Apologies for the last-minute alert... according to the official shipping list, Jason's new book Low Moon is scheduled to arrive in comics shops today.

As always, check out our bounteous previews and info about the book, confirm availability with your local shop (if they didn't order it, they're chumps), and choogle on down there to snap it up.

Let's see what Online Commentary & Diversions are out there:

• Review: "[Michael Kupperman's] work is sublime in the truest sense of the word, speaking to me as a reader in ways that can be discussed and broken down but not quite fully communicated in their Rightness... About the only other humorists who have affected me in the same way were the Marx Brothers... Kupperman saturates each page [of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1] with crazed ideas, bizarre connections, and references that aren't really references. Even a reader who may not be familiar with what Kupperman's (often obliquely) mocking is still pulled full-tilt into the gag. No matter what the concept, once Kupperman's laid his hands on it, it's no longer recognizable as anything but his." - Rob Clough

• Review: "...[T]he deadpan expressions of the characters [in I Killed Adolf Hitler] say more than pages of words could say... there’s a kinda sweet little love story in there about the protagonist and his girlfriend, and what they find out about themselves and each other in the process of trying to correct history." - Thinking About...

• Review: Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter looks at Peter Bagge's science-history strips for Discover magazine

• Plug: "Low Moon: New Jason!... I think these are mostly shorts... I'll read the hell out of them. I love Jason." - Matthew J. Brady

• Events: The Los Angeles Times reports from Jules Feiffer and Elliott Gould's recent appearance at Cinefamily

• Profile: "...The Brinkley Girls [was] a sophisticated series capturing the modern American working girl with a combination of glamour, spunk, feminine allure and curly hair..." - "I Want to Be a Brinkley Girl," First Person Singular

• Things to see: It's the latest strip for Vice by Johnny Ryan. Looks like he's doing their infamous "DOs & DON'Ts" for the new issue, too... look out!

Mome contributor and all-around wonderful cartoonist Laura Park is currently soliciting commissions. Send some monetary love, get some delightful art. Ah, commerce!

We are pleased to re-offer one of our most lauded books of 2008 at a newly reduced, affordable sticker price of $45.00.

Willie & Joe: The WWII Years
By Bill Mauldin; edited by Todd DePastino

"The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During World War II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.

Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from 1940 through the end of the war. This collection of over 600 cartoons, most never before reprinted, is more than the record of a great artist: it is an essential chronicle of America's citizen-soldiers from peace through war to victory.

Bill Mauldin knew war because he was in it. He had created his characters, Willie and Joe, at age 18, before Pearl Harbor, while training with the 45th Infantry Division and cartooning part-time for the camp newspaper. His brilliant send-ups of officers were pure infantry, and the men loved it.

After wading ashore with his division on the first of its four beach invasions in July 1943, Mauldin and his men changed — and Mauldin's cartoons changed accordingly. Months of miserable weather, bad food, and tedium interrupted by the terror of intense bombing and artillery fire took its toll. By the year's end, virtually every man in Mauldin's original rifle company was killed, wounded, or captured.

The wrinkles in Willie and Joe's uniforms deepened, the bristle on their faces grew, and the eyes — "too old for those young bodies," as Mauldin put it — betrayed a weariness that would remain the entire war. With their heavy brush lines, detailed battlescapes, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect, Mauldin's cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world of the American combat soldier. Their dark, often insubordinate humor sparked controversy among army brass and incensed General George S. Patton, Jr.

This is the first of several volumes publishing the best of Bill Mauldin's single panel strips from 1940 to 1991 (when he stopped drawing). His Willie & Joe cartoons are presented in a deluxe, beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 600 pages. The series is edited by Todd DePastino, whose Mauldin scholarship is on full display in a biography of the artist released in February 2008 from W.W. Norton. Willie & Joe contains an introduction and running commentary by DePastino, providing context for the drawings, pertinent biographical details of Mauldin's life, and occasional background on specific cartoons (such as the ones that made Patton howl).

