Johnny Ryan's latest strip for Vice is a surprisingly straight-up adaptation of the movie Zookeeper. I assume. Right?

[See our Tumblr blog for more recent Things to See.]

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web (Kerschbaum's back!):

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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:

Cochlea & Eustachia by Hans Rickheit:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

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

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim:

What's in the Backpack by Victor Kerlow:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Flavorwire's Emily Temple names Daniel Clowes's Ghost World one of "10 Disturbingly Brilliant Graphic Novels" (a list which includes many of the usual suspects along with some off-the-beaten-path selections): "This novel is a cult classic for a reason (and no, the reason is not Scarlett Johansson): its frank depiction of teenage life, especially in boring, suburban towns, and the awkwardness of growing up garnered an instant following, along with its cynical, hilarious protagonists. It is intensely strange, and yet somehow universal in its strangeness — because who doesn’t think their teen years were completely weird? We know ours were."

• Review: "Trondheim (as depicted by Trondheim) is a mass of neuroses and tics. He's full of self-doubt and more than a little bit of anger. But what sets him apart from oh-so-many other autographical cartoonists is that he's also devoted to his life and his art. You might say that [Approximate Continuum Comics] is a book about beating yourself up in service of self-exploration, which itself is in service of creating great stories." – John R. Platt, Graphic Novel Reporter

• Review: "[Congress of the Animals] is wordless and flows from scene to scene with dream logic, so it’s a quick read. Woodring’s inking is so fabulous that I’ve already reread it, and opened it to specific pages to stare at the varying weights he gives his lines. I particularly liked the textures of the wood walls in the background of the factory where Frank works and how they make the machines stand out from the background." – Gene Ambaum, The Unshelved Book Club

Excitement for our big art book Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture is building, and in that spirit fan Mike Ewing took to Twitter to point out this great compilation of Davis's animated television commercials for various products, posted to YouTube by user "chiefzabu." Fun stuff! One stars Ruth Buzzi and to my ear it sounds like the great Frank Welker in the Lectric Shave one.

Explore a world of comics! Columbus Day is upon us and we're celebrating the spirit of discovery (never mind the centuries of pillaging, genocide and other atrocities). From now through next Friday, October 14, 2011, take at least 30% off comics and graphic novels by international creators! From manga to bandes desinées, classic to cutting-edge, if it's "furrin" it's on sale.

Our slogan is "Publisher of the World's Best Cartoonists Since 1976," and we mean it when we say THE WORLD. Beyond the U.S. and Canada our creators hail from such far-flung locales as Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

This sale includes work from European greats like Jacques Tardi, David B., Jason, Martí, Lorenzo Mattotti, Lewis Trondheim and Joost Swarte; beloved manga-ka Moto Hagio and Shimura Takako; overseas English-speakers like Dave McKean, Joe Daly, Roger Langridge and Carol Swain; many titles in our deluxe and European-flavored Ignatz Series; our new line of all-ages Franco-Belgian comics including R. Macherot and M. Tillieux; recent discoveries like Olivier Schrauwen and Mezzo & Pirus; and a whole mess more. There's never been a better time to discover some of the best comics the world has to offer!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: Jeff Newelt names Leslie Stein's Eye of the Majestic Creature to Heeb Magazine's "Best of 5771: Comics" list, saying "What a treat discovering a new 'voice' that speaks to you as much as longtime favorites."

• Interview: Shannon Wheeler talks about Oil and Water in a Q&A with Portland Monthly: "Fishermen couldn’t fish, plants were dying, scientists didn’t know what the effects were, and tourism was crippled. In addition to the environmental damage, there was damage to people’s lives that is profound. We very much wanted to tell the human story."

Oops! Due to an inventory SNAFU the 2005 Special Edition issue of The Comics Journal was mistakenly thought to be sold out and removed from our online catalog. But we still have a bunch of 'em! This oversized (12" x 12") humdinger includes features on masters of manga Hideshi Hino, Suehiro Maruo, Saseo Ono, Osamu Tezuka and Yoshihiro Tsuge;  three great writers on Vaughn Bodé; Bill Blackbeard on Milt Gross; a report from the Montreal comics scene; and a star-studded anthology comics section on the theme of "seduction" with comics from (deep breath): Rick Altergott, Ho Che Anderson, Andrice Arp, Gabrielle Bell, Marc Bell, Ariel Bordeaux, David Collier, Colleen Coover, Jeremy Eaton, Mary Fleener, Rick Geary, Bill Griffith, Matti Hagelberg, Richard Hahn, Leah Hayes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Paul Hornschemeier, Igort, Gerald Jablonski, Ted Jouflas, Megan Kelso, Peter Kuper, Carol Lay, Lorna Miller, David Paleo, Arnold Roth, Michael Sloan, Spain Rodriguez, Frank Stack, Carol Swain, and Ken Takahama, not to mention a back-cover illustration by Tony Millionaire! Why don't you have one already? Get it now!

Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson
by Kevin Avery
Foreword by Nick Tosches
Cover illustration by Jeff Wong

512-page 6" x 9" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-475-7

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

What happened to Paul Nelson? In the '60s, he pioneered rock & roll criticism with a first-person style of writing that would later be popularized by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer as "New Journalism." As co-founding editor of The Little Sandy Review and managing editor of Sing Out!, he'd already established himself, to use his friend Bob Dylan's words, as "a folk-music scholar"; but when Dylan went electric in 1965, Nelson went with him.

During a five-year detour at Mercury Records in the early 1970s, Nelson signed the New York Dolls to their first recording contract, then settled back down to writing criticism at Rolling Stone as the last in a great tradition of record-review editors that included Jon Landau, Dave Marsh, and Greil Marcus. Famously championing the early careers of artists like Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, and Warren Zevon, Nelson not only wrote about them but often befriended them. Never one to be pigeonholed, he was also one of punk rock's first stateside mainstream proponents, embracing The Sex Pistols and The Ramones.

But in 1982, he walked away from it all – Rolling Stone, his friends, and rock & roll. By the time he died in his New York City apartment in 2006 at the age of seventy – a week passing before anybody discovered his body – almost everything he'd written had been relegated to back issues of old music magazines.

How could a man whose writing had been so highly regarded have fallen so quickly from our collective memory?

With Paul Nelson's posthumous blessing, Kevin Avery spent four years researching and writing Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writing of Paul Nelson. This unique anthology-biography compiles Nelson's best works (some of it previously unpublished) while also providing a vivid account of his private and public lives. Avery interviewed almost 100 of Paul Nelson's friends, family, and colleagues, including several of the artists about whom he'd written.

Bruce Springsteen says, "He is somebody who played a very essential part in that creative moment when I was there trying to establish what I was doing and what I wanted our band to be about."

This is a landmark work of cultural revival, a tribute to and collection by one of the unsung critical champions of popular art.

Download and read a 51-page PDF excerpt (3.7 MB) which includes the Table of Contents, Kevin Avery's Introduction, and excerpts from the biography and Paul Nelson's writings.

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

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "We cannot commend Love & Rockets to you highly enough... 'Return for Me' will not disappoint..., and I was left speechless for hours.... There’s far more of Maggie in parts three, four and five of 'The Love Bunglers,' and I could begin almost any review of a Jaime Hernandez story with my 'Poor Maggie' refrain. Still, poor Maggie… Then there’s the delightfully mannered dance and duel from Gilbert Hernandez of 'And Then Reality Kicks In.' No one does comics like Gilbert. Sometimes it’s as if he’s never read another comic in his life (other than maybe his brothers’) and so invents an unprecedented comicbook performance. Time and again Gilbert turns your expectations right on their heads, especially here in 'King Vampire,' the most unusual fang-fest you could ever imagine!" – Stephen L. Holland, Page 45

• Review: "About [Ganges #2] a lot can be said like 'our whole life is a game,' and this will be true, but more true to say will be that all good things must come to an end, you’ve played, and that's enough. And the moral is simple: not work joins people together, but fun." – Ray Garraty, Endless Falls Up

• Interview (Audio): Esther Pearl Watson is one of the guests on the new episode of The Comix Claptrap podcast, recorded live at APE last weekend

The new Diamond Previews catalog is out today and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread (download the PDF) with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in December 2011 (give or take — some release dates may have changed since the issue went to press) and a selection of gift book suggestions. We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions.

This month's Featured Item is editor Michel Gagné's Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's 1940s-'50s Romance Comics; there's a "Spotlight On" the hotly anticipated Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons; our long-awaited inaugural Nancy volume Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1943-1946 by Ernie Bushmiller is Certified Cool; and we've got a new hardcover edition of Robert Crumb's The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat. We're including some reprints and other reoffers as well.

See them all here!