For the first time, Houghton Mifflin will publish a comics edition of its Best American series, which has been collecting the best short fiction and non-fiction in the U.S. since 1915.  The Best American Comics 2006 will street October 11th as a 320-page, $22.00, 7' x 9.25' b/w anthology trade paperback.    

The guest editor for this volume is Harvey Pekar, who joins such other august editors for the line as Michael Chabon (Best American Short Stories) and Joyce Carol Oates (Best American Mystery Stories).  Former Fantagraphics and Punk Planet editor Anne Elizabeth Moore will be series editor. 

The works, drawn from an eclectic array of sources ranging from McSweeney's to Zap favor the comics lit and underground categories where Pekar's work usually falls, so the selection of stories fits the editor, as it should be.  Creators from Chris Ware to Gilbert Shelton, Joe Sacco, Alison Bechdel, Jessica Abel, Lynda Barry and many more make for an interesting mix of 30 stories, ranging from one to 40 pages long. 

A foreword by Moore, an introduction by Pekar, contributors notes, and a list of '100 Distinguished Comics' from January 2004 to August 2005, assembled by Moore, round out the volume.