I hope the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles has a lot of beer in stock, because Tony Millionaire will be in the house on Wednesday, June 29th!

It's the debut of The Andrés Du Bouchet Center for the Performing Arts, a monthly comedy series hosted by comedian and Conan writer Andrés Du Bouchet, and curated by Adam Spiegelman and Fantagraphics friend Scott Jacobson. Starting this week, you can join them on the last Wednesday of every month for an evening of "artistic expression in a safe, supportive environment where people are drunk." Sounds perfect for Tony!

Not only will Tony Millionaire be on hand to screen some exclusive cartoons and clips from "The Drinky Crow Show,"  but you'll also get some comedy from Marc Maron, Tig Notaro, Dan Mintz, and Charlyne Yi, and a musical performance from The Lampshades. 

Tickets are only $8, and are available online here. The Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Blvd in L.A.  Sorry, young Maakies fans, the show is 21+.

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "It’s vaudevillian and it’s Old Hollywood. It’s rock n’ roll and beat poetry. It’s introspective and depressing and quite often funny, and depicts a world that exists on the fringes of society where the American Dream meets the cold, harsh reality of life as viewed through a grimy windshield. ... When you put all the pieces together, you don’t simply get a story or a group of stories, you get a book that pulls back the curtain on the collective unconscious of a nation. ... Like the myths that it is inspired by, Abandoned Cars lingers long after reading and grows in stature as you re-live and re-tell it." – Chad Derdowski, Mania

• Review: "Part of Pim & Francie’s disconcerting effect is that it confounds easy categorization, leaving the reader uncertain what exactly this book is, or how to approach it. It doesn’t contain discrete, coherent stories, but it’s also more unified and linear than a sketchbook; there are continuing characters, recurring images and situations, even a discernable arc. It’s possible to piece together narratives from the fragments here, the way you might reconstruct a crime scene from bits of evidence, or a nightmare from fading details. These stories may even be all the more potent for having to be inferred, like the phantasms we imagine when we listen to horror stories on the radio." – Tim Kreider, The Comics Journal

•Profile/Review: Thought Balloonists' Charles W. Hatfield has a doozy of a report from Robert Williams's March 10 lecture at Cal. State Northridge, with plenty of insight into the artist, the talk, and the Conceptual Realism exhibit at the CSUN gallery: "Williams and his academic audience met halfway; the bracing, not to say ass-kicking, potency of the paintings seemed to wow most of the crowd. This was a fine performance, enlivened from the start by Williams' genuine gratitude and enthusiasm for being there."

• Plug: Library Journal spotlights Jason's Werewolves of Montpellier among notable July graphic novel releases: "Having subjected zombies to the witty vagaries of his goofy, humanized animals, Eisner Award winner Jason tackles werewolves mixed up in re-creational burglary and romance. It’s the pretender vs. the professionals — who are not happy about amateur competition."

• Television: Adult Swim will start re-running The Drinky Crow Show starting March 30, so mark your calendars and set your DVRs now. Even if you caught it the first time, it merits repeat viewings

We don't have any new books or comics in comic shops this week, but I noticed that Gilbert Hernandez's The Naked Cosmos DVD/minicomic from Bright Red Rocket is back in print and available from comic shops starting tomorrow!

Also, as of yesterday The Drinky Crow Show, the animated series based on Tony Millionaire's Maakies, is available as part of Adult Swim's made-to-order Custom DVD system. The "builder" Flash interface doesn't seem to want to work on my computer, so I can't verify whether all the episodes are available, but they're promising to roll out the entire Adult Swim library "in time for the holiday" — hopefully this will include Michael Kupperman's Snake 'n' Bacon pilot too.

I just remembered this timely factoid about the Tony Millionaire Leviathan that appears in BEASTS! Book One: These sketches (embellished with Tony's esoteric notes) are the actual reference material that was used by animators to create the look of the recurring "whale fish" for the Drinky Crow Show.

There appears to be a whole bunch of The Drinky Crow Show that you can watch right now on adultswim.com. Note to self!

I just noticed that the clip reel at Mirari Films has some previews of upcoming Drinky Crow Show episodes and it looks like they're just going to get better. (Also shows a little of the Buddy Bradley animation they did.)

Also, if you don't have cable I understand that each week they stream the shows on the Adult Swim Website.