600-page b&w/color 7" x 9" two-volume slipcased hardcover set NOW $45.00
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Sweet mercy, I'm finally up to date on Online Commentary & Diversions!

• List: Graphic Novel Reporter names You'll Never Know Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("gorgeous... beautifully illustrated") and the Abstract Comics anthology ("a visual experience unlike any other... a magical, wonderful trip") to their list of "The Hottest Graphic Novels of Summer 2009," in the nonfiction category

• List/Review: "Shouldn't we build a monument of some kind to John Benson? He is responsible for some of the best research, compiling and editing of comics history. [Confessions, Romances, Secrets & Temptations] is... full of excellent and sometimes quite eccentric interviews with St. John romance cartoonists and writers. An indispensible peek inside the industry and its characters." - Dan Nadel's "current favorite books about comics history," Comics Comics

• Review: "...Fletcher Hanks comes across as a villainous sort in his own bylined book [You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!] — a vessel of combined artistry and wrath, whose published legacy is as nightmarish as it is brilliant. The art reproductions capture vividly both Hanks’ aggressive drawing style and the garish colors of the original Depression-into-wartime publications." - Michael H. Price, Fort Worth Business Press

• Review: "[Peter Bagge's] Reason features... add up to a splendidly funny-and-angry new book called Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me... Bagge rejects party-line herd-following in order to raise a uniquely sane voice among political cartoonists... [He is] one terrific cartoonist, with a keen constancy of purpose." - Michael H. Price, Fort Worth Business Press

• Preview: "It's no secret why Michael Kupperman is a favorite of Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien — he's one of the most weirdly funny writers around... Tales Designed to Thrizzle is the dirtiest, funniest comic book to come out in a long time." - New York Magazine presents an exclusive 8-page excerpt from Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1

• Profile: The Parsons Institute Illustration Department blog Words & Pictures catches up with alum John Kerschbaum

• Events: Say hi to Roger Langridge at Heroes Con this weekend and by all means buy a Fred the Clown book from him

• Things to see: Italian blog Nuvole Parlanti looks at some of the album cover art of Daniel Clowes

• Things to see: A new batch of sketchbook comics from Anders Nilsen; also, congrats to Anders for winning a blue ribbon at the New York Book Fair for his Odyssey book cover illustration

Yes, we're late picking this up, but in further "mainstream properties kyping our talent" news: In case you were wondering how the Bongo Comics folks could top last year's The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror contribution from Gilbert Hernandez, this year they asked Sammy Harkham to guest-edit (I guess he and Matt Groening hit it off after Sammy asked Matt to be in Kramer's Ergot #7) and he's put together an unbelievable roster for this year's issue. In the words of Krusty the Clown, "Oscar Homolka!" Robot 6 has the solicitation copy and further details, and I'll echo J.K. Parkin's assessment of "must buy."

Johnny Ryan is now taking pre-orders for the new issue #3 of New Character Parade, due in July. How could you not want to meet Erotic Art Collecting Squirrel, Berserkenstocks, Metalliban, Sammy Hagar the Horrible, and many more, wrapped up in a three-color letterpress print cover (with different colorways)? Go, buy!

By the way, Johnny's all out of his self-published Angry Youth Comix Vol. I #11, but we still have a handful of copies available exclusively at our Seattle storefront, so c'mon down if you need one!

From embroidery-art powerhouse Sublime Stitching, a new kit featuring the artwork of Jim Woodring. Frank on your jean jacket? Manhog on your tea towels? That dream can be reality.

I have now done the reconnaissance: Gahan Wilson is a pleasure to chat with and damned if he doesn't have a head full of ideas and the guts to try things out.

Long live Gahan Wilson.

Marvel Comics just keeps on poaching our talent: Tales Designed to Thrizzle's Michael Kupperman contributes a story starring Marvex the Super Robot to All Select Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, and Sean T. Collins interviews him about it on the Marvel website (with additional previews).