Another page from Athos in America (coming late 2011) from Jason on his blog. This has text from the French translation. In English: "Hey! Don't forget your fucking slut magazines! What will you do if you don't know who's fucking Paris Hilton this week?!" Ouch, bad breakup! Jason also posted the thumbnail breakdowns for this and several surrounding pages.

Here's the package with the final 20 pages from Jim Woodring's forthcoming Congress of the Animals which we teased you about yesterday. Jim just came by to pick them up and dropped a bit of news on us: his next graphic novel after Congress of the Animals will be titled (drum roll)...

Poochytown!

Filmmaker Gary VandenBergh is plowing through a revised round of fundraising via Kickstarter to complete Chicken Fat, his in-progress documentary on his late father-in-law Will Elder. As we've previously noted, Gary was a great help to us when we were putting together our book Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art, and we've been helping with the documentary by supplying digital images. Gary Groth vouches for VandenBergh as "a generally great guy."

The additional funds will enable the filmmakers to travel to California for more interviews (Hugh Hefner, Joe Dante, Daniel Clowes, William Stout) and to complete the editing.

Pledge gifts include DVDs of the finished film, copies of our Elder books, and more, all the way up to a credit in the film. See the Kickstarter page for much more info on the project.

If you enjoyed Paul Hornschemeier's "Life with Mr. Dangerous" serial in the pages of Mome, the collected edition is coming this spring from Villard and Paul is now offering Limited and Ultra Limited collectible editions (the latter includes a page of original art and a hand-sculpted character figurine — what!). Hit Paul's blog for all the details.

We made a startling discovery in our recently-relocated warehouse not too long ago: a cache of signed, limited-edition bookplates that somehow never got used! These things date back around 10 years or so. Good grief!

Now that they're all present and accounted for, you can have 'em — get one FREE with purchase of their respective books while supplies last! We're running this just like our more recent bonus signed bookplates, which encompasses dozens of recent books — see the full selection and more info here.

Caricature by Daniel Clowes

Dicks and Deedees by Jaime Hernandez

• Fear of Comics by Gilbert Hernandez

Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko

Phantasmagoria by Kenneth Smith

(And there's one more for an out-of-print book that we're holding in reserve for future use but keeping a secret for now — stay tuned...)

Popeye Vol. 5: "Wha's a Jeep?"
by E.C. Segar

168-page black & white/color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-404-7

Ships in: February 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Remember last volume’s cliffhanger? The penultimate installment of this acclaimed reprinting of E.C. Segar’s masterpiece begins with “Popeye’s Ark: Part Two,” the tale of Popeye’s eventful reign over Spinachovia — a bleak island populated only by men and lacking all “femininity” — even as Olive Oyl controls the country of Olivia (not to mention the men of Spinachovia). Then in “War Clouds,” the two monarchies come tumbling down in a furious battle as Spinachovia is attacked by the tyrannical land-hungry King of Brutia, King Zlobbo!

This volume’s star is Eugene the Jeep, the rare, friendly, leopard-spotted, and magically-endowed little creature. And Segar makes a great addition to the cast in “The Search for Popeye’s Poppa,” when the ever-cantankerous Poopdeck Pappy is tracked and finally, hilariously found; the title of the follow-up story, “Civilizing Poppa,” speaks for itself, as it tells the classic tale of man taming beast as Popeye guides a stubborn Pappy through table manners.

And as in every volume, this year-and-a-half’s worth of full-color Sunday strips are as dazzlingly reproduced as ever. The adventures of Popeye, Olive, Wimpy, Swee’Pea and the gang on the top are complemented with the riotously funny bonus strip “Sappo,” including a somewhat self-referential storyline where the titular character becomes a cartoonist and teaches the craft to his friend, Professor Wotasnozzle.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 15-page PDF excerpt (20 MB) with 10 pages of dailies and 5 pages of Sundays.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Special Offer: Order this volume and get any previous single volume in the series for just $19.99 — 1/3 off the cover price! See product listing for details.

Check out a big honkin' exclusive 31-page preview of Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition by Stan Sakai at Comic Book Resources!

What better place for a tattoo of Loady McGee from Johnny Ryan's Angry Youth Comix? This unidentified gentleman was posted by Johnny on Flickr.

UPDATE: The gentleman in question has come forward to identify himself! He's Joel Beck, and he notes that "the artist was Yanni Vera and the shop is Third Eye Tattoo in Melbourne, Australia." Thanks Joel!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: For The Economist, Picturebox publisher and our sometime editorial collaborator Dan Nadel names his picks for the best comics of 2010: "Tim Hensley’s Wally Gropius was maybe my favourite graphic novel of the year, and I’m still trying to figure out just what exactly it is. Drawn and written in the graphic idioms of throwaway 1960s comic books such as Richie Rich and Archie, Wally Gropius is about an angst-ridden, dumbfounded millionaire, looking for love in a lopsided modernist space fraught with emasculation, poverty, rock jingles and other things that make grown men cry."

• Review: "And after spending the last two days plowing through this majestic slab of crucial, comically informative reviews [Destroy All Movies!!!], part of me envies [editors Zack Carlson & Bryan Connolly] in having done it first, while some other part wants to thank them for taking a bullet the rest of us don’t have to. [...] If you have any interest whatsoever in the topic you really cannot do without a copy of this book. If you’re like me, it will make you want to revisit some movies again, and search out some you’ve overlooked... In no uncertain terms, this book comes with my highest recommendations." – Jay Bodnar, Wednesday's Child

• Review: "The Littlest Pirate King is a strange and morbid comic. [...] The beautiful drawings of David B., made with thick and shaky strokes, are beautifully expressive. ...David B. did very well with this literary adaptation... [which] shows a mature and talented artist, exploring the versatility of his narrative." – Gustavo Guimaraes, Ambrosia (translated from Portuguese)

• Analysis: At Death to the Universe, Matt Seneca examines a panel of Rory Hayes's comics as exemplary of Hayes's work: "Rory Hayes is one of those artists, one whose sequences of pictures build stories out of their own bizarre alien logic, the consistency of their utter weirdness giving the reader just enough of a solid platform for understanding to take root in." (Via Spurge)

• Coming Attractions (Audio): Hosts Phil and Charlito preview some of our upcoming 2011 releases on the latest episode of the Indie Spinner Rack podcast