Oops, I put yesterday's update together but forgot to click "publish." Here's a two-fer, then:

• Review: Rain Taxi says Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw is one of the best graphic novels of 2008

• Event: Chapman University in Orange, CA has an exhibit of original comic art by Tony Millionaire, Jeffrey Brown and Adrian Tomine currently showing through March 13

• News: On her blog, Ellen Forney celebrates the news that I Love Led Zeppelin is to be published in a Czech edition

• Things to see: New sketchbook drawings and comics by Anders Nilsen

• Things to see (and buy): Prints by John Hankiewicz

Friday is new webcomics day! First up, Johnny Ryan's Blecky Yuckerella to the rescue, sort of, in this week's strip.

And in this week's installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures: the best laid plans...

And don't forget to catch up on our current 5-day chunk of Martin Kellerman's hilarious Swedish smash-hit Rocky, updated Monday-Friday! This week: celebrating New Year's, Rocky-style.

Our collection of Sam's Strip contains two introductory essays by the strip's creators, which we've placed online for you to read and enjoy while you're waiting for the book to be released (any day now): "How Sam's Strip Began" by Jerry Dumas and "My Time with Sam's Strip" by Mort Walker. Together they comprise a Rashomon-like tale of the strip's run.

The tri-fold signature plate shown above (front and back -- click here and here for better views) that comes with Humbug: Limited Signed Edition is currently winging its way between Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth as they apply their signatures to it. (While they're hard at work, you can reserve your copy today.)

 An American in Paris! Can I buy you a fancy lunch? Snails? How do you work this thing!?! Oh boy... that's right! Even though I was upright my fingers were fast asleep. Wish I could tell you these were the only misfires on my camera...

These photos are from my second day in Paris. I woke up at 7am (10pm Seattle time) and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast of a large roll, croissant, cereal and... another croissant. For the record, every morning I consumed AT LEAST 3 to 4 members of the bread family. My plan for the day was to find a LARGE CUP OF COFFEE*, hopefully several and to walk ALL OVER Paris (by days end I'd walked close to 15 miles by my dirty American reckonin').

 *Most French coffee is small... espresso and the like... I hail from the Northwest; our coffee comes in buckets.

I took MANY photos during my hike around Paris, none of which I'm going to share (bore you with). If you've never been to Paris click here .

By early evening I made my way to the 4th arrondissement where Dash Shaw was signing the French edition of Bottomless Belly Button at the fantastic comic book shop Super Heros.

As you approach Super Heros you see this giant Jacques Tardi billboard... honestly, it's things like this that make Paris great. Why would there be a comic book shop in Paris called Super Heros with Tardi imagery for signage?

Yes, in France there is Tintin type everywhere and it's awesome.

Super Heros' storefront.

Inside we find Dash Shaw and Editions çà et là éditeur Serge Ewenczyk. It was a surprising relief to speak some American (not English, American). When I first saw Dash I had trouble navigating the word "Hey." Serge was a godsend and took us to a nice little place where we had crêpes (mine was called the "Toronto" and came with a sausage patty and fried egg). 

At Super Heros they had a limited edition Charles Burns / Killoffer print!

Okey, hold on tight, we're going to do some time traveling.

The following photos were taken the day after Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême ended and I was back in Paris, where it had snowed.

The only reason I took this photo was to prove to my Grandpa that it snowed in Paris.

Lets get one thing straight. Paris was lousy with Obama propaganda . Everwhere I looked I saw t-shirts proclaiming "My President is Black." I couldn't help but wonder if tacit French rasicsm extends to Obama or not. I asked a few expats and they all responded with fishy shrugs.

Moving right along... Since I was in Paris I decided I should go visit Centre Georges Pompidou...

... to read some comix! Courtesy André Breton and co.

 Just as I was about to leave Centre Georges Pompidou I spotted a flyer for a talk to be given by Joe Dog aka Anton Kannemayer, Konradski aka Conrad Botes and Joe Daly. The talk was centered around the amazing Bitterkomix and it was fantastic. I highly recommend all of their work.

On my way home I spied this...

 ... some French smart alec demanding Jordan Crane's NON #6.

More to come.

I didn't find any links yesterday, so there was no update (in case you were wondering). Today, however:

• Review: Beyond Race Magazine says that Deitch's Pictorama by the brothers Deitch is "entertaining, as well as a unique way to read comics"

• Review: Sean T. Collins presents his review of Mome Vol. 4 that originally ran in The Comics Journal in 2006

• Review: The Groovy Age of Horror examines the psychology of Fletcher Hanks and I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (link via Sean T. Collins)

• Blurb: Thanks to Mike Lynch for hyping Humbug

• Things to see: Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents a whole bunch of vintage Barry Windsor-Smith art

• Things to see (and buy): A new blog of drawings for sale by Matthias Lehmann

• Things to see (and buy): Johnny Ryan drew a new strip to promote his Angry Youth Comix dolls from Span of Sunset

On the Covered blog, our own Eric Reynolds takes on Moon Knight vintage 1982.

Emailed to me this morning by my dear ol' pal, Tony Millionaire: "I'll be coming to Seattle in May, we should have a good time. I'm going to punch your baby in the face, teach her a lesson about hard reality." 

Looking forward to it, man!