Tim Lane teases his forthcoming short story collection in-progress, Folktales, with this eye-popping splash page. The story will also run in an upcoming issue of Strapazin. This is one of those times when I regret that we discontinued Mome.

I've been hoping Michael Kupperman's animated segments for Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse show would show up online, and lo, here's one on YouTube as pointed out by Michael on Twitter — watch it before the Viacom copyright elves make it disappear...

Shimura Takako announces that her new 28-page doujinshi Aoikitoiki (青息吐息) can now be ordered through Comic Zin for ¥420. There are a few sample pages you can check out from each of the 3 short stories, "Eve Confesses," "Friend of My Brother" and "Cover Girl":

(I don't know whether shipping is available outside Japan, but presumably if you're ordering this comic you read Japanese and can suss that out on the Comic Zin website.) 

Some recent action on the themed-fan-art blogs. A couple of new ones have cropped up, one just for fun and one for a very good cause:

• Noah Van Sciver takes a pretty great turn at the Covered blog — between that and this Archie Noah drew I'm starting to think he might be pretty well suited to draw kids' comics

• On the Repaneled blog, Steven Weissman does the Teen Titans

• Jon Morris penciled and noted Plastic Man aficionado Stephen DeStefano inked this cover for the new "DC reboot covers we'd like to see" blog DC Fifty-TOO!

• Also for DC Fifty-TOO!, Jim Rugg does GEN13

• As part of their jokey "Indie Comics Reboot" series, Comics Alliance presents Love and Rockets reimagined by artist Kevin Mellon as though it "went through the mainstream reboot machine"

• The Divine Invasion is organized and curated by Floating World's Jason Leivian and features artwork (and other items) being auctioned to benefit Sparkplug's Dylan Williams, much of it with the theme of Philip K. Dick book covers. Above, Malachi Ward's version of the book which gives the project its title

• Another by Jim Rugg, and another for The Divine Invasion: Rugg's version of Philip K. Dick's Ubik

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...Yeah! is a surprisingly delightful fun fantasy of kicky pop music, weird alien fans, and evil twin competition bands.... Witty, high-spirited, and thoroughly fun, it’s the greatest Saturday morning cartoon adventure that never was. Although originally in color, Fantagraphics has reprinted the series in black-and white. It’s a sound artistic (Gilbert’s art is bold and vibrant in its original inks) and economic (keeping the price under $20) decision, and while purists may argue otherwise, a black-and-white Yeah! will appeal to teens, young girls, and manga fans: a whole new market for this sadly under-lauded comic." – guest contributor Bully the Little Stuffed Bull (with help from John DiBello), Robot 6

• Plug: Greg Burgas, for his monthly browse through the Previews catalog for Comic Book Resources, notes "Our Dread Lord and Master will be happy, because Fantagraphics has the seventh issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle on page 297. It stars Quincy, M.E.! Of course it does."

• Plugs: Panel Patter's Rob McMonigal spotlights a number of our 2011 releases as recommendations for SPX purchases, saying "It is stupidly easy to spend money with Fantagraphics, because they put out so many great books every year."

• List: Leading off Chris Mautner's "Six Great Superhero Comics by Unlikely Cartoonists" at Robot 6, it's Daniel Clowes's "The Death Ray" from Eightball #23 and Jaime Hernandez's "Ti-Girls Adventures" from Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-2

• Links: Another comprehensive roundup of Love and Rockets-related links at the Love & Maggie blog

• Reviewer: For The Wall Street Journal, Alexander Theroux reviews Tom Perrotta's novel The Leftovers

R. Kikuo Johnson has launched a new website for his comics and illustration work (including his sweet-looking upcoming book for Toon Books, The Shark King). Lots of lovely stuff to browse through. Above, part of a recent short comic for Internazionale. Hat tip: The Comics Reporter.

The PREVIEWSworld website went coo-coo-nutso with the sneak peeks over the weekend, posting previews of all three of our books scheduled to land in comic shops on Wednesday:

5 choice pages from The Hidden by Richard Sala...

...the first 3 pages, plus another from later in the book, from Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Patrick Manchette...

...and an assortment of 5 pages by various contributors from Mome Vol. 22 (beware of out-of-context spoilers)!

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web:

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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:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new udpates):

Maakies by Tony Millionaire (and various tattoo artists):

Rumbling by Kevin Huizenga at What Things Do (we're late to add this — be sure to catch up on past installments)

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

 Underworld by Kaz & co. (click for animated strip):

Yesterday's and today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Sala consistently introduces red-cheeked, innocent characters and then puts them through the meat-grinder, and in The Hidden he plays with mad science. ...Sala’s novel features plenty of 'tell,' because if it’s one thing mad scientists enjoy, it’s expository dialogue. There are gorgeous single-panel pages filled with huge dialogue balloons, and it’s to the author and illustrator’s credit that it’s always a hoot; Sala is a professional when it comes to tongue-in-cheek visuals (the friendly looking characters with spilled intestines) and storytelling.... Its ending is... abrupt..., but it leaves ample room for a welcome continuation. The lushly colored package is vintage Fantagraphics, of course." – Alex Carr, Omnivoracious (Amazon.com)

• Review: "Relaunching in a book-sized format, Comics Journal #301 came out from Fantagraphics this summer, and has already gone through a second printing. The magazine is dense, with over three hundred pages, containing enough essays, interviews, reviews, and art pages to easily fill 2-4 of the old issues.... Where else in comics journalism are you going to find a viewpoint of comics encompassing enough to put so many different realms of the artform under the same microscope and give it all due consideration? The drastic shift in format indicates a willingness of Fantagraphics to take risks with its flagship publication." – Greg Baldino, Bleeding Cool

• Review: "...[T]his gentle, inviting series about two transgendered elementary school students... has truly captured my attention.... Wandering Son feels at times more like a series of character sketches that all connect together than a narrative-driven book, but it’s a structure that makes me that much more intrigued... Takako’s art is beautiful here, delicate line drawings that fit well with her story.... Last but not least, props need to go to Fantagraphics for a great physical design of the book.... This isn’t quite like anything else on the market right now, and I’m thrilled to see Fantagraphics exposing it to a wider audience." – Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics

• Plug: "One of the great things about the major newspaper comics collection projects is that you look at a new volume, like this one in the Prince Valiant series, and you realize there is volume after volume of high-quality work to come." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Interview: The normally Love and Rockets-focused Love & Maggie blog steps out of their usual purview to hit up Gary Groth for more information about our forthcoming series Jack Jackson's American History (starting next year with Los Tejanos/Lost Cause) — if you're at all interested in these books, definitely check this out

• Lore: "Before resuming I should say this: Drug taking, by myself and others, really peaks in this chapter. It isn’t something I’m proud of or a thing I endorse. But it is the way it all happened." So begins the ninth installment of Kim Deitch's epic memoir-in-music "Mad About Music: My Life in Records" at TCJ.com

Michel Gagne, editor of our forthcoming 2012 book Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's 1940s-50s Romance Comics, has posted some samples of his restoration work and some fascinating backround information on the long gestation of this labor of love on the Collected Editions Discussion Forums hosted by MarvelMasterworks.com. For more, see the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center blog.