Another marathon 2-week update:

• Michael Kupperman did a couple of movie illustrations for The New Yorker over the last couple of weeks: The Hangover Part II (love his Galifianakis) and Horrible Bosses

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and more at his Chewing Gum in Church blog, and new and cheap original art to buy on his Comic Art Collective page

• The latest artwork and happenings from Dame Darcy in her new blog update

• Shirley Partridge by Jim Blanchard

• Another Eleanor Davis spot for The New York Times

• Richard Sala presents original art for the 1994 "R.I.P." Paranormal Trading Cards from Kitchen Sink (man I want those), an author bio illo from 1995, and some Evil Eye back cover art

• Paul Hornschemeier's art for the Crazy 4 Cult art show at Gallery 1988; also, daily drawings at The Daily Forlorn

• It's the original cover art (pre-color) for Leslie Stein's Eye of the Majestic Creature #5, coming soon (and picking up where the book leaves off)

• Sergio Ponchione's latest strip for Linus starring Grotesque's Professor Hackensack

• Kevin Huizenga is looking for some focus

• Mrs. Wessman and zombies and other subjects by Renee French

• Sketchbook comics & drawings by Sophie Crumb

• Steve Brodner does Newt for the New York Times Sunday Magazine

• Here's something completely different (and neat): Josh Simmons hand-painted a custom globe as a commission

• Sketchbook drawings by Anders Nilsen

• Wilfred Santiago shares the final stages of his portrait of 21, Roberto Clemente

• Another Johnny Ryan poster image for Cinefamily

• At Covered, a de-Cubized version of Gilbert Hernandez's cover of Love and Rockets #27 by Sarah Blum

And more Things to See from the past week:

• This illustration by Matthias Lehmann regarding the situation in Greece is very funny

• Sketches and illustrations old and new by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog, and more drawings from his youth at The Old Cat and the Dog

• Images from an animation in progress by Lilli Carré

• A new sketch by Mark Kalesniko

• Photos and drawings for a new book project with the band The Lovely Sparrows by Derek Van Gieson

• Another batch of old sketches of medical deformities by Hans Rickheit

• Surely you're already following Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog where he posts artwork old and new (like his 1989 Elvis Costello illustration above), as well as concise and often very funny film reviews; now he's also posting his juvenilia at The Old Cat and the Dog where you can see his teenage takes on the Punisher, Lucky Luke, the Silver Surfer, Spidey etc.

• Richard Sala gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the cover artwork for The Grave Robber's Daughter and posts a bunch of fantastic full-color concept art for as-yet unrealized story ideas

• Leslie Stein presents a short sequence from the upcoming Eye of the Majestic Creature #6 (our book collects #1-4) and another short sequence from something-or-other

• Sergio Ponchione spotlights his contributions to the new issue of Linus

• For reasons she can't explain, Laura Park drew this self-portrait modeled after the "black dahlia" autopsy photo

• Some recent updates of sketchbook and other drawings by Sophie Crumb at her blog

• Steve Brodner presents his cover illustration for the new issue of the National Journal (with his studies for the caricatures)

• Sammy Harkham uploaded some mostly-new stuff to his Flickr page , including the original uncropped art from the Crickets #4 cover

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Daily drawings by Paul Hornschemeier at The Daily Forlorn

• All the latest artwork and news from Dame Darcy in her new blog update

• New drawings from Renee French on her blog

• A new sketchbook strip and more collaborations with Sonnenzimmer from Anders Nilsen

• Oh god, more sketches of medical deformities by Hans Rickheit

• New drawings and watercolors by Derek Van Gieson

• Recent illustrations by Ray Fenwick on his Flickr page

Ran out of time on Friday's Online Commentary & Diversions, so it's combined with links from the weekend:

• Review: "Now Fantagraphics has risen to the fore with [Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1:] Race to Death Valley... It’s a pretty spiffy package, sharply designed and full of smart, well-written essays that provide a rich portrait of the artist and his times, as well as some great comics.... As impressive as Gottfredson's work is, it's in the ancillary materials or 'special features' that makes this book really shine. Editors Gary Groth and David Gerstein have gone the extra mile here... With its shameless abundance of riches, Mickey Mouse Vol. 1 sets a new standard in reprint publication." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Plug: "Only a small handful of Gottfredson's collected works have been published and most are out of print. He pioneered a trendsetting style of adventure comics, though in his lifetime remained largely unrecognized.... Fantagraphics has kindly republished a bit of the Gottfredson Mickey run in their new book [Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1:] Race to Death Valley, beautifully restored [and] repackaged..." – Green Apple Books

• Review: "The latest volume of The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 continues with Charles Schulz’s herculean output of his beloved comic strip. Schulz supplies the customary laughs in stand-alone gag strips and some short 'continuing' storylines.... As I have said in previous reviews, Fantagraphics does such a marvelous job with these hardcover Peanuts volumes. From the cover by designer Seth, to the crisp black-and-white reprinting (3 dailies per page, 1 Sunday per page), to the handy index to help you find your favorite strip, Fantagraphics takes creating a permanent archive of this beloved humor strip very seriously. Children of all ages should all get their hands on this American treasure." – Rich Clabaugh, The Christian Science Monitor

• Commentary: Mike Sterling makes a few observations about The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980: "SPOILER ALERT: Peppermint Patty gathers evidence and uses skeptical, critical thinking to resolve her particular issue here."

• Review: "Some of the very first autobiographical works on the French bande dessinée scene, these little gems were a genuine game-changer for cartoonists and storytellers... Superbly skilled at switching imperceptibly from broad self-parody to cripplingly painful personal revelation, wild surrealism to powerful reportage and from clever humorous observation to howling existentialist inquisition, Trondheim’s cartoon interior catalogue is always a supremely rewarding and enjoyable experience and, as these ancient texts [Approximate Continuum Comics] prove, always has been." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

• Review: "[Blake] Bell is our guide into this rich history of Bill Everett... Bell includes several pieces of artwork and comics that has rarely been seen. A true testament to a man who lived comics throughout his entire life and loved it with a passion...[I]t’s important not only to remember the characters, but the men behind them. Bell’s book here on the life and times of Bill Everett [Fire & Water], and his other biographical material on Steve Ditko, is a testament to that." – Chris Marshall, Collected Comics Library

• Plug (Audio): NPR's Glen Weldon gives a shout-out to Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals on the new episode of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast at the NPR Monkey See blog

• Plug: At Robot 6, Michael May's tour of the current Previews catalog takes note of "Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954 – Everyone knows that you’re supposed to revere Alex Toth, because chances are your favorite comics artist already does. Here’s where you find out why."

• Interview: Hillary Chute talks to Joe Sacco for The Believer; I'll use their pullquote: "When you draw, you can always capture that moment. You can always have that exact, precise moment when someone’s got the club raised, when someone’s going down. I realize now there’s a lot of power in that."

• Interview: The A.V. Club's Sam Adams talks to Joe Sacco: "I think if I hadn’t studied journalism I might have taken a different approach, and I’m not saying my approach is the only way you can tell a story journalistically. But because I actually studied it, detail is important and accuracy is really important, so it’s not just about having an accurate quote. The problem with doing things the way I try to do them is that it’s not just an accurate quote, it’s an accurate image of what a place looks like. An absolute literal group of images? You might as well go to a photographer for that. But whatever interpretation I do of it, it has to be informed by reality."

• Interview (Video): Joe Sacco gives a talk and reading and is interviewed by Chris Hedges in these two videos presented by the Lannan Foundation (streaming and downloadable audio are also available at the preceding link; via Forbidden Planet International )

• Interview (Video): Justin Skarhus of Itchy Keen Art Friends talks to Zak Sally and our pal Dylan Williams of Sparkplug Comic Books about D'in' it Y, part 1

• Profile: HiLobrow's Joshua Glenn on Dame Darcy: "If she sounds like too much to handle, that’s because she is; now you know why her comic is called Meat Cake — they’re two decadent foods, so why not combine them? Darcy’s world is a child’s garden of verses overrun by drunken mermaids, grave-robbing French maids, and Vitalis-groomed cads. If this sort of thing sounds like your cup of spooky-kooky tea, read Meat Cake..."

• Profile: "I made my quarterly pilgrimage down to the Fantagraphics store in Seattle yesterday, and that store never ceases to amaze anyone who walks into it. From the curator/owner to the punk rock pictures on the wall, to the awesome collection of Fantagraphics titles, traditional comics, underground comics, and some adult stuff tucked away in the back room under the stairs, the entire store is a place to go explore the darker side of comic books." – Dan Morrill, Comics Forge

• Craft: At TCJ.com, Frank Santoro provides a bit of a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of Ganges #4 from a recent visit he had with Kevin Huizenga

• Feature: Find out what Kim Thompson's been reading (the image above is one clue/spoiler) as he contributes to this week's "What Are You Reading?" column at Robot 6

It's been a while since I had a chance to do one of these...

• Jim Woodring's Frank and associates in a piece inspired by Giorgione's painting The Tempest (via Facebook - full size)

• Tony Millionaire did this illustration for the Three Guys and a Twelve-Pack podcast; also, an old strip for Screw (I think)

• This hilarious portrait by Cathy Malkasian is available as a print — you gotta go check it out just for the title and description, which are also hilarious

• A beautiful movie poster illustration and some musician portraits by Matthias Lehmann

• Richard Sala traces the evolution of the cover art for Mad Night

• Lilli Carré shares her Newcity cover illo and also her NYT Op-Ed illo

• Noah Van Sciver started a new sketch blog on Tumblr called Infortunate

• While recently in Chicago, Josh Simmons got his pals Anders Nilsen and Jeffrey Brown to draw some Quackers; Anders also has a bunch of new self-portraits and has put out an expanded fold-out edition of his Kramer's Ergot 7 strip

• Amazing stuff from Renee French on her blog and her new Posterous thing

• At What Things Do, Kevin Huizenga's Cartoon Polymaths strip "The Body of Work," and a couple of classic strips at his Fight or Run blog

• Also at What Things Do, two new installments of Jordan Crane's "Keeping Two"

• I think this weird piece by Steven Weissman relates to Barack Hussein Obama; also his latest "I, Anonymous" spots on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

And more Things to See from the past... jeez, 3 weeks:

• More recent sketchbook drawings by Andrei Molotiu

• At Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, sketches, old strips and the last of his series of posts on his cartooning heroes

• New prints and an artist's book by John Hankiewicz at his Clip Joint blog

• Buy Dame Darcy's mermaid print to help send her to the annual Mermaid Parade on her 40th birthday! She's also now an ordained Wiccan minister! Good luck and congrats! All this and more in her latest blog update

• Drew Friedman rounds up his various album cover illustrations and collects a whole bunch of TV Guide covers by Jack Davis

• Recent charcoal portraits of Oliver Reed & John Coltrane by Jim Blanchard

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• I believe this strip by Sergio Ponchione has to do with Italian politics

• Laura Park's been busy moving

• Recent drawings by Sammy Harkham on his Flickr page

• Portraits, sketches, illustrations and more by Steve Brodner

• Hans Rickheit keeps posting those old medical deformity sketches on his blog

• Derek Van Gieson made a hilarious-looking board game

• Some marks and text by Tom Kaczynski

Two weeks to catch up on!

• Percy Gloom changed his Facebook profile picture to this portrait I hadn't seen before

• Andrei Molotiu posted a big batch of sketchbook drawings to his blog

• A new image from Ben Catmull's current project

• Matthias Lehmann shares a few pieces from his current art show and some photos of the installation

• Dig Paul Hornschemeier's new logo for the Comedy Bang! Bang! (formerly Comedy Death Ray) podcast/comedy show

• A newly-drawn splash page (along with the original version from 15 years ago) by Tim Lane for the upcoming 3rd issue of Happy Hour in America, along with some musings on craft

• Sergio Ponchione's Professor Hackensack returns to discuss matters scientifical in the new issue of Linus

