley Sundays, in full color. It's called Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, and makes a perfect companion the series Drawn & Quarterly is producing with the b&w dailies.

… And original Goon graphic novel by Eric Powell (from Dark Horse), is on its way, title Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker. Eric is one of the most outstanding cartoonists in a field overflowing with fine creators. And The Goon is just wild campy fun.

… The Hanna-Barbera Treasury, by Jerry Beck. Jerry and Amid Amini run the wonderful cartoon blog Cartoon Brew, and this book looks to be a treasure trove a cartoony goodness.

… The Completely Mad Don Martin, from Running Press. Whoo hoo! My god i loved Don Martin's comics in the pages of MAD when i was growing up. This looks to be a set not unlike the beautiful slipcased Farside and Calvin & Hobbes collections Andrews McMeel issued a few years ago. And if memory serves correct, this will be the first in a series collecting work by the second generation of Mad creators. (The generation i grew up on, including the great Sergio Aragones and Al Jafee.) Man, imagine the entirety of Sergio brilliant Mad Marginals!

… Finally, the long awaited Jack Kirby biography which Mark Evanier has been working on forever. Titled Kirby: King of Comics, this is perfectly timed to appear alongside the way overdue deluxe Kirby collections making the rounds these days.

• Gregory Benton sent a follow-up email (with pictures) of the following show at Space 1026, SCAB ON MY BRAIN!, which opened last Friday, July 6.

Space 1026 presents "Scab On My Brain!", a group exhibition curated by New York artist Jordin Isip. This assembled group of twelve artists use their own unique and personal visual vocabulary to create figurative narratives that are both allegorical and psychological. In some works humans can be beastial, weak, imperfect, and vulnerable as they journey through imagined lands, in others, the protagonists may be quietly heroic in seemingly mundane and everyday environments. But whether these images (drawings, paintings, silkscreens, and sculpture) are multi-layered, oozing, cacophonous, and hyperbolic or understated, minimal, reserved and poetic we are compelled to enter realms devised by artists with distinct sensibilities.

Jordan Awan, Gregory Benton, Kiersten Essenpreis, Jordin Isip, Aya Kakeda and Liz Lee are based in New York City.While Carl Dunn and Evah Fan also have strong New York roots they now live in Providence and Los Angeles respectively. Mariano Ching and Louie Cordero live in the Philippines, James Kirkpatrick in Canada, and Nate Williams in Argentina. Space 1026 presents "Scab On My Brain!", a group exhibition curated by New York artist Jordin Isip. This assembled group of twelve artists use their own unique and personal visual vocabulary to create figurative narratives that are both allegorical and psychological. In some works humans can be beastial, weak, imperfect, and vulnerable as they journey through imagined lands, in others, the protagonists may be quietly heroic in seemingly mundane and everyday environments. But whether these images (drawings, paintings, silkscreens, and sculpture) are multi-layered, oozing, cacophonous, and hyperbolic or understated, minimal, reserved and poetic we are compelled to enter realms devised by artists with distinct sensibilities.

Louie Cordero, "Horns, Strings and Harmony", 14" x 11", ink on paper

Finishing "The Day of the Humans is Gone" (named after a Plasmatics song on the Maggots: the Record record.) 2007, oil & enamel on wood, 24" x 48"

Here are more pics from the show. (Thanks, Gregory.)

Front view of Carl Dunn's piece & Florence.

Watercolors by Gregory.

Hmmm..., ah yes... Mmm Hmmmm...

Space 1026

• Nick Abadzis has started a new blog.

• Jim (JH) Williams sent me a link to a fab new multi-artist website called Naked Fat Rave. Check it out!

• Master letterer/designer Todd Klein has a new website.

• More super cool art by Jim Mahfood.

new record by Queens of the Stone Age, titled Era Vulgaris. If you like your rock fuzzy, guitar-heavy, hook-laden and a little dissonant, then these cats have produced yet another gem just for you.

• MoCCA was, as per usual, a mad crazy aweome comics show. How could it not, taking place as it does in New York City. Any reason to "have" to go to New York is a good one.

I stayed again with Gregory Benton and his lovely lady Florence, in their swank apartment on the Upper West Side. Many many thanks to them both. Lots of beer drinking, soccer watching and good eating to be had. I made trips to St. Mark's Books, Forbidden Planet, more pubs and clubs than i can count, a league soccer match, and of course, the convention itself. I also spent some time getting to hang out with the affable Jeff Lemire, who stayed out a couple nights at Gregory's too. I'll tell you, this Canuck can throw down some serious pints!!

