Clips & strips from the last few days — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Michael Kupperman's cover art for the book Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus? by A.G. Pasquella

• Gilbert Hernandez fanzine art from 1981 as unearthed by Frank Santoro at Comics Comics

• ComicsAlliance presents selections from the 1991 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special

• From Jim Woodring, Frank, Fran and the skullfruit

• Leon explores the mystery of Poffo's Hat in this Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga

• Another 1975 flashback from Bob Fingerman

• This week's "I, Anonymous" and one two three four Post-It Show previews from Steven Weissman

• New artwork for sale, Portugal tour diary and more in Dame Darcy 's latest blog update

• On the Jim Flora Art Blog, a circa 1940 woodcut depicting fishing in New Orleans (guess those days are over, thanks BP) and a commemoration of Pete Jolly's birthday

• Recent nature sketches by Debbie Drechsler: Narrowleaf onion, ground squirrels, a blue-bellied lizard, and Ithuriel's spear

• Four new screenprints by Lilli Carré — these and other products of her residency at Spudnik Press will be on display this Thursday, June 10, 2010, 6-7:30pm: more info here

• Several recent sketches by Mark Kalesniko

• It's your all-new weekly installment of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• I believe this is last week's Maakies by Tony Millionaire

• Sergio Ponchione contributed this illustrated recipe to an anarchist cookbook, it seems (and also drew Linda Lovelace)

• Speaking of illustrated recipes, here's one from Laura Park

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop — another classic

• From Josh Simmons & co., the latest Quackers & Randy Gander hijinks 

• From Renee French, this thing, this guy, this thing, this photo, this thing, and this guy

• Steve Brodner takes on the Gulf oil disaster in this segment from PBS's Need to Know, with commentary and two more disaster-related sketches on his blog

• Anders Nilsen posts photos of his recent "button installation" for Ogilvy & Mather's lobby, along with time-lapse video of its creation

• Page 27 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

• Derek Van Gieson presents "The Cycle of Love"

• From Ray Fenwick, a comics illustration for an article in the Globe and Mail

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Dash Shaw reveals a page from his Spider-Man story for Marvel's Strange Tales 2

• "Cat on the News," a new lithograph by John Hankiewicz

• Dame Darcy's portraits of Pee Wee Herman & friends (above) and Clara Bow, plus a new doll and more in her latest blog update

• The new installment of Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano, plus an explanatory introduction

• New Debbie Drechsler nature sketches here, here and here

• Another Gilbert Hernandez t-shirt design for Stussy, as discovered by Love & Maggie

• "Girl in a Grey and Magenta Dress" by Mark Kalesniko

• I am once again rendered helpless by Renee French

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Part theater of cruelty, part joyous liberating revolution, Jim Woodring's freakishly beautiful Weathercraft is at once the most direct and most elliptical of his Frank comics that I can remember reading." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly  

• Plug: Newsarama's J. Caleb Mozzocco calls Dame Darcy's Meat Cake "something to get excited about"

• Links: Love & Maggie rounds up links to recent Love and Rockets-related reviews

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• From Scott Eder Gallery, a selection of Jim Woodring's penciled roughs for Weathercraft, plus two paintings

• It's your all-new weekly installment of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• A new portrait of Johnny Cash and other news from Dame Darcy

• Anders Nilsen reveals where it all went wrong

To celebrate the launch of the new improved Meat Cake collection we've got some free downloadable treats for Dame Darcy fans!

First up, a smashing desktop wallpaper based on the title pages from the book. Just click on the size that matches your monitor resolution and the image will open in a new window; if you're on a PC, right-click the image and select "Set As Background"; if you're on a Mac, control+click and select "Set As Desktop Background." More wallpapers...

800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1152 x 864 | 1280 x 960 | 1280 x 800

Next, download and print out four pages of "Paper Doll Fun" (1.6 MB PDF) to cut, color & assemble without breaking the spine of your book on the photocopier (or, heaven forfend, cutting up your book)!

Meat Cake
by Dame Darcy

240-page black & white/duotone 7" x 10.25" softcover • $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-346-0

Ships in: June 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

For a limited time, receive a FREE issue of the Meat Cake comic when you order the collection! Choose from issues 14, 16 or 17 (15 is sold out) when placing your order.

COLLECTING THE BEST STORIES FROM THE FIRST DECADE OF MEAT CAKE COMICS

Dame Darcy is one of the most beguiling presences on the comics scene — musician, actress, cable TV star, fortune teller, dollmaker, and last but not least, cartoonist to the core — and has been bewitching readers for over 15 years with her neo-Victorian horror/humor/romance comic Meat Cake. Alternating between one-off (often cruelly tragic) fairy tales and ongoing romps starring her eclectic cast of characters, including Effluvia the Mermaid, the roguish roué Wax Wolf, Igpay the Pig-Latin pig, Stregapez (a women who speaks by dispensing Pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat), the mischievous Siamese twins Hindrance and Perfidia, Scampi the Selfish Shellfish, the stalwart Friend the Girl, and the blonde bombshell Richard Dirt, all delineated in her inimitable luxurious scrawl, Meat Cake is like a peek into the most creative, deranged dollhouse you ever saw. Meat Cake is an expanded reprint of the out of print hardcover with more stories assembling the very best of Darcy’s work (including “Hungry Is the Heart,” the legendary collaboration with Watchmen’s Alan Moore) from the first 11 issues of the beloved comic.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 20-page PDF excerpt featuring all the highlights of issue 4 (3.5 MB), PLUS a 6-page PDF including the Table of Contents, Foreword by Margaret Cho, Introduction by Dame Darcy, and "An Interview with the Meat Cake Characters" (1.4 MB), PLUS 4 pages of "Paper Doll Fun" (1.6 MB) that you can print, color & cut out without ruining your book!

