Kevin Church has some suggestions for us to help Jason's books sell better in the Direct Market. (Also seen on ¡Journalista!)

Over at the Stranger's website, our own Ellen Forney has teamed up with the Stranger's Kelly O to talk about the R. Crumb show that just opened at the Frye Museum here in Seattle. I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but I will be listening and so should you. 

I could go on and on about how great the Crumb exhibition is, but simply put, it might be the greatest comic art exhibition I've ever seen and if you like comics enough to read this blog and are anywhere near Seattle, you're out of your mind if you don't make a special trip to the Frye in the next two months.  

And speaking of Forney, we have this to look forward to next Saturday, Feb. 9:

Visiting our office earlier today:

"Seeing that exhibit silenced a gong that's been ringing in my head for 45 years." 

Important news for our overseas customers: since the U.S. Postal Service no longer offers Surface Mail to international addresses, we can no longer offer this service to our customers. We looked far and wide to find the most affordable alternative, and effective immediately, our standard shipping option for most orders to addresses outside North America will be Global Mail, a service of DHL. Delivery times for this service are in the 2-3 week range. (The smallest and largest orders will be sent Air Mail.)

We have also reconfigured our international Air Mail shipping charges, and we're happy to say that in some cases they are lower than before!

See our Shipping Charges & Information page for all the new charges.

For 20/20 Club members, this unfortunately means that we can no longer offer free shipping outside the U.S. However, we still want to be able to offer you a good deal on shipping, so effective immediately we will be offering 50% OFF our regular international rates for 20/20 Club members. We've crunched the numbers and by offering 50% off the regular rates we are able to provide you with roughly the same amount of savings as you would get with free Surface Mail shipping, with the advantage that you'll receive your order much sooner!

Castle Waiting Vol. II #10
By Linda Medley

This issue: Jain, Tolly and Simon get some unexpected help when they find an unpleasant surprise in the Castle's hidden passageways, while the other castle folk learn how not to construct a doorway.

24-page black & white comic book $3.95
Order Now!

Jim Blanchard is offering this new, limited edition giclée print of Redd Foxx, over at his website. Only 12 printed -- at $36, it's a steal.

The New Yorker has a flickr pool with entries in their aforementioned Eustace Tilley redesign contest. I was partial to this one, courtesy robotalphabet:

And here's a fine contribution from our own Wilfred Santiago:

At the Thought Balloonists blog, Craig Fischer offers an in-depth analysis of Thierry Groensteen's theories of comics semiotics and structure, using this page from Jason's (out of print) graphic novel Hey, Wait... as an example: