Photo credit: our own Renee French!

The great Jim Woodring is down in Australia, and if you missed him at GRAPHIC this past weekend, don't fret!

On Thursday, August 25th, Jim will be doing a free talk at the Earthed at Tanks Arts Centre, as part of the Cairns Festival, an annual arts and culture festival in North Queensland. It's his first time back to the festival since 2007, so don't miss it!

And then on Sunday, August 28th, Jim will be taking part in the Melbourne Writers Festival! Join him at 4:00 PM at the Ian Potter Centre for an hour-long discussion of his work.

UPDATE! Thanks to commenter Charles C. Good for the following additional information:

"He'll be in Melbourne for more than just that one event. He's also doing a second discussion and there's also a night-time event where he and a few other artists will be drawing in front of a crowd while a live band plays. You can see the details for all three events here."

When it rains ink, it pours! Fan Ben Dawson shared his Jaime Hernandez Love and Rockets tattoo with us on Twitter, saying "a pretty poor photo but you get the idea." I like how it works with the rest of the sleeve. Thanks Ben!

More tattoo fun for you today, via Facebook:

Melissa Crosslin Powers shared this beautiful Drinky Crow-in-space design inked by Dennis Del Prete at Providence Tattoo on our wall...

...and on the Tattoosday blog, via the Love and Rockets Facebook page, comes this Jaime Hernandez panel inked on "Steve" by En'vie Ink in the East Village of NYC.

Daniel Clowes fan Kevin Scully shared this pic of his brand-new tattoo of the Value Ape mascot from Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron with us on Twitter just in time for us to tell him — and all of you — about this: our pal Alvin Buenaventura, who's editing the forthcoming book The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist for Abrams, is searching for any and all tattoos of Clowes artwork for possible inclusion in the book! See all the submission details here, and share your Eightball ink with the world!

Esperanza: A Love and Rockets Book by Jaime Hernandez is dropping in comic shops this week, and the PREVIEWSworld website offers an exclusive look at 5 pages from the book!

Editor Alex Chun and designer Jacob Covey's new collection of vintage girlie cartoons The Pin-Up Art of Humorama wiggles its way into comic shops on Wednesday and PREVIEWSworld offers up a head-turning 5-page sneak peek!

Love and Rockets: New Stories was named Best Continuing or Limited Series at the 2011 Harvey Awards earlier tonight! Congrats to the Hernandez Brothers for this well-deserved win! And in further good news for Jaime, The Art of Jaime Hernandez was recognized as Best Biographical, Journalistic or Historical Presentation — kudos to author Todd Hignite. (Looks like The Beat was the first to report the full list of winners.)

If you don't already have last year's issue of the series, which garnered the honor, we're currently offering it at 25% off, to celebrate the Harvey honor and also as part of our Ignatz Award Nominees sale. We're also offering a special deal where you can get all 4 issues of the series, or different pairs of issues, for 25% off. So if you're not caught up on the series, now is the time!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "I find myself wondering how long Prison Pit can continue. I don’t really know what’s going on beyond a series of beautiful, awesome things, but that’s reason enough for me to continue loving it." – Nick Gazin, Vice

• Review: "Move over Tintin, Gil Jordan is here to rock! This book is a nice surprise. There’s mystery. There’s a ton of action. There’s really hip looking artwork. Put those three things together and what else do you need from a title? Gil Jordan: Murder By High Tide collects two tales of the classic comic by Tillieux... and doesn’t disappoint in any way, shape, or form.... Both stories are solid detective tales. Each one engaging and a pleasure no matter what age you are. Even more impressive is the art.... Gil Jordan feels like real Europe, where not everything is pretty.... A highly recommended pick up, out on stands now." – Drew McCabe, ComicAttack.net

• Plugs: Martha Cornog of Library Journal spotlights some of our upcoming releases in the latest "Graphic Novels Prepub Alert":

Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder by Walt Kelly: "'We have met the enemy and he is us.' Pogo Possum's lament from the 1971 Earth Day strip could be Kelly's most enduring and, unfortunately, accurate legacy. Various Pogo collections have appeared in the past, but the entire daily, plus Sunday run, has never been systematically collected as Fantagraphics is doing in 12 volumes."

Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons: "O'Connor was past mistress of disturbing Southern fiction, the grotesques and violence of flawed lives. But — not making this up — this icon of American literature wanted to be a cartoonist while growing up and drew throughout high school and college. Learning narrative techniques and caricature in the process, she worked in both pen-and-ink and linoleum cuts, lampooning student life and current events issues of the early 1940s. Developing as a visual precursor to her prose, her art suggests a nastily amusing cross between James Thurber and Marjane Satrapi."

The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics, ed. by John Benson: "No, these aren't parodies published in Mad magazine. They're parodies inspired by MAD, published in copycat wannabes like Crazy, Whack, Unsane, and Bughouse whose backers were looking to tap into MAD's popularity. Needless to say, the work is not of MAD caliber, but sometimes it's just as funny parodies of films, TV shows, comic strips, novels, plays, ads, classics, and historical vignettes. Look for dense panels crammed with background gags and some familiar artists — like Will Elder, who drew for MAD, too."

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web:

---

Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size):

Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

And elsewhere:

Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new udpates):

It's Not Easy Being a Man by Nate Neal for PRZman

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

ComicAttack.net are giving away a copy of Sibyl-Anne Vs. Ratticus by R. Macherot to one lucky contest winner! Drew McCabe says "We fell in love with the book... a few weeks back. Now Fantagraphics (Sibyl-Anne’s awesome publisher here in the states) and ComicAttack.net are giving away a free copy of the book for your reading pleasure!" Entries are due by Sept. 1 — click here for all the contest rules.