From the official announcement:

Mascots presents an edited version of the collected paintings from Ray Fenwick's recently published book. The works, not unlike a group of short stories, are a collection of vignettes and staccato bursts of narrative that combine to form a surreal-and vaguely familiar-parallel world. Like Fenwick's previous work, the paintings are driven by language and typography, occupying a space where visual art, comics, prose and poetry bleed into one another.

Ray Fenwick is an artist living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has shown in Canada and the U.S. and is the author of two books. His previous book, Hall of Best Knowledge , earned a nomination for "Best Avant-Garde Graphic Novel" from The Canadian Cartooning Awards. For the month of March he will attend a residency at Struts Gallery, where he will be working on new audio pieces and text paintings.

FEBRUARY 10 - MARCH 6, 2011
Opening Thursday, February 10, 6-9 PM

KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECTS
1086 Queen Street West, Toronto

More info here.

Looking forward to our collections of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson? Never seen the strip and want to see what the hubbub is about? Get a daily dose! D23: The Official Disney Fan Club is running classic Disney newspaper strips including Gottfredson's Mickey, Donald Duck by Al Taliaferro & Bob Karp, and Scamp by John Ushler. New strips every day!

Straight from Jim Woodring, it's the front jacket art for his highly-anticipated new Frank graphic novel Congress of the Animals, coming in May! Click it to see it 57% bigger.

Happy Valentine's Day! Johnny Ryan illustrates a report on global sex trends and unleashes the "Whorenado" for Vice.

Thanks to Twitter user "squidita" for posting these snaps of Jaime Hernandez's artwork in the "Novelas, Love and Other Adventures" exhibit at Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in San Jose. Death of Speedy originals! The exhibit continues through March 26 so there's still plenty of time to check it out.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009
by Tim Kreider

288-page black & white 8" x 9.5" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-398-9

Previews & Ordering Info

Tim Kreider's first cartoon collection, The Pain — When Will It End? was one of the few bastions of sanity throughout the awful aberration in American history known as the Bush Administration. The end of his second volume of political cartoons, Why Do They Kill Me?, saw its author in despair over the 2004 election. In this new volume, Twilight of the Assholes, as reality gets ever bleaker, Kreider's humor becomes increasingly apocalyptic, deranged, and hilarious. He juxtaposes the Biblical Christ with His blonde, flag-draped, machine-gun-toting American incarnation in "Jesus vs. Jeezus," proposes a third political party that represents Americans' real values in "The Sex Party," draws the dead Saddam Hussein as a mischievous invisible imp still causing trouble, and envisions the officials of the Bush administration getting their comeuppance in the grisly fashion of Dick Tracy villains. And he finds two cartoons' worth of "Reasons to Look Forward to the Next Terrorist Attack." Also included is his infamous entry into Iran’s Holocaust cartoon contest, "Silver Linings of the Holocaust."

Kreider mocks not only the evil and hapless Bush but the fecklessness of progressives, the imbecile bigotry of radical Islam, and, most of all, the dumb bovine complacency of the American voter. His art has become even more dense with gags and his writing (most recently featured in The New York Times) has never been more astute and devastating. Twilight of the Assholes is an hysterical chronicle of the end of the Era of Darkness, and, believe it or not, a heartening document of one man’s loss and tentative restoration of faith in democracy.

"Tim Kreider is the funniest man alive." — Jenny Boylan (She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders)

"[Tim Kreider] is to the satirical cartoon what Stanley Kubrick was to cinematic satire." — Mark Crispin Miller (Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election)

"He is funny and crazy and brave enough to proclaim as truths the things the rest of us are too chickenshit to say out loud." — Myla Goldberg (Bee Season)

"These cartoons are extremely, extremely fucking good." – David Foster Wallace

"Kreider's stuff is not all political, but most of what he does packs outrage: at oppressors, bigots, overlords, fools. Not for the squeamish, unless they’re too passive and need a wake-up call." — The New Haven Advocate

This past week on TCJ.com:

Rob Clough reviewed Only Skin #6, by Sean Ford; Mr. Cellar’s Attic, by Noel Freibert; and Courtship of Ms. Smith, by Alexis Frederick-Frost.

R.C. Harvey got some advice from a trio of cartoonists.

Chris Ware talked to Matthias Wivel at Komiks.dk: Part One, Part Two.

R. Fiore on Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library Vol. 20.

Rob Clough looked at John Stanley’s Nancy comic books.

In his Minis Monday column, Rich Kreiner traced a different kind of underground comics lineage via Colin Tedford’s Square Dance #4.

R.C. Harvey close-read Jan. 35 comic strips.

Our Angoulême coverage.

R.C. Harvey welcomed back Peyo and the Smurfs.

Rob Clough also looked at Tubby.

R.C. Harvey noted some recent comic-strip cameos.

Tom Crippen pondered Superman’s immigration status.

Rob Clough examined the all-ages “experiment” Solipsistic Pop #3.

R.C. Harvey: Writer Defined.

R.C. Harvey also chose Sinfest as one of his Best Comics of 2010.

Meanwhile, tcj.com’s international bloggers looked at the controversy surrounding Don Lawrence’ Storm, explained the Latin American legacies of Luiz Sá and Harvey Pekar and announced Australian comics events.

And coming next week:

Geoff Johns, DC Co-Publisher/Chief Creative Officer/writer and co-producer of the Green Lantern movie, talks to Nathan Wilson; Kristian Williams takes a ride on The Night Bookmobile; R.C. Harvey reviews the Wolverton Bible; Rob Clough examines Doug Wright’s Nipper and the underground comix zine Mineshaft; and much more.

From Green Lantern #59 (December 2010), written by Johns, penciled by Doug Mahnke and inked by Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne and Mahnke. ©2010 DC Comics

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Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

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And elsewhere:

The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum (an encore presentation of John's Act-i-vate strip at MTV Geek)

Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Lucky by Gabrielle Bell:

The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider:

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

A few items of interest from the Repaneled blog recently:

• Aviv Itzcovitz has several goes at Daniel Clowes's Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron — three here, three here

• Noah Van Sciver does Alex Robinson

• Rusty Shackles does Michael Kupperman

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Watch your step as we spiral further down the rabbit hole in the second volume in the King of the Flies trilogy, entitled The Origin of the World. [...] The unease that once crept through the residential basements now spreads vulture wings and takes flight. Volume 2 justifies the previous paranoia and displays it in full view... The Origin of the World's plots coil and ceaselessly shift; the characters tasting and testing one another with serpentine instincts. When the whole thing threatens to surrender under its bleakness, the last page morphs to resemble something akin to hope if the reader squints just right." – Alex Carr, Omnivoracious

• Review: "There is perhaps no better medium to capture the life of Roberto Clemente than graphic novel. After all his skill set when it came to playing the game of baseball was almost superhuman, highlighted by  a throwing arm that would surely make the son of Jor-El jealous. As such, it is no surprise then that illustrator/author Wilfred Santiago’s 21 — The Story of Roberto Clemente is a must read for anyone awed by the beauty of the sport. […] This graphic novel seeks to give a proper sense of wonder and the fantastic to a player whose tragic ending is often a stark reminder or our own mortality. At that it succeeds terrifically." – Andy Smith, Bugs & Cranks

• Review: "Where Chris Ware draws a billion tiny boxes to retain his feces, [Johnny] Ryan draws borders mostly so the sewage will have something to overflow. In Prison Pit each body is a busted toilet whose stagnant water births some mangled abortion dragging its placenta over the edge of the porcelain to flop wetly on the cold tiles. [...] The protagonist fights ladydactyls, giant eye creatures, robots, toothy monsters wearing Nazi death-hosen, and his own mutinous oozing hand. But really his main enemy is Ryan himself, the artist as diabolous ex machina, squatting over his creation to spew an endless stream of venomous diarrhea." – Noah Berlatsky, The Hooded Utilitarian

• Interview: Robot 6's Chris Mautner writes: "Freeway is an impressive book from an underrated talent and I was happy for the opportunity to talk to [Mark] Kalesniko about the book and his working methods." A bit from Mark: "I used for inspiration the movie Slaughterhouse Five and how the main character, unstuck in time, bounced back and forth though out his life. Also the miniseries Singing Detective where  the main character is bedridden with a skin disease and suffers from hallucinations and flashbacks. I also thought that the reader would relate to this because many of us have been stuck in traffic jams or other places where we can’t move but our mind is free to wander."