The show kicked ass, but the highlight of the weekend had to be our 10-Year Anniversary party at Gstaadt. We had an amazing cake made by some famous NYC pastry chef (anybody know who this guy is?), an open bar, and a large catered food spread. Piles of thanks to Kristen and Eliza for their hard work getting the whole thing together. At one point the joint was so jumpin' (and roasting hot) that people were spilling out onto the streets. The venue was amazing, the bartenders all hot, and the cocktails delicious.

I wish we could do this every year, but … OUCH! … that bar tab was a doozy!!

One fabulous score of MANY at the show was Craig Yoe's choice Life is Short, ARF is Long special edition, a VERY vertical, short run (50 copies) comic featuring art and comics drawn in the same proportion. The little masterpiece measures roughly 5" wide x 14" tall. Viva l'ARF!

Craig also has a great slide show of pics from MoCCA, on his ARF! blog. Funny and smart captions too.

• Before heading home, i travelled north to Montreal for two nights and three days to visit my pal Patrick Jodoin. (Who's bald head some readers might recognize from the convention circuit in his alter-ego as the rep for Lebonfon Printing.) We tooled around for two days by bicycle, and wow, what a gorgeous city. The old World's Fair Expo Center, Old Quebec, churches, restaurants, Mount Royal, and so much more.

I scored some great French comics (by Gipi, Blutch, and Frederick Peeters) at a small bookstore chain called Librarie Renauld-Bray. I would have loaded up with so much more, had i only the room to carry it. Thank the gods there's no store like this in Portland.

Like Vancouver B.C. and Toronto, the streets were clean, the people were friendly, and with half the city speaking French, Montreal was even so much more European in flavor. (And the way the girls talk... ooh la la.)

Not surprisingly, we drank like fish every night, and traded publishing industry war stories.

On my last day we had the honor of visiting the Drawn & Quarterly offices, and then were treated to lunch by them, eating a yummy Indian meal with Chris (Oliveros), Tom (Devlin), Rebecca (Rosen), Jessica (Campbell), and their intern (from the CCS) Alexis Frederick Frost. D&Q is one of the handful of very key influences that inspired me to become a comics publisher, so this was pretty big to get to visit the headquarters.

• Cute podcast review at Pulp Secret of three recent Top Shelf books, with some fun little skits thrown in. Good editing as well.

• Went out with Steve Lafler to go see a late-nite showing of Hot Fuzz at the Laurelhurst Theater. With Shaun of the Dead in their cap also, it's clear now that the auteur team of (director / co-writer) Edgar Wright and (co-writer / actor) Simon Pegg just "get it."

On the surface the plot is a simple buddy movie / crime procedural / mystery / dark comedy / thriller. What's that?! Like Shaun, Hot Fuzz is a perfectly blended mish-mash of every two-bit genre to ever hit the big screen. Combining bits & pieces straight from (and in loving homage to) classics like Sergio Leone, Rosemary's Baby, Sam Raimi, Helter Skelter, John Woo, L.A. Confidential, Michael Bay, splatter-horror .... whew. It also has a meta-take on Bad Boys II and Point Break thrown in for maximum comedic effect, with a truly perfect scene. All the while there remained an absolute commitment to giving this film its own unique identity.

This on-fire duo have wrestled the mantle of over-the-top genre pastiche from former master Quentin Tarantino's limp hands. (Who's half of the recent Grindhouse was more boring than a fucking Golden Girls marathon … scenes featuring Kurt Russel as Stuntman Mike notwithstanding.)

In the end, what makes these two films so special, are the themes of friendship, honor, and heart, which go mostly ignored by so much of today's "entertainment."

With director Wright slated to direct Bryan Lee O'Malley's phenomenal Scott Pilgrim (published by Oni Press) in 2009, i'm already salivating.

• It's official … my two-pronged hoops fantasy has come to fruition!! We drafted big-man Greg Oden AND dumped over-paid slacker Zach Randolph, both on the same night! Whoo hoo!

• A nifty zine/comic floated my way this week via the Big Pond, and it rocks. Gareth Brookes from London created Mediocralypse. It's an old-school type of effort like i used to read, in that it stretches the boundaries of what you can attempt in a low print-run mini, that you can't maybe with big expensive books. Very much a zine at heart and form.

The chops are great in here too. Everything is really quite nicely drawn.

Check out his website Appalling Nonsense for more info.

This art here is part of Gareth's contribution to a hit or miss anthology called Banal Pig. His strip is beautiful, and reminds me of Jeff Zenick's work.

•Â If you're in Portland this Thursday evening, swing by Floating World Comics for the co-book signing with Jeremy Tinder (for his Top Shelf floppy comic called Black Ghost Apple Factory) and Douglas Wolk, for his book Reading Comics.

I'll be there kind of early, because i'll have the kid with me!