Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Just finished reading and cannot recommend enough the new Fantagraphics release Blazing Combat" - This Is Why I Hate You

• Review: "Something for everyone in this educational, humorous and borderline offensive tome. Communicated in Bagge’s trademarked bugged out style, [Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me] is a must-have for fans of incisive political commentary." - Kevin Mathews, The Power of Pop

• Review: "...Supermen! provides a concise glimpse into what the early comic books were like back when the medium was really fresh... Today’s readers will be surprised at how some of the material from a supposed more naive times really comes across rather grim and gritty... The 20 stories on view here provide an intriguing insight of where many of our modern day comic book heroes may have originated from, even if indirectly." - Kevin Mathews, The Power of Pop

• Preview: Fábio Moon previews and provides a bit of background about his and his brother's cover art for The Comics Journal #298

• Interview: Robot 6's Tim O'Shea talks with Bob Fingerman about his latest releases, including Connective Tissue

• Things to see: Another eye-melting page from Tim Lane's "The Passenger"

• Things to see: Roger Langridge takes a break from the Muppets for a Krazy Kat kommission

Seattle, getcherself some bargain-priced drawrings from the likes of Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, and other Friends of the Nib at "Drift," a flurry of papery goodness opening this Thursday (May 14, 2009) at 7 PM at Cafe Racer on Roosevelt. Click the flyer for bigger info courtesy The Woodring Monitor. Bring your checkbook!

Expected to arrive in comic book shops this week: Castle Waiting Vol. II #15 by Linda Medley. Due to the intricacies of shipping and distribution, comic shops get new issues of Castle Waiting before we do ourselves, so you Wednesday warriors get the first crack! As always, check with your local shop to confirm availability.

Just a stack of original Gilbert Hernandez pages for Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 sitting around the office waiting to be scanned, bathing us all in the brilliant radiance of their presence. You know, nothing to get worked up over.

Now available for preview and pre-order: The Comics Journal #298, featuring interviews with Umbrella Academy artists Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon; Perry Bible Fellowship's Nicholas Gurewitch; and Thriller artist Trevor Von Eeden, plus a gallery of Percy Crosby's Skippy strips and a whole lot more -- click here to check out the full Table of Contents. This issue is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in mid-June and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that (subject to change).

• Review: "Petey & Pussy is surreal, rude, crass, crude with studied obnoxiousness, and bitterly, bitingly funny in a perfect post-modern manner... an utterly captivating world of bawdy, grown-up laughs that only the most po-faced conservative could resist. Adult fun for slacker smart-asses of all ages guaranteed to make your beer spurt out of your nose so read carefully..." - Win Wiaceck, Now Read This!

• Review: "Humbug was cool beyond cool... fabulous art..." - Roger Sabin, The Guardian

• Review: "The Humbug set from Fantagraphics is out and it's great. Fine printing and binding will keep this slipcased two-volume set looking good long after the rest of us are gone." - Harry Lee Green, Hairy Green Eyeball 

• Review: "Maybe the business was too young, or maybe these characters were just a warm-up for what was to come so they didn't quite stick, but they are just as cool as any early Superman or Batman comic. The comics are all really neat to read, crude and unfiltered... So if you’re a comics fan, especially of the early stuff, this book is a must-have... [Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941] is gritty and exciting, so definitely go check it out!" - Tom Hardej, CC2K

• Review: "A fantastic companion to 2007’s Fletcher Hanks retrospective I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!, [Supermen!] is pure pop culture heaven... While it’s easy to see why these characters have been been consigned to the dustbin of history, there’s an undeniable charm to practically every story in here... The only problem with this book is that it leaves you wanting more..." - Kevin Church

• Review: "...Sam's Strip was an interesting comic in its own right. The phrase 'ahead of its own time' is one that's bandied about frequently when discussing it, and even now the juxtapositions within it are occasionally surreal enough to cause amusement through their sheer audacity... As small a fact as it may be, the near-flawless execution of the book helps to make it feel like more of a prestige package, a celebration of the series rather than just a cheap cash-in... [T]his straightforward but well-made collection is a thoroughly worthy purchase." - Andrew Williams, Den of Geek

• Preview: "Illustrator Nell Brinkley's women were the Roaring Twenties' answer to the aloof Gibson Girl. Curly-haired, rambunctious and more than a bit naughty, the Brinkley Girls were a national sensation..." - She's a Betty

• Preview: "For those of you familiar only with [Peter] Bagge’s Gen X tales of angry, lost youth in Hate, the realisation that Bagge has developed into an opinionated, curmudgeonly middle aged man may seem as disturbing as seeing your favourite band of your teens back on stage now they’re all 40 somethings. But there’s no need to fear -- Bagge’s middle age self displays all the angry, hilarious energy of his younger self, just with more direction and purpose. [Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me is] definitely one to look forward to." - Richard Bruton, The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

• Interview: Amazon.com's Omnivoracious blog sat down for a chat with Jaime Hernandez at Emerald City ComiCon. Sample quote: "I like to get goofy, off-the-wall [comics], just to have a box of 50s or 60s stuff that doesn’t really make sense. You know, I like to open the box once in a while to look at it for fun stuff, inspiration. Looking at an old comic gets me excited to do comics sometimes."

• Life imitates comics: Trend de la Crème looks at the fashion runway, sees Peanuts (via Spurge)

Did you catch Snake 'N' Bacon last night? Kuppermania kontinues today with an exclusive 5-page preview of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 at ICv2.com!

There's been a bit of confusion with the schedule but Michael Kupperman's star-studded Snake 'N' Bacon TV program definitely makes its debut TONIGHT at 12:45 AM on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim -- that's less than 3 hours away for you East Coasters. And as if you need more reason to stay up late, it's followed by a spiritual cousin, the excellent British comedy show The Mighty Boosh. If you like things that are funny and good, for gosh sakes, it's your lucky night! The only way it could be better is if they were also showing The Drinky Crow Show, but I guess you can't have everything.

New strips for your Friday evening:

It's swine flu time in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan...

The kids' tense hideout continues 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....

And in our current 5-day chunk of Martin Kellerman's Rocky, topics include pregnancy, math, and urban legends.

Your late Friday Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Jaime [Hernandez]'s entry [in Love and Rockets: New Stories #1]... is like a huge riff on what might have happened if superhero comics started their evolutionary path by focusing on more female-centered concerns instead of testosterone-fueled fisticuffs... Gilbert's contributions are hard to describe, mainly because they are so surreal. They really have to be experienced and interpreted on your own." - John Jakala, Sporadic Sequential

• Plug: GrassrootsModern works in a nice mention of Beasts! Book 1 and Book 2 in their spotlight on Tiny Showcase

• Preview: Wow Cool gives our upcoming anthology Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s a major plug, saying "Bug your local shop to order about a thousand of these"

• Preview: Boing Boing Boing Boings Jordan Crane's forthcoming Uptight #3

• Interview: The National Post's huge spate of pre-TCAF Q&As includes one with Dash Shaw. Sample quote: "When I'm not drawing I just walk around wondering what to do. It's sad."

• Oddity: "...last night I had a dream about an issue of Thrizzle that was in a sideways format and written by Art Spiegelman and illustrated by Steve Ditko..." - Timmy Williams, The Daily Cross Hatch