Some great news: Dash Shaw and his producing and creative partners for their in-development animated feature film The Ruined Cast have hit the fundraising goal they set for themselves on Kickstarter with several days remaining before the deadline! There's still time to contribute: "Exceeding our goal will allow us to go even deeper into the dark pre-production and production phases — create even more backgrounds, maybe even cast and record all of the dialogue for the film. We will put any funds raised to good and thrifty use." Plus you'll get in on the pledge incentives, which include postcards, prints, or being drawn into the movie.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview: The L.A. Times Hero Complex blog's Noelene Clark talks to Carol Tyler about her L.A. Times Book Prize-nominated You'll Never Know, Book 2: Collateral Damage: "I had to read a lot of war books and Army accounts and talk to veterans and talk to Marines and everybody about what this thing is. Because it’s kind of aside from our culture. It’s not the dominant thing in our culture, so unless you know somebody in the Army that’s been there, it’s not something you’re going to come across. It’s a very nuanced, very difficult thing. It’s often stereotyped. So I was surprised to find the great humanity, the great story inside war service, whether you’re a World War II veteran or any other wars."

• Interview: At the L.A. Times Hero Complex blog, Noelene Clark also talks to Dash Shaw: "I started making comics really early. My dad had comics lying around the house. I’ve always made comics. I feel like I know a lot about comic history because it’s been my primary interest my whole life, from Marvel and superhero comics to Japanese comics to Franco-Belgian comics. I kind of have this psycho interest in comics from all over, so I feel very much like a cartooonist, and I feel really proud to be on the same shelf as all of that other stuff…."

Concerning the progress of Dash's Kickstarter campaign for his film The Ruined Cast.

• 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

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: At Comix Cube Kevin Czap praises Steven Weissman's "Barack Hussein Obama" (seen here on our website and in Mome Vol. 21): "It actually reminds me of Wally Gropius in terms of the structure, which is not surprising given its appearance in MOME. One can only hope that the whole thing will get collected, at which point I predict it to be one of my favorite comics ever." (Via The Comics Reporter)

• Review: We almost missed this cartoon review by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg at Unshelved Book Club: "…The Last Musketeer… is the epitome of everything we love about Jason: stunning color palette, insane and absurd plot, humor that sneaks up on you, his signature anthropomorphized animals, and surprisingly serious themes of authority, humanity, death, love, jealousy…"

• Interview (Audio): On yesterday's episode of Albany, NY public radio station WAMC's program The Roundtable, Ian Pickus talked to editor/EMP curator Jacob McMurray about Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind — listen to the archived show at the link

• Profile: At Examiner.com, Gillian Gaar talks to editor/EMP curator Jacob McMurray about Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind: "The book, as its title suggests, views Nirvana’s success as the culmination of the alternative rock scene that blossomed in America during the 1980s. 'That’s the bigger context in the exhibition as well,' McMurray explains. 'It is the story of Nirvana, but it's couched within what was happening throughout the Northwest, and throughout the US, from the rise of punk rock on. It’s the idea that there needs to be a sort of infrastructure in place for a band like Nirvana to even exist; that without all of these advances that had been happening in the underground by a dozen different bands, Nirvana would have never happened.'"

• Interview: Comic Book Resources' Chris Mautner talks to Gilbert Hernandez about Love from the Shadows and the other "Fritz B-Movie" books: "The Fritz series frees me of any obligation to be a do-gooder cartoonist, something most regular L&R readers probably don't want to hear. I felt straight jacketed with 'Palomar' and the like after a while, really. I have a lot more going on in my imagination than I'm expected to utilize." Further reading: at CBR's Robot 6 blog, Sean T. Collins comments on the interview

• Interview (Audio): Mark Kalesniko talks with Tom Waters. host of Big Words I Know By Heart, and Donald A. Wynecoop Jr. of Don's Atomic Comics. Direct download: MP3

• Interview (Audio): The Gentlemen's Guide to Midnite Cinema podcast correspondent Rupert Pupkin talks to Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film co-editor Bryan Connolly

• Feature: At the Drawing Words & Writing Pictures blog, Best American Comics series co-editors Jessica Abel & Matt Madden spotlight two stories from Mome Vol. 13 as 2010 Notable Comics: Abel picks Dash Shaw's "Satellite CMYK" — "Dash Shaw just keeps popping up in our 'can’t miss' pile. [...] Beyond being a good story, the formal element of using color (and black and white) as a storytelling tool is very unusual and makes this work a standout." — and Madden picks Josh Simmons's "Jesus Christ": "The storytelling is fluid and dynamic, and Simmons’s ability to convey the enormity of the monster is bracing. Simmons deliberately mixes elements from different mythologies to defy any obvious reading. In the end, all we have before us is this escstatic Kali-Godzilla-Centaur with a halo of fire and a title to provoke us."

