At ComicAttack.net, Ken Meyer Jr. has posted another "Ink Stains" column featuring Gary Groth's pre-Fantagraphics Fantastic Fanzine — this time, number 11, focused on Jim Steranko, from 1970. The entire issue is available as a free PDF download, and Meyer provides some historical background and commentary: "How a high school kid managed to score so many amazing pieces of art points to Groth’s future success as a publisher and muckraker."

Our weekly strips from the Steves (a little late since I'm on vacation):

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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):

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "The latest collection of Bill Griffith’s newspaper strip Zippy the Pinhead, Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg is also my first exposure to the long-running underground. [...] Zippy is unlike any comic strip, or comic book for that matter, I’ve thus encountered. [...] Mixed into a steady stream of seemingly random silliness,... readers also uncover a singular worldview, a commentary on politics, religion, the stumbling newspaper industry and its technological replacements, and seemingly Griffith’s favorite windmill, pop culture. ...Griffith [is] a sublimely witty observer." – Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Review: "I happy to announce the start of LOVE AND ROCKTOBER here at Attentiondeficitdisorderly. For the next month, I'll be devoting my regularly scheduled Comics Time reviews to as much of Los Bros Hernandez' work as I can get through, starting with the Jaime material I misguidedly maligned. I believe that Love and Rockets is all but unique in comics in the way it has taken advantage of serialization to slowly create a rich and enveloping world peopled with multifaceted characters who seem to be living lives on and off the page. And it did this twice, simultaneously! [...] First, let's start by revisiting sins past: My Comics Journal review of Locas, which I'd avoided re-posting here on the blog for years, waiting for precisely this sort of opportunity to serve as a corrective." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly

• Review: "Weathercraft... is a nice showcase for Woodring's beautiful art, which often dips into the grotesque, but is always interesting and somehow pretty no matter what is depicted.  He's a great cartoonist, which he shows off through his imaginative creatures and the curious monsters, and fully-realized alien world.  It's a whimsical journey, completely silent, but unforgettable and haunting." – Dave Ferraro, Comics-and-More

The very first Peanuts strip ran on October 2nd, 1950, which means that tomorrow is the 60th Anniversary of the strip! It's been our honor and privilege to continue publishing the definitive collected edition of Charles M. Schulz's immortal masterwork, The Complete Peanuts, and we're joining in the celebration by offering every volume and box set of the series (to date) for 20% OFF from now through the end of October. Treat yourself and your loved ones (I hear there's some kind of gift-giving season coming up) to these beautifully designed and universally acclaimed collections of America's most beloved comic strip. And hooray for Peanuts!

This afternoon Kim Thompson was showing off his newly-acquired import DVD copy of Estigmas, director Adan Aliaga's 2009 Spanish film adaptation of the graphic novel Stigmata by Lorenzo Mattotti and Claudio Piersanti, which we will be publishing in English in December. The trailer in Spanish is embedded above; watch it with English subtitles and get more information about the film at the SIFF website (the film screened here in Seattle at the SIFF Cinema last week).