I don't think I've taken a trip to New York City in the last ten years without making a stop at Jim Hanley's Universe. I wish I could stop by tomorrow. If you're near one, they could use your patronage. Preferably in the form of Fantagraphics books, but that's up to you...

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...[T]he [Comics] Journal returns in a new bricklike bookshelf format (seriously, this thing has like 600 pages!), anchored by a massive Robert Crumb interview, and a whole freakin’ lot of really strong criticism. I most especially liked the Cerebus retrospective by Tim Krieder.... Great great great read!" – Brian Hibbs, The Savage Critics

• Review: "The artists that create worlds that start with the alphabet — these are the ones who have been getting in my head lately, motivating me to sort through my response to their art and settle my own ideas on alphabets. Mascots by Ray Fenwick is a great place to start. The book announces itself boldly — it is small, but its hot pink cloth cover is difficult to ignore. The title breaks across a few lines, so it is less a word than a jumble of letters — a mascot for the word 'Mascot,' so to speak. The book is appropriately titled: from the very beginning, everything announces itself as something else – forms are always changing, names are invented 'mercifully' (to use one of the narrators’ parlance) for things that are unnamable, faces that smile when the book is held in one direction are revealed as faces that frown when the book is flipped. The book conveys a sense of being stuck just outside of where everything makes sense and fits together." – Jordan Hurder, Chance Press

• Opinion: I don't think Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle knew about our upcoming series of Pogo collections when he wrote his reminiscences about the strip — "Pogo had it all: love, fear, friendship, ambivalence, pails of water, morality, plus a love of high-flown language and, not incidentally, wonderful draftsmanship" — and bemoaned the scarcity and high prices of past collections (via The Daily Cartoonist)

• Interview (Audio): Mome contributor Laura Park is the guest on the latest episode of The Ink Panthers podcast

The September 2011 issue of monthly manga magazine Comic Beam contains the landmark 100th serialized chapter of Shimura Takako's Wandering Son, featured (as one might hope) on the cover. We got some catching up to do!

She's also revealed the cover to a new 28-page comic which is debuting in Japan in a few days — if any fluent Japanese speakers would like to translate the details at those links and post them in the comments, we'd be most grateful!

Drew Friedman posted a roundup of recent illustration jobs on his blog, some of which we've already shared here but some of which is new, including...

...Keef! for Readers Digest...

...and Mayor of London Boris Johnson & British PM David Cameron posed as the "British Gothic" couple, for British GQ. Also don't miss the portrait of Drew's uncle.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 (Vol. 16)
by Charles M. Schulz

344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-471-9

The Complete Peanuts 1979-1982 Box Set
by Charles M. Schulz
designed by Seth

two 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-472-6

"The early '80s were an uncertain time for Peanuts — looking at this volume, you can sometimes see Charles Schulz coasting on his innate gifts and barely bothering with joke-writing. At other times, he's trying different kinds of humor than he'd worked with before: more absurdity, more formalist gags. This isn't 'classic' Peanuts by a long shot, and it still pretty obviously deserves its place at the top of the all-time poll." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance

"I liked Lynn Johnston's Peanuts introduction, as it focuses on Schulz's resistance to getting older and the appeal of having an entire world completely in your control." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"Here is the book you should be paying attention to, in comic shops on Wednesday... Fantagraphics continues their fantastic reprinting of the entirety of Charles Schulz' classic comic strip." – Dave Ferraro, Comics-and-More

Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954
edited by Greg Sadowski

432-page full color 7.5" x 10.5" softcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-408-5

"An anthology of early comics by the master-without-a-masterpiece, from the early post-superhero period of his career--romance comics, as well as more violent genres. Edited by Greg Sadowski, who's really good at this particular kind of book." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance

"This is one nice-looking book, certainly the one I'd place my greedy paws on for a look-see in a comics shop excellent enough to carry it. Greg Sadowski always does the job. It's intriguing to me how elusive an appraisal of Alex Toth's work has become despite the work having among its primary virtues directness and simplicity." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

And at The Comics Journal, Joe McCulloch's...

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Editor Greg Sadowski returns with Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954, a 432-page collection of Toth things bolstered by a 1968 interview and the now-familiar heavily illustrated Sadowski endnotes; $39.99. The Complete Peanuts Vol. 16: 1981-1982 will probably be exactly that, with a foreword by Lynn Johnston; $28.99."

Our warehouse manager Nico dug up this video of Will Elder's son-in-law Gary VandenBergh speaking on the phone with Grateful Dead frontman and delicious-ice-cream inspiration Jerry Garcia about Garcia's love for Elder's EC Comics and post-MAD work. It seems a good bet that part of this interview will find its way into VandenBergh's in-progress documentary about Elder.

Lynn Johnston, who already shared her wonderful foreword for the new volume of The Complete Peanuts, shares some additional thoughts on Charles Schulz and his strip in this installment of her video podcast. (Via The Daily Cartoonist.)

Fantagraphics Books and the Ninkasi Brewing Company are proud to present... METALHAUS!

For one night only, join Portable Grindhouse editor Jacques Boyreau, along with Darren Aboulafia and Tim Colley, for a "designer mess-up of VHS flotsam, hipster kitsch, and remastered live shows from seminal provocateurs like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Roxy Music, P.I.L., The Clash, and, oh yeah, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, AC/DC."

Oh, and did I mention... there will be a special guest appearance by Killbot, a 9-foot-tall killer robot! Capitol Hill, you are doomed.

The Metalhaus reign of TV-trash-terror starts at 10:00 PM on Saturday, August 20th, at the Northwest Film Forum [1515 12th Ave, Seattle].  You do not want to miss this.

Ellen Forney & Jim Woodring at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, 03/08

This weekend, the Boise Art Museum unveils a new exhibit that is right down our alley: Comics at the Crossroads: Art of the Graphic Novel.

The exhibition spotlights 40 different comic book artists from the Pacific Northwest, including our own Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, Shannon Wheeler, and Colleen Coover. We're also excited to see Fanta-friends David Lasky and Matthew Southworth included in the line-up!

Included in the exhibit will be original artwork, unpublished drawings, book covers, and more!

A preview party for Comics at the Crossroads is happening this Friday, August 19th at 5:30 PM, and the exhibit runs from August 20th to November 27th at the Boise Art Museum [670 Julia Davis Drive, Boise, Idaho].

Robert Goodin shows newcomer Malachi Ward how great it is to be in Mome!

Mome 22 introduces a slew of first-time contributors, and today, we continue our spotlight on these newcomers with a new favorite of mine, Malachi Ward! Malachi was gracious enough to spend some time signing with us at San Diego Comic-Con, despite the fact that Mome 22 was delayed in customs and didn't make it after all. Quite clearly, he is awesome.

Malachi debuted this gorgeous self-published comic at SDCC.  If you turn it over, it has an entirely different cover and different story.  I tried to convince Malachi that he could trick people into buying two copies that way, but he is far too nice for that kind-of trickery.

Malachi also does a collaborative comic with Matt Sheean titled Expansion. Above is a sneak peek at Expansion Part Three, which they plan to debut at APE 2011!

And here's a sneak peek at his contribution to Mome, Vol. 22! Don't you wanna see more? Well, pre-order now! And stay tuned as we introduce you to more first-time Mome artists on the FLOG!