Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Of the artists that meant the world to me when I was young enough that lots of artists meant the world to me, Jaime Hernandez is the only one I know of that can still kill me dead with his newest and latest. Your mileage may vary, but Jaime's three-part story in the latest Love and Rockets brought to mind the same sweep of romance and regret and pursuit of all that's sweet in life as much as battered and broken insides allow that I remember all too well from the summer between my junior and senior years in college, when I would have put everything about my wonderful life on hold to climb into a black and white comic book for a little while. There are three or four panels in this newest effort worth some cartoonists' entire careers." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "Set to Sea is [an] auspicious debut... Weing's nameless, landlubbing protagonist aches to rhapsodize about the sea but discovers that something's missing. After dozing drunkenly on a dock, he awakes to discover he's been shanghaied. His adventures provide ample material for a volume of poetry in this hilariously violent picaresque tale." – Richard Pachter, The Miami Herald

• Review: "A book like The Best American Comics Criticism invites argument. If you put 'best' in your title, argument will follow. I’ve got arguments, but I wanted to start by praising both the editor, Ben Schwartz, and the publisher, Fantagraphics, for making the effort." - Derik Badman

• Review: "...[T]his story is one where Deitch tries to tie the various unruly strands of his many stories together. In a way, I almost prefer that these overlapping, nesting, and sometimes contradictory stories never really congeal, but The Search for Smilin' Ed is, like all of Deitch's work, a compelling and highly personal piece of work." – Robert Boyd, The Great God Pan Is Dead

• Review: "Although the images are very haunting, they are extremely beautiful. Pim & Francie is a pretty unique book. ... This book as a whole is actually quite creepy, haunting, scary, beautiful, and intoxicating. I seem to enjoy it more every time I look/read through it. With images on almost every single page, this book is worth a lot more than its cover price." – Steven Thomas

• Review: "Wally Gropius ...[is] John Stanley for the 21st century. Not that Stanley doesn’t work just fine in 2010, but Hensley is worthy of that sort of praise. I wish this guy was writing Archie." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "I loved this book and am glad I... could read something this wonderfully twisted... I really wish I could tell you what genre this is, but The Squirrel Machine defies that sort of commercial branding." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "Man, Joe Daly is awesome. ...[H]e is back with thunder in his pen and ants in his pants. [Dungeon Quest] is as good as Scrublands on page one and it just gets better and funnier, more bizarre and familiar (if you have ever met or hung out with Larpers) with each page turn. Welcome back, Joe Daly. You rule." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "The Troublemakers... is Gilbert [Hernandez] doing a Quentin Tarantino, in that he dips into a sleazy old unpleasant genre of crime exploitation films of the 60s and 70s and cherry-picks a bunch of the good bits and smashes them together and cooks them into a really sweet pie." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Review: "The Culture Corner... is the biggest score for fans of Wolverton since the publication of the Wolverton Bible. I guess you could also say that this is the first reprint collection of Wolverton material since the Wolverton Bible if you wanted to nit-pick. Great stuff." – Chris Reilly, Guttergeek

• Plug: "I’m barely able to form coherent thoughts about Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. It’s an amazing collection of her work, and I hope it just causes an explosion of interest in her work." – David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon

• Plug: Sarah McIntyre took some lovely photos of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1961-1962

• Interview: At WFMU's Beware of the Blog, Kliph Nesteroff talks to Drew Friedman: "When I was talking to Albert [Brooks] at this party he said, 'Drew, did you know that Harpo's ex-wife married Frank Sinatra?' I said, 'No, it was Zeppo's ex-wife.' He said, 'No, no, it was Harpo's ex-wife.'  I said, 'No, it was Zeppo's ex-wife. Look, we have Andy Marx, Groucho's grandson standing right here. Let's ask him.' I said, 'Andy, which one of your uncles married Frank Sinatra's wife?' He said, 'Well, that was Zeppo's wife.' That's why I love L.A. It's handy to have Groucho's grandson [around] when you need him." (Note: audio of this conversation will be available from the Inkstuds podcast soon; we'll keep you updated)

• Profile: Seattle Times book editor Mary Ann Gwinn reports on the partnership between Rick Marschall's Rosebud Archives and Fantagraphics Books: "Now Marschall's company, Rosebud Archives, and Fantagraphics have formed a joint publishing enterprise that will draw from Marschall's immense collection, reclaiming the work of the great 20th-century magazine and newspaper artists for the 21st-century public."

• Commentary: At The Hooded Utilitarian, Shaenon Garrity kicks off a critical roundtable on Popeye with a 7-part appreciation: "Popeye hangs on, indestructible..., the last of a tougher, smellier, funnier breed."

• Reviewer: At Comics Comics, our own Jason T. Miles looks at something I'm also fond of: Andy Helfer & Kyle Baker's late-1980s run on The Shadow

Two items which are due to arrive in this week's shipment to comic shops were not published by us but are of interest, one of which we are distributing and the other of which comes from one of the "big two":

Chloe
by Hans Rickheit

136-page black & white 5.5" x 8.5" softcover • $10.95

Contrary to what is being reported, this is not a new printing of Hans Rickheit's Xeric-winning 2002 graphic novella which preceded The Squirrel Machine: this is the original self-published edition, which we are distributing to the Direct Market for the first time (via Adult Previews, due to the book's mature content). View some sample artwork here.

"...[R]un, don't walk, to get that book. Rickheit's a major talent and that book is something erotic and special. It's like a dirty secret." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly

"Filthy, filthy comics by Hans Rickheit..." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

And Marvel releases Deadpool #1000, which features stories by Michael Kupperman (above) and Peter Bagge among others. I have never read a Deadpool comic before, but there's a first time for everything.

Hit up your local shop for your purchasing needs. It looks like we'll have at least a couple of official Fantagraphics releases hitting stores next week so stay tuned.

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

• Yoinked from Facebook, Miss Lasko-Gross's self-portrait for the Graphic Details art show at the Cartoon Art Museum

• Another Facebook find: Charles Schneider posted this new album cover illustration by Gahan Wilson

• Facebook strikes again: a rejected cover sketch for Gil Kane's Savage!, from the Gil Kane Unchained page (see the final cover and read a review of the book at Guns in the Gutters)

• A Jim Woodring sketch on his own letterhead from 1993 along with a 1992 interview at TCJ.com's Guttergeek

• Bob Fingerman draws "Girl and Critters"

• Trace monotype prints by John Hankiewicz from his own figure drawings

• This week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane, which he posted early "out of excitement"

• Mark Kalesniko's "Tina in a Polka-Dot Dress"

• Dang, Josh Simmons, that's a fat Quacker; also, a collaboration with Wendy Chin descriptively titled "Wang"

• From Renee French, "balls," "Doc" and, um something shadowy

• Steve Brodner's Senate Frieze for the New Yorker

• Car engines by Gabrielle Bell, Esther Pearl Watson & others for an invitational art show curated by Anders Nilsen at Chicago's Lula's Cafe (via The Monologuist)

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 35

• Tony Millionaire's most recent Maakies strip

• Gipi asks the age-old question: "Shit or chocolate?"

Buckle in for two weeks worth of clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Jaime Hernandez, 1977 (from friend/fan Bernie Ramirez on the Love and Rockets Facebook page)

• Anders Nilsen's Dennis Hopper for Cinefamily is magnificent

• How about a little Dennis the Menace/Lost mash-up at Big Shiny Robot?

