Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "This is too much of an event to ignore: Fantagraphics, Seattle’s eclectic and prolific comics publisher,... is publishing its first volume of manga — comics that may be Japan’s most popular and influential art form. [...] A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is a four-decade anthology of graphic short stories by Moto Hagio, the 'founding mother' and premiere creator of shojo manga... Does Hagio’s work justify the hype? Her visual storytelling and graphic invention, by turns fluid, crisp, and stately, certainly do. ...Moto’s other later [stories] do indeed raise manga to literature." – Eric Scigliano, Seattle Met

• Review: "...[F]ew comics fans should have difficulty getting into A Drunken Dream and Other Stories... The stories in A Drunken Dream range from weird, powerful allegories... to dreamy tales of love and loss... But the best pieces here focus on memories of childhood, of playmates treated cruelly or parents and children misunderstanding each other. [...] Few stories in the entire history of the medium have been more overwhelming than 'Hanshin: Half-God,' a tale of conjoined twins — one haggard, one gorgeous — and their spiteful, symbiotic relationship. It’s a potent metaphor rendered with the intensity of an EC comic. [Grade] A-" – The A.V. Club

• Review: "Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko set the recent standard for how to put together a coffee-table book about a legendary comics artist, and Bell takes on another innovator of the medium with Fire & Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics... Because Everett didn’t have as long or as consistent a career as Ditko, Bell doesn’t subject Everett’s work to the keen analysis he brought to Strange and Stranger. But he makes up for the diminished insight with page after page of Everett’s vivid, varied work, showing how it all emanated from a man who was a lot like his most famous creation: a destructive antihero, always a little angry at the puny humans around him. [Grade] B" – The A.V. Club

• Review: "...The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 14: 1977 - 1978... shows just how much Schulz was all over the map during that time. [...] This is still a worthwhile volume of Complete Peanuts, though; it has a charming introduction by Alec Baldwin, the usual top-quality production of the whole Fantagraphics reprint library, and some fun story arcs..." – The A.V. Club

• Review: "Only a brain incubated in the warm, nourishing goo of Looney Tunes and vintage Disney cartoons could have produced Sammy the Mouse. [...] As always, Sally’s use of silent panels and dynamic perspectives guide readers’ eyes toward nightmarish horizons and grotesque situations... A grimy, metaphysical malaise drips from every line of Sally’s lush yet unwholesome artwork, especially when he’s plundering the iconography of innocence and youth in the service of disorienting discomfort. [Grade] A-" – The A.V. Club

• Review: At What Things Do, Jordan Crane writes "In the new issue of Love and Rockets (New Stories, no.3), Jaime has a story called Browntown. It just might be the best thing he’s ever done. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, it just might be the best comic I’ve ever read. Its construction is durable yet intricate, a bunch of simple parts working together flawlessly. It’s put together like a watch."

• Review: Guttersnipe's Shawn Conner on the "Counterculture Comix" exhibit at Bumbershoot last weekend, with photos by Robyn Hanson: "Curated by Larry Reid of Fantagraphics Books, it was an eye-popping display, even if you were familiar, as I was, with most of the work..."

• Commentary: At Amazon's books blog Omnivoracious, Alex Carr discovers John Stanley via The Best American Comics Criticism and remarks that the book "is a worthwhile resource: a go-to supply of top-notch comics writing..."

• Analysis: Love & Maggie continue their series of detailed, annotated rundowns of their Top 10 Issues of The Comics Journal with the second part of their examination of issue #71

• Reviewer: For The Wall Street Journal, Alexander Theroux reviews Tom McCarthy's new novel C

Here's another recent Jordan Crane cover illustration job, for the 35th issue of a little publication you may have heard of called McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Apparently it's printed with temperature-sensitive color-changing "disappearing ink," leaving us wondering what's revealed by the change. (Thanks again to Jacob Covey for the tip-off.)

Underwood is a new literary audio zine which presents short stories in a 12" vinyl format, a beautiful idea made even more beautiful by Jordan Crane's gatefold artwork for the current edition. Scans and info from Hard Format, link via our own Jacob Covey.

This is a can't miss show if you have the ways & means — Right Thing the Wrong Way: The Story of Highwater Books comes to Fourth Wall Project in Boston in October, featuring Megan Kelso, Jordan Crane, Kurt Wolfgang and other alumni of Tom Devlin's fabled and influential imprint before he joined D&Q. Opening reception's October 1st, 6-9 PM. Old skool. Poster image above by Marc Bell. Someone wanna pick me up the exhibition catalog?