• Coming Attractions: Anime News Network reports that Wandering Son creator Shimura Takako begins a new serial titled Awashima Hyakkei in the online manga magazine Pocopoco soon. We'll keep an eye out and try to add it to our webcomics roundups if possible

'Tis the season for the newspaper-format anthology comics. Floating World released the new issue of their Diamond comic today as a supplement to this week's Portland Mercury, with a wraparound cover by Paul Pope (who intros our new Captain Easy book) and the lineup you see in the flyer above, including a new story by Dash Shaw. We'll be nabbing our personal copies at the Stumptown Comics Fest this weekend; outside Portland, copies will be available via various distributors — see the Floating World announcement for more details.

You can help Dash Shaw make his animated feature film The Ruined Cast and receive some great pledge gifts (including having your likeness drawn as an "extra" and having a private movie screening with co-producer/filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell if you're a richie-pants) by contributing funds via Kickstarter. Why does Dash need to raise money this way? So he can raise more money. He explains:

"We’re raising the resources to get the project in its best shape to present to production financiers. We’re making a movie that's difficult to compare to another, so the burden of proof is on us to illustrate it first. This takes funding for materials, production space and labor. We’ll be able to acquire the equipment and supplies to start creating elements of the film. As the teaser suggests, the movie will be painstakingly animated by hand — it requires paints for backgrounds, lots and lots of paper, lots of pens, scanners, and cameras to capture 'live' paintings. Your contributions will allow us to lay the groundwork to bring this to life."

Co-producer Howard Gertler says "Whether or not you can contribute, Dash, John, [co-producer] Biljana [Labovic] and I would love for you just to get to know the project better — it's only the beginning of the journey for a visionary film that's been a joy and honor to be working on." The video teaser and much more information can be seen on the Kickstarter page.

• Check out Mack White's illustrations for Michael del Ray's book Long Term Parking

• Monster Brains presents "Momster" by Ted Jouflas from Weirdo #26 (1989)

• "Ghost Dream," a sketchbook comic by Drew Weing

• From Lilli Carré, a short animated film, a poster for an event she'll be at, and a teaser of her work in the new Smoke Signal

• Leslie Stein gives this peek at artwork from the 6th issue of Eye of the Majestic Creature

• Panels for the next installment of "Nothing Eve" for Mome by Kurt Wolfgang at New Bodega

• Also working away on a new Mome story: Laura Park

• And yet more Mome previewing: new pages from "Wild Man" by T. Edward Bak

• Messages from Killoffer at Lewis Trondheim's Les petits riens blog

• Shirley from the TV show Community by Josh Simmons

• Renee French custom-painted this Dylan Sprouse vinyl figure; plus the usual drawings etc. at her blog; plus we like this photo on Sprouse's website for obvious reasons

• Sammy Harkham on Flickr

• A panel by Carol Tyler; also check out a photo of her drawing desk

And more Things to See from the past week:

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

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

• Drawings & diagrams from Frank Santoro

• Puppets in progress by Marco Corona

• Another possible puppet or other figurine in progress in some mysterious photos from Paul Hornschemeier

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

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

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

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

• Watercolor panel process by Derek Van Gieson

• Daily sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

We're thrilled to present the Fantagraphics guide to the 2011 MoCCA Fest, happening this weekend Saturday, April 9th and Sunday, April 10th at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City! Print this out and use it as your shopping checklist and your weekend schedule!

First off, take a look at all the amazing new releases that we will be debuting at the show!  Many of these books won't be in stores for several more months, and copies are limited, so make our table your first stop, or risk missing out!

• Approximate Continuum Comics by Lewis Trondheim
• Captain Easy Vol. 2 by Roy Crane
• Celluloid by Dave McKean
• Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring
• Hate Annual #9 by Peter Bagge
• Isle of 100,000 Graves by Jason
• Take a Joke by Johnny Ryan
• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1 by Floyd Gottfredson [Unfortunately, this one won't make it after all!]
• Wandering Son Book 1 by Shimura Takako
• Yeah! by Peter Bagge & Gilbert Hernandez
• The Comics Journal #301, edited by Gary Groth
• Eye of the Majestic Creature by Leslie Stein

Secondly, check out our jam-packed schedule of awesome authors who will be signing at the Fantagraphics table over the weekend.  Not only will they be signing our books, but several of them will be bringing previews of works-in-progress!

