Via Facebook:

"Jim Woodring has finally finished drawing WEATHERCRAFT, a sprawling Manhog epic chock full of torture, tyranny, enlightenment and amnesia, and will celebrate by bringing a carton of Devil Dogs (the confection, not the wurst) to Cafe Racer tonight. Come on down!"

Weathercraft is scheduled to come out Spring '10. Photo by Mary Woodring.

One of our most-requested items is Love and Rockets t-shirts... we continue to disappoint on that front, but Stüssy fills in the gap with some Jaime Hernandez t-shirts in their new Fall line — plus they've got a spiffy video interview with Jaime up right now (sorry no direct permalink — their site is totally Flash-ified). Hat tip to Martin Wong of Giant Robot, who adds that "Locas [is] a must for the library of anyone who likes indie comics, punk rock, or well-told fiction."

Attention NYC Thrizzle fans: next Monday, Sept. 28, this happens, with Michael Kupperman (click for larger version):

...And speaking of Tony Millionaire, did you see Jeopardy last week? Where Tony's brother-in-law totally destroyed Wolf Blitzer? It was crazy.

The Conrad Groth sketchbook is a mammoth thing: at least 12" square with thick glossy art stock and maybe a couple hundred pages to be filled. Fantagraphics Founder, Gary Groth, gets the best cartoonists in the world to do sketches for his young son and it is AMAZING. I can't imagine the pressure of sketching in it. There's no B-Team in this thing. And nobody who sees it can stop turning the pages to see what's next.

As Gary is preparing to leave for SPX, he brought in the book, bound for the hands of Gahan Wilson so I took these quick and shoddy iPhone pics of the Kane and Crumb pages, which I particularly like because of the personal relationships Gary had/has with these titans.

(Previously posted: R.Crumb sketch of one of Conrad's Pokemon.)

Hey you guys, it's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Lists: Comic Book Galaxy's "Comics 666" group list-making roundup of top 6 graphic novels, collections or comics of 2009 includes several Fantagraphics selections from contributors Rocco Nigro and Geoff Grogan

• Review: "It's nice to see some Tardi, and it's especially nice to see the kind of Tardi present in West Coast Blues: nasty but just, chaotically controlled, hopeful yet hopeless. This graphic novel is a turbo-charged pace car for the likes of Vertigo Noir (which I like, as you'll recall), telling the boys to keep up if they can.... [Is] West Coast Blues an existential crime graphic novel? Maybe, but it's a very good one." – Timothy Callahan, Comic Book Resources

• Preview: Our Art Director Jacob Covey's design for Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box is a featured portfolio at design:related

• Things to see: Another delightful hand-drawn GIF animation from Lilli Carré

• Things to see: A few more sketchbook pages from Anders Nilsen

• Things to buy: The latest set of Stinckers from Steven Weissman (featuring the Yikes! kids!) is now for sale

Cambridgeans! You have a rare chance to meet two of the notorious Deitch brothers together at the venerable Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square this Saturday, Sept. 26, from 5-7 PM. Kim and Seth will both be signing Deitch's Pictorama and Kim will be signing his own books of course. Find a bit more info here on the MYP LiveJournal.

Here's snappy-looking gent Paul Karasik at the Strand Bookstore for his Fletcher Hanks Experience presentation last week.

Here's a nice chunk of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Awards: La educación de Hopey Glass (the Spanish edition of The Education of Hopey Glass) by Jaime Hernandez has won yet another Best Foreign Work award at a Spanish festival, this time the XIV Avilés Comic Convention, reports Science Fiction Awards Watch (via the Forbidden Planet International blog)

• Review: "These latest tales from the art comics trailblazers are sure to draw readers in with their melancholic tone and the adventurous comic art that has enthralled readers for decades. ...[W]e see Jaime's superheroes going wild, both narratively and visually.... 'Sad Girl' is... classic character-driven storytelling from Gilbert and will be welcomed by all the Luba fans out there. His second story, 'Hypnotwist,' is the cherry on top of this volume... The narrative's dreamlike quality and its rich and mesmerizing imagery make it a surreal tour de force." – Publishers Weekly

