Paul Karasik poses with his two "sons," the Fletcher Hanks collections I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! and what looks like an unbound proof of the forthcoming You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (debuting at MoCCA 2009). Proud papa.

Let's catch up on our Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...Monologues [for Calculating the Density of Black Holes is] spare and scratchy where [Anders Nilsen's] other work was detailed; loose and spontaneous where his other work was considered; and funny where his other work was melancholy. It's interesting to see the many influences that inform Monologues; there's a bit of absurdists like Ionesco, elements of Tom Stoppard's wit and philosophical musings, stream of consciousness dada in the style of Tristan Tzara, and oblique New Yorker type gags with the scratchy looseness of James Thurber and Saul Steinberg." - Rob Clough

• Review: "...[O]nce again, I’m engaged in Blazing Combat. What a thrill! And the art!... Highly recommended. Don’t argue! Just buy it!" - David McDonnell, Starlog

• Review: "This collection of the 1965-66 Blazing Combat war comic magazine is a stellar publication... It's a master class on how to tell a short story, and I highly recommend checking it out." - Sandy Bilus, I Love Rob Liefeld

• Review: "Blazing Combat, a new hardcover collection from Fantagraphics, showcases some truly fantastic work from a multitude of comics greats... The collection itself is sharp as a tack... Fantagraphics really packages it nicely..." - Litany of Schist

• Review: "This omnibus of all 11 issues of Humbug is equal parts giddy genius and period piece. The satire is razor-sharp... [T]here are such subtleties here and such rapier wit that the line is clearly visible from the Algonquin Round Table to Kurtzman to Crumb to Ralph Bakshi to Mr. Show to The Colbert Report." - Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5... is really funny." - Tucker Stone, "Advanced Common Sense," comiXology (fast-forward to the "Speed Round")

• Review: "In his way, [Michael] Kupperman's just as concerned with making comics' formal aspects work for him as Chris Ware. In his way he's every bit as effective. Goddammit this book [Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5] is funny." - Sean T. Collins

• Review: "[Beasts! Book 1] is captivating, wistful, funny and truly extraordinary - a Bestiary of the traditionally fantastic for the dreary 21st century where imagination and wonder have been formularised as crypto-zoology... a vivid package of sheer fantasy and artistic excellence..." - Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

• Review: "Now, with Low Moon, [Jason] has clenched his fist around me and won’t let me go - this is easily my favorite of his works to date... Top to bottom, I enjoyed Low Moon very much... A worthy addition to one’s bookshelf." - Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

• Review: "[In Abandoned Cars] Tim Lane presents a personal study of what he calls 'The Great American Mythological Drama,' a fog of events / thoughts / dreams / disappointments in music / literature / North American life... Lane leads to something more introspective and extremely sad." - Churrasco la Naje (from Google translation)

• Review: "...[A]lmost nothing is casual in Bottomless Belly Button and almost nothing is superficial in its narrative structure, nor its authorial intentions... [Dash] Shaw's work delves into the interior of the personal relationships of its protagonists, but also in the basic foundations of linear narrative... Shaw transcends the sphere of intellectual narrative to enter the much more epidermal level of physical sensations... Dash Shaw has composed a monumental work, sometimes puzzling, sometimes bordering on melodrama, but always strong and brave, a work full of qualities and findings that will, we believe, be a reference for future comics. His experimentation, his daring and his solutions can't help but remind us of an equally ambitious and dense work, Jimmy Corrigan... Do not miss this." - Little Nemo's Kat (from Google translation)

• Plug: Jonathan Ross gives us ("the company that flies the flag for independent, ground-breaking comics"), and The Comics Journal ("the only widely read and serious publication of comic-book criticism"), a nice shout-out in The Times

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch continues their conversation with Michael Kupperman. Sample quote: "I think the artist I feel closest with is Tony Millionaire, because he really lives in those comics. He could never be anything else."

• Profile: The Beat spotlights Eleanor Davis as part of their survey of Russ Manning Award nominees

• Profile: Vice looks at another side of Jim Blanchard: curator of wacky/creepy/sleazy music compilations

• History: The Beat engages in a bit of "Comics Archaeology," discussing several releases from our past (and present: "...it must be said, of all the art comix anthologies, Mome is probably the most perfect distillation. Sometimes evolution works.")

• Things to see: These two sample pages really make me wish that Roger Langridge had landed the Wallace & Gromit gig

What a Christmas gift it is.

Find out more at BEA. 

ERIC REYNOLDS

JIM BLANCHARD 

No Online Commentary & Diversions tomorrow if I can help it: I'm taking the day off!

• Awards: Congratulations to Mome contributor Eleanor Davis for being nominated for this year's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer award (given out at the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic Con International) for her excellent Toon Books release Stinky!

• Review: "The biggest surprise might be how good these stories are, even if they failed to take off in the way that, say, Superman did... [T]he Notes section at the end, written by editor Greg Sadowski, ...is truly fantastic... His studious efforts are worth the price of the book alone... These stories deserved another look and more attention. Sadowski has done an admirable job of making Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936–1941 not only reverent, but exciting and fun as well." - John Hogan, Graphic Novel Reporter

• Review: "I might say [Michael] Kupperman is one of the greatest satirists of our time, if I could figure out what he's satirizing. The basic facts: this collect[ion] of... Tales Designed to Thrizzle... featur[es] dozens of short pieces done on a chaotic array of subjects in so many styles much of it comes across as found art, and almost all of it's hilarious. Any attempt to summarize things like 'Mentally Ill Gangster Comics' or 'Crime Is Pushing the Limits' would miss the point completely. Except to say this is media culture put through the grinder. Top-notch." - Steven Grant, Comic Book Resources

• Interview: Ladies and gentlemen, the Inkstuds interview with Bob Fingerman

• Good news: The Comics Reporter reports that Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga, Ted May & Dan Zettwoch will be returning to the pages of the weekly Riverfront Times

• Things to see (and buy): New Jim Flora print

KIM DEITCH (signing Friday from 2-3:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 7)

MICHAEL KUPPERMAN (signing Friday from 12-1:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 8)

DASH SHAW (signing Friday from 1-2:00 in our booth 3422 and 4-4:30 in autograph area table 25)

MONTE SCHULZ (signing Saturday from 2:30-3:00 in autograph area table 9)

We will also be giving away galleys of Monte Schulz's novel THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, issues of TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE, MOME, and ZERO ZERO (featuring Deitch's THE SEARCH FOR SMILIN' ED), as well as our Free Comic Book Day titles from the last few years.

We'll be promoting our summer and fall lines in particular, with advance previews of books like PIM & FRANCIE by Al Columbia, PRINCE VALIANT by Hal Foster, YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION! by Fletcher Hanks (edited by Paul Karasik), LOVE & ROCKETS NEW STORIES #2 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, YOU ARE THERE and WEST COAST BLUES by Jacques Tardi, RED MONKEY DOUBLE HAPPINESS BOOK by Joe Daly, PRISON PIT by Johnny Ryan, BACKWOODS HUMORIST: THE ART OF NORMAN PETTINGILL, and many more.

BEA isn't open to the public, unfortunately, but if you're an attending bookseller, fellow pubisher, journalist, or otherwise sneaky badge-getter, please stop by and say hello to myself, Jason Miles and Fearless Leader Gary Groth. 

(Click for larger version)

Jason's latest book, Low Moon, has not even been released yet in the U.S. (look for it to premiere at MoCCA, as well as to-be-officially-announced June events at the Strand in NYC, Portland OR, and our very own bookstore), and our hard-working Norwegian has already completed his next opus, another full-color 48-pager in the same format as the Eisner-Award nominated The Last Musketeer and the Eisner Award-winning The Left Bank Gang. Here is an exclusive preview of the first page from Werewolves of Montpellier, scheduled for release next summer. (In between, we will be releasing a Low Moon-format omnibus collection of several out of print Jason books, including Meow, Baby!, Tell Me Something, and You Can't Get There from Here, titled Almost Silent.)

Jason's regular colorist Hubert will soon be applying his magical hues to Werewolves. And in fact this seems like as good a moment as any to offer our heartfelt apologies to Hubert for forgetting to include his credit in the printed edition of Low Moon. Hubert has colored every full-color book of Jason's since Why Are You Doing This?, done an exemplary job every time (in fact, he was Eisner nominated too, for The Left Bank Gang), so I'm sure most regular Jason fans will automatically know that he was the man behind Low Moon's typically stunning chromatics, but we're still embarrassed. We hope Low Moon will sell out quickly so we can rectify this in a future edition.