Your daily dose of eyeball kicks:

• Holy smokes, this Dave Cooper painting, titled February, is part of the group show The Devil Made Me Do It curated by Industrial Squid at WWA Gallery in Culver City

• I like the composition of this drawing of Helvella lacunosa in a cemetary by Debbie Drechsler

• Some Pim & Francie fan art by YouTube user Danny2113182

• Artwork by Sergio Ponchione is used in the stage set for the performance for which this video is the trailer; Sergio's blog post also includes a small newspaper spot illustration he did

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot

• A teaser panel and outtake page from the last chapter of Derek Van Gieson's Mome story "Devil Doll," plus a sketchbook page (not shown here)

Let's see what Online Commentary & Diversions are in store for us today:

• Review: "The Troublemakers is something of a titular understatement. These guys aren’t trouble, they’re a disaster waiting to happen. ... It’s an exquisite story. With the characters locked in a tussle of greed and deceit, Hernandez makes his writing craft look effortless. The script is low-key and natural, the characters three-dimensional and interesting." – Grovel

• Review: "...[T]here seemed to be something dangerous, something man was not meant to trifle with, something unnatural, in concentrating all that uncut hilarity in one place [in Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1]... At its basal level, Kupperman’s sense of humor starts with a susceptible contemporary sensibility driven into survival mode by the open floodgates of mass culture, a modern consciousness threatened by amusement and diversion. The strategic response is one of aggressive accretion, grasping at straws and flotsam and winding up with some very odd however buoyant accumulations." – Rich Kreiner, "Yearlong Best of the Year," The Comics Journal

• Review: "[The] Unclothed Man [in the 35th Century A.D.] is an interesting, if quirky, collection of the work of a cartoonist who is still getting stronger and more confident." – Andrew Wheeler, ComicMix

• Plug: The Gosh! Comics Blog says Chocolate Cheeks is "Steve Weissman at his most disgusting and delightful."

• Events: Jessica Abel gives a talk at Marshall University in Huntington, WV on Thursday, Feb. 25 — bring your old Artbabes

• Pirates: Ben Catmull warns that Monster Parade has been reprinted without permission in Croatia

WHOA.

Joe Alterio of the blog Indirect Collaboration (associated with the South by Southwest Interactive Panel) talks with Charles Burns and Gary Panter about their ongoing collaborative jam comics (like Pixie Meat, above). A sample:

Is there something about collaborative art that isn't there with solo art? Is it useful, or just a parlor game?

GP: The Jack Kirby unimind.

CB: Collaboration for me is about letting go of all my control and forcing myself to explore a different perspective. Although we share similar interests, Gary constantly comes up with ideas and images I could never possibly imagine -- that's when it gets good.

(via Hermenautic Circle)

Here's something to keep an eye on: John Orlow has a series of video interviews with the likes of Tim Hensley, John Pham & Sammy Harkham, Lisa Hanawalt, and Paul Hornschemeier (above), who tipped us off to their existence via his blog. They're posted on the Royal Jelly blog and in high res on Orlow's Vimeo page. Stay tuned for future installments to see if he gets out of the H's.

Look what we just found a stash of in our warehouse — published in 1997 and thought to be out of stock for years:

Busy Girls! A Kinky Coloring Book
by Jeremy Eaton

32-page black & white magazine-size comic book • $3.95
Order now!

A unique, oversized coloring book just like Mom used to buy you — only dirtier. Beloved alternative cartoonist Jeremy Eaton puts a modern, interactive, and empowering spin on the old-fashioned girlie pin-up. Join Kinky Spectrum and her colorful girlfriends as they take on the chores of the world: repairing telephone lines, taking spacewalks, fighting fires, pole vaulting, hunting, painting portraits, delivering milk, walking dogs, and so on... all forgetting just one thing — their clothes! A fun and dare we say feminist frolic — crayons not included.

See pages from this comic and read more about it on Jeremy Eaton's blog!

Heading into comic shops today (snow, truck crashes, and other factors permitting):

Almost Silent
by Jason

304-page black & white/duotone 6.5" x 8.75" hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-315-6

Douglas Wolk recommends it at Comics Alliance: "A $25 collection of four early books by the dry-witted Norwegian cartoonist Jason, involving animal-faced people, Frankenstein, true love, and Earth being overtaken by zombies..." Newsarama says "This should look fine sitting next to Low Moon on a bookshelf." (Yes it does.) Jog says it contains Jason's "secret masterpiece, You Can't Get There from Here, a beautifully paced, quietly experimental slash of emotional agony by way of vintage Frankenstein imagery, and my choice for best comic of 2004" and calls it "A good overall sampler of an excellent stylist in the mature form..." Robot 6's Chris Mautner says "as the title suggests these are mostly wordless stories, apart from the occasional word balloon. They're also all very good and if you haven't had a chance to encounter Jason's work yet this is a fine place to do so," which is so nice we can forgive them for using the preliminary cover art.

Don't just take their word for it — check out our previews, and check the sitch with your local shop.

UPDATE: I shoulda checked Twitter before posting this! Meltdown Comics made it a pick of the week, Atomic Books didn't get theirs yet, and UGO blurbed it: "Pretty decent week for books, folks, and I say that just because I'm psyched for the Jason collection from Fantagraphics... he works magic."

The Hammer Museum's website has posted a video of Gary Panter's Jan. 21 lecture on "the relationship between comic art and fine art painting in the 20th century."

For me, Gary pushes all the right buttons as a painter. If you haven't yet picked up that art book that Picturebox put out (and it's a god damn hell of a deal right now), you're missing out.

UPDATED with embedded video.

Adult Swim is pitting a bunch of pilots against each other in an elimination tournament. Up right now: Snake 'n' Bacon by Tales Designed to Thrizzle creator Michael Kupperman vs. something with T-Pain and throwing babies through plate glass windows. At stake: the "most popular one gets on TV" — does that mean the pilot gets aired or the series gets picked up? I would assume the latter, meaning S'n'B gets a second chance. Go, vote!

Holy cats!

• "Purreth"?! Steven Weissman , you genius you

• Lilli Carré presents a teaser from her comic in the February issue of The Believer (above, a teaser of the teaser)

• Speaking of teasers, Michael Kupperman tweeted this panel from Tales Designed to Thrizzle #6 5 minutes after the issue's completion

• At Covered, Noah Van Sciver interprets his brother Ethan

• Speaking of Covered, Laura Park does X-Men #150 for the Covered Art Show

• Another "page from the vaults" on Gabrielle Bell's Lucky blog

• Meathaus spotlights the work of Ignatz-er Marco Corona