At his blog Jason has begun posting panels from his new as-yet-untitled book in progress, saying "For the moment it looks like it will be around 150-160 pages. So I guess this will be my first graphic novel. That means I'm a... I'm a... graphic novelist! Woo hoo!" The dialogue above translates as "Fucking hell..."

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Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Gottfredson is in much stronger form here [in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island] than in the first volume, drawing upon the early Mickey cartoons for ideas — mad scientists, treasure hunts, mail pilots — but then expanding and developing them in a way those early Disney shorts were incapable of doing. Over time, Mickey’s personality becomes more refined as well; scrappier, tougher and more determined to seek justice (or an adventure) regardless of the odds. Again, part of the enjoyment for me with this series is the rich amount of historical material editors Gary Groth and David Gerstein are able to provide. From foreign material to biographies of various ancillary contributors, supplemental art, character histories and more, this series is rich with detail, both in the strip itself and in the editorial handling of the material, that puts other reprint projects to shame." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Review: "What is good about Love and Rockets: New Stories [#1], however, is that it throws readers and fans a curve. Just what are Los Bros. going to do now? By going back to their early styles, in essence, they’ve allowed themselves a re-launch or at least a chance to throw many surprises at our expectations. Whatever they choose to do, it’ll still be the most interesting comics coming from America’s most literate, experimental, and adventurous comic book creators." – Leroy Douresseaux, I Reads You

• Reviews: At Now Read This! Win Wiacek examines The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 1 (coming back into print next year) and Vol. 2 (still out of print)

• Plug: "In these days of precious art comics and highfalutin graphic novels, it’s often forgotten that comic strips evolved for one (now quaint) reason: to sell newspapers. Cartoonists were commercial artists, not auteurs. [In Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising] you’ll find Peter Arno, the sophisticated New Yorker cartoonist, endorsing Rheingold Extra Dry Beer; Mickey Mouse and pals flogging just about everything under the sun except, maybe, mousetraps; and Krazy Kat selling Gulfsteel Nails. They are all Joe Camel’s ancestors." – Dana Jennings, The New York Times

• Interview: At Our Town Downtown, Cullen Gallagher, who says "...Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson [is] a deeply moving biography that captures not only Nelson’s tragedy, but also celebrates the ardor and artistry of his life and work," talks to the book's author/editor, Kevin Avery: "In the mid-to-late ’70s, rock music was still being discovered. There were no hard and fast rules, so in a way criticism was an act of discovery for these writers and they were just expressing what they liked. Paul was able to do that in a way that was not only personal, but also he would draw from film, books and his knowledge of folk music. You also got the feeling that he was a mysterious character. There would be hints dropped that there was an unhappy guy behind all these reviews. His writing was beautiful. This was music criticism that could be read as literature."

• Interview: Newsarama's Zack Smith chats with Mome contributor Jesse Moynihan about his webcomic Forming and his work on Adventure Time

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:

The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Forming by Jesse Moynihan:

Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new strips this week):

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim (scroll down at the link for a couple more updates):

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

What's in the Backpack by Victor Kerlow:

Kevin Avery, author of Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson, will be Dave Marsh’s guest on the second hour of his radio show, Kick Out the Jams, Sunday Nov. 6 at 11 AM (EST). The show runs from 10 till noon. Kick Out the Jams plays on The Loft (Channel 30). They’ll be spinning some of Paul Nelson’s favorite tunes and talking about all things Paul (and plugging their upcoming appearance at the Strand, of course). Tune in!

The Minneapolis Indie Xpo takes place this Saturday and Sunday at The Soap Factory, 514 2nd St. SE in (duh) Minneapolis! I don't think you need us to tell you this is a must-go. Appearing will be Kevin Huizenga, Tom Kaczynski (whose art adorns the poster above), Anders Nilsen, Jim Rugg, Zak Sally, Noah Van Sciver, and lots more of our friends and colleagues! Say hi to 'em for us.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "A powerful eco-report, Oil and Water also manages to be a report on the gap between classes that isn’t about who has what, but rather about what 'having' means to different groups of Americans.... The large black-and-white images are realistic and create individual characteristics for the cast; its smudged texture is an excellent vehicle for the intrusion of oil on beaches, birds, livelihoods, and prospects for the future. Quick to read, but of lasting weight for readers from either side of the divide." – Francisca Goldsmith, School Library Journal

• Review: "...Nelson wrote like Fitzgerald or O’Connor, his prose full of god and anxiety... Paul Nelson knew you were that kid that needed a noir detective to crack the case for you, to demystify the rock god world while not for a second taking the romance and realness out of it. He signed on for a pittance and wrote elegantly and truthfully about an industry that was usually nothing but awkward boasts and queasy lies.... I’m not kidding when I say that you need to get on [Everything Is an Afterthought] ASAP if you do any music writing at all. It’s the Scribes Sounding Off book of the year, in a pretty great year of them..." – Chris Estey, The KEXP Blog

• Interview: Comic Book Resources' Chris Mautner has a fascinating and playfully cantankerous Q&A with Kevin Huizenga about the new issue of Ganges: "I totally would rather work on a minicomic more than working on a 'real' project. Working on something where other people are involved really screws me up. It's some kind of disorder. I assume they're going to be disappointed, and I resent them for that in advance, and then I start to hate the work and half-ass the project. I'd much rather work on something that no one wants, that no one has asked for. This has not helped my career."

