Another Friday night, another batch of new strips for you:

Rich Bucksley provides a financial bailout in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan...

The jig might be up for the kids in this week's installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 51-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures....

OOPS, we forgot to update this week's Mon.-Fri. batch of Martin Kellerman's Rocky until today! We'll leave it up for some extra time to make sure that everyone who wants to catch it has a chance. This week you'll marvel at Kim Thompson's ability to translate hip-hop slang from Swedish, read the funniest description of childbirth you're ever likely to hear, and get an extra treat: a special extra-big Sunday-style 6-panel strip!

Family Los Angeles presents "Doodling With John" (Pham that is), a quick video tour of the Sublife artist's studio above the Family store.

Pay attention: there's some must-read stuff in today's Online Commentary & Diversions!

• Review: "Castle Waiting #15 - I love that Linda Medley is completely ignoring what makes her setting so interesting for the D&D set and focusing on the characters." - Kevin Church

• Review: "Although aiming at twenty-somethings also interested in getting laid, getting wasted and getting rich, [in Rocky Vol. 2] Kellerman nonetheless manages to move beyond the ever-fertile grounds of the battle of the sexes, bodily functions and morning-after guilt-trips to produce a lot of work that is truly fresh, funny and uniquely personal." - Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

• Review: "Just like Heartbreak Soup and Locas, Luba is hard to put down, and Beto’s art gets better as it gets more experimental... there’s tons of good material here, and the humongous format can’t be beat in terms of bang for your buck." - The A.V. Club

• Review: "The 'family history' graphic novel subgenre can feel overdone at times... but volume one of Carol Tyler’s autobiographical You’ll Never Know is the kind of smartly conceived, affectingly personal work that makes comics and memoirs look fresh... Carol Tyler works wonders with colored pencils and offbeat page designs... the breadth of her visual imagination is so impressive that... overreach is excusable. Also impressive: the thematic complexity of You’ll Never Know... [Grade] A-" - The A.V. Club

• Review: "The handsome hardcover collection The Brinkley Girls brings together a generous sampling of [Nell] Brinkley’s work, leaning heavy on her stories of industrious women and the he-men they love... Brinkley’s art is so drop-dead gorgeous that readers may long to razor out every page to hang on the wall. [Grade] A-" - The A.V. Club (same link as above)

• Review: "...the fantastic Brinkley Girls hardcover put out by Fantagraphics... you would be doing yourself a favor by checking it out. Curse you Fantagraphics, I'm trying to save money you bastards." - This Is Why I Hate You

• Review: "Sally gets the cover in this 11th volume of The Complete Peanuts... Schulz is still in top form here in my opinion. There are few books I laugh at more, or enjoy more thoroughly than these fine collections. Highly recommended!" - Todd Klein

• Preview: Our advance hype for Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 has been translated to Español by Cuidadano Pop

• Preview: Robot 6 runs through our Fall/Winter catalog, offering commentary on each upcoming title. A must-read!

• Profile: In The Jewish Standard, Gary VandenBergh looks at the life and career of his father-in-law, Will Elder. Another must-read!

• Interview: The Inkstuds radio program talks with Craig Yoe about his most recent editorial projects, including Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Interview: The CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog talks to Ellen Forney and her collaborators in the Capitol Hill art walk about last night's event

• History: Fantagraphics rules 1989-1990 in the "Modern Timeline of Events within the Comics/Movies Industry" from New Destiny Comics

• Things to see: Arlen Specter by Drew Friedman for The New Republic

Zak Sally posts late warning about an art show he has opening tonight. From his blog, where you can also see details about a musical performance he's involved with tomorrow night:

Friday May 15
the good people of Foiled Again hair salon are hosting an opening reception for Zak Sally (fancy pants illustrator, comic art guy, and head honcho over at La Mano press), whose selected works will adorn the walls of the salon for the next month or so. fun starts at 6:30, with live "entertainment" and "music" by the always amazing Lady Hard On at 8pm, followed by NoiseQueanAnt around 9pm. standard art opening fare will be on hand - refreshments & beverages of different kinds, but it's probably a safe bet to bring your own libations for the long haul.

630 - ?pm, free for all ages.
Foiled Again Hair Salon
2807 Johnson Street NE

(That's Minneapolis, by the way.)

Official announcement:

Midwestern BLAB!
Midwestern Contributors to BLAB! Exhibit at Leviton A+D Gallery
June 18 – July 22, 2009

Image: Don Colley, My Burdened Heart, scratchboard drawing on laminated plastic,
Originally published in BLAB! 15

Monte Beauchamp's annual darling of the graphic design and illustration world is a spectacular collection of cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design. BLAB!'s list of contributors past and present reads like a Who's Who of the contemporary visual art world including Mark Ryden, Chris Ware, Gary Panter, Joe Coleman and many more.

Midwestern BLAB!, curated by Monte Beauchamp, the Chicago-based creator of BLAB!, has included the art works of several Midwestern artists who have contributed significantly to BLAB! and are exemplars of the periodical’s core values. Anchor Graphics at Columbia College Chicago is the co-curator of this exhibition.

“Though BLAB!’s scope is international,” writes Bill North, Senior Curator of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, in the exhibition’s catalog essay. “The underpinning of its cornucopian visual feast is resolutely Midwestern. BLAB!, a product of the Midwest, boldly affirms the positive view of Midwestern culture. And, in the face of BLAB!, claims of the region’s cultural inferiority ring hollow.”

EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Don Colley, Tom Huck, Teresa James, CJ Pyle, and Fred Stonehouse

WHEN: June 18 – July 22, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18, from 50

WHERE: Columbia College Chicago’s Leviton A+D Gallery
619 S. Wabash Avenue
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm, Thursday 11 am – 8 pm

COST: Free and Open to the Public
MORE
INFO: Gallery Coordinator, 312.369.8668
Press Inquiries, 312.369.8695

Image: Fred Stonehouse, Four Eyes, 12" x 12", acrylic and collage on wood panel
To be published in BLAB! 19

This exhibition is sponsored by the Art + Design Department at Columbia College Chicago. This exhibition is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and the Efroymson Family Fund, a CICF fund.

The 15th issue of Mome is now available for pre-order. This issue boasts one new beginning (T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man"), two conclusions (Gilbert Shelton's "Last Gig in Shnagrlig" and Tim Hensley's "Wally Gropius"), new work from Dash Shaw, Andrice Arp (who also provides the cover), Sara Edward-Corbett, Conor O'Keefe, Noah Van Sciver, Robert Goodin, and Paul Hornschemeier, PLUS a bound-in minicomic by Spanish master Max! This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in June and in stores approximately 4 weeks later (subject to change).

On our product detail page we've got a free PDF preview with pages from almost every contributor, plus the full table of contents so you can see exactly what's in the issue. Photo and video previews are still forthcoming -- watch this space.

Today's Online Commentary and Diversions:

• Review: "Low Moon collect[s] five good examples of Jason's bitter, funny sense of humor... Despite the funny animal surface, Jason's actually one of the best crime writers of this generation, and three of these pieces are very dark crime stories, with a sort of science fiction story about estrangement from love and the title story, a very funny parody of western movie clichés that doesn't require any knowledge of the originals. If you're feeling bleak about the bleak underbelly of human existence, this probably isn't your best relief, but if you can see the humor in it, there's pretty much no better guide working today." - Steven Grant, Comic Book Resources

• Preview: New York Magazine posts an exclusive excerpt from A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross, saying "she writes about her own high-school years with affectionately brutal honesty."

• Plug: "Want a collection of one of the most brilliant comics of the modern era? Fantagraphics has released a collection of Gilbert Hernandez's Luba." - Matt Price, The Oklahoman/Nerdage

Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster is now available for pre-order. This new series begins the definitive collection of Foster's masterpiece, reproduced from newly available original proof sheets for a truly revelatory reading experience and presented in a beautiful oversize hardcover format. This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in mid-June and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that (subject to change).

Click through and you can download a free PDF of the first 10 Valiant strips! We don't have the photo previews yet (stay tuned), but we do have a nifty bonus feature for you: Kim Thompson's Afterword, "A History of Valiants," details the restoration and production of this edition and compares it with previous editions from various publishers around the world, and we've put it online for your reading enjoyment. Fascinating stuff!

(And don't forget, if you also order the black & white Libri Impressi edition of Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 that we imported specially from Portugal, you can get a special deal to save $9.99 off the combined prices!)

In our news section, we're pleased to bring you the lowdown on our books and comics slated for release in August, 2009, as will be seen in the pages of Previews. It's a big month! The list includes:

• The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 by Charles M. Schulz
• The Complete Peanuts 1971-1974 Box Set
• Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 1 by Roy Crane
• Rock Candy by Femke Hiemstra
• This Side of Jordan by Monte Schulz
• Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition by Stan Sakai
• Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 by the Hernandez Brothers
• Like a Dog by Zak Sally 

We also put up our actual Previews spread as a print-quality PDF file, just for fun. Jason Miles designed it and it'll clobber your eyeballs like a roundhouse from Capt. Easy himself. Click on through for the full dirt.

Your Online Commentary and Diversions for the day:

• Review: "It’s great to read comics that are fun, inventive, and delighting in the medium instead of dour, 'relevant,' and procedural. Supermen is a teasing look at a truly Golden Age." - Dave Lartigue, Dave Ex Machina

• Review: "Never before reprinted, Fantagraphics recently collected Humbug, complete with new essays, interviews, and annotations, in two handsome hardback volumes. [...] Jack Davis and Will Elder... elevated the comic-book parody beyond the standards of Mad and Trump. For Humbug, Davis produced some of the best work of his long career. Al Jaffee... tackled varied topics... all with equal skill and irreverence..." - Rick Klaw, San Antonio Current

• Review: "Blazing Combat... features a collection of some of the most beautiful black and white comic art you have ever seen... It also features interviews and some of the most beautiful printing I have seen. Honestly, put down those monthly comics for a week and buy something you will enjoy a lifetime. From cover to cover, this book is what keeps me in comics." - Jimmy Palmiotti, Newsarama

• Review: "Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 is the book I've been waiting for - a crazed whirlwind tour through the raw badlands of early superheroes, the best and the weirdest of the early days... Fantagraphics Books has assembled 20 of these quirky gems into a nicely designed, affordable full-color paperback. It's like a roadmap of alternative history, where you can imagine that a character like Stardust the Super Wizard became a star... It's one of the best comic collections of the year. Bring on a sequel!" - Nik Dirga, Blogcritics

• Plug: "Castle Waiting Vol. II #15: ...Linda Medley’s warm, winsome fantasy series continues at its relaxed pace." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Profile: The University of Cincinnati describes how faculty member C. Tyler, inspired by her graphic memoir You'll Never Know, is teaming up her students with military veterans to tell the veterans' stories in comics format, in order to help veterans talk about their experiences and share them with the civilian public to increase awareness of veterans' issues

• Things to see: Insane comics from Turkey, presented by Johnny Ryan