• Kevin Huizenga's jaw-dropping comic from Kramer's Ergot 7 is now up at the newly-revived What Things Do; Kevin offers some notes and commentary on it at his New Construction blog; also, a possibly new Glenn Ganges glimpse

• A recent drawing by Renee French, who it should be noted seems to have moved her more extemporaneous sketches and photos over to her new Posterous blog

• A sneak peek of something by Josh Simmons

• Anders Nilsen is working on some collaborative paintings with Sonnenzimmer for an upcoming exhibit — more glimpses at Anders's blog, more info here

• Hey, I know those dogs! It's Robert Goodin's Idget & Toaster fending quite well for themselves in the zombie apocalypse in a panel from Rob's story in the banned-in-Canada anthology Black Eye

• Tony Millionaire posts Drinky Crow's first published appearance , from 1993

• Unexplained illustration by Johnny Ryan

• Nate Neal draws Hans Rickheit's Cochlea & Eustachia

• Eleanor Davis draws Aphasia from C.F.'s Powr Mastrs for the Picturebox fan forum — see the amazing hair salon mural she did with David Mack too

And more Things to See from the past week:

• At Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, sketches, illustrations, movie reviews and a great series of posts on his cartooning heroes, some of which may surprise you

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new print by John Hankiewicz

• Artwork, dolls, prints, and hey, they're on sale in the latest Dame Darcy blog update

• Drew Friedman spotlights recent illustrations and pays tribute to some of his favorite fellow cartoonists at his blog

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• A recent current-event sketch by Steve Brodner

• A Mome outtake page and lots more drawings by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• New sketch, new illustration by Tom Kaczynski

• New Trubble Club!

• I didn't know Tony Millionaire has been doing portraits for The Chiseler, like this one of 1930s character actor Allen Jenkins

• "Dead Mickey" and "Walking the Dog," plus reviews of Michael Caine movies by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Lilli Carré covers the Chicago Reader, plus a new animated drawing

• Laura Park has been busy drawing spot illos for an 826 Chicago project (like Joey & Johnny Ramone buying $20 worth of Brussels sprouts, above) and rescuing cats with fellow cartoonist Julia Wertz — it's all documented on her Flickr page

• Renee French does it again

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Artwork, dolls 'n' more in the latest blog update from Dame Darcy

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway and more artwork at his blog

• Daily storyboards & production art from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• An old sketchbook drawing by Hans Rickheit

• Tony Millionaire presents photos of the clay model for the Uncle Gabby figurine (dude, 60% off!)

• Eleanor Davis posts process images for that amazing New York Times illo

It's been a while, so let's catch up:

• New diary strips & sketches by Lewis Trondheim

• Artwork from Kurt Wolfgang's work in progress Pinokio plus some Mome meta-commentary and other sketches and characters at New Bodega

• Laura Park designed this placemat for fellow Chicago Mome-ster Jeremy Tinder's impending nuptials, and also this cool t-shirt design for The Mountain Goats & Jon Vanderslice

• At her Screened-in Porch blog, Carol Tyler presents “Will Work for Food” from The Job Thing — page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5

• "Crabby," a 3-pager by Tony Millionaire, plus "George R. Binks" and Billy Hazelnuts in color

• New artwork, dolls and other news in Dame Darcy's latest blog update

And more Things to See from the past 2 weeks:

• Illustrations, sketches, old strips and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new lithograph by John Hankiewicz

• Kevin Huizenga posted things on his blogs Fight or Run and The Balloonist

• Drew Weing posts the title lettering for the Serbian edition of S‍et to Sea and photos of Eleanor Davis painting a mural on his blog

• Vintage Jim Flora artwork and illustrations at the Jim Flora blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway and more artwork at his blog

• "The Strangest Story You Ever Heard in Your Life" wraps up at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog, plus illustrations at Mondobliquo

• Strips, illustrations and updates from Noah Van Sciver

• Recent illo jobs by Ray Fenwick on his Flickr page, including one for an article by Suze Orman in Oprah's mag — that's high profile!

