The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack joins forces with Georgetown's Annual Holiday Art Walk on Saturday, December 12. More than 100 independent artists and creative enterprises will participate in what promises to be the most festive Art Attack ever. (The Georgetown Holiday Art Walk continues on Sunday, December 13 from noon to 5:00 PM.)

Among the fun: A grand opening gala at Georgetown Music on the site of the old Georgetown Pharmacy with live music, new and used instruments and more; "Future", the second installment of The Story of Belle and Wissell and their adventures through time, featuring an animated holiday window display, activities, and seasonal party favors; Glass engraving artist Bird Kelly from Beeraphenalia showing custom pints and steins, with paintings by M. S. Corley at Full Throttle Bottles; Equinox Studios, home to over 45 artists and artisans, hosts an open house featuring "Tools of the Trade" with live music, food, beverages and conversation pieces at every turn; FRIDA/Georgetown Tile Works presents "The Third Annual Holiday Artisans Bazaar," featuring one of a kind affordable goods created by over 50 local artists & designers (continuing Sunday); Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates their Third Anniversary with an evening of art, comics, music and more featuring an international cast of artists including Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Jacques Boyreau, Dame Darcy, Ellen Forney, Femke Hiemstra, Paul Hornschemeier, Scott Musgrove, Jay Ryan, Matthew Southworth, and Jim Woodring with live music by Dame Darcy and Peter Bagge's Can You Imagine featuring Steve Fisk and DJ Russ "Fallout" Battaglia; Georgetown Art Center will present small and affordable arts and crafts by Tenly Duboise, Jethaniel "Spyder" Peterka, Amanda Dellinger and Angielena Chamberlain; Exquisite interior accoutrements at Great Stuff and Susan Wheeler Home; the debut of Georgetown Lab, an experimental space on the former site of Planet Georgetown; and much, much more.

Saturday and Sunday will also include open studios at Art At the Top of the Stairs featuring Louise McDowell, Donna Van Norman, Eunice Nammacher, and Sally Jones; Nepali, Tibetan, and Kashmiri crafts at Evergreen Guardian Imports; Deborah Stachowic and Mary Tudor at Georgetown Gardens; Mark LaFalce, Painter. On Sunday only, Bella Vitale Studio salon; and Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents a panel focusing on the exploitation film genre with Lisa Petrucci of Something Weird, cartoonist Marc Palm of Scarecrow Video, Seattle Times pop culture critic Mark Rahner, KUOW film critic and Frye Museum film curator Robert Horton, moderated by PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE editor Jacques Boyreau, followed by a book signing and reception.

For more information contact Art Attack coordinator Larry Reid. To view map visit: www.georgetownartattack.com.

The Casual Optimist has a fine, fine interview up with our own dearly beloved Jacob Covey. 

As Wednesday warriors are likely aware, New Comics Day is on Thursday this week due to the U.S. holiday last week. Two highly anticipated Fantagraphics publications are scheduled to hit comic shops:

Popeye Vol. 4: "Plunder Island" by E.C. Segar — we already quoted the critics calling this one "awesome" and "fantastic" and "practically seaworthy" and "the crown jewel in the Popeye crown" and "E.C. Segar's finest hour" and saying "If you only buy one volume in the series, blah blah blah"... check out our previews at the link above to sample the greatness.

The Comics Journal #300 — the last one for a while before we re-launch the bigger, badder version, and it's a doozy, with our most powerful lineup of artists in conversation ever, extra-fat, extra-good. Take a virtual browse at the link above. Sure to be a good conversation starter with your local shop proprietor when you go to pick it up, if they're worth their salt.

Rabbit rabbit Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Paste Magazine names Daniel Clowes's Ghost World #6 on The 20 Best Graphic Novels of the Decade

• List: At The SF Site: Nexus Graphica, Mark London Williams names Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime Hernandez as his #10 comic of 2009 (with the top 5 still TBA)

• List: Comic Book Resources is counting down the Top 100 Comic Book Storylines as chosen by reader poll. On the list so far in the 90s: "Jimmy Corrigan" and "Blood of Palomar"

• Gift Guide: At RevolutionSF, Rick Klaw includes Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons in his "Geek Gift Guide": "The incredible three hardcover boxed set celebrates one of art's funniest and most disturbing cartoonists. ... I promise every geek would be thrilled to find this under the tree. I just hope Santa doesn't throw out his back out delivering this massive collection."

