Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...[A] slobbery-gorge-mongous new Fantagraphics coffee table crusher and consumer-seducing guide to celluloid anarchy... Edited by VHS junkies, one-time punk record store owner and movie house curator Zack Carlson and Vulcan Video tastemaker Bryan Connolly, Destroy All Movies!!! is a $35 pink-splattered mind-bomb of enthusiastic but not uncritical assessment of high quality films loyal to the cause... and annoying to the cause... The eagle-eyed authors spent thousands of hours assimilating their assessments by staking camp at Seattle’s own utterly awesome Scarecrow Video. It shows in as much knowledge as passion for the material. [...] Have sushi and don’t pay for it, but buy this book." – Chris Estey, The KEXP Blog

• Review: Kevin Schulke looks at the two volumes contained in the Complete Peanuts 1975-1978 Box Set

• Plug: "Every few months like clockwork, I’m guaranteed that a delightfully fun read will land on my doorstep, for that is what the periodic arrival of Charles Schulz’s masterpiece has become. We’re now up to The Complete Peanuts: 1977-1978, which gives us weeks of strips about jogging and a few references to disco… Including a polyester-suited beagle. We’re now almost 30 years into Peanuts' 50-year run, and if you haven’t picked up any of these volumes yet, rectify that grievous oversight." – Ken Plume, FRED Entertainment

• Survey: Johnny Ryan is among the personages that Vice polls for their "favorite fright films"

In the spirit of Halloween, Jim Blanchard presents a newly-reworked version of "Donner Diner" featuring his inks over 1993 pencils by James Sturm, R. Sikoryak, Jason Lutes and Jim Woodring. Yum!

Ben Catmull has produced a series of beautiful debossed letterpress prints, which are now available for sale on Etsy at very reasonable prices. Ben also told us at APE that he's working away on the eagerly-awaited Monster Parade #2.

Jon Vermilyea doing a M.O.D.O.K. story?? That's the cherry on top of the Strange Tales II #2 sundae. Via Comics Alliance, who have the first page of each story in the issue.

Richard Sala has posted his final "Unmasked" Halloween portrait, so now you can browse the entire spooky set! He's collected them into groups on Flickr — group 1, group 2, group 3, group 4 — and you can also see them individually on his Here Lies Richard Sala blog. Nobody does the creepy monster faces like Richard!

Our weekly strips from the Steves:

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Monday's Strip by Stephen DeStefano (view larger)

Originally run as an experiment on Stephen's blog starting in 2008, Monday's Strip is re-presented here.

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

We're happy to learn from various sources that comics historian Bill Schelly (Man of Rock) and underground legend Frank Stack (The New Adventures of Jesus) are among the first round of Special Guests announced for Comic-Con International 2011. Comic-Con passes go on sale on Monday and you know how they sell out faster every year...

Unlovable: The Complete Collection
by Esther Pearl Watson

two hardcover volumes in custom slipcase, 832 pages, two-color, 5.75" x 5.75" • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-397-2

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

Loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen and brush of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This boxed set collects the complete, acclaimed two-volume saga of Tammy’s sophomore year of high school in 1989.

Tammy has built a devoted following over the last several years in the pages of BUST magazine, where Unlovable continues to be serialized on the magazine’s back page, and this beautifully produced, slipcased collection features all 832 pages of her sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and always hilarious exploits. Her hopes, dreams, agonies and defeats are brought to vivid, comedic life by Watson’s lovingly grotesque drawings, filled with all the eighties essentials — too much mascara, leg warmers with heels and huge hair, etc. — as well as timeless teen concerns like acne, dandruff, and the opposite sex (or same sex, in some cases). Unlovable addresses the mysteries of adolescence through Tammy’s naivete; girls and women in particular will find much that resonates, but men will also relate to Unlovable’s universal humor and wide cast of characters. Tammy’s life isn’t pretty, but it is endlessly charming and hilarious.

This complete edition is handsomely packaged in a specially designed, sturdy slipcase, making it an ideal gift item.