• Drawings & photos by Renee French

• Recent illustrations and sketches, with commentary, by Steve Brodner

• Daily storyboards & production art from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• A coloring test for a work in progress by Robert Goodin

• Recent sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

• Nate Neal's monthly men's mag strip

• Chris Ware draws Tiny Tim for 6-year-old Clara Ware's review of a Tiny Tim compilation album at Roctober (yes, you read that correctly)

• Dame Darcy offers artwork for sale with partial proceeds donated to the Red Cross for Japan relief; she also encourages you to donate directly

• Fight or Run artwork from Kevin Huizenga; also some super-moon-related cover art

• A commissioned sketch of Wonder Woman from 1998 by Richard Sala

• Drew Weing posts a page from the story he drew in the new issue of Papercutter

• Title design (in various stages) by Leslie Stein

• It was tough deciding between this and the kitty portrait by Renee French

• A tantalizing glimpse of something in progress by Joe Kimball

And more Things to See from the past week:

• New original Matthias Lehmann illustrations for sale at La Galerie de Matthias Lehmann

• Illustrations, promotional artwork, sketches and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Artwork and sketches from Frank Santoro

• Recent sketches by Marco Corona

• Leslie Stein posts the real-life Marshmallow & friends and links to some Eye of the Majestic Creature fan art

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko for his new graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• Sketches, strips, a horrible experience and other updates from Noah Van Sciver

• New sketchbook strips by Laura Park on her Flickr page

• "The Strangest Story You Ever Heard in Your Life" continues at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Daily storyboards & concept drawings from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• Tony Millionaire dug an old interactive Maakies strip thing out of the bowels of the internet

• More new sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

• Eleanor Davis just keeps murdering it on her We Be Ouija blog (NSFW, some of it)

• More from the mid-aughts Arthur magazine archives: "Trauma Valley" (not to be confused with Profanity Hill) by our own Jason T. Miles and "Post-Election Funnies" from John Hankiewicz, Megan Kelso and others

• Dame Darcy started a new illustration series inspired by her new Southern-Gothic surroundings; that and more in her latest blog update

• The unpublished first version of Daniel Clowes's portrait of Bill Murray for GQ (shown on the Clowes blog alongside the final version)

• Warren Beatty as John McCabe by Jim Blanchard

• The true-life story of Bambi Bembenek as illustrated by Richard Sala for Playboy in the mid-1990s

• It's Johnny Ryan's poster for "Leprethon" (that's right, a St. Patrick's day marathon of Leprechaun movies) at Cinefamily

• Holy smokes it's a cavalcade of strips, sketches, illustrations and book proposals on Nate Neal's Flickr stream

• This album cover illustration by Eleanor Davis

And more Things to See from the past week:

• New sketches illustrations from Matthias Lehmann at his Bloc-Notes blog

• Vintage Mjau Mjau artwork and Audrey Hepburn film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots (accepted and killed) on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Proportion, pages and other artwork from Frank Santoro

• Recent sketches by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Sketches by Mark Kalesniko (for his new graphic novel Freeway and otherwise) at his blog

• Herrimanesque sketches and another page from a Kevin Huizenga "Focus" book at his New Construction blog

• A new illustration at Mondobliquo and an older series begins at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Sketches, portraits, & updates from Steve Brodner

• Daily drawings from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog (#125 is funny)

• Another old Chrome Fetus strip from Hans Rickheit

• Some magazine illustrations from Richard Sala's archives

• Ronald Wilson Reagan by our own Jason T. Miles

• A previously unseen Jim Flora piece at the Jim Flora Art blog

• Jim Blanchard did this custom-painted Chicken Little figurine a few years ago

• An older Chrome Fetus strip by Hans Rickheit that has been excised from his upcoming Folly collection

And more Things to See from the past week:

• New illustrations from Matthias Lehmann at his Bloc-Notes blog

• Various strips and illustrations by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• The latest Dame Darcy artwork and handicrafts in her latest blog update

• A new illustration by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• A tale of the cartoonist's life from Noah Van Sciver

• Laura Park sketches a snowy Chicago street

• Another great batch of sketches at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• New drawings from Renee French

• Sketches, portraits, & updates from Steve Brodner

• Daily drawings from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• New sketches & strips from Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog