Now available at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle: capacious, durable, environmentally-friendly canvas tote bags emblazoned with the likeness of Dan Pussey, the store's official mascot, as drawn by Daniel Clowes. These sturdy, smart-looking bags measure 18" x 12" x 6" -- enough room for about a dozen copies of Gary Panter's Jimbo in Purgatory, one of our largest books -- and have reinforced nylon webbing handles for your heaviest loads. Sure to last through years of comic conventions, farmer's markets, record stores, etc., all while broadcasting your excellent taste in comics and keeping pounds of paper and plastic out of landfills. Only $14.95 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery -- why not pick up a few for yourself and for gifts at our big 2nd Anniversary party & Beasts! exhibit opening this Saturday, December 13?

• Newsarama talks to Greg Sadowski, editor of our forthcoming anthology of early Golden Age superhero stories Supermen! (with a bonus deleted story)

• Dick Hyacinth's best-of-the-year long list includes his thoughts on a full baker's dozen of our 2008 releases

• The River Cities' Reader includes Robert Pollard's Town of Mirrors in its holiday recommendations of rock-related coffee table books

• At Comics Comics, Frank Santoro rediscovers an Eros Comix classic from the 1990s

Some magazine out there could do a lot worse than hire a 21-year old Australian to become their staff portraitist. For what it's worth, I really like what she's doing.

Once again this week your local comics shop is not scheduled to receive any new titles from us. Keep it tuned right here for next week's update.

Effective this week through Monday, Dec. 15, all of Jeremy Eaton's original artwork currently available at Comic Art Collective is available for just ONE-HALF the listed price.

We have a new duo of downloads with which to decorate your desktop! Just click on the size below that matches your monitor resolution -- find more info (and lots more choices) on our downloads page.

The Lagoon by Lilli Carré
800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1152 x 864 | 1280 x 960 | 1280 x 720 | iPhone

Zippy: Welcome to Dingburg by Bill Griffith
800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1152 x 864 | 1280 x 960 | 1280 x 720 | iPhone

Due later this month, The Comics Journal #295 features interviews with Brian K. Vaughn, Gipi, and John Kerschbaum along with the usual reviews, commentary, comics sections and more. Take a virtual flip-through with this preview. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

Here’s a little preview of some of the wonderful artworks you’ll find at the phenomenal BEASTS exhibition opening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday, December 13 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Cryptozoology at its finest.

Behold the seductive “Deer Woman” by Thomas Allen (in a rare group show appearance). According to The New Yorker, “Pop up art ascends to sublime heights” in Allen’s work. You have to experience this sensational piece up close to fully appreciate its alluring beauty.

The predatory beast “Chonchonyi” as imagined in this painting by Peter Bagge. Legend has it that this monster produces a melodic cry in flight. Bagge himself will provide the melody at the BEASTS reception with his new band Can You Imagine? The combo includes legendary musician and producer Steve Fisk. We can hardly imagine.

To commemorate this auspicious occasion, curator Jacob Covey created this lovely silkscreen poster image.  The 3-color print is limited to 75 signed copies, available exclusively to patrons of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery for the affordable price of only $20. (And don’t miss screen printer Art Garcia’s new work at neighboring Georgetown Tile Works.)

Also opening on Saturday is “The Story of Belle and Wissell” right around the corner at the venue that hosted the inaugural BEASTS exhibition in 2006. And if that’s not enough, our neighbors at Georgetown Records are displaying the new line of Manik skateboards by illustrious Seattle photographer Charles Peterson.

Join hosts Ellen Forney, Jim Woodring, Jacob Covey, Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard and special guest Ted Stearn for the season’s most festive holiday gala. See you this Saturday.

The 2008 Best-Of lists are rolling in fast and furious:

• Bookmunch goes Fanta-crazy this week with reviews of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw ("graphic novel of the year"), Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes ("dazzling") and Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane ("spirited")

• The Independent counts the Love and Rockets reprints Perla La Loca, Beyond Palomar and Amor Y Cohetes among the best comics of the year

• Critic and commentator Alan David Doane names The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez his Graphic Novel of the Year; Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane is his Debut of the Year; Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes is his Reissue of the Year; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell is tied for Comic Art Book of the Year; and 4 more of our titles are Other 2008 Titles of Note

• New York Magazine names Bottomless Belly Button the #2 Graphic Novel of 2008, saying "Shaw's dysfunctional-family epic is so funny and engrossing we'd expect Oprah to pick it, but for all the graphic frog sex"

• The Globe and Mail recommends Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko for holiday gift-giving

• From Steven Stwalley, here's photos of the "Hot Ink: Comic Art" show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (mmaa.org) that includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski among others

• In this video from Comicology.tv, Mort Walker talks about the history of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (look for our collection of Walker's Sam's Strip early next year)

• Publishers Weekly talks to Lilli Carré about The Lagoon

• PW also presents a 10-page excerpt from Anders Nilsen's soon-to-arrive Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes

• Wall Street Journal book critic and Laura Warholic novelist Alexander Theroux weighs in on The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. III

• The Beat goes digging through back issues of The Comics Journal, finds gold

Holy figs, this daily link post looks like one of my weekly roundups of old:

• PopMatters takes a quick look at Robert Pollard's Town of Mirrors

• PopMatters again, on Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• Iconoctlán examines The Comics Journal #293 (en Español; Google translation)

• The Austin American-Statesman's lengthy roundup of coffee-table book holiday recommendations includes Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• NuVoid wraps up the 2008 output of Robert Pollard, including Town of Mirrors

• Did you know that if you buy the Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943 (Vol. 3) DVD set you also get an exclusive Popeye mini-comic we produced with a story from our upcoming Popeye Vol. 4 collection? Booksteve noticed

• Chris Barat reviews Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!"

• Forward talks to Miss Lasko-Gross for a profile of Jewish women cartoonists

• The North Adams Transcript looks at Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch includes Abandoned Cars, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, and Jules Feiffer's Explainers on its list of "Best Books of 2008: Graphic Literature"

• Beard reviews Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Tropismes (l'Appartement) is yet another French site looking at Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw (Google translation)

• Terri Torres is excited for the new issue of Linda Medley's Castle Waiting

• On the USA TODAY Pop Candy blog, Whitney Matheson declares Lilli Carré's The Lagoon is the "Best book [she] read" last week

• Cartoonist Mark Kaufman is looking forward to our Humbug collection

• Dustin Harbin's top 10 "Best Comics of 2008" includes Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga, Popeye Vol. 3, and Bottomless Belly Button

• Here's video from Pat Moriarity's art opening at 108 Occidental Gallery in Seattle, with music from Pat and his son Jack

• Bill Willingham looks back at Coventry

• Wayno talks about contributing to our forthcoming collection of 1980s "New Wave" minicomics

• On the Comics Comics blog, Mark Newgarden & Paul Karasik need your help in dating an Ernie Bushmiller Nancy strip

• Dan Zettwoch discusses his contribution to Beasts! Book 2

• The Dallas Morning News reports on an exhibit of Bill Mauldin cartoons at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City

• Mark Mattson compares our annual catalog favorably to the Sears Wish Book -- did you get yours?