In which members of the rock community tearfully reveal their geeky comic obsessions, beneath their hardened irony-based exoskeleton.

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Fantagraphic’s revival of Walt Kelly’s Pogo comics seems to have helped unearth at least one other Pogo-related gem. In 1956, Kelly penned some delightful songs for an LP called “Song of the Pogo.” An All Music Guide description for the record says this:

“Technically, these are not songs from the comic strip — Kelly’s most famous parody, ‘Deck Us All With Boston Charlie,’ is absent — and, musically, it might not seem to jibe with the homespun nature of the drawings, since it’s a freewheeling collection of prewar popular musical styles. There’s a little bit of folk and blues here, but they merely inform the songs, which really sound like turn of the century tunes designed for singalongs at the family piano or cinematic ballads — or, in the case of the Kelly-sung “Go-Go Pogo,” a rabble-rousing campaign tune out of Tammany Hall. It’s music that’s out of time, evoking an era earlier than 1956, but one that’s highly stylized and absurdly funny.”

Thanks to eMusic and Reaction Recordings, which reissued this album back in 2003, there’s not much need to track down this album in some dusty record store, unless you like doing that sort of thing. I trust you won’t need any prompting to dash down to your nearest eMusic station. BoingBoing suggests taking advantage of the 25 free downloads, if you’re not a member of eMusic already. But if you’re lazy like me, you’ll probably just listen to the samples on repeat, which strangely enough seem to stand on their own.

[Via BoingBoing]

-Elizabeth Chou

If you’re looking for a surefire method to get a buddy into the hobby during the hype of Spidey-mania, then you’d be wise to circle May 5th on your calendar. Coinciding with Spider-Man 3’s opening weekend, the upcoming Free Comic Book Day celebrates and raises awareness of the artform by giving visitors to approximately 2,000 participating comic shops a free book – no purchase required. While you probably won’t be able to waltz into a shop and snatch up a signed copy of Maus, we welcome the industry’s attempt to broaden its audience. For a list of sponsers and the issues that are poised for giveaway, checkout www.freecomicbookday.com.

–Jeffrey Wilson

Chicago-based Jeffrey Brown has a long history of writing about what he knows best: himself—that and a whole bunch of ex-girlsfriends. Brown’s autobiographical vignettes are alternately hopeful, hilarious, melancholy, and bittersweet, in a way that only stories drawn from real-life can be, all in a sketchbook style that betrays their diary-like nature.

Brown’s handful of books released on Top Shelf, have won the stubble-faced cartoonist a place in the hearts of comic fans across the world, as well as an appearance on public radio’s This American Life, and a spot directing the Death Cab For Cutie video, “Your Heart is an Empty Room.” We sat down with Brown to discuss his books, dayjobs, and where an MFA from art school can get you in this life.

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One snarky helping of hump day link dumpage comin’ up:

–You know we love us some Guided By Voices. While we’ve been attempting in vain to dig ourselves out from beneath former frontman Robert Pollard’s deluge of solo releases, the Dayton group’s other former songwriter, Tobin Sprout, has been building up a portfolio of some rather stunning work (the artist’s “Bad Dog, No!” is pictured left).
–For those of you who aren’t hip to Evan Dorkin’s goings-on ever since the folks at House of Fun decided that updates were for suckers, the Pirate Corps. artist and life-long ska music enthusiasts has continued to post religiously to his LiveJournal [insert googly-eyed emoticon here], Big Mouth Types Again (possibly the only LiveJournal named for a Morrissey song–I kid, I kid). Dorkin has good news for you funnybook-loving cheapskates: digital copies of Milk & Cheese and Dork #1 are going for the dirty, dirty low price of 69-cents. Remember kids: cheap comics=more money for gin.
–Authorities in Seattle nabbed a man suspected of holding up a pizza place, golf club, and comic shop. His neighbors were likely tipped off when they discovered the pile of tomato sauce-stained Sandman books underneath the life-size windmill model in the man’s front yard [via TCJ].
–And last, but far from least, Mutt & Jeff, you hardly look a day of 95.

Now, back to work with you.

–Brian Heater

The Left Bank Gang
By Jason
Fantagraphics

Ever though you had something pegged, only to have the rug pulled out from under you? It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security with Jason books. Those gaunt, French, anthropomorphic animals, chain smoking and acting all existential-like, victims of their own ever-trendy Parisian malaise. You think that you’ve pretty much got the point, by page two.