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

"[Darcy] has created a childlike, otherworldly realm, a land that hovers in the twilight space between the whimsical and the macabre. Ghosts and goblins, foul-tempered stepmothers, lovesick mermaids and charmed forests are all rendered in Darcy's distinctive hand, loose and flowing lines reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey." – Los Angeles Times

"Darcy's comics are aesthetic manifestos… Darcy is a star. Mark my words. Meat Cake will prevail, as luxury takes over America. And the world beyond." — The New York Times

"I think she's exquisite, let's put it that way. I wish I knew her in high school." — Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Another new episode of The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE

• "Tuppence" is another Butter and Blood piece from Steven Weissman, who adds "There are photos here and a catalogue eventually here."

• New Stinckers, including 2 new Steven Weissman designs, are now in stock at GR2

• Dame Darcy announces a sale in her Etsy shop and an extensive tour of Portugal!

• Richard Sala presents "Recent drawings commissioned for a book of ghost stories"

• Gabrielle Bell presents her full-color strip from the current issue of The Believer (based on a poem by Sasha Chernyi)

• "Girl Wearing Red Sunglasses" by Mark Kalesniko

• Sergio Ponchione posts this teaser from Grotesque #4 (available soon!) and announces he'll be at the Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin this weekend

• Steve Brodner brings you a news dispatch from "Matt Sludge"

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary, page 23

• "Children of the Grave" (in color!) and another "Abstraction House" page from Derek Van Gieson

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• A heck of a Seattle Weekly illustration by Jeremy Eaton

• Here's a color test for that series of School Spirits Stinckers that Steven Weissman's been working on (and here's another one — I like the green one better)

• Dame Darcy has info on framed original art, a bunch of new handmade dolls (we saw them at Stumptown; they're gorge), new purses and more on her blog

• Some great-looking digital prints of illustrations by Newave! artist Wayno are now available from Rockpop Gallery

• It's this week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• ...and this week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman

• ...and this week's Maakies by Tony Millionaire

• ...and this week's new Forlorn Funnies t-shirt (featuring artwork from All and Sundry) from Paul Hornschemeier (buy)

• Steve Brodner's pointed portrait of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• A new Vice comic by Johnny Ryan

• Steven Weissman's new series of Stinckers is taking shape

• On his Clip Joint blog John Hankiewicz says "My lithograph No Argument is part of the 30th Annual National Print Exhibition at Artlink Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The show, now open, runs until May 26th. More information here."

• From Frank Santoro, what I can only assume are process pics of some color backgrounds using airbrush or spray paint... they're pretty, whatever they are

• Get yourself a Dame Darcy Witch Craft Kit for all your charm-casting needs

• Debbie Drechsler draws a fallen crow

• Gabrielle Bell re-runs her story "Roosevelt Island"

• It's Archer Prewitt's packaging design for Presspop's forthcoming Allen Ginsberg vinyl figurine

• I don't imagine Renee French intends to remind us to floss, but that's what I'm getting here

• This looks like it might be the cover to a new mini by Kevin Huizenga but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part

• "Blond Girl in a Black Dress 2 " by Mark Kalesniko

• Josh Simmons & Wendy Chin have been keeping the cute coming on the Quackers blog

• I'm super excited for Roger Langridge's new Thor series

• Ectiopiary page 20 and "an ancient illustration" by Hans Rickheit

• Jon Vermilyea posts a teaser from his upcoming TMNT zine

Daily clips & strips — hit the links for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• This limited-edition print by Sergio Ponchione is available at festivals (I think — the autotranslation is a little sketchy) from Coconino Press. Sergio also reveals that Grotesque #4 is in the can (and coming this summer from Fantagraphics); the complete Italian run of Grotesque will be available in a slipcased set with additional materials, and the slipcase will be available separately (hopefully U.S. fans will be able to order it from overseas); and the full-color Grotesque stories from Linus magazine will appear in future volumes of Mome (hey, that was my suggestion)!

• More progress on Steven Weissman's ghosts-in-progress

• Go-Getters is a new lithograph from John Hankiewicz

• Dame Darcy provides illustrations for The Penalty of Hope, a book of poetry by Vincent D. Dominion — more info

• The new installment of Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• This week's Truth Serum by Jon Adams

• Soon to be on the Covered blog? Our own Eric Reynolds gives his take on a Jesse Marsh Tarzan cover, in color and black & white