Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Drew Weing's slender, hand-sized debut graphic novel Set to Sea is a crosshatched masterpiece. [...] Weing draws in an elaborate, crosshatched style that's half Popeye, half Maakies, and it meshes brilliantly with the subject matter and the storytelling. Set to Sea is so lovely in places that I found myself exclaiming aloud -- it's got a naive-but-self-conscious grace that is impossible to describe and that few have ever mastered. This one is highly recommended." – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

• Review: "In the first and the second volume [of Mome] there are a lot of things to enjoy. Stories differ both in length (there are one-page strips, too) and in narrative technique. [...] In these two books there [is] a lot [that is] interesting and confusing, enjoyable and intriguing. Do not be a mome, read these first-rate collections of comics." – Ray Garraty, Endless Falls Up

• Review: Attentiondeficitdisorderly's Sean T. Collins looks at Gilbert Hernandez's half of Love and Rockets Vol. II #20 (as reprinted in the Luba hardcover) in his ongoing "Love and Rocktober" series: "At long last he returns to Venus, Petra’s daughter and one of the least damaged, most well-adjusted, most self-assured characters in the whole post-Palomar oeuvre. [...] It’s an uplifting note to end on after all this darkness."

• Plug: NPR's Glen Weldon recommends "Five Tomes to See You Through Your Turkey Coma": "In honor of the 25th anniversary of this classic all-ages 'funny animals' tale of Miyaomoto Usagi, a stoic samurai rabbit who roams 17th-century Japan, Fantagraphics has collected the first seven trades in a sumptuous 2-book, 1200-page hardcover edition [Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition]. Which, uh ... won't be out until December. Until then, you can pick up a couple volumes and get a taste of Sakai's masterful, action-packed, richly detailed storytelling, and see why it's become such a beloved series."

• Plug: "Mascots, [Ray] Fenwick's forthcoming follow-up [to Hall of Best Knowledge], is similarly a series of episodes told through inventive typography and absurd yet hilarious text. But integrating these elements with brightly colored paintings, the book depicts a more surreal, frenzied world that is strangely resonant with today's super speedy internet age." – Space 15 Twenty

• Reviewer: Dash Shaw on the Osamu Tezuka documentary Secrets of Creation at Comics Comics

Click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:

• Noah Van Sciver draws a rock show (Danzig!) for the Denver Westword, plus more stuff at his blog

• Richard Sala's "Psycho-rama" from Blab #7, 1992

• Jackie No-Name diorama cutout and Belligerent Piano intro page from Smoke Signal #3 courtesy of Tim Lane 

• Speaking of Smoke Signal, here's Leslie Stein's "Murmur" from that selfsame publication

• Robert Goodin does Simon & Kirby at Repaneled

• Carol Tyler was a visiting artist at the Center for Cartoon Studies last week (and celebrated a birthday yesterday), all noted on her Screened-in Porch blog

• Gipi discusses his recent health problems and presents a series of self-portraits at his blog

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and sketches (and Post-its for sale) on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• A new print at John Hankiewicz's Clip Joint blog

• Sketches by Frank Santoro at the Cold Heat Comics blog

• An exhibit announcement at Marco Corona's Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Vintage Jim Flora illustrations & artwork (plus shelf porn) at the Jim Flora blog

• Nature sketches with running commentary by Debbie Drechsler at her Just Around the Corner blog

• More sketches for Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway (now up for pre-order!) at his blog

• Sergio Ponchione re-launches Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Drawings, sketches, photos from Renee French

• Daily drawings (and a few videos) from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• Caricatures, a new Need to Know video, and commentary on current events by Steve Brodner

• Pages and panels by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• New sketches by Eleanor Davis at her We Be Ouija blog

Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Dash Shaw, and several Abstract Comics contributors including editor Andrei Molotiu are among the artists featured in a group exhibit opening in Arlington, VA this Friday, November 19, 2010. The announcement describes the exhibit thusly:

"PARTY CRASHERS mashes up comic art and contemporary gallery culture, and features artists who pass back and forth between the two worlds. This massive two venue show results from a crosstown collaboration between AAC Director of Exhibitions Jeffry Cudlin and Artisphere Gallery Director Cynthia Connolly. The show’s two independent halves feature different types of work: Connolly’s show presents fine artists who mimic the appearance of comic art; Cudlin’s show at AAC contains: alternative comic artists who also show their original pages and drawings in art galleries; fine and comic artists working side-by-side on a national curated project (Creative Time Comics); and fine and comic artists creating avante-garde, purely abstract sequential art without words or recognizeable imagery."

Dash Shaw previewed his piece for the show on his blog:

More information and the complete roster of artists here.

A new short silent animated video from Dash Shaw. Dash explains at The Ruined Cast blog.

Mark your social calendars in indelible ink! Saturday, December 11 marks the 4th anniversary of the fabulous Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. To celebrate this auspicious occasion we're once again hosting the season's most festive party featuring amazing music, comix, art, and more!