• Moscow-born San Francisco-residing cartoonist Roman Muradov sends us some pages done in homage/tribute to Jason — they're good, and got a thumbs-up from Jason

• Again with the Comics presents a Scooby-Doo story drawn by... Ivan Brunetti?? (via Steven Thompson)

• Jason's sketch of Jean-Pierre Melville, plus more recent blog entries about Lino Ventura, Alain Delon, and summer reading

• Rosebud Archives presents a super-rare promotional flyer for Charles M. Schulz's Young Pillars

• It's the two latest weekly installments of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• Gipi describes his new video "Antony" as "a classic film thriller"

• For The Bold Italic, Jon Adams profiles 3 real-life Bay Area Comic Book Guys (via Robot 6); also, two installments of Truth Serum

• From Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond

• From Dash Shaw: a new silkscreen print; sketchbook pages; Ruined Cast sketches; The Lion King

• From Steven Weissman: "I, Anonymous" for last week and this week; Lumpy Noodle

• Frank Santoro gives another sneak peek at his Strange Tales Silver Surfer

• Drew Weing presents Set to Sea pages 112, 113, 114 & 115. Also, could someone snag me a set of these buttons? 

• Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano episodes 21 and 22

• A 1950 profile of Jim Flora

• Johnny Ryan has a bunch of new prints for sale. We saw Matt Groening admiring the one above at Comic-Con, our own Kristy Valenti very happily bought the cat one, and the "Nachos" one is just 100% pure genius

• Debbie Drechsler's latest round of nature sketches features squirrels, birds, bugs & spiders

• From Mark Kalesniko, two sets of quick sketches

• Sergio Ponchione posts some pages of his artwork from Cattivi Soggetti, an anthology of noir stories written by Danielle Brolli

• Paul Hornschemeier's latest t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• Noah Van Sciver posts an excerpt from Blammo #5

• From Josh Simmons & co: King Quackers, Skeezy Quacker, Quacker dreams, Quokkers, cupcake crimes

• Renee French has too many updates to link all of them individually; just go to her blog and work your way down. This, this, and this are highlights for me

• Steve Brodner's latest segment from PBS's Need to Know, "Obama Where Art Thou?" and his tribute to the late John Callahan

• I think the painting from Josh Simmons's House snuck into Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

• Tom Kaczynski's sketches from the La Mano 2nd Annual Report and another show

• Something new & untitled from Joe Kimball

• Robert Goodin presents an outtake page from his story "The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung" in Mome Vol. 19

• Gary Panter announces a new Jimbo minicomic

• Jim Woodring presents two Frank favorites, Frank in Frizland and Manhog's Holiday, now in full painted color

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

• From Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond, new Fight or Run action, and more process at New Construction 

• From Steven Weissman, this week's "I, Anonymous" and from his sketchbook chopper trike & portait of D. Clowes etc.

• From John Hankiewicz, four versions of two figures

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea pages 110 & 111

• The latest installment of Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• Debbie Drechsler draws hawks and other birds at the cemetery ("Cemetery Hawks" — there's your new band name)

• Noah Van Sciver has a plan

• Laura Park & friends "enjoy" summer together

• Josh Simmons gets Woodring-esque with the Haunted Quacker; plus shark attack Quacker (with Wendy Chin), Ecstatic Quacker, Big Time Quacker 

• From Renee French: big worm, running man, fly baby, bulb neck, little kid, cutaway hair rock

• Steve Brodner remembers Gerald Ford

• Page 33 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary; also, he reveals his drawing process

• Tom Kaczynski draws the Lightning Bolt show

• This week's Truth Serum by Jon Adams

• Joe Kimball posts a couple more concert posters

• Things to Hear Dept: Stream 5 new songs by Derek Van Gieson's band Ebersole Versus Carberry on their MySpace page

Periodic (and tardy... so busy) clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Lorenzo Mattotti World Cup illustrations posted at the Forbidden Planet International Blog

• Bob Fingerman posts a couple of concept illustrations for his in-progress prose novel The Hell of It

• Dash Shaw posts some storyboards for his in-progress animated film The Ruined Cast

• Last week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman; also, if you want to see the scanned version of the current Barack Hussein Obama strip, it's here; also, the greatest Little League team photo ever

• From Frank Santoro: a subway sketch, a color-matching analysis swatch thingy, and a funny collage

• Noah Van Sciver recounts helping John Porcellino move, and at Covered, takes on an Al Feldstein EC classic

• From Kevin Huizenga: psychedelic explorations with Photoshop filters and aspects of McSkulls at Fight or Run; a helpful diagram at New Construction; and Glenn Ganges roughs at his flagship The Balloonist

"When you Orcs are through fighting, you can clean up this tell, it is a pig sty and a disgrace. Do you hear me? Just look at this mess– skulls and guts everywhere. Do you act like this at home?"