Download exclusive PDF excerpts: 20 pages of Vol. 1 (2.6 MB) and 20 pages of Vol. 2 (3 MB).

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

Seattle cartoonist Marc Palm works at the venerable Scarecrow Video here in town and designed & illustrated this great poster for when the book signing/film screening/general craziness tour for Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film makes its stop there on Friday, November 12. "Be Mean! Fast Forward" is a little slice of genius. Marc's been a great help and a great supporter of the book — thanks Marc!

Another two-day Online Commentary & Diversions (running a little off schedule, sorry):

• Review: "Hollywood is probably the most likely to misrepresent any culture, but their casting of punks as Neolithic, abusive, drug addicts with candy-colored hair and an inexplicable amount of chains is far too amusing to turn away from. [Destroy All Movies!!!] editors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly seem to have noticed this trend, and their commentary about each of these films borders on hilarious at several points. [...] In the end, you get both a compendium of thoughtful ruminations on punk culture and a hilarious collection of movie missteps..." – Thorin Klosowski, Denver Westword

• Review: "[Jason] is without immediate peer, and perhaps the closest I can get to him is Jim Jarmusch, the indie film director... Werewolves of Montpellier is less about the grand sweep of its pseudo-horror set-up (which is utterly demolished by a delicious final page denouement), and more about its mundane aspects, which resonate further than the book's forty-odd pages. ★★★★ [out of 5]" – Michael Leader, Den of Geek

• Review: ‎"...Blake Bell has crafted an excellent look at one of comics' most underappreciated creators: compelling, well paced and entertaining. [...] Bell kept Fire & Water moving at an excellent pace, never dwelling too long on any details but giving us Everett's life in relation to his comic career. And that's the key: Bell is a comic fan and knows his audience is as well so that's the focus. [...] While the tale of Everett's life held my attention the art is the real star. Covering everything from early doodles to his last published page we get to see thirty plus years of material. [...] The fit and finish for Fire & Water is exceptional. A heavy matt paper is used that really shows off the material and gives it an almost period feel. The size is perfect for admiring the art and is easy to read; a new perfect package. I can't get enough of the dust jacket image and its design is stunning: a real eye catcher. At $40 it's a great value." – Scott VanderPloeg, Comic Book Daily

• Review: At The Hooded Utilitarian, Noah Berlatsky's story-by-story examination of Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories moves on to "Iguana Girl"

• Review: Sean T. Collins's "Love and Rocktober" review series at Attentiondeficitdisorderly moves on to Gilbert Hernandez's oeuvre, starting with Heartbreak Soup: "Whether in terms of family, sexuality, physicality, or deformity, biology is destiny for the people of Palomar... And although biology is obviously among Beto's primary concerns, destiny is the operative word. I don't think the Palomarians have the ability to escape the way the Locas do. Not all of them need to escape, mind you — there's a lot of really warm and adorable and hilarious and awesome stuff going down in Palomar — but whatever walks alongside them in their lives is gonna walk alongside them till the very end."

• List: At Robot 6, guest contributor Van Jensen names Josh Simmons's House as one of his "six favorite horror comics & movies" (and, by reduction, one of his three favorite horror comics): "Simmons uses no words through the entire story, but his real accomplishment is utilizing the design of the pages to deliver an increasingly claustrophobic, disorienting and terrifying story."

• Plug: At Robot 6, Sean T. Collins highlights our duo of creepy all-ages releases, David B.'s The Littlest Pirate King and Stéphane Blanquet's Toys in the Basement

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch's Brian Heater concludes his 3-part chat with Drew Weing: "What’s funny is, I’ve got Google Alerts for my name, so if somebody says it on the Internet, I show up like Beetlejuice. I click on it, like, 'ooh, this guy just dissed me.'" [Hi, Drew.]

• Analysis: At Comics Comics, Timothy Hodler compares the reproduction/restoration style of Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s with another, similar book which also came out recently, also noting that "Greg Sadowski’s [text] is preferable by a wide margin." (There's plenty of discussion in the comments, and from Alan David Doane at Comic Book Galaxy.)