• Gift Guide: Love & Maggie presents a "Los Bros Hernandez Chistmas Shopping Guide"

• Review: "[Gilbert] Hernandez is one of the four or five greatest cartoonists in the world, and it's satisfying to see him work through any plot with any restriction he'd like to place on it. The Troublemakers feels like a movie for more than its story: it's either all exterior information or nearly so, it has opening credits, it has a three-act structure, it uses a wide-panel 'shot' throughout. ... Attaching a world of significance to forms recognizable to most of us as pulp isn't a new thing, but I don't think any of the filmmakers famous for it have done it any better than Hernandez." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Plug: "Popeye Vol 4: Plunder Island: Prior to Fantagraphics’ awesome collections of E.C. Segar’s awesome comic strip, this was the only storyline from Thimble Theater I’d ever read before…in The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. Does that mean it’s some sort of classic? It should be; it’s fantastic. Anyway, the latest collection is $30 and 170 pages, and, like the first three volumes, it’s beautifully designed and so big and sturdy that it’s practically seaworthy." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

• Plug: "This is it. The crown jewel in the Popeye crown. If you only buy one volume in the series, blah blah blah. Seriously, hopefully you've been collecting all the Popeye books, because it's one of the greatest comics ever, but this volume contains what must surely be E.C. Segar's finest hour, namely, the 'Plunder Island' storyline, where in Popeye and friends search for treasure and come afoul of the Sea Hag." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Plug: "I've been in long time love with Femke Hiemstra. Her smoky and detailed fantasy landscapes are often coupled with outrageous characters, from vegetables to the floating head of Marie Antoinette. ... [Y]ou can pick up a copy of her splendid book, Rock Candy, which would make a perfect Christmas gift for the art lover or art lover to be." – J.L. Schnabel

• Plug: "The charming blend of original and well-known fairy tale characters into one slightly dysfunctional castle household only gets better as it progresses." – School Library Journal, on Castle Waiting Vol. II

• Mutual Appreciation: We love comedy genius Graham Linehan, and he loves us, as evidenced by the set dressing on The IT Crowd (not to mention interviews he's given); apparently he makes it explicit again in the bonus features to the 3rd season DVD set of the show, which we've yet to see, according to the DVD review at Den of Geek

• Things to see: More Post-it Show preview action from Anders Nilsen & Steven Weissman

• Things to see: A sort-of-new Fred the Clown strip from Roger Langridge

• Things to see: Ted Dawson of Three Men in a Tub presents E.C. Segar's original art for the August 28, 1938 Thimble Theatre (which will appear in our final Popeye volume in 2011; via The Comics Reporter)

• Things to see: Eric Reynolds comments on this link forwarded by Jason T. Miles: "I love knowing that there was a day in Fanta's past when they could call Kevin Nowlan on the phone for a last minute design job!"

Pour les design nerds francophones: French design magazine Étapes presents a video of designer Sylvain Lamy discussing the development of the typography for the French edition of Ivan Brunetti's Misery Loves Comedy from Editions Cambourakis. (Google can translate the page but not the video... yet.)

We've been remiss in reminding you that Jay Ryan, one of the many special guests at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery's 3rd Anniversary celebration on Saturday Dec. 12, appears as part of his current book tour for the new collection of his poster art, Animals and Objects In and Out of Water, published by our colleagues at Akashic Books. (You may recall from our previous announcement that this joint tour with Paul Hornschemeier and his new collection from Fantagraphics, All and Sundry, begins its West Coast leg in L.A. on Monday, Dec. 7.) Jay's posters have been a mainstay of the indie-culture scene since the good old mid-1990s and hang in the households of many aficionados of the good and interesting, including yours truly — can't wait to check out the book at the event!

Get a custom "JUMBLE" from Jeremy Eaton for a mere $50, thru Dec. 27. That's right, choose any two cartoon characters and the artist will create an 8" x 10" Custom Jumble on heavyweight manila drawing paper, featuring both of your favorites in an exclusively-styled combination. I own one of these and you should, too. Contact him through his website.

This is the last Prison Pit Book Two preview you're gonna get for awhile. Savor it, and look for the book next summer.