Your daily dose of Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Profile: The Oklahoma Gazette dedicates a cover feature (pictured above) to native son Boody Rogers, talking to Yoe, Nadel and Spiegelman about his work. Of our collection of his comics they say "Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers reprints 13 of Boody Rogers' comic-book stories between 1948 and 1950. Although they have fallen into the public domain, publisher Fantagraphics has restored the color and images to its typical standards of quality ... not to mention standards of unapologetic weirdness."

• Review: "...Terr'ble Thompson is... playful fun... [Gene] Deitch’s upbeat mangling of the English language and silly twists will keep readers of many ages entertained." - Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Things to see: Bookforum commissions illustrations from such notables as Paul Hornschemeier, Tony Millionaire, Dash Shaw, Chris Ware and others for their "Fiction Forward" feature (there's a bunch of fiction excerpts to read, too)

• Things to see: Dick Cheney's gonna get that wascally new Pwesident. By Drew Friedman, for The New Republic

Due to the somewhat obsessive nature of my link gathering, I had the idea to start calling these posts "Daily OCD: Online Commentary & Diversions." What do you think, readers? Too cutesy-poo? Offensive to sufferers of real OCD?

• List: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon names "The Ten All-Time Best Long-Running Comics Series," with Love and Rockets Vol. I at #2 ("The best long-running and organic artistic achievement in serial comic book form... The Hernandez Brothers inspired and outworked a greatest generation of comics auteurs. Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez are each among that handful of artists who must be given serious consideration when talking about the best cartoonists working. In Love & Rockets each created fictional worlds for the ages and used them as a vehicle for enormous artistic development, lapping the majority of their peer group. One so inclined could argue with seriousness a top 25 of American graphic novels where 1/3 of the titles listed came from this series") and Acme Novelty Library at #8 ("...a mind-bending achievement... ACME punched right in the scrotum the notion that every issue of a single comic book series had to look like the others... Its primary value is that it presented [Chris] Ware's giant talent to enough of an audience to bring him thousands of hardcore fans... Ware can dream up a single-page that if it were the only thing he ever published people might still know his name")

• List: The A.V. Club's Noel Murray offers commentary on Spurge's list ("There’s no one definitive L&R storyline; it’s just story after amazing story, accumulating over the past three decades like personal correspondence. [...] Ware... turn[ed] comic books into a kind of readable sculpture...") and lobbies for the inclusion of Johnny Ryan's Angry Youth Comix

• Review: "Miss Lasko-Gross' self-caricature in her autobio stories [in A Mess of Everything] is an interesting mash-up of a typical teen with low self-esteem and that of an indignant outsider determined to make her increasingly confident voice heard -- and loudly. [...] Lasko-Gross' greatest strengths as an artist are her character design, gesture and use of body language. It's the way she stages her characters that makes looking at each page interesting... I love the touch of the exaggerated and the grotesque that she injects into her drawings, distorting faces and bodies to reflect emotional tumult." - Rob Clough

• Review: "I read Leah [Hayes]’s whole book, Funeral of the Heart [in one sitting]; I couldn’t stop reading. It’s a beautiful, engrossing book... Amazing." - Anika in London

• Review: "Formerly-suppressed, entirely classic, these stories [in Blazing Combat] are all solid examples of comic storytelling and craftsmanship... [T]he teams here make things look too easy. Not surprising since we’re talking about master artists like Toth, Frazetta, Severin, Crandall and others. The stories have all aged surprisingly well... Highly recommended..." - Matt Maxwell, Robot 6

• Reviewer: At that same Robot 6 link, Miss Lasko-Gross reviews books by Osamu Tezuka and Gabrielle Bell

• Reviewer: Alexander Theroux's latest book review, for Closing Time by Joe Queenan, is up at The Wall Street Journal

• Plug: Biblioteca del Instituto Internacional (an American-English library in Madrid) recommends Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

• Preview: Monster Brains presents 3 pages from Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit Book One (due this fall)

• Profile: The Walrus's article on Seth discusses his design work for The Complete Peanuts in depth

• Events: Portland, your Free Comic Book Day cup runneth over, as Andrice Arp and the other contributors to the excellent free anthology comic Bird Hurdler will be appearing at various locations throughout town -- Andrice has the full itinerary and details on her blog

• Things to see: Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine has an uncollected Boody Rogers story for ya

• Things to see: Three recent illos from the ever-busy Drew Friedman

• Things to see: Another fantastic new story page from Tim Lane

• Things to see: In the next panel, Big Bird kicks Freddy Krueger in the nuts

• Things to see: Ragged Claws Network presents a few of Jeffrey Jones's Jones Touch strips which can be found in the out-of-print collection of the same name from our Eros Comix imprint (NSFW)

Flickr user vin dog assembled this nifty animation using frames scanned from Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse.