Saturday, April 9th
11:30 am-12:30 pm     Derek Van Gieson / Nate Neal / Sara Edward-Corbett
12:30 pm-1:30 pm      Stephen DeStefano / Mark Newgarden
1:30 pm-2:30 pm        Kim Deitch / Peter Bagge
2:30 pm-3:30 pm        Gahan Wilson / Charles Burns / Tim Kreider
3:30 pm-4:30 pm        Michael Kupperman / Ted Stearn / Dash Shaw
4:30 pm-5:30 pm        Paul Hornschemeier / Leslie Stein

Sunday, April 10th
11:30 am-12:30 pm     Derek Van Gieson / Sara Edward-Corbett
12:30 pm-1:30 pm      Kim Deitch / Gahan Wilson
1:30 pm-2:30 pm        Leslie Stein / Michael Kupperman  / John Kerschbaum
2:30 pm-3:30 pm        Drew Friedman / Peter Bagge
3:30 pm-4:30 pm        Ted Stearn / Paul Hornschemeier
4:30 pm-5:30 pm        Stephen DeStefano / George Chieffet (tentative) / Nate Neal

update: George Chieffet will be unable to join us on Sunday, but John Kerschbaum has been added to the 1:30 pm slot that day!

another update: Tim Kreider will be joining us on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm before his panel at 4:30 pm!

All this and more awaits you at the Fantagraphics booth, located at #J1, J2, K1, K2. 

And finally, get a gander at all these great panels!  If you haven't already heard from The Daily Cross Hatch, they've added a second room this year, and they'll be doing more one-on-one conversations like the ones with Gahan Wilson and Peter Bagge listed below! You won't want to miss it!

Saturday, April 9th

11:30 am // Teaching Comics: Jessica Abel joins fellow panelists Bill Kartalopoulos and Tom Hart in a discussion from reading for content/visuals, to teaching how to “read” their visual rhetoric, to thinking about how to tell a story visually, what makes comics worth teaching? (Room A)

1:30 pm // Building a Book, From Start to Finish: Mark Newgarden moderates a panel with Stephen DeStefano (as well as Ben Katchor and Lauren Redniss), with an exploration of the blood, sweat, and tears that go into making a book. (Room A)

1:30 pm // Gahan Wilson: Playboy and Beyond: We explore the long, storied career of satirist Gahan Wilson. (Room B)

2:30 pm // Volunteer of the Year: Peter Kuper will present Al Jaffee with the Klein Award! (Room A)

2:30 pm // Dash Shaw and Brecht Evens in Conversation: Dash Shaw and Brecht Evens are among the most prodigious and prolific young artists working in comics today. Both began publishing ambitious work while still in school, and both have since gained notice for their lush, inventive, and thoughtful comics. (Room B)

4:30 pm //  The State of Editorial Cartooning: Brian Heater presents a panel with Tim Kreider (along with Ruben Bolling and Ted Rall) on the trials and tribulations of creating political cartoons in 2011. (Room A)

5:30 pm //  MoCCA Presents the Cross Hatch Carousel: Cartoonists and voice actors perform live comics readings, featuring our own Michael Kupperman and Ted Stearn, as well as Jeffrey Lewis, R. Sikoryak, Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt, Julie Klausner, and more. (Room A)

Sunday, April 10th

12:30 pm // Almost True: Calvin Reid leads a discussion on where autobiography and fiction collide with Gabrielle Bell and Leslie Stein (and Joe Ollmann and Pascal Girard). (Room A)

1:30 pm // Peter Bagge: A History of Hate: Brian Heater spotlights Peter Bagge, in a one-on-one conversation with one of alternative comics’ most influential and enduring voices. (Room B) 

1:30 pm //  The Enterprising Will Eisner: Charles Brownstein leads a panel with Jules Feiffer, as well as Denis Kitchen and Paul Levitz. Come learn about who Will Eisner was as an entrepreneuring artist in a time when New York was the center of the commercial art universe, and how his art was shaped by that environment. (Room A)

3:30 pm // Ink Panthers Live: The popular podcast live, with special guests, like John Kerschbaum. (Room B)

So, get ready! -- and we'll see you at MoCCA!