Rob Walker, co-founder of the Significant Objects project, was a guest on today's episode of Public Radio International's Studio 360 with host Kurt Andersen (who also happens to have contributed a story). Andersen interviewed Walker on location at Vintage Thrift in Manhattan and the two chose three new Objects for listeners to assign Significance to in Studio 360's Significant Objects story contest. Listen to the segment here or embedded below:

And hey, designer extraordinaire Jacob Covey just finalized the two — yes, two! — covers for the book. That's right, because we're crazy, we're publishing the book collection with two different covers, evenly split 50/50, so you have a choice of the cow creamer above or the bunny candle below. Amazon isn't going to let you choose, so if you have a preference you'll need to either pre-order from us or pick it up from your local book shop when it comes out in June.

Join our own Gary Panter at Shelf Life 2, a one-day event in Los Angeles featuring panels, workshops, a bazaar, and more!  This "big day for small press" is tomorrow, Saturday, March 24th at the University Park Campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Gary is teaming up with graphic designer Chip Kidd for a special panel, moderated by Byron Coley. That kicks off at 12:30 PM in the Gin D. Wong Auditorium (Harris Hall 101).

And then stick around to check out all the small press exhibitors, and take some workshops on everything from bookbinding to storytelling to surviving an upcoming zombie apocalypse. Y'know. The essentials.

This event is FREE, so you have no excuse not to go... unless your excuse is that you don't live in L.A.

You know, Trubble Club, the weird and wonderful jam comics produced by a Chicago-centric collective of the same name that includes Fanta-family folks Lilli Carré, Laura Park and Jeremy Tinder among many others. After 4 minicomic collections they've put together a doozy of a package for Vol. 5: a full-color Sunday funnies-style newspaper of all-new strips. They've brought in a few ringers to participate in addition to their regulars, AND it comes with a silkscreen print. You can buy a copy for 8 bucks from The Post Family online shop. Chicagoans can buy it at Quimby's. I got my order in... now I just need #4 to complete my collection.

What happens when you have to miss a couple of days of the comics internet is that it takes you almost the whole rest of the week to get fully caught up on Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Library Journal's Martha Cornog gives a nice shout-out to Carl Barks and recommends Oil and Water by Steve Duin & Shannon Wheeler as one of "30 Graphic Novels for Earth Day 2012": "Wheeler’s atmospheric, ink-washed greys capture eccentric residents from crabbers to a pelican-rescue team, and Duin’s script catches the ironic resiliency of people exploited by the very industry that feeds them.... Valuable for high schoolers and adults as a glimpse into the crisis, and for general sensitization to environmental issues."

• Review: "When I brought Pogo home from the bookstore on a Sunday afternoon, I called my daughters over, and we lay on the floor in the living room and read it together. I read it aloud, because half of the fun of Pogo is hearing the fantastic dialogue penned by Kelly, and my daughters loved it. I’m sure there were things that went over their heads — jokes that rely on experiences they haven’t had, references to past events, wordplay that’s a little too sophisticated. But the beauty of the strip is that does work on so many levels. There’s slapstick humor, cute little talking animals, and keen observations on the human condition — the last made easier to swallow perhaps because the characters aren’t people, as human as they may be." – Jonathan Liu, Wired – GeekDad

• Review: "[Jason] populates his tales with brightly clad cats and dogs and ducks, but their misbehavior is unmistakably human.... [Athos in America] is... consummately worth reading for its three gems: the lovely title story, the self-portrait 'A Cat From Heaven' and the wonderful 'Tom Waits on the Moon,' in which Jason carefully maps the crossed paths of four lonely people." – Sam Thielman, Newsday

• Review: "Despair threatens to overwhelm the creator’s usual tales of longing [in Athos in America]. In 'A Cat From Heaven,' his characteristic unrequited love story gives way to a somewhat depressing look at a self-absorbed cartoonist named Jason’s bitter relationship. Mercifully, the rest of the collection is a little more playful, from a couple noir parodies to the highlight, 'Tom Waits on the Moon,' in which four solipsistic stories converge in a tragic act." – Mike Sebastian, Campus Circle

• Review: "The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics is a wonderful book collecting the best stories of the beginnings of a favorite comic book genre — and I can’t emphasize this enough — it’s put together by people who know what they’re doing. Plus, it’s designed to fit on your bookshelf right next to your MAD Archives volumes. I can’t believe that you haven’t already picked this up! Are you unsane?!?" – K.C. Carlson, Comics Worth Reading

• Review: "If [Wandering Son] Vol. 1 was a masterclass in people not wanting to accept the status quo within their own minds, Vol. 2 shows the uncertainty of the waiting world. The way that Nitori and Takatsuki fumble forward with no plan is painful and endearing. They know the two of them are better together but there’s the problem of dealing with classmates, family and teachers. It’s not easy and well done to Takako for not short-circuiting the process. It’s not easy writing characters in distress but it’s wonderful to read it. If you can recognise the character’s pain and sympathise despite your differences, it proves you’re human and so is the author.... So much of what we read is a kind of literary false economy. We put in so much and get so little out of it. Wandering Son asks so little of you and you get so much out of it.... It is a wonderful, sweet, heartbreaking window into being different, young, unsure, afraid and human." – Eeeper's Choice

• Review: "[The Man Who Grew His Beard]’s a big batch of critic-friendly comic strips, comics which resemble curios excavated from some none-too-defined European past and more often than not have all the daring shallow-space visual syntax of a Garfield strip. They’re less stories than contraptions that wear their artifice and structure on their sleeve, like those medieval homunculi which transparently show their cogs and mechanisms while making their programmed movements." – Rich Baez, It's Like When a Cowboy Becomes a Butterfly

• Review: "Action! Mystery! Thrills!... beautifully resurrects all the Golden Age favorites, from superheroes to killer robots to cowboys and occult Nazis. This time capsule collection of cover art spans from 1933-45... An index in the back gives the fascinating stories behind the covers, while the full-page, color reproductions reveal them for what they are: works of art." – Mike Sebastian, Campus Circle

• Review: "Primarily known for his ghoulish comic strips in Playboy and The New Yorker, Gahan Wilson showed his tender side (kind of) with Nuts. Originally a series of one-page vignettes running in National Lampoon, Nuts is presented here in its entirety as a classic warts-and-all reminiscence of childhood, from sick days to family gatherings, the joys of candy to the terrors of the dark basement." – Mike Sebastian, Campus Circle

• Review: "R. Crumb hit it big in the ‘60s alternative Comix scene with his creation of Fritz the Cat (originally conceived as an adolescent). The feline protagonist remained Crumb’s avatar for lambasting American culture until a lackluster film adaptation prompted some divine retribution from his creator. The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat collects all of Fritz’s essential stories." – Mike Sebastian, Campus Circle

• Analysis: The Hooded Utilitarian's critical roundtable on Jaime Hernandez rolls on with entries from Derik Badman; the author of our forthcoming Love and Rockets Companion, Marc Sobel; and (Mome 22 contributor) James Romberger

• Awards: GalleyCat reports that Author Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, contributor to Significant Objects, has won the $1,000 Sidney Prize, which rewards "the author of the best new American story," and has a link to an excerpt from the winning story

• Opinions: Robert Crumb's got 'em! In the third installment of the "Crumb On Others" series, he lets you know exactly what he thinks of a bunch of prominent personalities, from Hitler to Ghandi (in whose homeland Crumb can be seen above) and from Kurtzman to Van Gogh

• Interview: When The Comics Journal posted the Q&A with Bill Griffith conducted by Gary Panter, I called it the must-read of the day, and it still stands as your must-read of the week: "I’ve only taken LSD twice in my life. Once on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard in 1967, which was pleasant, but not ego-shattering or anything. And once in New York after I’d started doing comics. All I remember about the second time was, I got hemorrhoids."

• Interview: Who better to talk to Matthias Wivel, editor of our Scandinavian comics anthology Kolor Klimax, than Steffen Maarup, editor of our Danish comics anthology From Wonderland with Love? A taste: "Putting together a good anthology is similar to making a good mixtape. Whatever the individual merits of a piece, it won’t do to include it if it doesn’t somehow work for the anthology as a whole. There has to be a consistent idea or tone to the book, which doesn’t mean that there can’t be dissonance — there’s some of that in Kolor Klimax, and I think for the better — but the individual parts still have to generate something greater than their sum. It’s incredibly difficult to achieve, but also a lot of fun." Read more at The Metabunker

• Interview (Audio): Blake Bell joins host Chris Marshall on the Collected Comics Library Podcast for a discussion about Bill Everett and Steve Ditko

Due to privacy concerns I'm slightly uneasy about posting photos of other people's babies, but this is too good not to share, so I'll just leave it anonymous and say that it came via Kevin Huizenga, who says "Wanted: more readers like [this]."

A Real Comet Press catalog, designed by Art Chantry

Our beloved Store Manager/Curator Larry Reid has already written about our phenomenal opening night for the Real Comet Press Retrospective, but I couldn't resist sharing a few more photos, and some video that Mike captured:

A sampling of Real Comet Press publications.

What?! Not only did she run a publishing house, but she ran a club? Stop being so cool, Cathy! Matchbooks designed by Lynda Barry.

Rad flipbooks by Ruth Hayes.

Michael Dougan shares a Texas motto.

Our look back at this influential indie publisher continues this weekend at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery as Portland author Susan E. Kirtley will be discussing her new book, Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass, with Cathy, who published Barry’s first four books. Join us for that on Saturday, March 24, at 6:00 PM.

And Cathy Hillenbrand will also be at the Emerald City Comicon for our panel "Northwest Noir: Seattle's Legacy of Counterculture Comix."  Comicon attendees can check that out on Friday, March 30th at 6:00 PM in Room 3AB.

And our Real Comet Press Retrospective will be up through April 10th, so come by the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery to catch this exhibit while you can!  If you can't make it to Seattle, we've got even more pics from opening night at the Fantagraphics Flickr.

I just had to cross-post this from our Tumblr blog because it's too, too good: Jason pays homage to Moebius and George Herriman, saying "I should have been working on my new book. Instead I drew this." We forgive you, Jason. (Curiously, Max also has a pretty great Moebius/Herriman tribute.)

Another huge honor for Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics editor Michel Gagne and his video game creation Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet: last week the game picked up the GAME British Academy Video Games Award for Best Debut Game! (You may recall that just last month it won the 2011 International Animated Film Society Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game.) You can read an interview with Michel at the BAFTA Guru website and see a video clip of the game's victory at the award ceremony here. And if you're in Seattle you can congratulate Michel in person at Emerald City Comicon next week or at an event at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery next month that we'll be announcing very soon...

For our hometown convention, Fantagraphics Books is showcasing our vibrant local comix scene at the 10th Annual Emerald City Comicon!

Visit us at Booth 704 from Friday, March 30th through Sunday, April 1st at the Washington State Convention Center.  We're bringing a special collection of titles from seminal Seattle names like Peter Bagge, Megan Kelso, and Charles Burns.  And joining us will be some of those brilliant talents from right here in the Northwest, from artists to editors! Special guests include:

Ellen Forney: Named "Best Local Cartoonist" last year by the Seattle Weekly! (top left / photo by Mike Urban)

Jim Woodring:  Recipient of The Stranger Genius Award in Literature in 2010! (top right)

Bill Schelly: Comic book historian, and editor of our recent Joe Kubert collection, The Art of Joe Kubert. (bottom center)

Michel Gagné:  Editor of Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics, our recent collection of romance comics from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. (bottom right)

Jacques Boyreau: Editor and cultural historian of the book Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, a celebration of some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box. (bottom left / photo by Jonas Seaman)

Friday, March 30th
5:00-6:00 PM            Ellen Forney
7:00-8:00 PM            Jim Woodring

Saturday, March 31st
11:00-1:00 PM            Bill Schelly
2:00-4:00 PM            Michel Gagné
5:00-6:30 PM            Jim Woodring

Sunday, April 1st
2:00-3:30 PM            Jacques Boyreau          

On Friday, March 30th at 6:00 PM, Fantagraphics is proud to present the panel Northwest Noir: Seattle's Legacy of Counterculture Comix in room 3AB:

In the mid-seventies a trio of gifted cartoonists emerged from The Evergreen State College in Olympia: Seattle's Lynda Barry and Charles Burns, and Matt Groening from Portland. Their influence helped attract a new generation of cartoonists that fashioned a new comix movement. Among them; Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, and Peter Bagge. Coupled with this new comix movement was the creation of prominent publisher Fantagraphics Books. The global popularity of the Grunge movement elevated alternative comix to unprecedented heights and firmly established the region as the center of this new form. By the dawn of the millennia, Seattle and Portland boasted no fewer than 6 alternative comix publishing houses. Learn more about the connection between the Northwest and "Alternative" comics in this lively panel Q&A. Panelist include cartoonists Jim Woodring and Ellen Forney, Real Comet Press publisher Cathy Hillenbrand, and Fantagraphics Books associate publisher Eric Reynolds. Moderated by Larry Reid of Fantagraphics Bookstore.

Booth 704 is located right in the frontline of the exhibitor floor, in the second row as you cross the Sky Bridge. Please note: this is a condensed version of the map. You can view the full map here.

Tickets for the Emerald City Comicon are available at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Georgetown. 

The highlight of the evening will be a pinball competition with prizes galore, including the grand prize of a colorful Jim Woodring-designed back glass from the forthcoming Frank pinball machine (currently in development.) Other prizes include Jim Woodring hoodies and tee shirts from Americaware, signed copies of Woodring's graphic novels Weathercraft and Congress of the Animals (finalists in consecutive years for the Los Angeles Book Prize), coveted out-of-print issues of Jim and Frank comix, and other Woodring rarities.

In an effort to level the playing field -- so to speak -- pinball tournament contestants will be vying for the lowest score. That's right! Tank it without tilting; the worst games win the best prizes. It's harder than it sounds, but requires little in the way of actual pinball prowess.

Special guest artist Camille Rose Garcia will also appear following her signing down the street at Roq la Rue gallery. A signed copy of her wonderful Fantagraphics title, The Magic Bottle, will be awarded to the top -- (well, bottom) -- female contestant.

Shorty's is located at 2222 2nd Avenue in Seattle's lively Belltown neighborhood, just a few blocks northwest of the Washington State Convention Center, site of the Emerald City Comicon on March 30, 31 and April 1.

Visit the bookstore or Fantagraphics booth at the convention for more details on the Emerald City Pinball Party and other exciting events.

Last-minute beer alert! Elysian Brewing Company debuts Fallout, the third in the series of 12 Beers of the Apocalypse featuring the artwork of Charles Burns, tonight at their Elysian Fields location in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle! Click the flyer above for legible details.