• I Love Rob Liefeld reviews The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should Be Good" places Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga at the #5 and #4 positions, respectively, on their "Top Ten Comics of 2008"

• They also mention Ellen Forney and Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly on a list of "Top Ten Moments of Comic-Related Happiness in 2008"

• Steven Stwalley features Tom Kaczynski and praises Mome

• Bram Meehan puts this year's two major Bill Mauldin releases, our collection Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Todd DePastino's biography A Life Up Front, in a shared #10 position on his "Top Ten Comics of 2008" (via TCR)

• The Oklahoman, which published Mauldin's early cartoons, looks at Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• The A.V. Club gives straight As (two As and an A-) to The Compete Peanuts 1969-1970 by Charles M. Schulz, Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes, and Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• This 2005 interview with Charles Burns and Chris Ware was found and blogged by Paul Hornschemeier

• Drawn! names Ray Fenwick's Hall of Best Knowledge one of their Favourite Comics and Art Books of 2008

• Boing Boing spotlights Paul Di Filippo and Jim Woodring's Cosmocopia (you may remember the release party at our bookstore, where you can still purchase copies)

• Venus Zine falls in love with The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• The Vancouver Courier reviews Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• This much-discussed article by Steven Grant at Comic Book Resources has some nice things to say about Explainers by Jules Feiffer and Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin (and our own Eric Reynolds)

• Sequart's issue-by-issue examination of Love and Rockets Vol. I continues with #37 (link not working at press time, but maybe you'll have better luck)

• The Last Visible Blog reviews Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane (and check the "Other Articles of Interest" for more reviews of our books)

• Cover Browser names Daniel Clowes' Eightball one of "10 Comic Books that Changed the Industry (Or Just Look Darn Cool)"

• Time magazine names Bob Staake's post-Obama-victory New Yorker cover the Top Magazine Cover of 2008

• In The Village Voice, our old pal Everett True, inspired by The Complete Peanuts, imagines Charlie Brown and the gang grown up to become indie rock fans

Now available at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle: capacious, durable, environmentally-friendly canvas tote bags emblazoned with the likeness of Dan Pussey, the store's official mascot, as drawn by Daniel Clowes. These sturdy, smart-looking bags measure 18" x 12" x 6" -- enough room for about a dozen copies of Gary Panter's Jimbo in Purgatory, one of our largest books -- and have reinforced nylon webbing handles for your heaviest loads. Sure to last through years of comic conventions, farmer's markets, record stores, etc., all while broadcasting your excellent taste in comics and keeping pounds of paper and plastic out of landfills. Only $14.95 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery -- why not pick up a few for yourself and for gifts at our big 2nd Anniversary party & Beasts! exhibit opening this Saturday, December 13?

The 2008 Best-Of lists are rolling in fast and furious:

• Bookmunch goes Fanta-crazy this week with reviews of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw ("graphic novel of the year"), Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes ("dazzling") and Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane ("spirited")

• The Independent counts the Love and Rockets reprints Perla La Loca, Beyond Palomar and Amor Y Cohetes among the best comics of the year

• Critic and commentator Alan David Doane names The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez his Graphic Novel of the Year; Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane is his Debut of the Year; Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes is his Reissue of the Year; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell is tied for Comic Art Book of the Year; and 4 more of our titles are Other 2008 Titles of Note

• New York Magazine names Bottomless Belly Button the #2 Graphic Novel of 2008, saying "Shaw's dysfunctional-family epic is so funny and engrossing we'd expect Oprah to pick it, but for all the graphic frog sex"

• The Globe and Mail recommends Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko for holiday gift-giving

• From Steven Stwalley, here's photos of the "Hot Ink: Comic Art" show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (mmaa.org) that includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski among others

• In this video from Comicology.tv, Mort Walker talks about the history of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (look for our collection of Walker's Sam's Strip early next year)

• Publishers Weekly talks to Lilli Carré about The Lagoon

• PW also presents a 10-page excerpt from Anders Nilsen's soon-to-arrive Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes

• Wall Street Journal book critic and Laura Warholic novelist Alexander Theroux weighs in on The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. III

• The Beat goes digging through back issues of The Comics Journal, finds gold

Snapped in Seattle's Easy Street Records:

There'll be a little more catch-up tomorrow:

• Etch-A-Peanuts

• Fantagraphics art director Jacob Covey talks to United Arab Emirates newspaper The National about Garfield Minus Garfield - wait, what?

• Flog commenter "Faraquet" points out this 2001 Dutch TV interview with Daniel Clowes (via this blog) and says "It's very weird" (having watched the first few minutes we're going to say it's the background music that gives that impression)

• For Publishers Weekly, Frank Santoro looks at the new volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye

• Ellen Forney announces on her blog that she'll be collaborating with Sherman Alexie again on his next book - congrats, Ellen!

• Chris Diaz shares a photo of Gene Deitch from Gene's recent visit to San Francisco

• Comics Bulletin looks at The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring

• I'm pretty sure I've seen this circulate on the blogosphere before, but: Tim Hensley presents The World's Weirdest Comics Jam

Daniel Clowes fan Matt Taylor dressed up as the Death Ray from Eightball #23 for Halloween and documented the creation of the costume on his blog. Nicely done!

• The Comics Waiting Room Podcast talks about Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (and a half-dozen other recent graphic novels)

• Flickr user "tvsavior" posts this photo of Gilbert Hernandez giving a talk at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival on Saturday

• Great Caesar's Post! recommends Popeye Vol. 3...

• ... and Pol Culture takes a thorough look at Popeye Vol. 2

• The Oregonian reports from the "Comics and Politics" panel that featured Spain Rodriguez, Patrick Rosenkranz, and Alison Bechdel at last weekend's Wordstock festival in Portland, OR

• Look, a groovy mid-'90s Fantagraphics house ad from J.R. Williams

• The Onion A.V. Club Comics Panel looks at Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason

• A Norwegian (I think) ode to Ivan Brunetti

• Four Color Commentary looks at the 45th volume in our Prince Valiant series

• Comics Waiting Room reviews Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum

• Link of the Month and Possibly the Year: "The book seems to have been done tongue in cheek... However I am posting this as serious as I want as many as possible to avoid this time in Earth's history."

• Here's photos of Dame Darcy's post-APE appearance at Isotope Comics...

• ...and a photo from J.R. Williams of himself with Jim Blanchard and Daniel Clowes at APE

• Nuvole Parlanti discusses (in Italian) the Ghost World graphic novel and film

• The Chicago Reader has the first review of Lilli Carré's The Lagoon

• Newsarama looks at The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez

• Sometime Comics Journal contributor Noah Berlatsky discusses his favorite parts of the latest issue (#293)