Strips for you, strips for you, we've got weekly strips for you...

Art appreciation in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

..."the mammajamma is IN" in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

...and more diplomacy with Barack H. Obama in this week's strip from Steven Weissman!

Oh lordy, I felt like I was never going to get through this installment of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview/Reviews/Contest: The Seattle Geekly podcast visits Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery ("full of dangerous amounts of awesome") and talks to curator Larry Reid as part of their current episode's focus on "geek gifts"; plus reviews of Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1 ("If you're interested in the history of the comics genre, this is a must-have") and Hans Rickheit's The Squirrel Machine ("steampunk style mashed up with H.R. Giger... the art is amazing"). Plus, they're having a contest giving away a copy of Strange Suspense!

• List: Graphic Novel Reporter begins their Best of 2009 survey of educators and comics pros; so far A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross ("Lasko-Gross’ words and pictures felt incredibly authentic") and Luba by Gilbert Hernandez have been named

• Review: "Rolling in like a slow, fuzzed-out guitar line from an Orange-brand amp, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book lives up to the good vibes promised in its title. ... Having recently finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice and Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, I couldn't help but consider The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book as a distant third-cousin to those titles. ...The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a weekend read, best consumed with your feet propped up, opposable digits or not." – Alex Carr, Omnivoracious (Amazon.com)

• Review: "Paul Hornschemeier excels at a sort of cryptic-cute comic that is better read than described. It's a blend of darkness and sharply delineated perfectionism that, whether he likes it or not, sometimes brings to mind his Chicago contemporary Chris Ware What he knows, though, is that he can go places Ware can't — Hornschemeier's style is every style. ... His diversity of styles is most apparent in All and Sundry: Uncollected Work 2004-2009... It's just a stew of stuff that, like the best sketchbooks, offers an intimate invitation to spy on the ramblings of a formidable creative." – Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "For being a company that puts out the reprints of one of the safest comics of all time, Peanuts, Fantagraphics sure lives on the edge of the comics medium, particularly in the realm of anthologies. Blab! is just such an anthology, featuring a variety of visual quirks that hover closer to straight up art pieces than comics work, but still do not seem out of place with the more narrative pieces that slide between the pictorial pages. ...[T]here's probably someone for everyone in Blab!, if you take the time to look." – Panel Patter

• Review: "Richard Sala’s reinvention of Snow White is a sparkling macabre gem. The 2-color art glows in handsome sepia that is pitch perfect for this delightfully demented tale of a strange land. Sala populates Delphine with cast of horror carnival rejects that is diverse enough to both excite and confound the imagination. This issue [#3]’s creepy locales: dark tunnels, a creepy house, and a gloomy castle are the true stars of this chapter. They make this scary tale an absolute winner. ...[Grade] A" – Leroy Douresseaux, Comic Book Bin

• Reviewer: A new book review from Laura Warholic author Alexander Theroux for The Wall Street Journal, this time of an interesting-sounding collection of "literary invective" called Poison Pens

• Plug: "I grew up in the video age and I’m still in awe of the technology that first allowed me to watch thousands of movies in the privacy of my own home. Call me sentimental and nostalgic, but when I first got wind of Jacques Boyreau’s upcoming book Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box it made me giddy with excitement." – Kimberly Lindbergs, Cinebeats

• Events: Graphic Novel Reporter has photos of C. Tyler giving her presentation at the Miami Book Fair last weekend

• Things to see: Two from Lilli Carré — a new animated drawing and a peek at her strip in the new issue of The Believer

• Things to see: Some great new stuff from Olivier Schrauwen recently, too

Long before Low Brow caught on, Fantagraphics Books published LOOSE TEETH, a pop surrealist masterpiece by Brian Sendelbach and Scott Musgrove. The only drawback to the comic book was that it was 10 years ahead of its time.

Sendelbach continues to pursue a successful career in comics, while Scott Musgrove has become one of the most highly regarded painters in the Low Brow movement. His alluring renderings of crypto-zoological creatures can be found in THE LATE FAUNA OF EARLY NORTH AMERICA: THE ART OF SCOTT MUSGROVE. Fans of Fantagraphics BEASTS! franchise will find this book fascinating.

Scott Musgrove will be available to sign copies of the book as a guest at the wild 3rd Anniversary celebration at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, December 12. He'll join Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Dame Darcy, Femke Hiemstra, Paul Hornschemeier, Jay Ryan, Jim Woodring, and more. Watch this space for updates!

As part of our festive 3rd anniversary celebration, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents a panel discussion focusing on PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE on Sunday, December 13 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Five distinguished experts in the field will screen short clips from their favorite exploitation films and discuss its influence on their work, as well as the broader social implications of the genre.

Panelists include artist Lisa Petrucci (KICKASS KUTIES) of Something Weird, cartoonist Marc Palm of Scarecrow Video, Seattle Times pop culture critic Mark Rahner with film critic and curator Robert Horton, the co-writer of horror comic ROTTEN. The panel is moderated by PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE editor Jacques Boyreau and will be followed by a book signing and reception. Admission is free as always.

Don't wait till then. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is open daily at 1201 S. Vale Street just south of downtown Seattle. Phone 206.658.0110.

The new episode of the Inkstuds podcast is a special treat: an all-music show featuring music by cartoonists. The playlist includes: The Action Suits! Peter Bagge's Can You Imagine?! Al Columbia's The Francies! The mysterious Extravagant Bachelor! The Crumb Family! Archer Prewitt! Chris Ware! Paul Hornschemeier's Arks! Mary Fleener's Wigbillies! And (drum roll)... Blueshammer! Awesome.

A 20-minute documentary which shares a name with our book, in two parts on YouTube.

Link trail: Robot 6 <– Mike Lynch

Another page from Johnny Ryan's in-progress Prison Pit V.2! 

Jacob Covey knows his shit...

As part of our ongoing excitement for our soon-to-arrive giant 3-volume set Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, we're pleased to present two exclusive sneak peeks at the book!

First, read Neil Gaiman's delightful Introduction (found in the second book; Hef's is in the first one) on our website right here.

Next, download an exclusive 25-page PDF excerpt containing all of Wilson's strips from 1958-1959, including a series of strips spoofing Sherlock Holmes (8 MB). Enjoy!

No reason.