• Review: "...Brunetti [knows] that for shock art to have any value behind it at all, you have to have some degree of conscience as the engine. As readers we’re required to know and agree that this sort of thing is untenable, in order for us to constantly re-evaluate and come to terms with our own morals. Which would make the title of this book [Ho! The Morally Questionable Cartoons of Ivan Brunetti] rather appropriate. So you should read this book and make your mind up. But be warned, it will play with your disgust and your chuckle muscle in ways you might not have imagined beforehand." – Will Fitzpatrick, Bookmunch

• Review: "Carol Swain... portray[s] Paley’s excursions (Giraffes in my Hair: A Rock’n’Roll Life is a sort of anecdotal graphic short story collection in many ways, albeit a  graphic short story collection with a bunch of recurring characters) in a scratchy, pencil, black and white style that somehow perfectly sums up the stories – just as Bruce scratches around for money, so Swain’s pencil scratches around at the background detail.... [I]f you’re a fan of rock’n’roll, if you dig the Beats, if you like grimey tales of excess and the underbelly of success, this is for you." – Bookmunch

• Review: "[Joe] Daly's art is interesting, earthy pastel tones helping to create a sort of sun-kissed backdrop against which his figure work recalls Joe Spent (albeit Joe Spent by way of Cheech & Chong or Harold & Kumar). There are some great effects..., some great chuckle-out-loud writing and the sort of page-turning graphic novel that'll have you filing the name Joe Daly away for future reference, with a wee Post-It note saying, ‘Make sure to check out anything else this guy gets up to' attached. [The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is] a real breath of fresh air, an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, the kind of graphic novel you'll want to pass on to your buddies who dig that kind of thing — what more can you ask?" – Bookmunch

• Review: "I still think of Hey, Wait as [Jason's] best work, the most nuanced, the most beguiling. Even rereading it before writing this, there are so many things I feel like I only half-understand, images that hint at something I can never grasp all the way.... If you haven’t read Hey, Wait yet, mm-mm you’ve got some good reading ahead of you." – Dustin Harbin, The HeroesOnline Blog

• Review: "...[Our Gang Vol. 3] is excellent. You need no knowledge of the films to follow the action, and each issue was self-contained, so you can read it in chunks.... An essay at the beginning of the book puts the stories into the context of their times, very important for any comic book from that era.... Definitely worth a read if you are a fan of old comics that don't involve superheroes." – Laura Gjovaag

• Analysis: At Bleeding Cool, Adisakdi Tantimedh looks at Jaime Hernandez's "Ti-Girl Adventures" from Love and Rockets: New Stories in the context of superhero crossover events: "It really is his Final Crisis, only he effortlessly and breezily beats Grant Morrison at his own game.... 'Ti-Girl Adventures' is pretty much a testament to why we like superhero stories as kids and look back on them with fondness and might continue to like them."

• Analysis: Splinter's Reviews offers a slightly different take on "Ti-Girl Adventures": "It's very difficult to actually compare this Love and Rockets offering to the revisionist tales of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison that have memorably tackled some of the similar themes. Jamie Hernandez may tackle the same subjects of scientific and magical origins of the superhero characters, their eternal youth, and the sexism in comics, but he does it in a completely different way." (via The Comics Reporter)

• Scene: At Comics Comics, more of Dash Shaw's reporting from Brazil 

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch talks to Hans Rickheit about his upcoming book tour in the last part of their 4-part interview: "I’ve actually pondered the idea of hiring a good looking actor—or actress—to be me. I’ll do a rubber life mask of my face and have them wear it, and they can be friendly and say all of the right things."

• Things to see: On his blog, Hans Rickheit presents 11 unpublished pages from the earliest, aborted prototypical version of The Squirrel Machine

• Things to see: Joe Matt and David Gedge invade Steven Weissman's sketchbook

• Things to see: I've really been enjoying Tim Lane's "Best of St. Louis" illustrations; here's the last two

• Things to see: Tim Hensley's secret weapon? Phil Donahue

Friday again already? Time for some webcomics!

Vaguely inappropriate snack treats are the subject of this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan...

At last, the final installment of Steven Weissman's "Blue Jay," an epic 51-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures....

Topics include animals, furniture, and tattoos in our Monday-Friday Rocky strips by Martin Kellerman. Enjoy!