• The latest prose burst from Gary Panter

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea pages 108 & 109

• Richard Sala presents 3 original pages from Mad Night (and they're for sale)

• A mystery: is this lettering the work of Jim Flora?

• Jim Blanchard paints Diana Rigg as Emma Peel

• Debbie Drechsler sketches birds and mammals

• A Kevin Nowlan spot illo for The Comics Journal, 1981 (anyone who can identify the issue number, please leave a comment)

• Mark Kalesniko's second take on the Girl in Orange Stripes

• Sergio Ponchione posts part of the "bonus track" strip he did for the book La Legge del Cane by Jake La Furia & Guè Pequeno

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's majestic weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• Feel better soon, Laura Park

• From Josh Simmons & co., Quacker Supreme & Tiniest Quacker

• From Renee French: fly, hair rock, doodle, dude, rock

• Sophie Crumb posts a mess of new drawings and teases her upcoming book

• Stephen DeStefano talks about his Popeye art & design work (such as the DVD illustrations above) with Jason Anders of Fulle Circle

• Page 32 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary; also, a "forgotten Cochlea & Eustachia drawing " that makes a dandy desktop wallpaper

• Robert Goodin presents an excerpt from "The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung," his story in Mome Vol. 19 (out tomorrow!)

• Tom Kaczynski's sketch and report from the Twin Cities Zinefest

• At the Rosebud Archives blog, another vintage Peanuts ad sheet

Periodic clips & strips (normal posting schedule returns next week, probably) — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• On the Rosebud Archives blog, a rare Peanuts promotional flyer (Rosebud Archives at Fantagraphics)

• A video from Dash Shaw... some kind of teaser or something? Even if it's just a joke, it's pretty funny

• T. Edward Bak, Lilli Carré and John Hankiewicz (top to bottom) all have pieces in Pony Club Gallery's current print show The Great Outdoors (available for purchase here)

• This is one part of a three-piece screenprint by Eleanor Davis for a print show at GRNY

• A painting (background?) and collage by Frank Santoro

• From Kevin Huizenga: Burier vs. Exer at Fight or Run

"The doleful sirens are beginning to wail over on the ziggarat. Feeding time."

• Another short story from Gary Panter

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea, pages 106 & 107

• A whole bunch of watercolor portrait sketches by Marco Corona

• This week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane introduces a new character

• Mid-1950s magazine and record cover details by Jim Flora

• New Johnny Ryan art for sale on Comic Art Collective's recent additions page

• New bird sketches by Debbie Drechsler here, here and here

• "Girl in Orange Stripes" by Mark Kalesniko

• From Noah Van Sciver, a "homeless comic" and some old Blammo pages

• From Josh Simmons & Co., numerous Quackers and Randy Gander updates

• From Renee French: bird, dog, iPhone sketch (?), worm, woolyman, bird

• From Steve Brodner, birthday greetings to Calvin Coolidge & George W. Bush, plus Yankee Stadium sketches

• A few more things to consider from Anders Nilsen

• Page 31 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary; also, this is NSFW

• Robert Goodin draws the Fantastic Four — more please!

• A bunch of new drawings by Derek Van Gieson

• This week's Truth Serum by Jon Adams

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

• Dash Shaw identifies this only as "scrap"

• Mark Kalesniko presents the original art for the cover of Mail Order Bride

• A short autobio strip from poor Noah Van Sciver

• From Renee French: beetle, trap, trap

• Page 30 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary; also, this is NSFW

• Why not go look at some Drew Friedman classics over at Golden Age Comic Book Stories?

• Get a daily dose of Dan Clowes at Fuck Yeah Daniel Clowes

• Anders Nilsen presents some things to consider

• Two great things that go great together: Eleanor Davis artwork on the cover of the next Elf Power record, as revealed by Pitchfork — via Drew Weing

• Debbie Drechsler draws a broken butterfly

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

• Gonked, Glooked & Slurped! share a recently-acquired original Eightball page by Daniel Clowes

• Michael Kupperman hijacks Beetle Bailey — according to this recent TCJ article I think Mort Walker would approve

• The Paris Review presents a gallery of Robert Crumb self-portraits through the years (via The Comics Reporter)

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

• J.R. Williams has zillions of great prints for sale at his new J.R.'s Prints of Darkness site

• Robot 6 reports: Jon Adams does a Chick-style strip to promote a video game; also from Jon, a new Truth Serum strip

• From Kevin Huizenga: a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond strip; new Fight or Run action; new New Construction business

• From Steven Weissman: this week's "I, Anonymous" and three more Post-Its

• Three ironically-labeled "copies from famous artists " from the sketchbook of John Hankiewicz

• Aha! All those teasers from Frank Santoro have been leading up to this, "page 1 of a comic for Internazionale, an Italian independent weekly newsmagazine. Coming soon!"

• Speaking of Internazionale, Marco Corona has an illustration in this week's issue

• Richard Sala presents the original art for the cover of Evil Eye #10 and a 1987 rarity called "Haircut"

• From Tim Lane, this week's Belligerent Piano and this illustration for the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase

• On the Jim Flora Art Blog: Electromechanical Design sales brochure; a children's book illustration detail; half of a 1950s business card illustration (above); and a link to the 1959 UPA animated adaptation of Flora's The Fabulous Firework Family produced by Gene Deitch

• Johnny Ryan's Lovecraftian creatures, coming soon to a Stinckers machine near you

• "Girl in Black Dress and Scarf " by Mark Kalesniko

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop and it incorporates the logo from his 2007 art show at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery

• From Josh Simmons, various Quackers blog shenanigans and Randy Gander tomfoolery with Wendy Chin (including her version of Josh's "Jesus Christ" from his Mome story of the same name)

• So much great new stuff from Renee French — just go to her main blog page, there's too much to link individually

• Buy a drawing of two Popeyes punching by Stephen DeStefano to benefit Gulf Coast cleanup

• Speaking of the Gulf, this is just one of a trio of videos by Steve Brodner on the topic, including his latest segment on Need to Know on PBS

• Two of Anders Nilsen's entries in Post-It V

• Page 29 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

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

• Whoa, how come I didn't know that Kevin Huizenga has a Fight or Run blog? Now I do, thanks to Sean T. Collins. Meanwhile, over on his main blog, a screenshot of a scan of something wild

• Michael Kupperman gives a blurry sneak peek of a work in progress (I took the liberty of bumping up the contrast)

• A new Johnny Ryan comic for Vice; elsewhere, this

• A sketch for The Groovy Age of Horror by Josh Simmons (uh, NSFW) — via Sean T. Collins again; meanwhile, on Josh's own blog, a sketch of Malibu

• Post-It naughtiness by Steven Weissman; elsewhere, sketchbook pages

• Speaking of Post-Its, here's 10 amazing ones from Eleanor Davis

• "White Cats of the Red Sea," an illustration by Marco Corona

• Head to Jim Blanchard's blog for the uncensored versions of his diseased Norwegians (and the story behind the censor bars)

• Girl in Fish Net Stockings by Mark Kalesniko

• If Noah Van Sciver knew my email address he'd probably be asking me to plug the new issue of his self-published comic Blammo — hey Noah, send me a copy and I'll think about it, cough cough

• From Renee French, Rock Hudson (ha ha), some embarrassment, and a dead bug photo

• Page 28 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

• Two introductory pages by Derek Van Gieson — oops, one more

• T. Edward Bak's sea otter linocut print

• It ain't a cartoon but I'd be a fool not to link to this short prose story by Gary Panter