I'm pulling this out of today's Daily OCD and giving it its own post because this is one of my favorite links in a while: as part of Largehearted Boy's "Book Notes" series of author-created music playlists, the characters from Petey & Pussy -- with help from their creator, John Kerschbaum -- give a rundown of their favorite tracks with illustrated annotations as seen above. Hilarious!

The new volume of the complete E.C. Segar Popeye, Vol. 4 of 6, includes one of the strip's highest peaks, the “Plunder Island” adventure, presented here for the first time in its complete, full-color, uncut glory! This oversized hardcover is now available for pre-order in our online shop, and we've have an exclusive 15-page PDF excerpt (6.4 MB) with 5 pages of Sundays and 10 pages of dailies available for free download. This book is scheduled be in stock and shipping in mid-October, and in stores approximately 4 weeks later (subject to change).

We just turned in our listings for the October issue of Previews, for our releases scheduled for December. The issue won't be out for a few more weeks, but you can get a first look at what's on tap right here! Spoiler alert: it includes King: The Special Edition by Ho Che Anderson, the Newave! anthology of 1980s underground minicomix, the new volume of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace, a new edition of the out-of-print 12th volume of The Complete Crumb Comics, Uptight #4 by Jordan Crane, and Chocolate Cheeks by Steven Weissman! Another great month full of great comics -- the Fantagraphics juggernaut juggers on!

Your Online Commentary & Diversions for today:

• Review: "...[T]he velvety ease of the narrative and the facile blend of sexual, familial and natural intimacies on display suggest one of those steps forward with which the comics medium has been blessed over and over again this past decade. One falls through The Squirrel Machine as much as reads it, and the collection of feelings it imparts is as much due to the clarity of its narrative as it is the horror show that occasionally surges toward the reader from some deep place in Rickheit's mind, righteous and angry and wet." - Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter  

• Review: "Throughout all 179 pages of The Squirrel Machine [Hans] Rickheit tells a rich, fluid tale, all the while approaching, but not quite revealing any implicit meaning the story itself might have. The result, a daring, surreal, often grotesque work, is more visceral than it is cognitive." - Paul DeBenedetto, Wednesday's Child

• Review: "Though far from savage, at its heart, [Tales Designed to] Thrizzle has some rather pointed things to say about the crap we consume on a daily basis. Plus, it's really, really, really funny.... [The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book] is basically Herge by way of the Big Lebowski with a little bit of Repo Man thrown in for good measure.... very funny..." - Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Plugs: The gang at Robot 6 (really just Chris Mautner) looks at some of the titles coming out in our New Comics Day bonanza today (along with the week's other notable releases)

• Plug: The Inkwell Bookstore is excited for the arrival of Love and Rockets: New Stories #2

• Things to see: Lilli Carré, actress/poster designer

• Things to see: Usagi Yojimbo cosplay at DragonCon (from The Beat)

On Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 PM the 826LA Adult Writing Seminar Series presents "Writing Comics," a panel discussion featuring Jaime Hernandez and fellow cartoonists Lalo Alcaraz, Sammy Harkham and Keith Knight along with moderator Salvador Plascencia discussing "ink and pixels, pigments and politics, and how the love of comics mixes with the sticky waters of the business. Panelists will also answer your thought and question bubbles." More info here; tickets here.

Above, Ray Fenwick's contribution to the latest edition of Cloudy Collection limited-edition letterpress art prints, available here.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions is a potpourri:

• Guide: Alex Carr of Amazon's Omnivoracious blog provides a fourth opinion (after ours, the A.V. Club's, and Comic Book Resources') on How to Read Love and Rockets, offering these opinions on new L&R collections: "...pick up the recent Locas II: Maggie, Hopey, & Ray and Luba collections. These round up all the stories from Volume Two's respective creators and make for a superb reading experience.... [W]hat keeps me returning to Jaime's stories [is] the affectionate realism in contrast with disparate narratives, characters, and tones. Not to mention his unmatched artwork. And it's all here in the oversized Locas II.... Gilbert's ability to weave the most implausible and bawdy moments (a busty, lisping therapist named Fritz who conceals a gun-play fetish?) into affectionate fiction is matched only by his frank, playful pencils [in Luba]."

• Review: "It’s all classic Hernandez material, but this volume’s key element that really makes the book sing louder than ever is the amount of focus placed upon Ray Dominguez.... Some of the richest material Jaime has ever produced focuses on Ray’s pursuit of Vivian, a former stripper and wannabe actress that leaves nothing but pain and suffering in her wake.... There’s so much good stuff in Locas II, though, that I could talk about it until my fingers bleed.... Locas stands alone. I highly recommend you read it and see why." - Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

• Commentary: Chris Baer of Movement Point looks at some of the more obscure pop culture references in The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974

• Profile: Wired spotlights Robert Goodin's Covered blog and features Rob's commentary on 10 favorite submissions (including those by Jon Vermilyea, Richard Sala & Paul Karasik)

• Interview: At The Daily Cross Hatch , part 2 of Brian Heater's Q&A with Hans Rickheit: "I guess it’s sort of a digestive process of the brain where you have the end product on paper and the end product sometimes resembles fecal matter."

