Tony Millionaire did the cover art for the new Elvis Costello record. How cool is that?

Stan Sakai sent me an email asking if I knew anything about the strange beast pictured here. It's new to me and apparently the Japanese text doesn't address the creature. Does anyone know its story-- or at least a name?

Comments appreciated. Stan would like to know more about this unusual obakemono and I'd just love to see a hairy cyclopian leg show up in an Usagi Yojimbo story.

I think I might start posting weekend updates -- these Monday roundups are getting bananas...

• Review: We received a wonderful endorsement of Supermen! from Bud Plant, which we've proudly placed on the product page

• Review: John Mitchell on Supermen!: “Supermen points to a time when comic books were a new and exciting form — admittedly low brow in presentation, but filled with visual and narrative leaps that would affect how we told stories visually for decades to come... This book chronicles the exciting, silly, fun and experimental world in which these kinds of [superhero] characters were forged — fairy tales from the modern era."

• Review: Lady, That's My Skull takes lunch with The Wolverton Bible, saying "It is a fascinating look at the side of an artist that most fans are not familiar with due to the scarcity of the material."

• Review: My Year Online on Ted Stearn's first Fuzz & Pluck collection: "[I] laugh[ed] out loud at many points. This is all down to Ted Stearn’s genius in depicting expressions, his excellent slapstick timing and great storyboards, where you can never tell what will happen next..."

• Reviews: The blogger behind Fluid Motion has "been reading a lot of comics by Jason recently," offering micro-reviews of 3 of his books

• Review: Newsarama enthuses about Popeye Vol. 3 (scroll about halfway down): "As with previous volumes of Popeye, it's a cornucopia of mangled English, slapstick, violence and hamburger soliciting... Fantagraphics continues to knock it out of the park with their work on the production of these books... With his fun designs and slapstick exaggeration, Segar's art has always been a plus, and nothing about that changes here... It's packed with adventure and humor, strong art, inventive and complex stories, and features more slam-bang punching than any other ten comics. It is a true, to use a much abused word, classic."

• Review: Blogger Kevin Schulke particularly enjoys the hockey strips in The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Review: I'm not sure if this review originally ran in Rain Taxi or is original to the Powell's Books blog where it appears now, but: John Pistelli delves into The Lagoon by Lilli Carré: "The Lagoon's artisanal craftsmanship and child's-eye ironies reflect the baffled wisdom of a heroine too young to be foolish... it is a gorgeously bleak work for so young an artist."

• Interview: Baldur Bjarnason presents a 21-minute audio interview with el jefe Gary Groth recorded at the 2000 San Diego Comic Con

• Commentary: In re Strange and Stranger, here's some further Ditko analysis from Ken Parille at Blog Flume

• Commentary: Movement Point looks at pop cultural references in Peanuts, citing an obscure example from The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Things to see: Peter Laird presents a treat for Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT (*cough*Covey*cough*) fans: rough layouts for the Usagi/Leonardo crossover story

Your unlikely book review of the day. I want to know if she identified more with Dot or Wanda, tho'.

Now available for preview and pre-order: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 4: "Mr. Sixties!" Back in print with the first new softcover edition of this volume in 12 years! This one has Zap #0-1, "Keep on Truckin'," and a bunch more Crumb classics and rarities from the heady hippie days. Essential! This book is scheduled to be in stock in early April and in stores approximately 4 weeks later.

View a photo & video slideshow preview embedded here. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

Congratulations to two talented Beasts! artists for making the list of Print magazine's annual 20 people under 30 to watch in the visual arts. The links below will take you to Print's write-up about each artist. 

Eleanor Davis' work in the words of Françoise Mouly: "It’s very imaginative and funny and fanciful, but it’s also very thoroughly worked out. She’s not afraid to be clear."

 Josh Cochran's work  in his own words: "It’s good to have a recognizable look. It’s even better if I can transcend it."

My thanks again to these two for contributing their visions to Beasts!

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 297th issue of The Comics Journal, featuring extensive interivews with Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois creator (and Sam's Strip writer) Mort Walker and French artist Emmanuel Guibert (Alan's War). Plus a gallery of art by pioneering caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson, reviews and many more features. Check out the full table of contents here and in the preview slideshow photo & video slideshow preview embedded below. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

If you like Animal Collective, and Jon Vermilyea, and you're rich, then this is unquestionably for you. If any Flog patrons want to buy this for me, I will not object.

This weekend I visited my parents in California, and this is the house directly across the street from them. According to my father, "That goddamn eyesore's been there for over a year." No further explanation was provided.

Comics scholar (and Fantagraphics co-founder) Michael Catron wrote a short but sweet introduction to our new forthcoming collection of Blazing Combat, and now you can read it here on our website in advance of the book's release.