Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell... [is] fantastic! ... It’s part biography, part art book - an amazing recap of Steve Ditko’s entire career in comics, from the early days with Charlton to the present. ... It’s also one of the best designed books I’ve read recently, including lots of rare pencil pages, out-of-print rarities, and full color scans on virtually every page. There’s a lot more to Steve Ditko than just Doctor Strange and Spider-Man." – Marc Sobel, Comic Book Galaxy

• Review: "Vitally, Anderson draws an earthy King, one who likes soul food and soulful women, but who is also capable of inspiring and challenging oratory, theological radicalism and courageous leadership, even when faced with fists, firebombs, and F.B.I. persecution. Anderson reminds one of U.S. poet Walt Whitman: He keeps publishing the same book, in different editions. But what a book!" – George Elliott Clarke, The Halifax Herald

• Review: "This is a very strange comic... You Are There works best as an absurdist critique of society and politics. ... The absurdity of Forest's script is brought to amazing life... It's a tremendous work of art, heightening the weirdness of the narrative very well. ... I would recommend You Are There because it's a thoughtful look at the pressure of conformity and what drives a man mad. ... Tardi is fantastic and makes the book even wackier, which isn't a bad thing." – Greg Burgas, Comic Book Resources

• Review: "It is hard to convey how much of the joy of Unlovable comes not only from the wandering plotline (if there is any in this book) but also from the accompanying visuals. Tammy's attentions, interests and emotions are all scattered. The author's style of drawing lends to the feeling of chaos and scatteredness; the reader senses it in the erratic lines and messy fonts of various sizes. An erratic view of an erratic time of life." – Julia Eussen, AnnArbor.com

• Review: "Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit is something I keep coming back to — and not just because it’s the only comic book I’ve ever seen that can actively liven up a party. It’s a hilarious, visceral and quick read... for really dumb fun, this is pretty much unbeatable. I’ve considered that maybe the fun isn’t as dumb — that maybe Cannibal Fuckface’s journey through the wastes of the prison pit are a Bunyan-style metaphor for, I don’t know, man coming to terms with the restrictions of modern life, but then I remember it’s a comic that features the term 'burnt jizz,' and I stop thinking and laugh." – David Uzumeri, Robot 6

• Review: "I'd ignored Hal Foster's knights-and-adventure strip until Fantagraphics remastered, recolored and repackaged the first two years of [Prince] Valiant (1937-38) into one of the loveliest reprint volumes of 2009. I became a Foster fan immediately, and bought Brian Kane's Definitive Prince Valiant Companion to learn more about Foster and the other talents (John Cullen Murphy, Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz) who'd worked on the comic during its 70+ years." – Craig Fischer, Thought Balloonists; the remainder of Fischer's take on the Companion is mixed-to-unfavorable, but we still recommend checking it out for his insights and some additional commentary he brings to the table

• Review: In this nicely-done video, Ab. Velasco of the Toronto Public Library recommends The Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Our Gang Vol. 1-3 Pack
by Walt Kelly

three 96-page 7.25" x 9.5" full-color softcovers • $40.00 postage paid (see below)

Along with the soon-to-be-released Our Gang Vol. 4 we are pleased to offer the first three volumes of Walt Kelly's rollicking adaptation/continuation of the beloved MGM shorts together for one low price including standard shipping within the U.S. (rush and foreign orders extra); see product description for details and more information.

Our Gang Vol. 4 (1946-1947)
by Walt Kelly

112-page 7.25" x 9.5" full-color softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-322-4

Ships in: April 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

The Rascals are back in another 100-plus vintage full-color pages of rollicking comedy and high adventure. Created in 1946 and 1947, these stories show Walt Kelly refining the style that would serve him so well for his later masterpiece — Pogo.