The evening includes solo music sets by Zak Sally and Mark Pickerel. Zak was a founding member of alternative music legends Low and continues solo music endeavors while publishing great comics with Fantagraphics as well as producing exquisitely crafted small press projects on his own La Mano imprint. He will be joined by Fantagraphics friend Mark Pickerel who began his musical career with the highly acclaimed Screaming Trees and now fronts Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, in addition to being the proprietor of Seattle pop culture emporium Damaged Goods.

An awesome exhibition of comix art curated by Jason T. Miles and Max Clotfelter, in association with Friends of the Nib, features prominent living legends and emerging cartoonists. "Medieval Thinkers" includes original works by Peter Bagge, Bruce Bickford, D. J. Bryant, Chris Cilla, Max Clotfelter, Eleanor Davis, Kim Deitch, Heidi Estey, Kelly Froh, Justin Green, Gerald Jablonski, Megan Kelso, Jason T. Miles, Nate Neal, Bob Rini, Zak Sally, Dash Shaw, Matt Tamaru, Drew Weing, Jim Woodring, Mary Woodring, Max Woodring, Martine Workman, and Chris Wright. Toldja it was awesome.

All this plus screaming deals on comix, celebrity guests, holiday libations, demented Christmas platters spun by DJ Russ Fallout, and a few surprises makes Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery's 4th anniversary party the place to be on Saturday, December 11. See you all then.

Click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:

• The future of architecture, from Ray Fenwick's notebook

• Golden Age Comic Book Stories reproduces the full set of Drew Friedman-illustrated The Ed Wood, Jr. Players trading cards from 1993 (via The Comics Reporter)

• The spaceship-stealing kid in this 1957 illustration? That's a young Bill Griffith (and his dad in the vid screen), painted by his next-door neighbor Ed Emshwiller. Via Bill on Facebook, who also posts Emshwiller's rough layout

• At Repaneled, Isaac Bidwell does Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo from issue #14 (soon to be collected in Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition)

• Some Netflix warehouse worker is going to get a bit of a surprise when Dash Shaw returns Splice; this and more of his daily drawings at The Ruined Cast blog

• This painting by Robert Goodin is being auctioned to benefit the CBLDF

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and sketches on his Chewing Gum in Church blog and more on his Flickr page

• A new print at John Hankiewicz's Clip Joint blog

• Drawings, paintings, collages and other images by Frank Santoro at the Cold Heat Comics blog

• Illustrations & sketches at Marco Corona's Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Nature sketches with running commentary by Debbie Drechsler at her Just Around the Corner blog

• More sketches for Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway (just sent to the printer!) and drawings of women wearing things at his blog

• Laura Park's sketches from her visit to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction on her Flickr page

• The latest Josh Simmons cuteness (with Wendy Chin) at Quackers

• Drawings, sketches, photos and a new toy from Renee French

• A new Need to Know video by Steve Brodner

• More pages from Hans Rickheit's graphic novel in progress Ectopiary, plus other material (including a smattering of outtakes from The Squirrel Machine) and commentary at his Squirrel Machine blog

• Pages and panels by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• A You'll Never Know preliminary sketch at Carol Tyler's Screened-in Porch blog

• Drawings and works in progress by Joe Kimball on his Flickr page

• Some familiar creators post some new Trubble Club collaborative comics

This post has been in progress for nearly a month now... with so much to catch up on, I'll just be highlighting a few selected items and then giving you links to the regularly-updated stuff. As always, click for better viewing and possible commentary at the sources.

• At The Hooded Utilitarian, Ng Suat Tong reports on some recent Jaime Hernandez original art sales, with lots and lots of images

• At Not Quite Clobberin', a scan of a seldom-seen 1997 autobio strip by Jaime Hernandez

• Doc Shaner posted a bunch of Popeye art on his Tumblr last week, including this amazing "Sgt. Popeye's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by Stephen DeStefano

• Shucks, it's an illustrated love letter from 1916 from E.C. Segar to his wife-to-be Myrtle, at Letters of Note (via The Comics Reporter)

• Jason reveals the cover art for the French edition of Isle of 100,000 Graves (L'Île aux 100 000 Morts); plus early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• A new comic for Vice by Johnny Ryan

• Bob Fingerman's They Live poster for an art show at Maxwell's in Hoboken

• Three from Covered: Mome contributor Jon Adams does Yosemite Sam #2; Tom Pappalardo does Acme Novelty Library #1; and Dyna Moe does Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3. Also see Jon's latest Truth Serum strips

• Two from Repaneled: Matthew Allison takes on Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit and Steven Weissman gets in on the fun; also catch up on Steven's latest "I, Anonymous" spots and sketches on his Chewing Gum in Church blog and more on his Flickr page

• Eleanor Davis's letterpress print for The Cloudy Collection; plus her latest sketches, works in progress and other illustrations at her We Be Ouija blog

