Daily OCD Extra: We've got some Tim Kreider multimedia to share with you as Tim continues making the rounds promoting his new book Twilight of the Assholes:

The Strand Bookstore has uploaded video of Tim's slideshow talk which took place on Feb. 17, 2011, embedded above or watchable on the Strand's YouTube page here.

And this Tuesday Tim was a call-in guest on his fellow Rolling Stone "Supreme Court of Assholedom" justice David Sirota's program on Denver's AM 760 ("Colorado's Progressive Talk") — download an MP3 of the segment here (Tim's portion starts 15-20 minutes in) and see the full rundown of the episode here.

Wanna see a whole bunch of vintage spot illos scanned from old issues of The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (above) and other artists (Mitch O'Connell, Kevin Nowlan, Bruce Timm) before they were stars? Ed Piskor has you covered at his Wizzywig Comics blog.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Plug: "It really is amazing that there are generations growing up, only knowing the Disney characters from the theme parks. Thankfully, Fantagraphics is doing something about it, restoring and publishing a complete archive of the Mickey Mouse comic strip by cartooning legend Floyd Gottfredson." – Stefan Blitz, Forces of Geek

• Plug: "Fantagraphics' collection of Floyd Gottfredson's complete run on the Mickey Mouse comic strip of the 30s and 40s is one of the most exciting things on upcoming comics collection list (although I'm most excited about the same publisher's announced reprinting of Carl Barks' complete run of Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics)." – Pop Culture Safari

• Plug: "I've been looking forward to Wilfred Santiago's Roberto Clemente biography 21 for what seems like years now, maybe because it's actually been a couple of years. But you wait for the good ones." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "This book kills. It’s well worth the price of admission just to gawk at the artwork, which, had I not read the back cover, I would have guessed was the work of a master cartoonist who had honed his craft for decades. [...] Drew Weing does to Set to Sea what Quentin Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction. He (Tarantino) took the done-to-death stories of the fighter who decides not to throw the fight, the mob hit gone bad, and the goon messing with the mob boss’s wife — all fairly clichéd bits — and takes up the challenge of smashing together a brutally entertaining piece of work. That is exactly what Set to Sea is — but without all the gangsters and boxers and dancing." – Chris Reilly, The Panelists

• Review: "It’s like Let the Right One In — the horror of the supernatural is set against a dull and mundane urban background, without the lights and glamour of an American city, just miles of concrete, drainpipes and bannisters. Many of the stories [in Pocket Full of Rain ] share Steig Larsson’s sense of Scandinavian unease, and reek of Doc Martens, subtitled pop culture and Automatic for the People-era R.E.M. The title story was first published in 1995, and feels like Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Dan Clowes." – Grant Buist, The Name of This Cartoon Is Brunswick

• Review: "I’m in love. With the town of Palomar. How could you not? You’d have to have a heart of stone not to fall in love with Hernandez’s creations. The characters [in Heartbreak Soup] are so warm, and lifelike, that even the ones that are supposed to be annoying (like Tonantzin and Toco) are just so loveable, you can’t help but sigh and say, 'Oh you!' under your breath, even though you don’t even really know the character too well yet!" – Lisa Pollifroni, lisaloves2read

• Scene: Gavin Huang of The Dartmouth and Josh Kramer of The Cartoon Picayune report on Joe Sacco's recent visits to Dartmouth College and the Center for Cartoon Studies, respectively

Speaking of Chicago, one of the city's — nay, the world's — greatest shops for comics and zines, Quimby's Bookstore, is celebrating their 20th anniversary with this limited-edition 5-color silkscreen print of Chris Ware's blueprint for the store's sign, printed by the estimable Jay Ryan's Bird Machine press. Unsigned copies are available now and Quimby's promises that signed copies will be available at some point in the future.

As Earwax Cafe, a hub of comics activity in Chicago for many years, slips into memory and legend, Lilli Carré shares the above scan and reports on her blog: "I went there one more time this past weekend as they were closing, and they let me have the last extra copy of their xeroxed menu, the cover of which is adorned with doodles by Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Archer Prewitt, and others." What an artifact!

UPDATE: Paul Hornschemeier also shares some thoughts on the closing of Earwax on his blog.

Convention season is getting into full swing and after Emerald City ComiCon this weekend our next stop is the 2011 MoCCA Fest in New York City, April 9-10. The festival announced the lineup of guests and we've got Peter Bagge, Michael Kupperman, Ted Stearn, Leslie Stein and (pending confirmation) Gahan Wilson hanging out with us at our table, with several other old friends of ours in attendance as well (including but not limited to Peter Kuper, who designed the official festival poster above). We're also pleased that Al Jaffee will be presented the 2011 Klein Award. Stay tuned for more details from us; in the meantime, check out the official festival announcement here.

UPDATE: He's not on the official Festival guest list but we've got Stephen DeStefano too!

UPDATE #2: Gahan Wilson is now confirmed! Yay!

The great Drew Friedman was recently a guest on the WFMU radio show Fool's Paradise, discussing everything from, "Drew's early career, Tor Johnson sightings, the healing power of Joe E Ross and Drew's latest masterwork, Sideshow Freaks (Blast Books). Zagnut bars will also be referenced."

If you forgot to tune in, you can listen to the archive here!  And toss those guys a few bucks -- it's the WFMU 2011 Marathon through March 13th!

On the eve of the Emerald City Comicon, the City of Seattle's official public affairs station will air a feature on Fantagraphics Books. The spot focuses on Fantagraphics resident curator Larry Reid examining the illustrious history of the Emerald City as the birthplace of alternative comix. It includes many wonderful works by distinguished local alternative cartoonists. In addition to the story on comix, the bookstore plays host to the entire "City Stream" episode. So if you haven't yet visited Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, this show will give you a pretty good look.

The program debuts this Thursday, March 3 at 7:00 PM on the Seattle Channel (channel 21 on local Comcast cable systems.) It repeats several times throughout the week, and can also be seen as streaming video on their website.

If you're in town for the convention, be sure to visit the bookstore, drop by our booth at the con - and don't miss the fabulous "Con Artists" bash at the Jewel Box in the Rendezvous on Saturday night! See you all soon.

Giant Robot gets a "1UP" with Game Over IV, their latest group show paying homage to video game culture, with several Fantagraphics artists at the joysticks, including Andrice Arp, Jeffrey Brown, Paul Hornschemeier, and Steven Weissman. That's a sneak peek at Paul's work up there, and below, we've got a piece from Steven.

The show opens Friday, March 4th at GRSF [618 Shrader Street, San Francisco] with a reception from 6:30 - 10:00 pm.  Is the princess in another castle?  You can catch the show until March 30, 2011.