I'm not usually prone to the doom-y flight of fancy, but my first thought upon seeing the photo above was: thank goodness a flaming meteor didn't hit that spot at that moment. L to R: Crumb, Ware, Clowes, Tomine, Buenaventura. Sauve, France, Jan. 27, 2009. Alvin Buenaventura has uploaded many more incredible photos such as above and below, from Sauve and Angoulême, to Flickr. Look for a guest appearance by our very own Jason T. Miles, who promises to post his own Angoulême pics soon.

• List: Aron Nels Steinke presents his Top Ten of 2008, including Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga

• List: At Robot 6, Chris Mautner declares Bob Levin's Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester one of the "five most criminally ignored books of 2008"

• Review: Rob Clough examines Grotesque #2 by Sergio Ponchione

• Review/Things to see: French cartoonist Olive Booger posts her impressions of Bottomless Belly Button (original French; Google translation) with bonus fan art!

• Blurb: Irregular Orbit devotes 9 perfectly-chosen words to Zippy: Connect the Polka Dots by Bill Griffith

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch concludes their three-parter with Bob Fingerman

• Interview: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon found a video file of Jonathan Lethem interviewing Daniel Clowes at the 2005 MoCCA Festival; he can't remember where it came from but he's posted it anyway

• Things to see: Steven Weissman's HLK

• Oddity: "Chris Ware can show Video Games the path to manhood"

• I Love Rob Liefeld reviews The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should Be Good" places Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga at the #5 and #4 positions, respectively, on their "Top Ten Comics of 2008"

• They also mention Ellen Forney and Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly on a list of "Top Ten Moments of Comic-Related Happiness in 2008"

• Steven Stwalley features Tom Kaczynski and praises Mome

• Bram Meehan puts this year's two major Bill Mauldin releases, our collection Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Todd DePastino's biography A Life Up Front, in a shared #10 position on his "Top Ten Comics of 2008" (via TCR)

• The Oklahoman, which published Mauldin's early cartoons, looks at Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• The A.V. Club gives straight As (two As and an A-) to The Compete Peanuts 1969-1970 by Charles M. Schulz, Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes, and Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• This 2005 interview with Charles Burns and Chris Ware was found and blogged by Paul Hornschemeier

A recent sweep of our warehouse has revealed copies of the following titles which had been thought to be sold out. Quantities are limited so get them before they're gone again!

• ACME Novelty Library #3 by Chris Ware
• Hate #13 by Peter Bagge
• Lena's Bambinas by Monte Wolverton
• The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories by Daryl & Josef Hutchinson

From our friends at Drawn & Quarterly we now have a supply of the newest volume of Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library in stock and available to add to your order at the price of $15.95.

Post-APE catch-up!

• We haven't had a chance to listen to this ourselves yet, but we are told that British comedy genius and known Fantagraphics fan Graham Linehan (Big Train, The IT Crowd, Father Ted) sings our praises in this interview with The Sound of Young America

• Flickr users Inkyhack and Christopher Diaz (a.k.a. "mr. diazzler") share their APE photos

• Publishers Weekly "Comics Week" reviews David Levine's American Presidents just in time for Election Day (scroll about halfway down)

• Reason reviews Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester by Bob Levin

• Blogger Kevin Schulke takes note of The Complete Peanuts

• The Daily Cross Hatch talks Election 2008 with Tim Kreider

• Alan David Doane talks with Ivan Brunetti (audio download)

• Noah Berlatsky presents his Comics Journal review of Jack Cole's Betsy and Me

• In The Week, author Deb Olin Unferth names Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse a "best book"

• New animated Peanuts shorts on iTunes, huh?

• Johnny Ryan presents: insulting fan art!

Mike Baehr, Janice Headley and I are headed down Friday for this weekend's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, and we will be bringing along about 150 comics and books for you to browse and get signed all weekend long by our amazing line-up of attending authors:

Saturday:

11AM Johnny Ryan
12PM Kevin Huizenga & Bob Levin
1PM John Pham & Johnny Ryan
2PM Daniel Clowes & Ted Stearn
3PM Jaime Hernandez & Megan Kelso
4PM Jaime Hernandez & Dame Darcy
5PM From MOME: Jonathan Bennett & Tim Hensley

Sunday: 

11AM Megan Kelso & Kevin Huizenga
12PM Jaime Hernandez & John Pham
1PM Daniel Clowes & Ted Stearn
2PM Dame Darcy
3PM Dame Darcy
4PM Jaime Hernandez & Johnny Ryan

Meanwhile, Jordan Crane, Esther Pearl Watson, Chris Ware (yes, Chris Ware!), and others will also be appearing at the show. How can you miss it? It runs 11 to 7 Saturday and 11 to 6 Sunday.