"Meaningless" is a one-panel comic written by Tony Groutsis and drawn by Gabrielle Bell, who describes it as "a brief fictional exchange between Anders Nilsen and Kim Deitch." Click through to see what they're saying.

Anders Nilsen is cleaning out his flat files and offering a bunch of prints and whatnot in a new online shop, just in time for the holidays.

Pages from The Exquisite Book are now available as individual archival, bamboo-mounted prints: you got your Ray Fenwick, Lilli Carré, Esther Pearl Watson, Anders Nilsen, Jordan Crane, and Paul Hornschemeier, plus dozens more. 

(Via Paul's blog.)

From Anders's blog. Hopefully your local polling place is still open.

This post has been in progress for nearly a month now... with so much to catch up on, I'll just be highlighting a few selected items and then giving you links to the regularly-updated stuff. As always, click for better viewing and possible commentary at the sources.

• At The Hooded Utilitarian, Ng Suat Tong reports on some recent Jaime Hernandez original art sales, with lots and lots of images

• At Not Quite Clobberin', a scan of a seldom-seen 1997 autobio strip by Jaime Hernandez

• Doc Shaner posted a bunch of Popeye art on his Tumblr last week, including this amazing "Sgt. Popeye's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by Stephen DeStefano

• Shucks, it's an illustrated love letter from 1916 from E.C. Segar to his wife-to-be Myrtle, at Letters of Note (via The Comics Reporter)

• Jason reveals the cover art for the French edition of Isle of 100,000 Graves (L'Île aux 100 000 Morts); plus early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• A new comic for Vice by Johnny Ryan

• Bob Fingerman's They Live poster for an art show at Maxwell's in Hoboken

• Three from Covered: Mome contributor Jon Adams does Yosemite Sam #2; Tom Pappalardo does Acme Novelty Library #1; and Dyna Moe does Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3. Also see Jon's latest Truth Serum strips

• Two from Repaneled: Matthew Allison takes on Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit and Steven Weissman gets in on the fun; also catch up on Steven's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and sketches on his Chewing Gum in Church blog and more on his Flickr page

• Eleanor Davis's letterpress print for The Cloudy Collection; plus her latest sketches, works in progress and other illustrations at her We Be Ouija blog

• Dig Gary Panter's logo design for his multimedia "band" Devin Gary & Ross

• A two-page all-ages horror story by Richard Sala

• A new war-story page by Tim Lane, with interesting background info; plus recent installments of his ongoing Belligerent Piano strip at his Jackie Noname blog

• At Gabrielle Bell's Lucky blog, the concluding installments of her "San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary" (which Anthony Vukojevich interprets at Repaneled) and some "embarrassing older work"

• Paul Hornschemeier's weekly t-shirt designs at his News and/or Head Lice blog

• Noah Van Sciver's "Blue Wilson" and lots more drawings, strips and news on his blog

• "The King & The Beast" is a 2006 comic by Ray Fenwick

• New installments of the latest Simon & Jack (& Rosalyn!) story by Jordan Crane at What Things Do

And please catch up on the last few weeks worth of the following:

• Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch; more Kevin at The Balloonist and New Construction

• Matthias Lehmann's Bloc-Notes blog and stunning new originals for sale

• Sketchbook drawings at John Hankiewicz's Clip Joint blog

• Drawings, paintings, collages and other images by Frank Santoro at the Cold Heat Comics blog

• Artwork, dolls, fashions, other handicrafts and spells from Dame Darcy

• Artwork & illustrations from Émile Bravo

• Illustrations & sketches at Marco Corona's Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Vintage Jim Flora illustrations & artwork (plus merch) at the Jim Flora blog

• Nature sketches with running commentary by Debbie Drechsler at her Just Around the Corner blog

• Lots of sketches for Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway (just sent to the printer!) and drawings of women wearing things at his blog

• Comics, illustrations and news from Sergio Ponchione at his Mondobliquo blog

• Laura Park continues to add artwork to her Flickr page

• The latest Josh Simmons sketches, panels and updates at The Furry Trap and The White Rhinoceros and (with Wendy Chin) The Randy Gander and Quackers 

• An entire month's worth of drawings, sketches, photos and jewelry (!) from Renee French

