Just short things.

*Oh hey, look at that - Kramers Ergot 6 and Comic Art #8 are now in stock for online ordering. You will probably want them both. Site for the former, site for the latter. Apparently these online sales will be limited in number, after which you’ll have to wait until September for any of this stuff to drift into the Direct Market.

*I am awaiting that Seth booklet on rare and little-known comics to buy (included with the new Comic Art) most of all; the last artist Seth introduced me to was Chris Reynolds, and I've always been happy with that. And look - Reynolds has a new book out too! Well, ok. It's not as much 'new' as a new edition of The Dial and Other Stories, first published by Kingly Books (a review of that edition is here), but now it's only $8.39 for a hardcopy or $2.50 for a PDF download. Actually, you can download over 200 pages of Reynolds' fine comics for only $10 judging from a glimpse at his online store. Here's my reviews of the Mauretania graphic novel and two of the short comics collections. They are good books.

*Chicago Dept: Ah hell, another convention? Why, I just recovered from logging onto various sites to triangulate the various bits of info burbling out. Thus far, I think I'm most interested in Northlanders, Brian Wood's new viking comic for Vertigo (and Christ am I reading a bunch of viking comics these days - the Avatar-published Warren Ellis/Juan Jose Ryp miniseries Wolfskin and Makoto Yukimura's unlicensed manga Vinland Saga are both on my radar), and The Immortal Iron Fist from writing team Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. But man, I find it tough to keep up with the pieces of coverage that some sites pick up and other sites miss...