It must be comics week over at the Onion’s AV Club. First there’s an extensive Jeff Smith interview. Now we’re blessed with one with Explainers author Jules Feiffer:

The A.V. Club: It’s surprising, reading the book, how early the strip’s sensibility was formed. Almost right from the beginning, you deal with the themes that preoccupied you for the next 40 years.

Jules Feiffer: Originally, there were going to be a few weeks of introductory strips before I started serializing Munro. When I went to the Voice, I showed them Munro—and maybe Passionella, although I’m not sure I’d written Passionella by then—and something on the bomb called Boom!—what today would be called graphic novellas. They were just long narrative cartoons. They had political content to the extent that they were strongly anti-government, anti- the prevailing political tides of the time. I though what I’d do was break the longer stuff down into weekly installments, but I thought it might be difficult in the beginning for readers to figure out what I was doing and what the hell was going on, so perhaps I should do five or six or seven weeks of introductory strips to tell them who I was and what I was going to do. The introductory strips were still taking over 40 years later. Once I got into the habit and routine of it, I realized what a good format this was for me, and how much better it was than serializing work I’d already done which wasn’t designed for that format and would never be ideal for it.

Peter Bagge and Alan Moore’s hilarious tribute to the Kool-Aid Man (originally seen in the pages of Hate) is now online at Again With the Comics.

The Daily Cross Hatch has the first of a two-part interview with the legendary Mr. Feiffer up on their site:

How did you make the transition to the political strips in The Voice? Did Eisner play a direct role?

It was the United States Army. I got drafted during the Korean War, and my reaction to being in the service and the sense of mindless authority that any military operation oppresses you with—it hits you, right between the eyes—the use of language is misappropriated to not say what you mean, but to maneuver and manipulate people and disguise meaning. All of the versions of that that I had seen in my civilian life plus all of it being so highlighted by my military experience, I decided within months of my being in the army that I wasn’t going to be a traditional comics strip artist. I decided that I had to comment about the world around me and use my cartoons for the purposes of social and political satire. If I hadn’t been in the army, it would have been a very different career.

Comic Arf, edited by Craig Yoe, Fantagraphics Books, $19.99.

This is the fourth volume in editor and cartoonist Craig Yoe’s ongoing series of anthologies devoted to lost/obscure cartoons and comics, with a decided emphasis on the sketchy line between high and low art. I’ve been an unabashed admirer of these books since the first volume came out, but I think Comic Arf may be the best one in the series yet. (more…)

Fantagraphics is offering a 15-page preview of Where the Demented Wented: The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes, a book I’m really looking forward to. (Note: You have to register to see the preview.)

We’re only a few weeks away from the mammoth San Diego Comic-Con, and this is the first of several round-ups of what’s going on at the con. If you’re a creator, publisher, etc. I want to know about your San Diego plans. Got a new book debuting? Got a booth in Artist Alley? Appearing on a panel? Let me know and I’ll include it in a future edition.

Before jumping in, though, a quick public service announcement: if you’re driving to the con or plan to rent a car, California’s hands-free cell phone law went into effect earlier this week. This means you can get a ticket for talking and driving, unless you’re using a hands free device. The law doesn’t address texting or personal hygiene, as evidenced by the lady I saw brushing her teeth while driving yesterday. So brush your teeth, shave, put on make-up, send a text or read a comic — just don’t talk on the phone. End of PSA.

Artist Cliff Chiang sent me a note about the booth he’s sharing with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood, along with an image of the banners they’ll be displaying (which looks very cool!). Here’s what Cliff said:

For the first time, I’ll have my own table at SDCC, sharing a booth with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood. Located at Booth #1322, you can find us listed as the three-headed beast “Jill Thompson, Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang” in the program book. We’ll have books, prints, original art, and Jill and I will be doing commissioned sketches.

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The kind folks at Fantagraphics sent me their Winter 2008 book catalog and, kind soul that I am, I thought I’d take the liberty of sharing its contents with all of you dear Blog@ readers. Here’s a quick, tentative run-down of the company’s upcoming publishing plans, starting with … (more…)

The Fantagraphics marketing maestro/Mome editor and his wife, Rhea Patton, welcomed their daughter Clementine Bean into the world this past Saturday, a day before Eric’s own birthday no less! Nice timing!

New York magazine spotlights cartoonist Dash Shaw, and dubs his recently released Bottomless Belly Button “the graphic novel of the year.”

But the magazine’s Vulture blog zeros in on a comment from Shaw about more-commercial work — “If Marvel called and asked if I wanted to do Ghost Rider, I would be like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ ” — and asks how he’d handle the Spirit of Vengeance:

“I think Ghost Rider should really be drawn as if the target audience is people in motorcycle gangs,” Shaw told us. “Totally badass tattoo imagery. Because right now, it just feels like he’s a superhero who rides a motorcycle. So I really see that as having a crazy oddball aesthetic, culled from tattoo art.”

The blog also provides a 20-page excerpt from Bottomless Belly Button.

Fantagraphics is giving away signed bookplates if you order one of more than 50 books over at their website, by folks like Joe Sacco, Jim Woodring, Kim Deitch and many more. Go check it out.

Rich Tommaso reminisces.

Artist Renee French covers The Stranger’s Official Guide to Sasquatch 2008 — a music festival held this past weekend in Washington featuring The Cure, The Flaming Lips, R.E.M. and Modest Mouse, among many others.

Via

Fantagraphics has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Diamond Distribution for the direct market. Canadian retailer Chris Butcher isn’t happy:

We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said “Good God No, Don’t Do It.”

