On his blog, Paul Hornschemeier discloses that he will be teaching a course in "Writing the Graphic Novel" at the University of Chicago, and as his official howdy-do to academia, he will be giving an open-to-the-public, snack-availing talk tomorrow evening. More info.

So Michael Kupperman's Snake 'n' Bacon has been eliminated in that fast-food-sponsored Adult Swim pilot-season vote-off thing. BOOOO. But now you have a chance to vote for Ben Jones's Neon Knome! YAAAY!

Last minute notice! Jaime Hernandez will be giving a keynote address at University of Texas El Paso's second-annual “El Paso in the Comics” event, at 7 PM tonight! More info here. (Via The Comics Reporter)

We are pleased to announce that Luba by Gilbert Hernandez is a finalist for a 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in their first-ever Graphic Novels category. See the complete list of finalists here. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 23, 2010. Congratulations Gilbert! A monumental honor for a monumental book.

What we have here is an illustration by Joost Swarte depicting himself and Robert Crumb in Crumb's workroom paging through Crumb's Genesis, with a little help from a certain bearded, white-robed fellow. It was produced by (I think) Griffioen Grafiek as a limited-edition giclee print and can be ordered online from Pinceel out of Belgium. Spotted by our own Jason T. Miles.

Tony Millionaire flexes his comedic chops and joins the illustrious ranks of David Lee Roth as portrayers of unsavory purveyors of ice cream in comedic short subjects, in Tony's case Lil Peskies in "Goil Trouble."

Have a look, have a click:

• Johnny Ryan's latest comic for Vice almost seems like it could be a Prison Pit prequel

• Of Renee French's daily drawings, this was an easy one to choose to feature after it thoroughly heebied my jeebies

• Steve Brodner illustrates some recent news items that would have Orwell spinning in his grave — and Orwell spinning in his grave for good measure

• A bit of Ted May fan art by Kevin Huizenga

• Dame Darcy is having another print sale/painting raffle (that's the painting above; the print is different), and also taking commissions for wedding invitations — all this and more on her latest blog update

• A 1946 illustration by Jim Flora

• Sunday's New York Times featured 4 illustrations by Lilli Carré (via her blog)

• Hey Mike Sterling & Nat Gertler, can we use this image in all of our advertisements forever and ever?

• Page 12 of Hans Rickheit 's Ectopiary

• Speaking of Hans, he painted a couple of murals in his old house

• More adventures with Alfred Hitchcock by Tim Hensley: Torn Curtain, Topaz, The Man Who Knew Too Much

• More cats-n-Proverbs from Steven Weissman

• Happy New Year 2009 from Gabrielle Bell

• A "Thing to hear": Tim Lane presents the first of the pseudo-"radio dramas" produced to accompany his next book, Folktales

Win big in today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Only the Cinema's Ed Howard begins counting down The Best Comics of the Decade: part 1 includes Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle at #52 ("...absurd scenarios proliferate throughout each issue of Kupperman's series, as he follows each loony premise through to its (il)logical end result. He's a versatile stylist as well..."), Eleanor Davis's Mome stories at #51 ("The short stories of Eleanor Davis draw on myth and horror to craft succinct, mysteriously moving little parables, like Grimm fairy tales where the "monsters" are almost always infused with pathos and feeling"), Eightball #23 by Daniel Clowes at #47 ("a self-contained epic in miniature, poking at superhero archetypes, with their ideas about 'responsibility' and 'right,' in order to tell a quiet, maudlin story of loneliness and self-isolation"), and Abstract Comics: The Anthology at #42 ("What's best about the book is how open its territory ultimately is, how much room it leaves for artists to come up with their own ideas about abstraction and sequence. It is a truly groundbreaking book that points the way towards a whole new conception of comics and challenges readers and artists alike to explore this new area.")

• Reviews: "Manchette’s brand of punk noir bears an existential, leftist tinge, with traces of Ballardian anomie. ... Opening Tardi’s adaptation [of West Coast Blues], one is quickly reassured by the faithfulness to the original novel. ... Tardi seems to have read Manchette’s mind when it came to visualizing the characters, scenery and action of the novel.... [and] his superior drafting skills are always in service to a tight rendering of the real world, from trains to forests to city streets. ... Turning to Tardi ‘s earlier work, You Are There, scripted by Forest..., we encounter a looser, sketchier style, admirably suited to the baggy-pants, fabulistic story and exhibiting similarities to the work of such artists as Moebius, Rick Geary, Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Gorey. Outbursts of calculated surrealism complement his unswerving attention to the quotidian. The beautiful and sensitive architectural renderings, as well as shots of nature — fields, a lake, birds, trees — contrast with the goofiness of our protagonist to good effect. ... Forest’s 1979 tale exudes a fin de Sixties, fey whimsicality. Think The Mouse That Roared crossed with Gormenghast and The Prisoner. Beckett-like soliloquies and Pinteresque dialogue round out the ambiance." – Paul Di Filippo, The Barnes & Noble Review

• Review: "This generous volume reprints Maakies strips beginning early in this decade. ... As such, [Drinky Crow's Maakies] Treasury really does represent an overflowing bounty of absolutely primo Millionaire and stands as an invaluable, one–stop companion to Pre-Millennial Maakies for devotees. Newcomers, however, should understand that their sense of humor will be expanded, pulled… actually, think of a medieval rack where subjects were strapped in and stretched to shocking, heretofore inconceivable lengths." – Rich Kreiner, The Comics Journal

• Review: "Jason is a painfully good comic creator – the man has a phenomenal knowledge of pacing, a sense of humour that’s darker than Darth Vader in a mine at midnight and deceptively simple figurework that says a shitload with very little. The stories collected in Low Moon are mostly full of that black, black humour. ... If you’re not reading Jason’s stuff, then you don’t really like comics, because this shit is as pure as it gets." – Bob Temuka, The Tearoom of Despair

• Plug: O Canada! Librarie D&Q spotlights new arrivals The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. and Mome Vol. 17

• Contest: As hinted at on Friday, My Love for You Is a Stampede of Horses is giving away copies of Esther Pearl Watson's Unlovable Vols. 1 & 2 to one lucky randomly-selected person

Just a note that we just finished shuffling things around on the front page of fantagraphics.com, so it might look a bit different than you've gotten used to — hopefully the new layout is a bit cleaner and more logical in its arrangement and emphasis. Let us know your thoughts.

The official announcement is as follows: