Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Special Exits stands out at one of 2010’s best comic books, a fitting tribute to Joyce Farmer’s parents that tackles, head on, the heartbreaking inevitable process of losing one's parents. The result is one of the most human and most affecting comics of recent memory..." – Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Review: "...Usagi Yojimbo is a work of pure joy ... I’ve waited with fingers crossed for a sufficient entry point into Sakai’s ever-broadening world, and thankfully, one couldn’t ask for a more perfect red carpet than Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition. ...[F]or those waiting idly by for an excuse to dive into Usagi, this Special Edition offers up about 1,200." – Brian Heater, The Daily Cross Hatch

Are you looking for a place to live in Seattle? Have you always wanted to have Gary Groth as your landlord? Rent the apartment above our offices and literally walk all over us every day. Feel the publishing magic radiating up through the floorboards! It's 2BR, newly remodeled and, honestly, looks a heck of a lot nicer than our office, which hasn't been remodeled since the 1970s. (Seriously, you've never seen so much faux brick, wood and stone paneling in your life, and the less said about the kitchen the better.) See our Seattle Weekly classified ad for more info and send inquiries directly to penthousesuite [at] fantagraphics-dawt-com. (Please include your phone number.)

We're running a Groupon offer for $40 worth of comics and graphic novels for $20 in several test markets across the U.S. this month. Today's offer is running in Springfield, MO, and there was one in Huntsville, AL yesterday. If you're outside Springfield, or you missed yesterday's offer, never fear! Anyone from anywhere [UPDATE: in the U.S. and Canada] can buy any city's offer. And look for offers in Spokane WA, Albuquerque NM, and Westchester County NY over the next couple of weeks.

Note: If you purchase one of these offers, please allow up to 48 hours for your redemption code to be valid for your online purchase.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our release this week, check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

The Strange Case of Edward Gorey (Expanded Hardcover Edition)
by Alexander Theroux

168-page black & white 6.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-384-2

"Finally, your book-on-comics for the week – a newly expanded hardcover edition of Alexander Theroux’s 2000 profile of the famed author and illustrator." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics

"Fantagraphics have expanded and updated The Strange Case of Edward Gorey, a book that originally came out around the time of his death in 2000. Written by novelist Alexander Theroux, it’s a book about Gorey’s work as well as the enigmatic bearded man himself: Theroux knew him personally for over thirty years so it’s pitched as both a loving and an analytical portrait of the artist." – The Gosh! Comics Blog

"Alexander Thoreaux’s examination of one of the most influential American artists to ever put pen to paper is a lovely-looking, $20, 170-page hardcover." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

February 2nd 2011, for one day only, it's our "Undergroundhog Day" Sale with at least 30% OFF almost every book and comic in our Underground Comix category, including books by Vaughn Bodé, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Joyce Farmer , Rand Holmes, Jack Jackson, Victor Moscoso, Spain Rodriguez, Frank Stack, Robert Williams and more! The sale starts tonight and it'll be over before you know it, so get ready! (Discount not valid at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. A big tip o'the hat to our own Ted Jouflas for the sale idea!)

Our own Eric Reynolds sketched up Muno, Plex, Brobee, Toodee & Foofa as a coloring page for his adorable daughter Clem and posted it on his Flickr page so you can download a high-res version and print it out for your kids too (Eric notes you might want to white out the word bubble first). Fun!

At his blog Hans Rickheit reveals the cover artwork for his short story collection Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion, coming in early 2012 from Fantagraphics. Click through for a larger image of the wraparound.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Like WWI itself, it's difficult to summarize It Was the War of the Trenches — each moment and story is precise and poignant and devastating, and they add up to far more than the sum of their parts, but they add up as a mosaic does, with each shard forming a point of color that only makes sense from a distant perspective. [...] Tardi is one of the giants of world comics, and this is one of his strongest works, a rare combination of ability, ambition, and subject. ...It Was the War of the Trenches is immediate and moving and deeply involving from page to page, showing once again the power that comics has to both illuminate dark corners of the world and to turn them into a compelling narrative accessible to nearly everyone." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Feature: At The SF Site: Nexus Graphica, Rick Klaw dubs Jacques Tardi "the Martin Scorsese of European comics" and runs down his reactions to all of our recent English reprints of Tardi's work: "Before my discovery of the French artist Jacques Tardi, how did I enjoy comics?"

• Interview (Audio): Guests Jean Schulz, Nat Gertler (The Peanuts Collection) and Kevin Fagan (Drabble) discuss the legacy of Charles M. Schulz on yesterday's episode of Southern California Public Radio's AirTalk (via Spurge)

• Interview (Audio): Tom Kaczynski is the featured guest on the new episode of The Comix Claptrap podcast

• Coming Attractions: Publishers Weekly spotlights a half dozen of our upcoming releases in their "New Graphic Novels Coming in 2011" feature: 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago; Celluloid by Dave McKean; Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring; Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: A Career Retrospective; Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson; and Wandering Son: Book 1 by Shimura Takako

Photos from Tony Millionaire's art opening at Scott Eder Gallery last weekend:

Defacing (deheading?) Danny Hellman, via Tony's website (where you can also see Tony signing for a young Rob Lowe dead-ringer in stereo at Desert Island):

Via The Beat:

Pictures of Tony always make me happy.

One's a pre-teen pop star and daughter of Will Smith & Jada Pinkett-Smith, one's a Gilbert Hernandez Love and Rockets character who looks steamed that the former copped her 'do. (Together they fight crime?) Hat tip to L&R fan Paul James for sharing the photo on the Love and Rockets Facebook page.