• Review: J. Caleb Mozzocco says The Lagoon by Lilli Carré is "a great comic"

• Review: Parka Blogs looks at Beasts! Book 1

• History: Furry 101 reprints a 1992 article cementing Fantagraphics' place in mid-to-late 1980s furry culture with our brief heyday of anthropomorphic comics

• List: Sporadic Sequential recommends Anywhere but Here by Tori Miki if you're looking for funny manga

• For comiXology, our own Kristy Valenti looks at George Herriman's illustrations for archy and mehitabel

• Things to see: On the Covered blog, Paul Karasik takes Jimmy Olsen into the 3rd dimension, sort of

• Things to see (and buy): "Comic Panel Cut-Ups" from Jeremy Eaton

• Things to see: Richard Cowdry gathers all of Richard Sala's "Invisible Hands" in one place thanks to the miracle of YouTube

• Review: Comic Book Resources gives Sam's Strip 4 out of 5 stars and calls it "a must for any fans of comic strips"

• Review: Comics Worth Reading takes on Supermen!

• Review: Rob Clough examines Mome Vol. 13

• Review: Parka Blogs checks out Beasts! Book 2

• Profile: Paul Gravett examines (and recommends) the work of Mark Kalesniko in an article which also appears in Comics International

• Blurb: Jared Axelrod, applying his "10 Rules of Quality Superhero Fiction," declares Jaime Hernandez's story in Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 "one of the best superhero comics of the past year"

• Blurb: John Whitlock recommends our Popeye books

• Blurb: The Geek Curmudgeon (a.k.a. Rick Klaw) previews Humbug, Boody and Supermen!

• Blurb: Books Are People, Too (a.k.a. Russ Kick) also previews Humbug

• Blurb: Rod McKie describes how comics by Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge and the Hernandez Brothers helped him get through a health crisis

• Video: Slick Rivera visits Larry Reid at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery and finds out where the good stuff is stashed (found via Frank magazine [not to be confused with our Frank])

• Interview: Vice talks to Johnny Ryan and a couple of the other funny cartoonists who are in Kramer's Ergot #7

• Interview: If you're curious about new Mome contributor Hernán Migoya, and speak Spanish, LaNuez has a couple of video interview clips for you (via Entrecomics)

• Things to see: On his blog, Derek Van Gieson previews his work in the just-released Mome Vol. 14 (and keep exploring for a teaser of Mome Vol. 15)

• Things to see: On his blog, Dash Shaw presents a Bottomless Belly Button ex libris plate he created for French comics shop Super Heros (you may also have seen Jason Miles's photo of Dash at Super Heros here on Flog recently)

• Things to see: Boing Boing Gadgets presents a blast from future past, Frank Thorne style

• Things to see: Is an excuse needed to scan and share Seth's cover designs for The Complete Peanuts? The Comics Reporter thinks not

• Review: The North Adams Transcript likes Beasts! Book 2 even more than Book 1

• Review: Rob Clough says Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum is the best humor-related publication of the year

• List: At Funnybook Babylon, "25 Things Pedro Loves about Comics" leads off with Steven Weissman 's Li'l Bloody

• Profile: 1979 Semi-Finalist names Eleanor Davis "Artist of the Week"

• Blurb: Richard Cowdry's been getting into Dash Shaw's Mome stories

• Blurb: The Scandy Factory previews our upcoming release of VHS box art, Portable Grindhouse

• Things to see: Ben Catmull has started a blog

• Things to see: New gag strips for Vice (on the theme of drugs) by Johnny Ryan

• WTF: Here is perhaps the most unexpected reference to Mark Newgarden ever to be seen

This post comes very late (I'm sick) but at 8pm TONIGHT in LOS ANGELES:

In what should be the final Beasts-related event (I'm tired), the classy joint that is the Secret Headquarters comic shop is hosting a huge bunch of artists kindly marking up books of whatever sort you put in front of them. This is the only joint signing for both Beasts! books and it's a huge and remarkable line-up of confirmed artists. Well worth a visit to the shop if you're anywhere near LA. And who knows, maybe even Richard Sala will surprise us and show up. Anything could happen on Friday the 13th.

