Head on over to the Light in the Attic Records website right now to enter to win a prize pack including Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 and the companion album Listen, Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1967-1974 in CD or 2xLP format!

One of the nice things about working with Light in the Attic is that they're also practitioners of the first-person preview video. Here are their "What's Inside" looks at both formats of the album:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Awards: Hey, The Comics Journal picked up a nomination for "Favourite Magazine About Comics" in the 2012 edition of the long-running UK-based Eagle Awards, reports The Comics Reporter and also Robot 6

• Interview (Audio): Inkstuds radio programme host Robin McConnell chats with Diane Noomin about her new book Glitz-2-Go

• Plug: "Listen, Whitey! is the largest collection of Black Power recordings, and the only book of its kind. Even if you’re not that much into social history or political music, the rock and soul rabble rousing and poetic preachers and extrapolative urban players here are exciting to listen to, and the artwork accompanying it in both the CD booklet and the full book is extraordinary." – The KEXP Blog

Jim Woodring needs your money so he can buckle down on Fran, the in-progress sequel to last year's wildly-acclaimed Congress of the Animals. Jim promises that the new story "pulls the Frank mythos into new realms of emotional and philosophical depth and complexity," and that "I don't drink, take drugs or play the horses; any funding I receive from this United States Artists Special Project will be spent entirely and judiciously on those most essential of art supplies: food and shelter." Believe it or not, our cartoonists are not able to live high on the hog from the advances we give them.

As usual with these sorts of things, there are pledge incentives at various dollar levels, including signed books, sketches and even a two-hour art mentoring session. Go, give till it hurts.

You may have been wondering, "Hey, wasn't Fantagraphics supposed to put out a big Jack Davis art book back in December?" Yes, we were, and we very nearly did. Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture — A Career Retrospective was printed, and some copies even found their way into the hands of fans at a few events like the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival and our recent event at our Seattle store. However, we noticed a quality control issue with this initial printing — namely, the covers were prone to warping — so we decided that the best course of action was to reprint the book. Of course, being the obsessive perfectionists that we are, we couldn't resist making a few additional tweaks to the book first, including brand new cover art as shown above, which is why it's taking a little extra time. The new improved version should be hitting the shelves in May or thereabouts. We certainly do appreciate your patience!

If you have a copy from the initial print run, congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a very rare collectors item! However, if you would like to exchange it for the new printing, you may return it to us and we'll send you a new copy. If you want to keep your original copy AND have the new printing, we'll sell you the new printing for 50% off if you send us a digital photo of your copy as proof — contact us to make arrangements.

My, oh my! Remember that Max retrospective exhibition showing in Mexico last year? It's moved to a museum in Madrid! Magnificent!

Max wrote the following on his blog:  "I never dreamed one of my drawings could hang so big in a urban scenery, but there it is, on the wonderful neoclassical front of the Cervantes building in Alcalá street, facing the Bank of Spain. Hundreds of thousands of people walked right below it on last Sunday's demonstration against the new Work Reformation Law. Maybe some of them noticed that the figure on the first panel stands for an unemployed worker (the factory chimney on the background being not active). "

Occupy Madrid, Max!!!

Titled Panóptica, the exhibit spotlights his work from 1973-2011 with 120 original pieces, including posters, childrens books, magazine illustrations, and more. There are more in-depth photos online here.

The exhibition runs at the Instituto Cervantes [ Exhibition Hall, C/ Alcalá ] in Madrid through May 13, 2012.

This month's Diamond Previews catalog came out yesterday and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread (download the PDF) with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in May 2012 (give or take — some release dates may have changed since the issue went to press). We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions.

This month's Featured item is our next Carl Barks Library volume, Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man! We've also got the long (long, long) awaited collection of Gary Panter's punk/sci-fi strip Dal Tokyo; Sexytime, the surprising and tantalizing art book of vintage porn movie posters compiled by Portable Grindhouse madman Jacques Boyreau ("Certified Cool"!); the new softcover edition of the out-of-print-for-a-while Black Images in the Comics, a fascinating survey by Fredrik Strömberg; Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture, back for another go-round (yes, we know got some 'splaining to do!); God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, collecting Jaime Hernandez's superhero fantasia from Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-2 with 30 new pages (!), a Spotlight item; the eagerly-anticipated 3rd volume of Shimura Takako's wonderful manga series Wandering Son; and The Furry Trap, a collection of Josh Simmons's notoriously disturbing horror comics. It's a big month, man!

See them all here!