• Animated drawings and Eyeworks Animation Festival updates from Lilli Carré at her Kettle of Fish blog

• Dash Shaw's daily drawings at The Ruined Cast blog

• Sketchbook drawings and comics by Sophie Crumb at her blog

• Caricatures, a new Need to Know video, and commentary on current events by Steve Brodner

• Sketchbook comics etc. by Anders Nilsen at The Monologuist

• More pages from Hans Rickheit's graphic novel in progress Ectopiary, plus other material and commentary at his Squirrel Machine blog

• Pages and panels by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• The latest Maakies strips and other updates from Tony Millionaire

• Drawings and works in progress by Joe Kimball on his Flickr page

The Exquisite Book is a new exquisite-corpse art book from Chronicle, and Lilli Carré, Paul Hornschemeier and Anders Nilsen will be among the contributing artists signing the book at Quimby's in Chicago on November 5th. (Via Paul's News and Head Lice blog.) Other contributors from the Fantagraphics family include Jordan Crane, Ray Fenwick, and Esther Pearl Watson, plus a bunch of people who appeared in our Beasts! books and other anthologies. Below, a nice photo of the accordion fold-out from contributing artist (and personal pal) Susie Ghahremani (who will be at the San Francisco signing at Rare Device tomorrow night):

Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:

• Jason presents two cover illustrations: one for a biography of Henrik Ibsen, the other for a 1989 issue of a Norwegian fanzine (oh yeah, and the cover for his next Fanta collection What I Did is in there too)

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot and some sketchbook pages here and here

• A couple of witty recent entries on the Covered blog: Valerie Fletcher's version of The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970 and Anthony Vukojevich's take on Eightball #2

• Dave Cooper gives a peek at a few of the 96 little drawings he's bringing on his West Coast book tour, with commentary

• An unpleasant new Jim Woodring panel

• The final part of Jordan Crane's "Chapter Two: Unraveling" at What Things Do

• A bit of Dungeon fan art by Drew Weing 

"Greetings, stranger of the future. If you are reading this, it means the written word has survived, that the world of tomorrow still exists, and that for some reason my ramblings are still considered worth reading. My name is Mark Twain, and I write these words to you in the good old days of August 2010."

• A prose story from Michael Kupperman: "From the Newly Discovered Second Autobiography of Mark Twain"

• Richard Sala presents a whole bunch of production, concept, and storyboard art from his animated serial "Invisible Hands" from MTV's Liquid Television, in 4 installments (so far) here here here and here, with commentary

• "Benemerenze di satana" by Marco Corona 

• A woodcut illustration of Cincinnati (1941), an uncompleted sketchbook drawing (circa 1950) and a magazine proposal sketch (1956), all at the Jim Flora blog (with commentary from Irwin Chusid)

• A black phoebe and some ground squirrels from Debbie Drechsler's nature sketchbook, with commentary

• It's part 8 of Gabrielle Bell's "San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary"

• Noah Van Sciver's historical strip "Elijah Lovejoy November 7 1837" part 1 and part 2

• Laura Park gets anatomical with a how-to and a note to her doctor

• From Renee French: hairy girl, fly with stick, dog, Ikea roof, guys (photo), baby, rodents, thing roofs

• Dash Shaw's Daily Drawing nos. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20

• Recent Steve Brodner sketches, with commentary, of Dinesh d'Souza, cowardly Karl Rove, the corpse of Harry Truman giving Obama what-for, and Truman's bones revisited

• It looks like Kevin Huizenga is sending Glenn Ganges on some kind of Hardy Boys adventure or something

• I didn't know that Roger Langridge had done rejected cover comps for our Jules Feiffer novel reprints (one of which got canceled anyway)

• New sketchbook pages from Anders Nilsen 

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 43; Hans also has a song for you

• The cover to Derek Van Gieson's evocatively titled upcoming publication

• Tigers clustered and solo by Andrice Arp for an old Giant Robot art show

• From Wilfred Santiago, page 91 of 21, plus process images for pages 120 & 121, and a postcard illustration

• Two weeks worth of Tony Millionaire's Maakies

• Work in progress (presumably) by Joe Kimball

• Recent spot illos by Ray Fenwick for Cottage Life Magazine

The announcement for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is making the rounds and unfortunately we won't be there — but some of our favorite folks will, including but not limited to Gabrielle Bell, Charles Burns, Jordan Crane, Renée French, Bill Griffith, Anders Nilsen, and Johnny Ryan, so do be sure to give them a visit on December 4. And ooh la la, that poster by Anders!