Much more at the link.

– Tom Spurgeon interviews Tripwire editor Joel Meadows.

– Fantagraphics store manager Larry Reid is profiled.

– Blog@ columnist Neil Kleid is going to be at the People’s Improv Theater for Comic Book Club in New York Tuesday night.

– Gelatometti has video from the Image Seven signing on Free Comic Book Day.

– San Diego Comic Con teasing has begun.

– France needs superheroes.

– American Psycho meets The Dark Knight.

– Roger Ebert talks about the forefathers of blogs — fanzines.

By JK and Chris

– Steven Weissman’s Ballpark Snackbar All-Stars. Via.

– Heidi MacDonald profiles some of comics’ up-and-coming talents like Jeff Lemire, Dash Shaw, Hope Larson and Eleanor Davis.

– Apparently they’re making Twilight Zone comics again.

– PWCW posts their best-seller list for May. Wimpy Kid rules again.

– Ames, Haspiel’s Alcoholic profiled.

– There’s going to be a Thomas Nast exhibit in Auburn, NY.

– Metabunker lists their favorite comics of last year, and it’s an interesting and eclectic assortment.

– D&Q has a new office now.

– Todd Klein remembers the days when he worked for Fantagraphics.

– Here’s an interview with Studio Kosen.

– Vertigo’s viral marketing for its new comic, Air.

– Joshua Ray Stephens is having a release party on Sunday for his comic book The Moth or the Flame at Desert Island in Brooklyn.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Tom Spurgeon talks with comics author Bob Levin about his new book, Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester:

SPURGEON: To open Most Outrageous, you tell the story of how the subject matter was suggested to you by Eric Reynolds and your initial pursuit of the story. At what point did you decide it would become a book, and at what point do you think it became roughly the book you ended up doing?

LEVIN: I probably started thinking of it as a book once I saw the material Dwaine’s widow had for me. The narrative line was pretty straightforward — birth to death — arrest through trial — with some organic development en route. Since I like writing more than researching — and revising more than first drafts — I start writing as soon as I can. Then — thank God for word processors — I layer stuff in as I collect it. And, as the book makes clear, I couldn’t've ended the book as I did without my final interview, and it caused me to go back and tweak some of what had gone before.

Heidi MacDonald takes a look at Fantagraphics’ upcoming schedule and notices a number of big graphic novels from some such folks as John Pham, Lille Carre, John Kerschbaum and Esther Pearl Watson, all of whom are new to the Fanta stable:

Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable is a giant 416 page compilation of her comic strips retelling a teenager’s diary from the 1980s that Watson found in a gas-station bathroom. The story has already been serialized in Bust magazine for several years, gaining a following and much buzz. Along with reprints of those strips, Watson is creating 100 new pages for this collection, which deals with the fictional 1985 sophomore year of Tammy Pierce who must traverse a perilous teenaged landscape dotted with music, boys, tampons and breakdancing.

Also on the slate: A hardcover edition of Paul Hornschmeier’s Mother Come Home.

I was first introduced to Leah Hayes‘ work with the arrival of her 2005 Fantagraphics debut, Holy Moly, a loosely connected collection of sketches done during a dull college class. Unsettling, funny and compelling all at once, these were no mere doodles, but instead suggested the arrival of an artist with a unique style and vision that could produce a formidable body of work if given the chance.

Though not quite comics, her new book, Funeral of the Heart, a collection of illustrated short stories, further builds upon the promise of that first book. Add in the fact that she also is in the midst of constructing a viable music career under the band name Scary Mansion (now out on Zum Records) and you’ve got a resume that gets more impressive by the minute.

I talked to Hayes, 27, over the phone from her home in Brooklyn about her new book recently. Here’s what she had to say:
Q: To start off with, give me a little bit of your background. Where are you from and how did you get interested in art?

A: I’m from the Boston area originally and I’ve been drawing my whole life. I’ve been interested in art since before I can remember. Both of my parents draw. Not professionally, but they’re amazing artists. I’ve been drawing since I think I could walk. I always felt like I wanted to be an illustrator. I used to read a lot of my dad’s old Society of Illustrator volumes. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those.

Q: I don’t think so.

A: They’re hardcover volumes of illustration annuals. As a kid I used to read those all the time so I became really interested in becoming an illustrator. I’ve been wanting to do that ever since. I went to art school for that. (more…)

Out of Picture Vol. 1: Art from the Outside Looking In
Villard, 160 pages, $19.95

This book has actually been available in hardcover format for awhile; a self-published effort from a group of animators who worked together at Blue Sky Studios (responsible for the Ice Age movies among other things). I picked up a copy at MoCCA last year.

Now, however, it’s out in softcover from Villard (a subdivision of Random House), the same folks who have brought the Flight anthologies, among other things, to the great unwashed masses.

Out of Picture actually shares a lot of similarities with the Flight books, not the least of which being an decided emphasis on craft and technical skill over cohesive, involved storytelling. Most of the contributors here seem more interested in wowing you with their artistic prowess (and, to be fair, much of the work is impressive on that scale) than in telling a story containing any real depth of meaning. Most of the stories contained herein go for trite morals, sentimental cuteness or obvious jokes (I think I’ve seen enough fairy-tale/detecive noir mash-ups to last me the rest of my life, thank you very much).

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Fantagraphics production guru Paul Baresh provides a glimpse into what it took to put together the upcoming two-volume collection of Harvey Kurtzman’s Humbug magazine.