It's been a while since I had a chance to do one of these...

• Jim Woodring's Frank and associates in a piece inspired by Giorgione's painting The Tempest (via Facebook - full size)

• Tony Millionaire did this illustration for the Three Guys and a Twelve-Pack podcast; also, an old strip for Screw (I think)

• This hilarious portrait by Cathy Malkasian is available as a print — you gotta go check it out just for the title and description, which are also hilarious

• A beautiful movie poster illustration and some musician portraits by Matthias Lehmann

• Richard Sala traces the evolution of the cover art for Mad Night

• Lilli Carré shares her Newcity cover illo and also her NYT Op-Ed illo

• Noah Van Sciver started a new sketch blog on Tumblr called Infortunate

• While recently in Chicago, Josh Simmons got his pals Anders Nilsen and Jeffrey Brown to draw some Quackers; Anders also has a bunch of new self-portraits and has put out an expanded fold-out edition of his Kramer's Ergot 7 strip

• Amazing stuff from Renee French on her blog and her new Posterous thing

• At What Things Do, Kevin Huizenga's Cartoon Polymaths strip "The Body of Work," and a couple of classic strips at his Fight or Run blog

• Also at What Things Do, two new installments of Jordan Crane's "Keeping Two"

• I think this weird piece by Steven Weissman relates to Barack Hussein Obama; also his latest "I, Anonymous" spots on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

And more Things to See from the past... jeez, 3 weeks:

• More recent sketchbook drawings by Andrei Molotiu

• At Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, sketches, old strips and the last of his series of posts on his cartooning heroes

• New prints and an artist's book by John Hankiewicz at his Clip Joint blog

• Buy Dame Darcy's mermaid print to help send her to the annual Mermaid Parade on her 40th birthday! She's also now an ordained Wiccan minister! Good luck and congrats! All this and more in her latest blog update

• Drew Friedman rounds up his various album cover illustrations and collects a whole bunch of TV Guide covers by Jack Davis

• Recent charcoal portraits of Oliver Reed & John Coltrane by Jim Blanchard

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• I believe this strip by Sergio Ponchione has to do with Italian politics

• Laura Park's been busy moving

• Recent drawings by Sammy Harkham on his Flickr page

• Portraits, sketches, illustrations and more by Steve Brodner

• Hans Rickheit keeps posting those old medical deformity sketches on his blog

• Derek Van Gieson made a hilarious-looking board game

• Some marks and text by Tom Kaczynski

What it says. Details.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "The creator [of Wandering Son], Shimura Takako, is a well-established manga artist recognized for her LBGT focus, certainly not your usual manga fare. In the series’ debut-in-English, Shimura treats both protagonists’  journeys of self-discovery with gentle honesty; her characters are wide-eyed and adorable, uncertain and searching." – Terry Hong, BookDragon (Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program)

• Review: "...I was pretty intrigued to see how Jason’s illustration would work with someone else’s writing. The short answer is that it works amazingly well.... The Isle of 100,000 Graves is an inventive and original tale, filled to the brim with absurd and hilarious dialogue, delivered with impeccable timing by Fabien Vehlmann. The story is brought to life with wonderful artwork by Jason, and eye popping colours by Hubert. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, I don’t think I’ve laughed this much at a comic in years!" – Edward Kaye, Hypergeek

• Plug: Comic Book Resources' Greg Burgas takes note of a couple of our upcoming releases as seen in the current issue of Previews

Cartoonists Paul Hornschemeier and Eroyn Franklin Present New Books on June 18 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle.

June 7, 2011 – Seattle, WA – Two of the country’s most gifted young cartoonists will debut their recent publications at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, June 18 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Paul Hornschemeier, from Chicago, presents Life with Mr. Dangerous and Seattle’s own Eroyn Franklin debuts the highly anticipated Detained.

Eroyn Franklin’s Detained explores immigrant detention centers in Washington State. Each side of the book is a continuous panorama that follows two immigrants as they navigate Seattle’s former INS building and The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma — a powerful and evocative examination of cultural isolationism and the politics of xenophobia. The accordion-fold format lends a creative conceptual perspective to the protagonists’ poignant stories. This self-published work was supported in part by Artists Trust of Washington and the 4Culture lodging tax.

Paul Hornschemeier’s latest book, Life with Mr. Dangerous, was serialized in Fantagraphics Books' Mome anthology before being collected by Random House/Villard. It follows the saga of a newly single woman her mid-20s in an unfulfilling job as she struggles to find meaning and order in her life. The story is insightful and often funny, filled with situations that anyone who was ever young will recall. Hornschemeier has previously published three titles on Fantagraphics Books: The Three Paradoxes, All and Sundry, and Mother, Come Home.