Much of this fourth volume is taken up with an extended four-part cycle of stories — almost a graphic novel, really! — in which Froggie and the Gang (including Julip the Goat) ship out with Professor Gravy on his showboat for an engagement downriver, which results (of course) in a series of action-packed adventures involving fisticuffs, gunfire, fireworks, and horse thieves. All this, plus more mundane kid pursuits such as a hotly-contested baseball game.

As always, series editor Steve Thompson is on hand to provide fascinating behind-the-scenes details on these marvelous stories, and beloved cartoonist Jeff Smith (Bone) provides an all-new cover. For anyone who loves those simple, innocent post-war times, the Our Gang stories are as refreshing as a 5-cent glass of home-made lemonade on a hot summer day.

“Kelly continues to take his version of the Gang further away from the typical ‘kid-jinks’ of the movies. He not only involves them in serious adventures but potentially life-threatening situations... For those of us ‘of a certain age,’ summers were filled with days when we were pushed out the door after breakfast and told not to come back until lunchtime, after which we were again sent out to play until supper. Just like the Gang kids, we wandered out of our own neighborhoods, met and interacted with strangers, fought and played with other kids, and so on. The Gang’s activities are more extreme than those of most of us reading the stories, but only in degree.”
— from the introduction by Steve Thompson

Download an EXCLUSIVE 14-page PDF excerpt (9.7 MB) — that's a complete story!

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

Friday night and the feeling is right for your weekly batch of new online strips:

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

...aw nuts, it's this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

...and this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip from Steven Weissman totally reminds me of a Venture Bros. episode.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources:

• It's Jaime Hernandez's cover for the first issue of the CBGB comic — more info at Robot 6

• Cormorants a-courtin' by Debbie Drechsler

• Still digging these "structure" drawings by Tom Kaczynski

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Awards: Congratulations to Steve Brodner, nominated for a National Cartoonist Society Division Award (a.k.a. the Reubens) for Advertising Illustration (as reported by The Comics Reporter)

• List/Review: Shannon Smith of File Under Other names Michael Kupperman a favorite cartoonist of 2009 and comments briefly on Mome Vol. 13: "Open letter to comics publishers: If you put Josh Simmons in your book I will buy or steal a copy." (Good news Shannon: be on the lookout for Vol. 19. But please don't steal it.)

• Review: "West Coast Blues is a cracking good crime comic, not really noir but definitely a tale of bad people doing bad things to each other. It's also, oddly enough, very wryly humorous, in a way we don't often see in crime comics here in the States. ... Tardi's art is quite stellar, as well. He's amazingly detailed, but he doesn't pull any tricks on the reader — his work is very straight forward. ...Tardi matches Manchette with panels that demand a great deal of attention - this is a visual feast as well as a literary one." – Greg Burgas, Comic Book Resources

Jim Blanchard's got an art show up now at The Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro in Bellingham WA, with a blowout closing reception/rock show on May 29. Hoo doggie! More info at Jim's blog.

My original title for this post was "R. Crumb FUCKs Wallets." Maybe I should've stuck with that.

It's probably a sign that I'm too cynical that my reaction to this was mild surprise that it's an authorized design (licensed by Supreme for Porter, or something like that) rather than a ripoff, which would have been pretty easy to do.

See more images & products at SLAMXHYPE (via Alan David Doane). No word on where to buy these. Japan maybe?

UPDATE: Our super-sleuth in residence Janice Headley comments:

no! in new york!
http://www.supremenewyork.com/

Jeez, was it really only last weekend that Gilbert Hernandez was in town? We've got a set of photos documenting his signing and art opening at our flagship store, including shots of all the artwork in the exhibit for those of you who can't make it to view the show in person. Look for a guest appearance by L.A.-based pop-surrealist artist Camille Rose Garcia, too. Browse the whole set here, or sit back and let the slideshow roll here.

This 2007 short film adaptation of Charles Burns's Black Hole by director Rupert Sanders seems to be making the rounds again. I can't locate any info out there as to why or how this was made, but it's worth a second look.