Our homeboy Marc Palm created this Filmation-style Prison Pit fan art, which Johnny Ryan posted over at his blog, where you can find out the inarguable reasoning behind Marc's color choices.

Like the Patterson-Gimlin film, here is your blurry evidence of the Fantagraphics panel at this past weekend's Oslo Comics Expo, showing (left to right) Dash Shaw, Dave Cooper and Kim Thompson, uploaded by Twitter user @Iselin_Evensen. (Not pictured: fellow panelists Tony Millionaire and Jason.) You can tell from the refreshments on the table there (presumably served from the festival's on-site bar, The Drinky Crow) that this was a European festival. We're hoping to wangle a show report and some photos out of Kim for Flog, and we're keeping our eye on the OCX site for more photos & media, so stay tuned.

Congratulations to Joyce Farmer , whose graphic memoir Special Exits has received the prestigious 2010 NCS Division Award for Graphic Novels! The winners in all the divisions were announced at the 65th Annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet last night in Boston, MA.

Special Exits is also nominated for a 2011 Eisner Award in the category of Best Reality-Based Work.

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web:

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Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size):

Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

And elsewhere:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim:

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

Mugwhump the Great by Roger Langridge (at Act-i-vate):

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Online Commentary & Diversions returns after a rare link-free day yesterday:

• Review: "I’ve read many gentle, nostalgic manga about school and growing up, and in many ways Wandering Son is not so different from the best of them... On another level, the very fact that it can be so quiet and casual and natural, and say all the things that it says, makes it a deeply impressive work. What Wandering Son says, above all, is that the kids are alright. Maybe they don’t believe it themselves right now. But they’ll make it through." – Shaenon Garrity, The Comics Journal

• Feature: One of our most frequently asked questions from fans is where to start with Jason. He has so many great books you can't really go wrong with any of them, but Robot 6's Chris Mautner offers some solid recommendations in his latest "Comics College" guide.

• Investigation: Brian Cronin of Comic Book Resources gets to the bottom of a burning question: Did Jim Woodring design Rubik the Amazing Cube?

Peggy Burns said it first and best:

"Talk about a rare opportunity! It seems that Mr. Ware has graciously donated a piece of original artwork from the acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, to benefit the Intercultural Montessori Language School in Oak Park, Illinois. And not only that, Chris will sign and personalize it to the lucky winning bidder. The ebay auction is going on for nine days and right now it is already at $809."

Up to $1,525 now!

For Salon's "Saved by Pop Culture" series of personal essays, Salon editor Adele Melander-Dayton writes "How Ghost World Made Me Brave":

"[Enid] might be miserable, sometimes, but she's still capable of seeing the world on her own terms, marveling at the strangeness of what she sees. Still, most of Enid's responses to being young and in pain are not 'healthy.' She doesn't throw herself with manic dedication into stage-managing the high school production of South Pacific, volunteer for wilderness trail maintenance, take up knitting, or see a shrink, all things I tried during my senior year in efforts to distract myself. But Enid did teach me that it's OK to live with a little darkness. I didn't feel like being nice, or pretending that everything was cool, and neither did Enid."

Read the rest here.

As Lisa Simpson said, "I really identified with the girls in Ghost World. They made me feel like I wasn't so alone."

Here's your first look at the final cover art for Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010 by Michael Kupperman, which we just sent off to the printer for a September release! (We may need to adjust the color of the cloth binding in the image once we see printed samples, but it should be pretty close.) Earlier today our own Eric Reynolds tweeted: "A funnier book you will not read this year. I think the old coot would approve."

Back cover too? Sure, why not:

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley
by Floyd Gottfredson

288-page black & white/color 10.5" x 8.75" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-441-2

See Previews / Order Now

Today's America knows Mickey Mouse as a gentle do-gooder. But in his 1930s heyday, Mickey rose to fame as an epic hero — a bold, adventurous scrapper battling mobsters, kidnappers, and spies! And Mickey’s greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, crafted by one of history's greatest cartoonists — Floyd Gottfredson.

For 25 years, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse was a trendsetting adventure serial that led where other adventure comics would follow. But famed as Gottfredson's life's work is, it has never been comprehensively collected in English... until now!

Dive into this book and see Mickey’s race to a gold mine with Pegleg Pete; Mickey’s life on the lam after being framed for bank robbery; even Mickey’s fight with a huge heavyweight champ. You wouldn't expect to find a mouse in the middle of such chilling thrills and spills. But he's always there!

Enjoy Mickey Mouse in unmatched quality — remastered straight from Disney proof sheets and prized private collections. You'll also explore more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features — from rare behind-the-scenes art to tributes by Warren Spector (Disney Epic Mickey) and Disney Legends award recipient Floyd Norman.

Mickey Mouse is among the world's most recognizable icons. But do you know the wild, unforgettable personality behind the icon? Start reading... you might be wearing mouse ears before you're through.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Congress of the Animals
by Jim Woodring

104-page black & white 7.25" x 9.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-437-5

See Previews / Order Now

Readers of the “Frank” stories know that the Unifactor is in control of everything that happens to the characters that abide there, and that however extreme the experiences they undergo may be, in the end nothing really changes. That goes treble for Frank himself, who is kept in a state of total ineducability by the unseen forces of that haunted realm. And so the question arises: what would happen if Frank were to leave the Unifactor?

That question is answered in Congress of the Animals, Jim Woodring's much-anticipated second full-length graphic novel following 2010's universally acclaimed Weathercraft, and first starring his signature character Frank. In this gripping saga an act of casual rudeness sets into motion a chain of events which propels Frank into a world where he is on his own at last; and like so many who leave home, Frank finds himself contending with realities of which he had no previous inkling.

In Congress of the Animals we are treated to the pitiful spectacle of Frank losing his house, taking a factory job, falling in with bad company, fleeing the results of sabotage, escaping the Unifactor in an amusement park ride, surviving a catastrophe at sea, traveling across hostile terrain toward a massive temple seemingly built in his image, being treated roughly by gut-faced men and intervening in an age-old battle in a meadow slathered in black and yellow blood. And when he finally knocks on opportunity's door he finds... he finds...

Suffice to say he finds what most of us would like to find. Can he bring it back with him? Will the Unifactor accept him as he has become? Are his sins forgiven? Is love real? Is this the end of Frank as we know him?