• Review: "A sweet bouquet of [Nell Brinkley's] images have been collected by Trina Robbins and Fantagraphics in The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons from 1913-1940... [T]hese full-page cartoons provide a glimpse of the color and spectacle that newspapers trafficked in before publishers decided we were worth no more than our dwindling supply of classified ads." - Steve Duin, The Oregonian

• Preview: "I can't imagine in a week this light on substantial comics offerings that you couldn't find a place in your backpack or on your car seat for the latest issue of Michael Kupperman's great series [Tales Designed to Thrizzle]." - Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter, spotlighting the week's new comics

• Staff: Seattle Weekly has word on a couple of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery doyen (and Seattle rock scene mainstay) Larry Reid's interesting extracurricular activities

On the Covered blog, our own Jason T. Miles takes a crack at a 1990s Steve Ditko monster comic. Click through for the whole thing:

Jordan Crane announced yesterday that he's just put Uptight #3 to bed. Here's a peek at a couple of pages to wet your whistle; if you missed it when we posted the astonishing cover art, go here now.

All last week and this week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes the 3rd volume of Glenn Head's Hotwire Comics anthology; Almost Silent, a hardcover compilation of some of Jason's out-of-print work; Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson; and the midcentury Italian cheesecake of Bella Donna: The Pin-Up Girls of Kremos. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

• Review: "Supermen! is an interesting book. All these knockoffs of Superman have a certain creepy charm — like an off-brand children's entertainer — and there is some art, especially by Basil Wolverton and Jack Cole, that is literally decades ahead of its time." - Paul Constant, The Stranger

• Review: "...Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers is a real revelation... Boody Rogers' stories... don't seem to follow narrative structure. They're like Robert Crumb crossed with Li'l Abner. And they are amazing. This is the book to get if you think you know anything about comic book history; it will show you something you never would have thought existed." - Paul Constant, The Stranger (same link as above)

• Preview: "Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5: Ain't nothing better than the latest from Michael Kupperman; nothing else to say." - Jog, rounding up this week's new comics

• Preview: "Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 - Michael Kupperman is the funniest man alive..." - The Rack, rounding up this week's new comics

• Preview: The Inkwell Bookstore Blog thinks that the cover for The Brinkley Girls is cool

• Interview: At RevolutionSF, Jay Willson has a Q&A with Comics Journal and future Mome contributor Noah Van Sciver. Choice quote: "I'm like the Bruce Springsteen of comics, only I'm actually really cool."

• Event: For Robot 6, Chris Mautner reports from Dash Shaw's presentations at Franklin and Marshall College's Emerging Writers Festival last week

• Things to see: Self-rejected Covered entries by Robert Goodin (from before he killed it with that Donald Duck one)

Our own Janice Headley stumbled across the following gem, which we're just going to quote wholesale from the Matador Records website:

My Worst Memory of Playing with Yo La Tengo
Bilinda Butcher, My Bloody Valentine

I have a true memory of doom descending upon me during one of the shows we played together. We were in Seattle, around 1992. I'd been chatting to James in the dressing room and got all excited at the thought of Peter Bagge (of "Hate" comics creation) being at the gig, not to mention all the other "Seattle-ites," like Hole. Well, for a start I ate too many jelly teddies while we were chatting, which was a bad start to any gig, wouldn't you say?

YLT played a storming set and then it was our turn. Behind the stage curtains waiting to go on, someone appeared with a pure grass joint, and I partook of just one drag, thinking it might settle my nerves. Anyway, we all then strolled onto the stage and oh dearie me, my jelly teddies nearly came running out of my tummy with their little hands raised in horror! I felt absolutely petrified like never before, and, looking sick-like at the set list, I realize I have to sing "Only Shallow" to open the set. When I hit my guitar, it sounds all peculiar and I just want a big trap door to open up and swallow me. Oops! And then I have to sing and I just can't, basically, I sound like Minnie Mouse on her deathbed, and feel like crying and running away. By this time Kevin is shaking his head and glowering at me from across the stage, and I want to go home. Anyway, by the end of the next song, I was fine again and quite enjoyed myself in the end, even though I never did get Peter Bagge's autograph!

With MBV finally returning here to Seattle next week, I'd be as excited to meet them as Bilinda was at the possibility of meeting Pete. Dear Bilinda, unfortunately we can't bring Pete to the show with us, but we will say "hi" on your behalf, and you're cordially invited to visit our office (and our store) while you're in town.

