The Alternative Press Expo, or APE, moves from its typical springtime home to the fall this year … or, more specifically, to this coming weekend. The small press comics show will be held Saturday and Sunday at the San Francisco Concourse.

Special guests include Jessica Abel, Paige Braddock, Megan Kelso, Matt Madden, Ethan Nicolle and Chris Ware. The programming schedule includes panels with each of them.

In addition, the exhibitor floor will be filled to the brim with all sorts of comic retailers, creators and publishers, from mini-comics to bigger publishers like Image, Fantagraphics, SLG, IDW and Oni. I personally plan to help stimulate our faltering economy by spending a bunch of money on cool comics this weekend.

Here’s a sample of what some of them have planned … if you’re exhibiting at the show and would like a mention, let me know; I’ll post again later this week.

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In celebration of the ongoing, career-spanning exhibit of his work going on at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, Kim Deitch will host a special “Cartoon Movie Night” at the Museum this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Deitch will show a number of rarely-seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 30s during the event, and as a special Halloween treat, will also display for one night only selected specimens from his and his wife’s  extensive collection of antique toy cats. Anyone who’s read Alias the Cat (or, really, any of Deitch’s work) should be well aware of how large these types of early 20th-century American pop culture play into the artist’s work.

Then, on Thursday, Nov. 13, Deitch will return to the museum for an extensive Q&A session with exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. During this event, Deitch will show examples of his recent work and also preview some of his upcoming projects.

Both events are free to the public. You can read the full press release after the jump. (more…)

Having explored the seamier (and steamier) side of the cartoon world with his book Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings, Craig Yoe is taking a decidedly different tack with his upcoming book The Great Anti-War Cartoons, to be published by Fantagraphics in Spring 2009. Featuring work by folks like Francisco Goya, Robert Crumb and Art Young, the book will present “the ultimate collection of anti-war cartoons.” Yoe has a small preview of the book up at the second link.

The Daily Cross Hatch has posted the first of a promised three-part interview with hot young artist Dash Shaw, whose Bottomless Belly Button and Body World are winning all the raves these days:

When you were working on the book, did it feel like a turning point, in terms of recognition? Having Fantagraphics on your side must have helped a lot.

But I didn’t know that Fantagraphics was going to do it. I had more than half of it done, and then I showed it to Fanta. They said that they were interested, but they wanted to see the rest of it. I finished the rest of it, and then, maybe half a year later, they said, “yes.” In that time I edited a bit and redrew a lot of stuff, but the only things I did after I knew that Fantagraphics was going to publish it was stuff like the cover. Knowing that Fantagraphics was going to publish it and that it was going to be in bookstores did inform my decision about the cover. I wanted it to be the comic in the bookstore that looks more like a minicomic, and not have the author bio and the picture and the coverflaps, and all of these things that it seems like people who do minicomics get in the bookstore market and immediately do. They want their stuff to look like every other book. So I wanted to be the person who gets into the bookstore market and has something that looks like what I was doing before.

Every weekday from now until the release of the second volume, Fanta will be posting a Rocky strip by Martin Kellerman.

Extremely popular in its home country of Sweden, Rocky follows the hilarious adventures of its ne’er do well titular character, a twentysomething slacker whose bad luck with the ladies is rivaled only by his equally bad luck with money and success in general.

It’s a really funny strip, and one that deserves a wider American audience, so be sure and give it a chance, OK?

– 20 things Every Superhero Comic Collection Needs.

– Laura Hudson talks to Brian Azzarello about his upcoming Joker graphic novel.

– Seth is curating a series of films from the National Film Board of Canada. Drawn! has the details.

– The Mindless Ones look at the work of ero-guru artist Suehiro Maruo (note: some images are probably NSFW).

– Peter Sanderson looks at the new edition of Patrick Rosenkranz’s seminal history of underground comix, Rebel Visions.

– Fantasy.fr has an interview with Devilman creator and manga-ka Go Nagai.

– Judith Rosen checks out the Comics and Classics store in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

– Craig Fischer has a short interview with alt-cartoonist Ben Towle.

– Evie Nagy looks at all the political comics coming out this month.

– Ooooo, I’m a Johnny Storm!

– Noah Berlatsky did not like David Heatley’s new book. Like, at all.

– Tom Spurgeon interviews Bill Schelly, who’s new biography of Joe Kubert, Man of Rock, should be out in stores any day now.

– In more depressing newspaper news: Acclaimed editorial cartoonist Chip Bok is taking a buyout and leaving The Akron Beacon-Journal. The number of full-time, on-staff cartoonists at daily papers gets smaller and smaller. Of course, so does the number of editors, reporters, photographers …

– On the BBC, they’re talking about comics.

– The Daily Cross Hatch begins a multi-part interview with Art Spiegelman.

– Go! Comi are so excited about their new 07-GHOST series that they’ve set up a whole Web site for it.

– Cool things to bookmark: Elizabeth Conley, Elena Diaz, Pancha Diaz, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Konstantin Pogorelov, Jason Thompson, and Leia Weathington have formed a new group blog, titled The Couscous Collective.

– Steven De Souza, who wrote the screenplay for the 1987 Spirit TV-movie (remember that?) offers his thoughts on the upcoming Frank Miller film.

Jessica Farm Vol. 1
by Josh Simmons
Fantagraphics, 104 pages, $14.95.

Josh Simmons first began this book in December of 2000 with the goal of drawing one page a month. The second volume will not be completed until 2016, and the final volume (of a projected seven) won’t be out until 2050, by which point, as some reviewers have noted, many of us will likely be dead, myself included. It’s no joke to say this series will literally be his life’s work.

So yes, it’s another one of those books, one equally if not more obsessed with methodology and experimentation than plot or characterization (though there’s certainly enough of that in here to satisfy). No doubt to the casual reader it all sounds very gimmicky and I suppose to a degree it is, though I think the book largely surpasses it’s gimmicky publishing premise to offer up something haunting and wholly original. (more…)

Because I love to share, here’s a quick rundown of some of the more new and notable books I picked up at SPX last weekend:

* A bunch of Ignatz books, including Baobab #3, Delphine #3, Interiorae #3, Grotesque #2 and Sammy the Mouse #2. I think a lot of folks tend to focus on the Ignatz books by the big-name artists like Gilbert Hernandez and ignore the rest, and that’s a shame, as there’s some really great work being done throughout this series, and it remains a fantastic way to expose yourself to some unfamiliar artists. (more…)

More details here.

– Rick Veitch is planning to unleash a 300-page special edition version of Brat Pack. Most excellent.

– Alex Dueben interviews Bill Griffith for CBR.

– Stephanie Mangold profiles Good Neighbors authors Holly Black and Ted Naifeh.

– Allan Holtz runs into scanner trouble while at the Library of Congress.

– Kai-Ming Cha talks to famed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano about his musical influences.

– Norton will be publishing all of Will Eisner’s instructional comics in one volume. Ada Price has details.

– James Vance looks at Jerry Siegel and Russell Keaton’s aborted 1936 collaboration on a Superman newspaper strip.

– Jennifer de Guzman ponders what Minx’s demise really means for comics.

– Our own Tim O’Shea talks to Paul Sizer about his lates book, BPM.

– Bookslut talks to Shannon Wheeler about his Postage Stamp Funnies series.

– What costume to not buy your kids this Halloween.

– Express Night Out profiles Bryan Lee O’Malley.

– Brian Cronin looks at the work of editorial cartoonists Bill Mauldin and David Low.

– Eric Reynolds is apparently into fumetti now.

– The Austin-American Statesman has a two-part interview with Art Spiegelman.

– The Associated Press looks at IDW’s Obama/McCain comics.

– Chronogram talks to Jessica Abel.

– Did I link to this Steve Bisette essay on royalties? Well, I am now.

Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester
by Bob Levin
Fantagraphics Books, 200 pages, $19.99.