• Dig Gary Panter's logo design for his multimedia "band" Devin Gary & Ross

• A two-page all-ages horror story by Richard Sala

• A new war-story page by Tim Lane, with interesting background info; plus recent installments of his ongoing Belligerent Piano strip at his Jackie Noname blog

• At Gabrielle Bell's Lucky blog, the concluding installments of her "San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary" (which Anthony Vukojevich interprets at Repaneled) and some "embarrassing older work"

• Paul Hornschemeier's weekly t-shirt designs at his News and/or Head Lice blog

• Noah Van Sciver's "Blue Wilson" and lots more drawings, strips and news on his blog

• "The King & The Beast" is a 2006 comic by Ray Fenwick

• New installments of the latest Simon & Jack (& Rosalyn!) story by Jordan Crane at What Things Do

And please catch up on the last few weeks worth of the following:

• Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch; more Kevin at The Balloonist and New Construction

• Matthias Lehmann's Bloc-Notes blog and stunning new originals for sale

• Sketchbook drawings at John Hankiewicz's Clip Joint blog

• Drawings, paintings, collages and other images by Frank Santoro at the Cold Heat Comics blog

• Artwork, dolls, fashions, other handicrafts and spells from Dame Darcy

• Artwork & illustrations from Émile Bravo

• Illustrations & sketches at Marco Corona's Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• Vintage Jim Flora illustrations & artwork (plus merch) at the Jim Flora blog

• Nature sketches with running commentary by Debbie Drechsler at her Just Around the Corner blog

• Lots of sketches for Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway (just sent to the printer!) and drawings of women wearing things at his blog

• Comics, illustrations and news from Sergio Ponchione at his Mondobliquo blog

• Laura Park continues to add artwork to her Flickr page

• The latest Josh Simmons sketches, panels and updates at The Furry Trap and The White Rhinoceros and (with Wendy Chin) The Randy Gander and Quackers 

• An entire month's worth of drawings, sketches, photos and jewelry (!) from Renee French

• Animated drawings and Eyeworks Animation Festival updates from Lilli Carré at her Kettle of Fish blog

• Dash Shaw's daily drawings at The Ruined Cast blog

• Sketchbook drawings and comics by Sophie Crumb at her blog

• Caricatures, a new Need to Know video, and commentary on current events by Steve Brodner

• Sketchbook comics etc. by Anders Nilsen at The Monologuist

• More pages from Hans Rickheit's graphic novel in progress Ectopiary, plus other material and commentary at his Squirrel Machine blog

• Pages and panels by Derek Van Gieson at his These Days I Remain blog

• The latest Maakies strips and other updates from Tony Millionaire

• Drawings and works in progress by Joe Kimball on his Flickr page

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Mome Vol. 20 - Fall 2010
by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

120-page color/b&w 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-365-1

Ordering Info & Previews

We have reached the landmark 20th volume of Mome. For those of you who read the box scores, that’s 5 years, 20 volumes, 72 artists, and 2,352 pages of comics.

Much is new in this anniversary volume. Fantagraphics' flagship anthology now boasts a new design courtesy of art director Adam Grano (who also chips in a few pages of art), and we have 4 other artists making their Mome debuts: Steven "Ribs" Weissman's haunting story "This Already Happened" makes its first appearance in print after being serialized at What Things Do; Sergio Ponchione provides a full-color prequel story to his acclaimed series Grotesque (translated from its appearance in Italy's Linus magazine); and we welcome Chicago stalwart Jeremy Tinder and Portland illustrator Aidan Koch to the fold with their new stories.

From our returning champions: another "Blind Date" from Dash Shaw; a forest fable from Sara Edward-Corbett; part 2 of "The White Rhinoceros" from Josh Simmons and The Partridge in the Pear Tree; the continuation of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man," Derek Van Gieson's "Devil Doll," and cover-boy Ted Stearn's "Fuzz and Pluck in: The Moolah Tree" serials; another atmospheric Conor O'Keefe story; a star-studded story in verse from Nate Neal; and more autobiographical vignettes by Nicolas Mahler. It all adds up to another diverse and rewarding volume of this literary comics juggernaut.

Your SAT analogy of the day: Dash Shaw is to John Cameron Mitchell's new film Rabbit Hole as Sophie Crumb was to the film version of Ghost World. Says Dash, "I drew the comic that Miles Teller’s character draws in the movie, and it’s my hand drawing the lines and funnel shapes in the trailer! Yes! Ha ha ha." See more images at Dash's Ruined Cast blog.

And don't forget, Dash gives a "Distinguished Alumnus" lecture at SVA on November 4 — more info here.

ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO 2009 from chris anthony diaz on Vimeo.

From über-fan Chris Diaz comes this all-star montage of clips filmed at last year's Alternative Press Expo, just in time for this year's show! Among others you'll see Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro & Jon Vermilyea showing off Mome Vol. 16 at our table, Esther Pearl Watson & Mark Todd at their Funchicken setup, and our very own expo expert extraordinaire Janice Headley rocking her Jad Fair glasses.

We'll see you in San Francisco in a couple of days! Get all our APE info here.