• Plugs/Oddity: Jog runs down a bunch of our new books arriving in comic shops tomorrow; also, the issue of The Comics Journal with his favorite ad in it is still available if you want to see it with your own eyes

• Things to see: Bob Fingerman presents another nifty outtake illustration from Connective Tissue

• Divination: Dame Darcy will read your palm and/or tarot cards

Hey, all you classic-comedy-loving kids! Dig this announcement:

DrewFriedman.net announces a new limited edition Drew Friedman fine art print: a career-highlights montage of legendary TV-producer writer NAT HIKEN.

http://drewfriedman.net/prints/nat-hiken.html

Hiken (1914-1968) might not be a household name, but his 1950-60s TV sitcom creations are: The Phil Silvers Show (a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko) and Car 54, Where Are You? So are the stars he wrote for: Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, Sid Caesar, and Zero Mostel. During his incomparable career, Hiken was a workaholic polymath who created, produced, directed, wrote, and composed music (including Car 54's indelible theme song).

New comics arrive in comics shops on Thursday this week due to the U.S. holiday. That gives you an extra day to count up your nickels because HOO BOY do we have a ton of stuff scheduled to land in shops this week! Such as:

All and Sundry: Uncollected Work 2004-2009 by Paul Hornschemeier

Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life by Bruce Paley & Carol Swain

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 by the Hernandez Brothers

The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book by Joe Daly

Rock Candy: The Artwork of Femke Hiemstra

The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit

This Side of Jordan by Monte Schulz (cover by Al Columbia)

West Coast Blues by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Patrick Manchette

Some major comics writing out there over the holiday weekend making for an extra-beefy (and late) Online Commentary & Diversions update:

•Review/Profile: "Sure I'd read [Hal] Foster before, but I'd never found a way in. Fortunately, Fantagraphics recently released Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-38, and I was able to absorb the material in a wholly new way.... I found this first book completely engrossing. Prince Valiant opens up a world that I wanted to stay in -- a wide-eyed early 20th century approach to fantasy with a now-vanished sincerity and wholesomeness. It's an all too rare pleasure in comics." - Dan Nadel, Comics Comics

• Review: "Medieval swordplay and adventure have never been as glorious as in Foster's Sunday-only comic strip. Although much reprinted (including an earlier version from the same publisher), this edition has been reproduced from pristine printer's proofs to give the gorgeous artwork its crispest version ever.... Foster's script is literate and full of vivid characterizations, like the headstrong but cunning Val and carefree Sir Gawain. But nothing surpasses his artwork—rich with details of armor, weapons and dress, the story comes to life with a palpable sense of magic and danger. Each drawing is a flawless illustration, perfectly composed; even a battle of 20 men comes alive in a tiny panel, with every action clearly delineated. Prince Valiant is one of the best-drawn comics ever, and this new edition does ample justice to its achievement." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

• Review: "Underneath the screaming and plagues, the giddy joy that [Basil Wolverton] seems to take in his art radiates off the page, just like it does in his secular work.... His creatures from sci-fi and horror, his fascination with grotesque bodily exaggeration, his devout Christian faith -- here it all comes together into an operatic and apocalyptic peak.... The Wolverton Bible might seem like a paradox to its religious audience and its alt-comics fans -- even if Wolverton himself never saw the contradiction." - Martyn Pedler, Bookslut

• Review: "As an historical object, sure, great. I think it should be in print. Kurtzman was a very important figure in comics, and the art and design of the pieces here are of an exceedingly high quality. I'm glad I can see more examples of Jaffee's, Elder's and Davis' work." Otherwise, Chris Allen gives up on Humbug

• Review: Joe McCulloch of Jog - The Blog has a major review of Tardi & Manchette's West Coast Blues -- I've read through it three times and it's too complex for a simple pull quote

• History/preview/profile/analysis: "The 300th issue of The Comics Journal is soon to hit the stands, and the magazine everyone in comics loves to hate rattles on, chugging and sputtering and picking up disreputable beardy guys like a Toonerville Trolley of spite.... In some Inglourious Basterds­-like alternate history, the 1990s ended with the twisted faces of Kim Thompson and Gary Groth hovering, laughing maniacally, over the charred and bullet-riddled corpse of Wizard magazine." - Shaenon K. Garrity, comiXology

• Analysis: du9 presents a new translation by Derik Badman of a 2006 piece by David Turgeon on Poison River by Gilbert Hernandez: "What first strikes the reader about this work is its narrative density. It isn’t uncommon for a single page to show as many places, times, and situations as there are panels." (Via Journalista)

• Interview: Jason Thibault of Optimum Wound talks to Tim Lane as part of their "Masters of Ink" series: "You do what seems the impossible and most absurd: you learn to breathe underwater, and revel in it. Get drunk on the water in your lungs. Cultivate a functional level of positive insanity. And develop tough skin. Stick with it if only because your reasons are inexplicable."

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch wraps up presenting Brian Heater's chat with Jordan Crane: "I was in Portugal and I saw a really tiny kid with a really giant cat. He looked exactly like the kid in The Clouds Above. The kid was so small that the cat was the same size as him — it’s not a big cat, but next to him, he was huge. And then I just kind of went from there."

• Plug: "Fantagraphics collected the first four issues of this hysterically random comic [Tales Designed to Thrizzle] into one gigantic visual laugh riot." - Kate Izquierdo, Geek Monthly

• Plug: At Super I.T.C.H., Steven Johnston takes note of Humbug ("much of it is prime satire from the creators of MAD!") and The Wolverton Bible ("particularly including some genuinely horrific scenes from the Book of Revelations").

• Events: See Dash Shaw in Brazil

• Things to see: A trio of new Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond strips by Kevin Huizenga