A lot of catching up to do with this batch of clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:

• A couple of things Bill Griffith has recently shared on Facebook: the rejected first draft of the home screen for the Zippy Comix iPhone app, and a "lost" Wacky Packages design that Bill says is "almost sacrilegious"

• Dr. Hermes Retro-Scans presents "The Photo-Finish!", a 4-page Kim Deitch story from Corn Fed, 1972 (via ¡Journalista!)

• At Potrzebie, Bhob Stewart presents Roy Crane's 1920s Mexico sketchbook (via ¡Journalista!)

• Jim Woodring presents "Spectacularly unpleasant goings-on from CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS, page 60"

• It's Stephen DeStefano's 'Mazing Man redux (and seemingly feminized)

• From Matthias Lehmann, one more work-in-progress photo and, above, the finished product 

• From Jason: promotional "bubblegum cards"; a catalog cover (one of ours? I don't have them handy to check); and a book cover illustration (with a different take on the dog-headed figure)

• From Steven Weissman: a new "I, Anonymous" spot; new stuff on sale at Comic Art Collective; the cutest damn sidewalk chalk drawing ever; "School Spirits" & "Series 3" Stinckers

• From Frank Santoro: more Silver Surfer art; something titled Pompe11; "Postcard from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania" for Internazionale, with translation

• A new batch of crafts & merch from Dame Darcy in her latest blog update

• 19 new illustrations by Eleanor Davis for a local organic farm newsletter and a letterpress print in the new edition of the Cloudy Collection

• A handful of vintage Richard Sala sketchbook pages

• The latest installment of Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano

• Now available, a licensed Jim Flora font complete with "Flornaments" dingbats

• From Debbie Drechsler's nature sketchbook: woodpeckers, turtles, fungi, squirrels

• From Lilli Carré: the cover of the Chicago Reader's Fall Arts Guide; animated loop drawings in progress, completed and projected

• Gabrielle Bell presents part 7 of her "San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary" and her strip from the San Francisco Panorama

• More AMC Pacer studies for Freeway by Mark Kalesniko, including action/disaster shots

• A Sergio Ponchione illustration for a radio talent show (I think)

• A message from Noah Van Sciver, plus an announcement and other updates, and an excerpt from his Lincoln story at Top Shelf 2.0

• Laura Park documents a day in the life with chronic back pain

• From Josh Simmons: Rickles, swaying Quackers

• From Renee French: Bugatti toy photo, sculpt of slug masked girl, e's, Barry with stick, tongue mask, mitt dude, slug girl sketch, shadowy creature, turds, Otto

• Dash Shaw's Daily Drawings no. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, & 14

• Steve Brodner's latest newsmaker portraits with commentary: Marty Peretz, John Boehner, Christine O'Donnell, Hamid Karzai, Cantor Yosele Rosenblatt, Sarah Palin & Rupert Murdoch

• Anders Nilsen's Great Gatsby cover for Penguin UK, with preliminary studies; a car engine; and a portrait of Richard Brautigan

• A concert poster from Derek Van Gieson's archives

• The latest Maakies from Tony Millionaire 

• Jordan Crane's cover illustration for the latest Cinefamily newsletter

The cover illustrations are by Charles Burns, as usual, and check out this month's Alvin Buenaventura-edited comics lineup (full details here):

Hot Stuff by Jonathan Bennett
Random Access by Charles Burns
Anemone and Comics masthead by Lilli Carré
Boy’s Club by Matt Furie
Eric Gill’s Busy Day by Tom Gauld
Giorgio & Dimitrius by Leif Goldberg
I Have No Idea by Lisa Hanawalt
Race Murdock by Eric Haven
Sketchbook by Anders Nilsen
Plut by Emelie Östergren
Goof Ballz by Andrew Jeffrey Wright

Them's good comics. The issue is also the only place you'll find interviews with both Wallace Shawn and "Weird" Al Yankovic. Order it here and tell 'em we sent ya.