All last week and this week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes the anthology Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s; reprints of two volumes of The Complete Crumb Comics; Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1961-1962 (Vol. 6); and Krazy and Ignatz 1916-1918: "Love in a Kestle or Love in a Hut." (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

• Review: "...[T]he primitive funnybooks rescued from obscurity by Greg Sadowski in Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 contain within their awesomely naïve and rudimentarily brilliant pages all the seeds of the postmodern graphic novel... Compounded equally from pulp fiction, movies, newspaper strips, and sheer desperate commercial-deadline-brainstorm lunacy, these early superhero tales created their own fresh synthetic mythology and compositional tools on the fly." - Paul DiFilippo, The Barnes & Noble Review

• Review: "[Bottomless Belly Button] reads almost like a John Updike novel... [Dash Shaw] really utilizes the medium to its fullest capacity..." - Benn Ray (Atomic Books) on WYPR (Baltimore public radio - streaming audio)

• Review: "[The Wolverton Bible] is fascinating read; it's a fascinating document by one of the most important illustrators of the 20th century." - Benn Ray (Atomic Books) on WYPR (Baltimore public radio - streaming audio - same link as above)

• Review: "Fantagraphics’ collection of the four issues of Blazing Combat blew me away from the start. The size and heft of the hardback reminded me of my textbooks from my school days. And once I cracked open the book, I found myself getting a hell of an education with this one."- Tim O'Shea, Robot 6, "What Are You Reading?"

• Review: "If nothing else, Supermen! puts Fletcher Hanks’ career in perspective... These are comics designed to make you tear your hair out waiting for the next issue, just to see if these guys could top themselves.  Great fun all around." - Tom Bondurant, Robot 6, "What Are You Reading?" (same link as above)

• Review: "Jason is an expert at expressing a complex idea with simple visuals and dialogue. Most of his works contain little to no dialogue, actually -- entire stories can be read in facial expressions, twitches, color changes and movements. The entirety of Tell Me Something contains 7 lines of dialogue. It tells the story of 2 lovers and the trials they go through to be together, using dual layered story arcs differentiated simply by the panel borders to convey depth and reshape the story into an intriguing form." - The Inside Flap [Ed. note: Tell Me Something is out of print, but will be collected along with other Jason stories in a forthcoming hardcover]

• Preview: Doug Pratt and Monte Schulz have an exchange in the comments of Pratt's blog about Schulz's forthcoming novel This Side of Jordan (previewed here)

• Preview: The Kenyon Review makes note of our forthcoming Abstract Comics anthology

• Previews: Matthew Brady offers succinct commentary on two of our upcoming titles: Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 by Michael Kupperman ("This comic is funny") and A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross ("The art looks great")

• List: For Robot 6, Chris Mautner names "Six ‘retired' artists we'd like to see return to comics," including Brian Biggs ("...Frederick and Eloise [brings] a whimsical, storybook approach that never seem[s] overly twee or sweet. Indeed, [it is] often grounded by some dark undercurrents, not to mention backed by some serious artistic chops"), Dave Cooper ("Surreal, mind-warping books like Suckle, Ripple and his ongoing series Weasel, which chronicled a number of sweaty, paunchy, disturbingly neurotic and oversexed characters, had Cooper earning acclaim equal to the likes of Clowes and Ware"), and Mary Fleener ("...[S]he remains one of the most original voices in comics, with an art style that’s completely her own (no one draws a sex scene like her)." [Note to Mautner: Mary Fleener had a new comics story titled "Niacin" in Hotwire Comics Vol. 2, which we put out last year])

• Interview: At Robot 6, Tim O'Shea talks to Esther Pearl Watson about Unlovable Vol. 1. Choice quote: "I was a lot like Tammy and still am. It’s everything I fear."

• Profile: Seattle neighborhood newspaper The Ballard News-Tribune spotlights "alternative comics legend" and Ballard resident Peter Bagge

• Profile/Things to see: Goofbutton presents scans of the Bill Mauldin section in the 1977 World Book Year Book (via Spurge)

• Things to see: Buster Keaton as drawn by Kevin Huizenga for Cinefamily

• Things to see: New Vice comics from Johnny Ryan; believe it or not, one of 'em's just plain cute

• Things to see: Chubby vs. Pullapart battle royale from Ribs

I missed Record Store Day due to Stumptown, but if I hadn't, I sure would've been happy to stumble across one of these Jaime Hernandez-illustrated items:

Found via Scratchy Buckles.