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

• A long-awaited new installment of "Chapter Two: Unraveling" from Jordan Crane at What Things Do

• From Jason, a hand-painted cigar case & matchbox, circa late 1990s, and an unpublished page from 1985

• Some sketches by Émile Bravo 

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea page 129

• Tim Lane presents his updated introduction to Belligerent Piano as it appeared in Smoke Signal

• Speaking of Smoke Signal, here's a panel from Jon Vermilyea's story for an upcoming issue

• Debbie Drechsler catches a couple of hungry squirrels hiding behind a rock

• Another devastatingly sad strip about Lewis from Laura Park 

• Soaring Quackers and Fearless Explorers from Josh Simmons 

• From Renee French: "zombbaby," burnt match squid thing, OMG BABY BUNNY PHOTO

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 37; also the rare color version of the cover of Chrome Fetus #5

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "...I had more fun reading this book than just about any other comic I’ve read so far this year. ... There’s a sort of Hergé-like mechanical perfection to his artwork; not only is it super-clean and super-crisp, but the panel-to-panel consistency is so strong that his characters sometimes don’t look drawn so much as stamped out by some sort of automatic drawing machine. ... Steve and Millennium Boy are funny — sometimes on purpose, sometimes not — and it’s a pleasure to walk around with them. ... I haven’t played an RPG since I was a teenager, but I think I’d play a Dungeon Quest one in a heartbeat." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

• Review: "This amazing, sweeping epic... spans decades of time and hundreds of miles of geography, and it deals with no less than war, fear, religion, trust, memory, violence and the mysterious, barely understood ways in which these broad, vague emotions are used to form communities and society, and/or how they can tear them apart. ... I can’t recommend Temperance highly enough. It’s a book that everyone should read, and then reread." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

• Review: "If the message and method of delivery seem simple, the artwork is anything but. In that regard, Set to Sea is the comics equivalent of good poetry. It’s not what’s being said so much as how beautifully Weing’s saying it." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Las Vegas Weekly

• Review: "Combining the utterly irresistible power of nostalgia and insatiable curiosity with science-fiction, conspiracy theory, urban history, fact and legend, show-biz razzmatazz, supernatural horror, Film Noir and a highly developed sense of the meta-real, [in The Search for Smilin' Ed] Deitch once more weaves an irresistible spell that charms, thrills and disturbs whilst his meticulous drawing holds the reader in a deceptively fluffy, yet inescapable grip." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This! (via Bill Kartalopoulos)

• Review: "Widely acknowledged as the greatest adventure strip ever created, Prince Valiant is also arguably the best comic strip in that medium’s history. However, reprint collections have failed to truly capture the beauty and consummate artistry of Hal Foster’s creation…until now, that is. ...[T]his new Fantagraphics edition goes beyond simply correcting the shortcomings of past reprints — in truth, it is more of a revelation than a mere restoration. ... Ultimately, Prince Valiant is much more than a series of fantastic adventures in some legendary era; rather, it is a depiction of the making of a fully rounded and realized human being. ... Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant is a story to be read and cherished — today, tomorrow, always." – ForeWord Reviews

• Plug: The New Yorker's Sally Law talks to Jordan Crane about his webcomics concern What Things Do

• Analysis: Love & Maggie return to their detailed, annotated rundown of the second chronological issue on their list of the Top 10 Issues of The Comics Journal, #59

• Commentary: Vom Marlowe is the latest to weigh in in The Hooded Utilitarian's critical roundtable on Popeye 

Jordan Crane is a silkscreening fool in the runup to Comic-Con, just having released two new editions, Flutter to Fly and Leave Taken, on his Reddingk site, following the zombie print from a couple of days ago. Gorgeous as always.

Consciousness of Lack is the new silkscreen print from Jordan Crane available at his Reddingk site, and undoubtedly to be for sale at Comic-Con. Nom nom nom!

Johnny Ryan, Jordan Crane and Steven Weissman are among the guests at Indy Euphoria, the awesome-sounding "indy comics/DIY/vinyl toy/lowbrow art/music convention" in Sacramento this coming Sunday, June 27! Jeez that sounds fun.

"To celebrate the release of the new art book, The Art of Jaime Hernandez — The Secrets of Life and Death, Family is pleased to be hosting a signing and conversation with the books principal creators Jaime Hernanadez, Todd Hignite, and Jordan Crane on Tuesday, May 4th at 7pm." More info on the Family blog.