Granted, the initial conceit seems a little harder to accept, this time out. Jason’s now-familiar cast of animal actors are portraying some of 20th century’s best-known wordsmiths: Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, the Fitzgeralds, etc., living the life of ex-pat cartoonists on Paris’s left bank, a point that the author goes to great lengths to reinforce over the first few pages.

The story plays out as two to three page vignettes—brief encounters between the struggling writers, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but nothing too far out of the ordinary, once temporary suspension of disbelief sets in.

And then, somewhere near the halfway mark, thanks to a plan hatched by Hemingway, our storyline gets a firm yank, launching us into something altogether different.

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The winners of the 2007 Web Cartoonists Choice Awards have been announced. The ceremonies can be viewed in full uber-dramatic scrolling  action over here. Accompanying drumrolls are provided by the repeated smacking of your thighs with the palms of your hands.

For those of you not familiar with the WCCA, they’re a bit like The People’s Choice Awards, only instead of Will Smith and Fergie, there’s a lot of chain-smoking and self-loathing. Otherwise, the similarities are uncanny.

[Via The Comics Reporter]

–Brian Heater 

I make it a rule to interview Peter Bagge as much as humanly possible. Pretty much any excuse to speak with the artist will do—new books, reissues, pop-culture stories on which Bagge (a habitually self-confessed sugar-pop junkie) might be able to shed some unique light . This time, however, the excuse is about as sound as such things come: you know, launching a comics blog and stuff…

I was a Bagge fan before I knew it—as a teenager growing up in 90s, I was exposed to the artist’s work without even knowing it. During the decade, Bagge’s style was at the forefront of the ‘slacker lifestyle,’ that has, for better or worse, persisted as a dominant force in the public perception of the underground comics scene. For a generation of comic fans, Buddy Bradley, the chain-smoking, vinyl collecting, perpetual slacker is every bit iconic as the grunge music that dominated the airwaves at the time.

Bagge’s art made a significant dent in popculture at the time, showing up everywhere from ‘alternative’ music rags like Spin, to bizarre genre tie-ins, such as a series of ‘grunge pencils’ designed by the artist, which one can view on display in the The Experience Music Project’s grunge display, in Bagge and Bradley’ hometown of Seattle.

Bagge has, of course, managed to remain a major presence in the comics scene. After wrapping up Hate’s decade-long run, the artist has gone on to produce comics like Sweatshop for DC and Apocalypse Nerd for Dark Horse. He’s also tried his hand at a fair share of licensed characters, from Spider-Man to The Weekly World News’ Bat Boy.

We sat down with Bagge to discuss the future of Buddy, abusive Beach Boy father, Murray Wilson, and life among the superheroes.

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Hellboy Animated Volume 1: The Black Wedding
By Jim Pascoe/Rick Lacy (The Black Wedding) and Tad Stones/Fabio Laguna (Pyramid of Death)
Dark Horse Comics
Hellboy Animated, a 4-color spin-off of the direct-to-video Hellboy animated DVDs, continues the adventures of Mike Mignola’s popular paranormal-investigators. The series’ first volume features two entertaining tales: The Black Wedding and Pyramid of Death. In The Black Wedding – story by Jim Pascoe, art by Rick Lacy – Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Agent Ecton are out to prevent a witch from fulfilling her sinister scheme of summoning an ancient evil to this world; a scheme that involves Hellboy’s main squeeze, Liz Sherman, and ultimately, the death of a Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense member.

Pyramid of Death is a lighthearted short penned by Tad Stones, with art by Fabio Laguna, in which a young Hellboy, imitating the crime-fighting prowess of his favorite radio program adventurer, the Lobster, proves that a vivid imagination can be as troublesome as any villain.

Featuring a cover by Jeff Matsuda and a pin-up by Mignola, Hellboy Animated Volume 1 is a fine, fast-paced addition to the animated series and the original, darker Hellboy comic.

–Jeffrey Wilson

I wonder what Josh at Comicspace thinks about Tom at Myspace, now that the denizens of Myspace have their own official comic book gathering spot. Mashable has a pessimistic take on it.

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