• Commentary: Eddie Campbell, still on his romance comics kick, writes about Bill Everett's work in the genre

• Travelogue: The wonderful Jean Schulz writes about her recent trip to Portugal for Lisbon's Amadora International Comics Festival

Can you think of a funny caption for this Gahan Wilson cartoon? Enter this week's New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest!

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There’s an update to this amazing bit of Tony Millionaire lore.

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes
by Carl Barks

240-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-474-0

Ships in: November 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Carl Barks's Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics are considered among the greatest artistic and storytelling achievements in the history of the medium.

After serving a stint at the Walt Disney studios as an in-betweener and a gag-man, Barks began drawing the comic book adventures of Donald Duck in 1942. He quickly mastered every aspect of cartooning and over the next nearly 30 years created some of the most memorable comics ever drawn — as well as some of the most memorable characters: Barks introduced Uncle Scrooge, the charmed and insufferable Gladstone Gander, the daffy inventor Gyro Gearloose, the bumbling and heedless Beagle Boys, the Junior Woodchucks, and many others.

Barks alternated between longish, sprawling 20- or 30-page adventure yarns filled with the romance of danger, courage, and derring-do, whose exotic locales spanned the globe, and shorter stories that usually revolved around crazily ingenious domestic squabbles between Donald and various members of the Duckburg cast. Barks’s duck stories, famously enjoyed equally by both children and adults, are both evanescent celebrations of courage and perseverance and depictions of less commendable traits — greed, resentment, and one-upmanship.

Our initial volume begins when Barks had reached his peak — 1948-1950. Highlights include:

• The title story, “Lost in the Andes” (Barks’s own favorite). Donald and the nephews embark on an expedition to Peru to find where square eggs come from only to meet danger in a mysterious valley whose inhabitants all speak with a southern drawl, and where Huey, Dewey, and Louie save Unca’ Donald’s life by learning how to blow square bubbles!

• Two stories co-starring the unbearably lucky Gladstone, including the epic “Race to the South Seas,” as Donald and Gladstone try to win Uncle Scrooge’s favor by being the first to rescue him from a desert island.

• Two Christmas stories, including “The Golden Christmas Tree,” one of Barks’s most fantastic stories that pits him and the nephews against a witch who wants to destroy all the Christmas trees in the world.

• In other stories, Donald plays a TV quiz show contestant and ends up encased in a giant barrel of Jell-O, a truant officer who matches wits with his nephews, and a ranch hand who outwits cattle rustlers.

Lost in the Andes also features an introduction by noted Barks scholar Donald Ault, and detailed commentary/annotations for each story at the end of the book, written by the foremost Barks authorities in the world.

These new editions feature meticulously restored and re-colored pages in a beautifully designed, affordable and accessible format. Discover the genius of Carl Barks!

Download and read a 17-page PDF excerpt (3.6 MB).

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

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "This slim volume is finely edited, and its narrative tone resides on the border between fairy stories and unbowdlerized folk tales. In other words, it is suffused with equal dismay and delight at the nature of the world. The drawings, printed in two crisp colors, would be worth the price of the book if it were stripped of words. Like Craig Thompson’s Habibi (which it precedes in its original publication date, pre-translation) and Umberto Eco’s Baudolino, it has a great deal of wonder in it, which it conveys in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way. Do note that the book is full of penises and violence (and I mean full), so you may not want to buy it for your ten-year-old niece, but if you are still under the spell of story, The Armed Garden will delight you." – Hillary Brown, Paste

• Review (Audio): On Albany NY public radio station WAMC, Jacqueline Kellachan of The Golden Notebook discusses Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson (at the 8:55 mark in the streaming audio — we'll have a transcription of some highlights soon)

• Reviews: Cosmic Treadmill begins their survey of the complete works of Jason with Hey, Wait... ("What starts out as a series of cute and fun moments of the protagonist’s childhood turns into one of the most memorable comic book moments I can think of.... This should be on everyone’s to-read list"), Sshhhh! ("utterly engrossing... another quite memorable book"), and The Iron Wagon ("Full of deceit, paranoia and some great characterisation, The Iron Wagon won’t soon be forgotten") — all of which are collected in What I Did

• Plug: "I loved [Mascots], and if you're the kind of person that this kind of thing might appeal to, I highly recommend it. It lands a tricky acrobatic mix of poetry, graphic design, painting, and general sketchbook goofballery." – Kevin Huizenga\