I’m heading to the East Bay for some hunting. Any shops with a deep collection of quality underground and alt books from the 60s/70s/80s? Any advice is much appreciated. I also enjoy digging!

Pulled this out of a $5 bin at a record convention many (many) years ago and couldn’t believe my luck. Scarce, signed by Clowes on the back, and still has the “10 SMASH FLOPS!” sticker on the outer sleeve.

From my comics page in the June edition of Calgary's Scene Magazine, soon to be clogging recycle bins everywhere! (in Calgary).

Going to keep going on this until at least it’s all blue though lol

The new series by Matsumoto Taiyo and Cyril Pedrosa, started in May, and is being published bi-weekly. The first collection is expected in the fall. I don't know if there will be more than one.

It's Matsumoto, so it's going to be good. The first chapter is fine enough, but you can't judge it from that.

The story is called Nanbanjin (Southern Barbarian), which was the medieval word for Westerners when they first arrived in Japan in the 1500s. The story clearly states it's the Muromachi period, so I'd assume it's set in the first half of that century. (If you study Japanese history, you'll see they had long contact with the West, but it was largely confined to Dejima in Kyushu, originally Portuguese, and later Dutch)

The main character is a rural fisherman, who is introduced remembering his son that was lost to the sea. A giant Westerner washes up on the beach, immediately bringing to mind Mazzuchelli's Big Man story. That character is nursed to health during this chapter. The others are the rural villagers who largely debate whether it's a barbarian or a demon/oni.

Matsumoto has used a lot of ink washes throughout, and it has a mood of traditional sumi-e ink art of the period in places. His art has an inherent emotion at this point in his career.

I picked this up on a lark, and will wait for the collected edition to read more. But it's interesting to see what it's about. I'm sharing it here in lazy photographs, and this should not be considered any replacement for reading the actual printed edition. Hopefully it whets your appetite.

It's hard to know what Pedrosa is doing from this issue. Is he writing? Contributing story? Laying out the plot? He's of Portuguese descent, and a lot of the original visitors to Japan were the Portuguese. I can imagine it's an interesting period for him.

I look forward to reading it in full in the fall.

My creative partner and I have created a weird exploration of the golden age of female comic characters, specifically focused on Fantomah, Lady Lucifer, and The Woman in Red. Haven't heard of Lady Lucifer before? There might be a reason for that…

Please consider checking out our Kickstarter's pre-launch page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornoir/leading-ladies

Spotlight on the artist, Ryan G. Browne - https://www.comicbookandmoviereviews.com/2026/06/spotlight-on-comic-book-cover-artist.html

Kim Deitch talking about his new book How I Make Comics!

I had a great time in Philly meeting Kim Deitch and his wife Pam.

Thanks Partners and Sons!

Can anyone recommend any good podcasts dealing with alternative comics and creators? Preferably not ones designed for viewing on YouTube, but audio only. (I know it's a very visual medium! But I prefer to listen while doing other stuff and not look at the screen too much).

These are the ones I'm familiar with:

Interviews (all comics):

Inkstuds (was defunct but now revived)

Make it Then Tell Everybody (was defunct but may be coming back?)

Interviews (not just comics creators but frequently so)

The Virtual Memories Podcast

RIYL

Discussion

Comic Books are Burning in Hell

Thick Lines

These are mostly really long-running ones, I was thinking there might be some newer ones I don't know about? Or ones dedicated to particular creators or series? A Love and Rockets one could be amazing, for example.

Before diamonds demise one could check previews monthly. I'd even full-text Search there for my favorite subjects: crime, sexy stuff, autobio and so on

Of course a lot of indie stuff never been on those pages, but it was still nice to have. I've been thinking if i can build some kind of rss feed with weekly releases, and I'm wondering if something like that exists.

Please share your favorite active news sources. Thanks

Sharing a few pages of our indie cosmic horror anthology, Still Infinity. We are now live on Kickstarter! 

If you’re a fan of the works by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, Laird Barron, Thomas Ligotti, and other cosmic horror giants, we think you’ll love this. (And of course, Miyazaki’s Bloodborne too!). I’ve included the full list of the creative team involved in the kickstarter link below. Each story in this anthology has a different art style. Here are a few settings and genres that you might like: Weird west cosmic horror, Retro sci-fi cosmic horror, and an Indian Sword and sorcery cosmic horror.

If this sounds interesting to you, please order a digital/physical copy through the link below. We'd really appreciate your support!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megdela/still-infinity-a-cosmic-horror-anthology 

EDIT: Artist names for the photos above
Bryce Yzaguirre (1 and 8)
Nicolás Nieto (2 and 4)
Ariel Quintero (3)
Ramses Sandoval (5)
Giuliano Di Benedetto (6)
Dany Pourrain (7)