Here's a slew of stellar pics from Robert Williams' opening at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in NYC on Halloween night. Those sculptures! If you live in NYC, the show remains up thru Jan. 23, and be sure to check out Williams' new book, CONCEPTUAL REALISM, as well.  

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack returns on November 14 with a diverse array of art exhibitions and cultural activities. Join us in this historic industrial arts district between 6:00 and 9:00 PM for another entertaining evening of creative fun.

Highlights of the November 14 Art Attack include: The grand opening of the Georgetown Atelier hosted by founder Tenaya Sims; new work by Kyle Abernethy with shrines and collages by folk artist Luann Baroh at KrabJab Studio; "Junkture," original assemblages by Wendy James at Calamity Jane's; The Brite Collective presents "Eat My Story" at All City Coffee; "I Paint What I Want," new work by Rebekah Slavin at The Stables with music by DJ Blake Whitaker; scary works by M. S. Corley at Full Throttle Bottles; "Deer in the Headlights," paintings by Catherine Cross Uehara with recent work by Georgetown designer Kimberlee Iblings at Georgetown Tile Works/Frida; "Pim & Francie," exhibition by visionary cartoonist and illustrator Al Columbia at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery; along with the usual disorderly drinking, dining and raucous socializing that gives Georgetown its unique outlaw character.

The November 14 Georgetown Art Attack coincides with "Art on Airport" studio tours. Our artist neighbors to the immediate north at the Sunny Arms Artists Cooperative and the 4810 Building will open their studios to the public from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack is a monthly promotion of the Georgetown Merchants' Association. For additional information and a participants map visit: www.georgetownartattack.com.

"Will Everyone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand?!?"

Now available for preview and pre-order: the momentous 300th isssue of The Comics Journal, our biggest issue ever, with an unprecedented collection of "intergenerational dialogues" between some of the best and brightest of the comics and cartooning world. It's a lineup that truly must be seen to be believed — which is why we're showing you right here, with a teaser of each and every conversation! View a photo & video slideshow preview of the book embedded below. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended so you can read them). This issue is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship sometime later this month and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that (subject to change).

And here's an extra bonus: better late than never, a preview slideshow of the current issue of the Journal, #299 (with Bob Levin's incredible history of The Someday Funnies):

The ever-industrious Jim Flora-philes Irwin Chusid & Barbara Economon have announced the release of 4 more silkscreen prints in the Jim Flora Art "Primer for Prophets" series. "Cool Flora illustrations of the American family during the Atomic Age, when grocers employed stockdogs, crows fought tug-of-war over lingerie, and cigarettes were allowed in the obstetrics ward."

A 16-minute video documentary of Hans Rickheit from 2005 has just recently been posted on Facebook. At his blog, Hans provides background information, apologia, and a photo of a real-life squirrel machine (warning to the squeamish: complete with carcass) given to him by a friend at his Squirrel Machine signing in Cambridge, MA.

A piping hot dish of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...[T]his shaggy-haired collection of 15 years’ worth of artful zines and comics [Like a Dog]... reads at times like a history of psychological warfare. [Zak] Sally... tends toward richly dark, semiautobiographical, and tightly etched tales of tension and self-recrimination. Creepy dreams and images of anatomical self-analysis are recurring themes, along with the general sense of transience that marked Sally’s life while relentlessly touring with Low... At times the book... breaks out of that shell to address topics that are usually no lighter in tone though, as with his excellent retelling of Dostoyevski’s imprisonment, they benefit from the change in perspective. The art is equally claustrophobic when not downright disturbing. Revealing and witty, even when mired in darkness." – Publishers Weekly

• Review: "The Cold Heat material from Jones, Santoro, and Vermilyea is... imaginative and, particularly with Vermilyea at the drawing table, sharply delineated, as is Vermilyea's delightfully sick solo material. Josh Simmons impresses with his blackly comic strips... Tim Hensley kills it as always with the concluding chapters in his Wally Gropius saga, featuring peerlessly communicated body language perhaps the greatest anti-climax in comics history. I think this is some of the tightest material we've seen yet from Sara Edward-Corbett... Lilli Carré is alarmingly good at depicting male lust. Nate Neal's not-so-instant-karma piece in Vol. 16 is explicit and haunting. Dash Shaw is a restless talent, albeit so restless he never seems to settle down even in the middle of any given strip." – Sean T. Collins on Mome Vols. 14, 15 & 16

• Review: Lene Taylor of the I Read Comics podcast wonders if the humor in Jason's Low Moon exists in an alternate world (beware of spoilers)

• Review: Google Translate creates poetry out of this Portuguese review of Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes at O Recíproco Inverso: "The art that is what Daniel Clowes you do best: people ugly. All the characters are people from day to day, dark circles, old-fashioned clothes, hair loss... out the freaks that appear, like the girl in the form of potato or the dog itself without holes, op.  You see, the Daniel Clowes does not draw badly, he draws very well what he wants to show. That is, ugly people. I will not give star ratings do not pro book, this is very scrotum. Just know that it's cool."

• Plug: "One hell of a messed-up book. ... Pim & Francie are Columbia's pet subjects — a pair of cute kids who are always stumbling into horrific nightmare scenarios. This isn't quite a collection of stories about them: it's a collection of Columbia's rough and finished materials concerning them that keeps veering toward storyhood, then jerking the steering wheel and plunging over the nearest cliff." — Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance

• Plug: Chris Mautner of Robot 6 rediscovers Zero Zero by way of our 99 Cent Comics sale (issues are selling out fast): "Re-reading this stuff, it really startles me just how good and how ignored this series was and continues to be. I mean, the level of talent in these pages is staggering. Kim Deitch's Search for Smilin' Ed! Dave Cooper's Crumple! Richard Sala's The Chuckling Whatsit! Joe Sacco's Christmas with Karadsic! Not to mention Max Andersson, Skip Williamson, Mack White, Sam Henderson, Michael Kupperman, David Mazzuchelli and so many more. This really was the best anthology of the 90s, bar none."

• Preview: The Comics Reporter spills the beans on one of our 2010 releases: Drew Weing's Set to Sea

• Preview: If you want to read about our February 2010 releases in Portuguese, GHQ has you covered

• Things to see: Look who's popped up in Gabrielle Bell's cartoon recounting of her trip to Minneapolis: none other than Tom Kaczynski and Zak Sally

• Things to see: Cookies, Li'l Wayne, and inter-mythology love figure in the latest batch of sketchbook scans from Anders Nilsen

A Tim Hensley crime comic? Somebody pinch me! Actually this is from The Comics Journal Special Edition, Winter 2004, newly reformatted and colored, for purposes unknown. Read the whole thing at Blog Flume. So great.

The great Drew Friedman does what he does best on the cover of this upcoming collection of writing and art from the New York Observer. I'm not sure if this piece will be in Too Soon?, our collection of Drew's celebrity portraits coming out in Summer 2010, but it oughta be. Hit Drew's blog for more info and a larger image.

UPDATE: Drew writes in to say that this image won't be included in Too Soon? — dang.