The stupidest, ugliest, stubbliest girl in grade number two returns in the third collection of Johnny Ryan's Blecky Yuckerella: Comics Are for Idiots!  Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

• Photo proof of Daniel Clowes at the Ghost World screening at the Pacific Film Archive this past Sunday: inconclusive, conclusive

• Three Steps Over Japan gives an overview of the work of Tori Miki

• This is kind of a tacky list, but we're proud to be doing our part to keep Charles M. Schulz on it

• It should come as a surprise to no one that I'm partial to this snowboarding DVD cover designed by John Pham

Fantagraphics titles shipping to comics shops across the U.S.A. this week:

• American Presidents by David Levine
• Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly
• Sshhhh! by Jason (New Printing)

Also: other publishers have new stuff coming out from our pals Chris Ware, Gilbert Hernandez and Kevin Huizenga, so this is definitely a good week to hit the shops. As customary, we've got previews of our releases that you can check out at the links above to help maximize your shopping time.

Mike Baehr, Janice Headley and I are headed down Friday for this weekend's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, and we will be bringing along about 150 comics and books for you to browse and get signed all weekend long by our amazing line-up of attending authors:

Saturday:

11AM Johnny Ryan
12PM Kevin Huizenga & Bob Levin
1PM John Pham & Johnny Ryan
2PM Daniel Clowes & Ted Stearn
3PM Jaime Hernandez & Megan Kelso
4PM Jaime Hernandez & Dame Darcy
5PM From MOME: Jonathan Bennett & Tim Hensley

Sunday: 

11AM Megan Kelso & Kevin Huizenga
12PM Jaime Hernandez & John Pham
1PM Daniel Clowes & Ted Stearn
2PM Dame Darcy
3PM Dame Darcy
4PM Jaime Hernandez & Johnny Ryan

Meanwhile, Jordan Crane, Esther Pearl Watson, Chris Ware (yes, Chris Ware!), and others will also be appearing at the show. How can you miss it? It runs 11 to 7 Saturday and 11 to 6 Sunday. 

• The Deconstructing Comics podcast talks about I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks

• Publishers Weekly's "Comics Week" newsletter reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• The Daily Cross Hatch posts the third and final part of their interview with Dash Shaw

• Roger Langridge presents some Spongebob Squarepants strips he drew for Nickelodeon magazine in the styles of Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Milton Caniff, Charles M. Schulz and others

The Weretiger of Asia is one of many shape-shifters known to the world. (It seems there are nearly as many shape-shifting forms reported as there are known varieties of animals.) Like the Werewolf, there are many cultural explanations for why humans transform into these feline man-beasts, but most commonly it is supposed to be due to a curse or as a consequence of mixing genetic material. This mixing of material may be the unavoidable result of an animal's violent attack on a victim or, avoidably, through a person's unnatural indescretions with an animal. 

A.J. Fosik is a unique artist rooted in his own fantastic sort of folk/new wave/sci-fi/naturalist mindset. His piece is one of four or five 3-dimensional pieces in BEASTS! Book Two, due out in December.

Today we're presenting a preview look at the haunting debut graphic novel The Lagoon by Lilli Carré. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

This quote from a childhood friend of Barack Obama's jumped out at me in this great Guardian profile of people who knew Barack Obama growing up:

"Grandpa bought me all the DC Comics books, and I was the only one who had them, so [Obama] and Yanto would borrow the books and copy pictures of Batman and Spider-Man out and ask me to judge which was better. [Obama] was always better than Yanto. Even Yanto always agreed with that. [Obama] had a great eye."

 Yes, we are gaining a president, but we have lost a cartoonist. 

Here's an advance look at John Kerschbaum's brutally funny graphic novel debut Petey & Pussy, starring a pair of kvetching, balding, foul-mouthed anthropomorphic misanthropes. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.