Residents of California will soon be able to have a beagle doing a happy dance on their bumpers. The State of California, United Media, the Charles M. Schulz Museum and the California Association of Museums have teamed up to create this Snoopy license plate, with proceeds going toward supporting California museums. You can get more info, and California drivers can pre-register, at snoopyplate.com.

Daily clips & strips — click for additional/improved viewing at the sources:

• It's the new episode of The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE

• "You Shouldn't Speak Your Wish" is another Steven Weissman piece in the Butter and Blood art show at GR2

• More foggy, mysterious panels from Frank Santoro

• An untitled, possibly previously unseen, and undeniably awesome mid-1960s painting by Jim Flora

• A 5-page story by Noah Van Sciver

• Cover art for The Lovely Sparrows' Languages Were Lost EP and another "Devil Doll" glimpse by Derek Van Gieson

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Plug: In his coverage of Free Comic Book Day Paul Constant of The Stranger calls Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales by Jim Woodring "the best comic for adults" and adds "The Fantagraphics Store is an amazing, beautiful bookstore..."

• Plug: Thought Balloonists' Charles Hatfield says of Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales "Crikey, the best FCBD publication I've gotten since [2006]."

The Best Show on WFMU host Tom Scharpling welcomes Tales Designed to Thrizzle creator Michael Kupperman as a guest on tonight's show (along with Dave Willis and Dana Snyder of Aqua Teen Hunger Force), airing 8-11 PM Eastern time on 91.1 FM in New York and 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley and streaming online at WFMU.org. Tune in for hilarity! We'll post a link to the archived audio when it's available.

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• From Jim Woodring, a glimpse at his next book following Weathercraft, Congress of the Animals

• The genius of Johnny Ryan brings you "Tron of Finland"

• What Things Do begins serialization of Kevin Huizenga's Rumbling

• Gabrielle Bell continues and concludes reporting from her Stockholm trip

• Renee French does hilarious and alarming with equal aplomb

• Hans Rickheit presents Ectopiary page 22 and his description of this illustration is priceless

• Recent illustrations by Marco Corona: Sports! Magic!

• Character sketches from Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko

• I do believe the cabbit is a Josh Simmons creation on his & Wendy Chin's Quackers blog

• Here's a sneak peek at a future installment of Derek Van Gieson's Mome serial "Devil Doll"

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "This extraordinary collection of World War I tales offers perhaps the finest work from the lauded Tardi. Each story, based on actual accounts from French soldiers, relates the often-horrific realities of trench-warfare. Disturbing yet compelling images abound: a dead, mangled horse hanging from a tree serves as a warning; rats feasting on corpses; amputations; executions; countless dead. Far more memorable are the impassioned stories themselves. Betrayal, deceit, mistrust, murder, hope, and even humor run throughout these tales. Painstakingly researched, the amazing Tardi perfectly captures the everyday despair of the World War I trench soldier. Visceral, powerful, and effective, the flawless It Was The War of the Trenches blazes a new standard for the war comic." – Rick Klaw, The SF Site: Nexus Graphica

• Review: "One of the nice things about the rise of highbrow comics is the how many genuinely lurid entertainments a gentleman can get away with adding to his library. For starters, we’d suggest Tim Lane’s Abandoned Cars. It’s the modern equivalent of the Raymond Chandler yarns that fill up the more exciting portion of your bookshelf — a string of police chases and back-alley fist fights with a surprisingly introspective thread running in the background." – Kempt

• Interview: In the second half of this video from Midtown Comics, Gilbert Hernandez talks about what he does and his new book High Soft Lisp

• Interview: Mr. Media's Bob Andelman talks to Gahan Wilson about Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons: ""I said, 'I'll see Mr. Kurtzman?' 'Oh, no,' the receptionist said. 'Trump is out of New York.' The art director came up behind me and said, 'Hef would like to see you.' I didn't know who or what a Hef was." Listen via the embedded player above or at this link, or download the MP3

• Commentary: On the Schulz Library blog, Robyn Chapman culls some tidbits from the 1999 interview with Megan Kelso in The Comics Journal #216: "The Journal in known for its in-depth interviews, and this one didn’t disappoint."

ICv2 has an exclusive 6-page preview from Dungeon Quest Book 1 by Joe Daly. Observe as our heroes Millennium Boy and Steve take a wrong turn into an epic confrontation!

The Book of Mr. Natural (Hardcover Ed.)
by Robert Crumb

128-page black & white 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-352-1

Ships in: June 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

This collection features over 120 pages of vintage Crumb comics starring the white-bearded, diminutive sage-cum-charlatan, ranging from charming, free-wheeling early '70s stories to the disturbing, controversial '90s stories (as seen in the Crumb movie), including the entire 40-page "Mr. Natural and Devil Girl" saga from Hup! (collected here for the first time in book form). Crumb's Mr. Natural is probably the most famous underground character of all (topping even Fritz the Cat and the Freak Brothers), recognizable even to "civilians." Don't miss this opportunity to snatch up this jam-packed collection of comics from one of the all-time masters, now available in hardcover for the very first time!

Download an EXCLUSIVE 11-page PDF excerpt (958 KB).

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Stussy is putting out two t-shirts featuring Gilbert Hernandez artwork as part of their summer 2010 collection. You may recall their Jaime Hernandez shirts came out not too long ago. News comes via Love & Maggie, who have links to the announcement on lots of different sites.

Flickr user Ben Herman shares this photo of his cat Squeaky perusing some issues of Love and Rockets Vol. II...

...and I may have posted this photo from Flickr user "Asimuth" of the appropriately-named Magpie using The Death of Speedy as a blanket when I first found it in 2007, but the current Flog archives don't go back that far, so here it is maybe again.

Send us photos of your adorable pets enjoying Fantagraphics comics and we'll post 'em here!