Also note: SHQ has on hand literally the very last available copies of the first edition of Beasts Book Two from our distributor's warehouse; Tessar Lo will be there. Derek Albeck can not make it; SHQ have a new record store opening up nearby. Ask them about it! 

• Review: J. Caleb Mozzocco offers "Nine not particularly insightful thoughts about Beasts! Book 2" (which are more insightful than advertised)

• Review: Ticket to Anywhere checks out Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

• Review: Weltklasse Serier reviews Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga in Swedish and says "this is a fantastic series. Read it. Now," according to the Google translation

• Review: I Love Rob Liefeld proffers a short review of Chance in Hell by Gilbert Hernandez, calls it a mind-reeling grand slam

• Blurb: Sandbox World anticipates Sam's Strip by Mort Walker & Jerry Dumas

• Blurb: Sacha Peet praises The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Blurb: Comix 411 hypes up our forthcoming Humbug collection and its downloadable preview

• Things to see: A tribute to Lux Interior by Zak Sally

• Things to see: More sketchbookery by Jim Woodring and Tom Kaczynski

• Review: The Chicago Reader says that Beasts! Book 2 will "[set] loose something that will devour your still-palpitating innards"

• Review: ComicMix approves of Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff

• Review: An older one that we missed - Thmazing reads The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott in the store without buying it, declares it "terrific"

• List: Kiel Phegley's "The Ten Best Comics I Read in 2008" includes Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers at #7 and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw at #1

• Analysis: Consequentialart examines a multi-page spread by Pat McEown from Dave Cooper's Weasel #1 (link via Sean T. Collins)

• Excerpt: Entrecomics posts some of Jason's Darth Vader gag strips from Meow, Baby! (as also seen in our 2006 Free Comic Book Day offering) and a page of his juvenilia as printed in The Comics Journal #294

• Preview: The Star Clipper Blog looks ahead to Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations, our forthcoming collection of Peter Bagge's Reason strips

• Events: Comic Book Resources has the announcement of "The Art of Stan Sakai" at the Cartoon Art Museum (we'll have our own related event to announce in the not-too-distant future)

• List: The Comics Reporter posts Rich Tommaso's Best of 2008 list, which includes Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Review: Swedish blog Weltklasse Serier says Ganges #1 by Kevin Huizenga is "a blue anemone in the great series of forest," according to the Google translation

• Blurb: Irish illustration blog Scamp takes note of Beasts! Book 2

• Things to see: Getting excited for the imminent release of our Humbug collection? Whet your appetite with some original pages, courtesy of Joey Anuff

• Interview: The Inkstuds radio programme talks to Beasts-master Jacob Covey

• Interview: Newsarama asks David B. about his latest book Nocturnal Conspiracies and his work in Mome (with answers in both the original French and translated English -- nice touch)

• Review: Newsarama posts the latest rave for Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• Preview: The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log takes a sneak peek at Carol Swain and Bruce Paley's comics memoir Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'N' Roll Life, which we've currently got on our schedule for August this year

• Things to see: The New York Times presents an animated ode to the Bowery by Gary Leib

• Things to see: This Animal Collective video that's blowing up the internets features animation by Jon Vermilyea

• Things to see: Johnny Ryan illustrates the cover of the current Las Vegas Weekly

• Things to see: The latest batch of sketchbook scans from Anders Nilsen

Giant Robot in San Francisco is hosting a show of original art and prints for sale from the artists of BEASTS! Book One and Book Two. 100 artists have contributed their work from the book or new versions of their creatures for the show. I've been posting a number of previews elsewhere but even these only touch on the massive show. Many artists have both prints and original art in the show.

Some comics-related highlights include Tony Millionaire's original art (here), Peter Bagge's original painting, the intense double page art from Brian Chippendale, a new layered acetate drawing from Kazimir Strzepek, a new drawing from Dash Shaw... I don't know exactly what all has come in but I believe we have original art from Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier, Leif Goldberg, Levon Jihanian, Tom Neely, Taylor McKimens, Mr. Ed, Stephane Prigent, Brian Ralph, Jason Robards, Olivier Schrauwen, Kevin Scalzo...and a lot more. It will be amazing. 

Easy to read artist list here.