This was a tough book for me to review. I kept finding myself sitting down at the computer to type only to be possessed by a desperate desire to write about something else.

It was also a tough book for me to read at times, the main reason no doubt being that the assumed name author Bob Levin picked for one of the main characters in this sad tale is the same as my young daughter’s.

Yet Most Outrageous is one of the most moving, compelling and important books Fantagraphics will publish this year, not because it advances the cause of comics or offers some great sequential art revelation or shines some light on a heretofore little known but great artist — it’s really only tangentially about comics. Rather, what makes it great is the way it touches upon issues of how art and life intersect in often ugly ways, how families members can damage each other in unforgivable ways, how the ghosts of your past can reappear in ways you never expected and how heartrendingly clumsy our legal system is at uncovering the “truth.” (more…)

NY Mag’s Vulture blog has a preview up from the upcoming Abandoned Cars collection by Tim Lane, which was published by Fantagraphics.

– Build your own square-headed Scott Pilgrim.

– Charles Brownstein with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund passes on a message about Echo creator Terry Moore and his wife Robyn, who live in Houston and were affected by Hurricane Ike:

As you may be aware, the Abstract Studios team, Terry & Robyn Moore, live in Houston where they are set back slightly by Hurricane Ike. They personally are fine, but don’t have any utilities, including electricity and other business necessities. They’re only able to be online for about 10 minutes a day because of very nice neighbors. They want people to know that they’re going to be out of touch for about a week, and ask that you please be patient while they get back up to speed. Please join me in keeping them in your thoughts.

– Congrats to the cartoonist Kaz, who won an Emmy for his story on an episode of Camp Lazlo!

– PWCW previews the New York Anime Festival.

– Bid adieu to The Holy Consumption.

– Dave Sim reviews Blake Bell’s book about Steve Ditko.

– Frank Santoro writes about Frank Franzetta.

– Here’s a profile of mangaka Shigeru Mizuki.

– Stephanie Mangold looks at Antarctic Press’ future plans.

– Hey, Chester Brown is running for office!

– Evie Nagy reports on Oni’s plan to publish “definitive editions” of Queen and Country.

– Van Jensen writes about the popularity of Image’s PopGun anthology.

– The Southern California comics retailer Brave New World Comics is hosting a party this Friday to celebrate their Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award.

– Eight reasons why the G.I. Joe comic was better than the cartoon.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Junot Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was interviewed recently by the San Jose Mercury News:

Love and Rockets was not only a revolution in comics, it was a revolution in Latino letters. It was the first time that people were writing about the kind of Latinos that I grew up with where being a Latino was a given. What we really drew or what compelled us in our lives was who we were dating, the music we were listening to, the problems we were getting into.

Do you think some day somebody will say “Final Crisis changed my life”?

Yeah. I thought not.

Playboy has a large collection of Halloween-appropriate Gahan Wilson gag cartoons up, as well as some interviews with the famed macabre cartoonist. They also reveal that Fantagraphics will be publishing a three-volume collection of every single cartoon the artist has done for the men’s magazine, which will see print in 2009.

More details here.

– The Huffington Post has another preview from MAD Magazine’s political issue.

– So Dylan Horrocks has a sex blog now.

– Tom Spurgeon talks to John Pham, whose book Sublife should be coming out from Fantagraphics soon.

– Heidi MacDonald posts the complete transcript of Wil Moss’ PWCW interview with Comic Foundry creators Tim Leong and Laura Hudson.

– Bidding for the Totoro Forest Project is now open.

– As a kid, I always thought new shoes would make me run faster … so how much faster would these super shoes make me run?

– What comic should Fight Club/Choke author Chuck Palahniuk write?

– Read Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere for free.

– Beware of Batman; he brings adware. (Hat tip)

– I didn’t see the rumor about Darkseid appearing on Smallville this season, but Graeme has some tips for the producers if it does wind up happening.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Having posted samples from his con sketchbook over at Flog, Reynolds has collected the whole darn thing into one nice Flickr set.