Listing Information

Paul Hornschemeier and Eroyn Franklin book signing

Saturday, June 18, 6:00 to 8:00 PM

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

With the much-anticipated arrival of The Comics Journal #301 about a month away, TCJ.com gives you your first real taste of the issue beyond our photo & video teasers: an excerpt from Gary Groth's interview with Joe Sacco about Footnotes in Gaza. Go, read!

Those of you in Austin, Texas have a little less than a week left to check out As Above So Below: The Art of the Secret Society at the esteemed Domy Books! 

The exhibit features Masonic lodge art, and other fraternal art and artifacts, and it also happens to feature this piece:

...which might look familiar if you've picked up a copy of Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes!

According to the notes, it's some kind-of initiation device created in 1922... Yeah. I don't even want to know.

Texans have until Thursday, June 9th to check out this free exhibit at Domy Books [913 E Cesar Chavez], but everyone worldwide can check out (not free) Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes.

Thanks to Russell Etchen for the tip-off on our Facebook page!

At Comic-Con in July, we'll be debuting the 22nd and final volume of MOME (that's one-half of Zak Sally's beautifully elegant wraparound cover of the issue, above). It's a bittersweet thing for me, but I couldn't be happier about how the last issue -- at 240 pages, about twice as long as any previous issue -- turned out, so when Mike Baehr suggested I do something for Flog about it, it seemed like a no-brainer. And when I decided the best way to do so would be to post some teaser images from the issue, it took me about half a second to realize where to start: Kurt Wolfgang.

Kurt has been essentially the one constant in MOME from the very first issue (along with myself, I guess), and his main contribution, the ongoing "Nothing Eve," is pretty much the standard-bearer of the kind of work that MOME was specifically designed to midwife into the world, and one of the things I'm most proud to have published in its pages. The simple, dramatic idea behind it -- If you knew the world was ending tomorrow, how would you spend your last night? -- is really just a launching point for what is essentially a charmingly funny and character-driven piece about the way people relate to each other. Kurt resists melodrama every step of the way, and the work is so much better for it. 

Also, more than just about any other serial I can ever remember reading in an anthology, "Nothing Eve" functioned perfectly as a serial. In addition to crafting a completely hilarious and compelling graphic novel, Kurt has an innate knack for breaking his story down into compelling chapters that function on their own. You could easily enjoy any chapter of "Nothing Eve" without ever having read another. That's not an easy feat, and regular MOME readers were given a better experience for it. 

The bad news is that MOME is ending before "Nothing Eve" ends. The good news, however, is that when "Nothing Eve" is eventually published, it will be that much more satisfying a read.

The best news is that Kurt prepared an alternative, "final" chapter for MOME 22 that is just about my favorite thing I've ever published in MOME. So for those of you who've been following "Nothing Eve" since the beginning, you're going to be rewarded with something truly special that won't end up in the eventual collection. 

I'm very reluctant to tip my hand any further, but let's just say, it's right about with this four-panel sequence that shit starts to get unreal: 

You can't even begin to guess where things go from here, but trust me in that I promise you won't be disappointed. 

Class is back in session with Professor DeStefano!

As you may already know, our award-nominated Lucky In Love artist Stephen DeStefano also has quite the background in animation, working on such favorites as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Earthworm Jim, and The Venture Brothers (a personal obsession for me and Mike). There is a reason he is regarded in the industry as "The Guru of Storyboarding"!

And New Yorkers are in luck, as his popular MoCCA class "How to Do Storyboards for Animation" is back and expanded to four sessions, happening every Monday this month from 6:30 to 9:00 pm! While the class will focus on storyboarding for TV animation, you can bet DeStefano will touch upon other formats as well. I mean, clearly, he is a master at both!

Joyous news for those of us who feared we had seen the last of Tammy Pierce: Esther Pearl Watson reports on Facebook that she's completed the first 120 pages of Unlovable Vol. 3! Will it cover summer vacation at Meemaw's on Lake Texoma or jump to first semester Junior year? I can't tell from these tantalizing glimpses of the work in progress. Esther's always busy with multiple projects so a completion date is unknown, but in the meantime if you haven't experienced Tammy's sophomore year yet, get to it!

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web:

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Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size):

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

And elsewhere:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Maakies by Tony Millionaire (linking to The Rumpus's presentation this week):

Mugwhump the Great by Roger Langridge (at Act-i-vate):

Smashing Crayons by Steve Brodner:

Truth Serum by Jon Adams: