While supplies last get a copy of Newave: The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s FREE from contributing artist J.R. Williams with an original art purchase of fifty dollars (or more) from his Comic Art Collective page. Whatta deal! More details here.

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

Make plans for Labor Day weekend in Seattle now! The Bumbershoot art and music festival promises to be the best in recent memory. In addition to performances by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neko Case, Hole, the Decemberists, Weezer and countless other bands, the festival includes a large exhibition of contemporary Seattle cartoonists.

Organized by Fantagraphics resident curator Larry Reid, "Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" begins with Lynda Barry's work circa 1980 and continues through the present. The show reveals Seattle as the ancestral home of the alternative comix genre and examines the role comix played in Seattle's youth movement of the 90s, which penetrated popular culture globally.

Hundreds of original artworks, comix and related ephemera by an impressive roster of influential Seattle artists will be displayed including Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Jim Woodring, Megan Kelso, Jim Blanchard, Roberta Gregory, David Lasky, Ted Jouflas, Justin Hampton, J. R. Williams, Pat Moriarity, Donna Barr, Mark Zingarelli, Michael Dougan, Jeremy Eaton, Jason T. Miles, and more.

See you in September.

J.R. Williams has been killin' it on his flickr "blog" with a new series of comic and horror-inspired paintings. Don't forget to also check his original art page at comicartcollective.com.

Hey look, some photos of the Newave! exhibit opening and book launch party last Saturday at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, nicked without permission from our pal (and Newave! contributor) J.R. Williams's Facebook page. We'll bring you more pics if/when they surface (got some? let us know!). Above, David Lasky and someone unidentified...

J.R. & Newave! editor Michael Dowers:

Mini comix pioneer Steve Willis & J.R.:

Peter & Joanne Bagge:

This is the original art for a 1985 J.R. Williams comic reprinted in Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s; J.R. seized the opportunity to offer it for sale on Comic Art Collective — it's already sold, but still worth a look! This is the sort of thing you can expect to see at our yet-to-be-officially-announced Newave art show opening Jan. 30 at Fantagraphics Bookstore...

Carol Hernandez is at it again, posting some amazing historical photos on the Love and Rockets/Hernandez Bros. Facebook page, including the above snapshot of J.R. Williams, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Hernandez, and Michael Dougan leaving their marks on the then-new (1989) Fantagraphics delivery van. Also making guest appearances: Hank Ketcham, Dave Stevens, Paul Westerberg, Glenn Danzig, Vampira and many more. If you're not a Facebook fan of L&R, you are MISSING OUT.

• More French awards news: La Rivière empoisonnée, the French edition of Gilbert Hernandez's Poison River (collected by us in the new volume Beyond Palomar as well as its own older collection), is nominated for the Selection Patrimoine (Heritage Prize) 2009, to be awarded at the Festival International de la Bande Desinée d'Angoulême (caught by Spurge)

• I Wish I Had A Spare $200 Dept: New art for sale from Jim Woodring (going fast!)

• PLAYBACK:stl says Deitch's Pictorama has "a groovy charm" and "a vibe of pure fun"

• For The Patriot-News, Chris Mautner looks at Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes

• Elsewhere (Newsarama), Mautner talks to Ivan Brunetti

• Look, it's Jim Blanchard & J.R. Williams at APE

• Eye on Comics looks at Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum

• On the Inkstuds audio podcast: Josh Simmons

• The Beat reports from a recent NYC event featuring some of our favorite Euro-comics artists

• The Times-Union posts an essay about the mixed-race heritage of George Herriman and its effect on Krazy Kat (via The Daily Cartoonist)

• The Comics Waiting Room Podcast talks about Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (and a half-dozen other recent graphic novels)

• Flickr user "tvsavior" posts this photo of Gilbert Hernandez giving a talk at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival on Saturday

• Great Caesar's Post! recommends Popeye Vol. 3...

• ... and Pol Culture takes a thorough look at Popeye Vol. 2

• The Oregonian reports from the "Comics and Politics" panel that featured Spain Rodriguez, Patrick Rosenkranz, and Alison Bechdel at last weekend's Wordstock festival in Portland, OR

• Look, a groovy mid-'90s Fantagraphics house ad from J.R. Williams

• The Onion A.V. Club Comics Panel looks at Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason

• A Norwegian (I think) ode to Ivan Brunetti

• Four Color Commentary looks at the 45th volume in our Prince Valiant series

• Comics Waiting Room reviews Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum

• Link of the Month and Possibly the Year: "The book seems to have been done tongue in cheek... However I am posting this as serious as I want as many as possible to avoid this time in Earth's history."