• Michael C. Lorah's "Top Eleven: Best of 2008" at Newsarama includes The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez and Deitch's Pictorama by the brothers Deitch

• On Jog's "Twenty 'Hot Ones' from 2008" best-of list: Mome Vol. 12 (#18), Angry Youth Comix #14 by Johnny Ryan (#9), and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga (#7)

• Comic Book Resources' new multi-author blog Robot 6 presents their "favorite comics of 2008," which include Tom Bondurant's choice of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw; Chris Mautner giving Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" by E.C. Segar the top spot; and Tim O'Shea including The Lagoon by Lilli Carré and Daddy's Girl by Debbie Drechsler

• The Oklahoman's "top 10 periodical comic book series of 2008" places "the comics of Kevin Huizenga" at #4

• In their "Bull Tongue" column for Arthur Magazine, Thurston Moore & Byron Coley check out Town of Mirrors by Robert Pollard and declare it "stunning"

• Newsarama talks to Craig Yoe about Boody Rogers and our upcoming Yoe-edited collection of Rogers's work, Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should Be Good" spotlights the comics of Michael "Tales Designed to Thrizzle" Kupperman

• LIT MOB looks at The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• The Northwest Science Fiction Society takes note of Beasts! Book 2

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents part 2 of their 3-part interview with Bob Fingerman

• Douglas Wolk has started sharing pages from his convention sketchbook; here's Roger Langridge

• Looking for our books in Tokyo? When Comic Books Ruled the Earth recommends Tower Records in Shibuya

• According to Boing Boing, "snoopy" is the 192nd worst password of all time (beating out "buddy" but just behind "chester")

• Comic Book Resources concludes their "Best 100 Comics of 2008" countdown: Part III ranks Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga at #51 and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw at #41; Part V has Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers at #20

• The KEXP blog lists Town of Mirrors by Robert Pollard as one of "2008's Best Books About Popular Music"

• Derik Badman's "Best Comics of 2008" list includes Bottomless Belly Button as its "Breaking Through in All Sorts of Ways pick"

• In their "Nexus Graphica" column for The SF Site, Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams include the following titles on their "top ten graphic novel or comics-related publications lists": The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, and Rebel Visions by Patrick Rosenkranz (Mark's #1)

• J. Caleb Mozzocco's top-ten list of "The Best Comics of 2008" includes Bottomless Belly Button and Jason's The Last Musketeer, with Pocket Full of Rain on the long list

• The Village Voice "Pulp Fictions" column names Bottomless Belly Button and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes two of "The Best of 2008"

• The OC Weekly counts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 among "The Year's Best Graphic Books and Novels"

• The Daily Cross Hatch reviews The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• At Comic Book Resources, Steven Grant looks at Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly (about midway through the column)

• Entertainment Weekly ranks Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw #5 on their "Best Fiction of 2008" list

• The Oklahoman's Nerdage blog names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw and The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez two of the top ten of "2008's best graphic novels"

• comiXology's "Top Ten Comics of 2008" includes Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman (#8), Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw (#3) and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga (#1)

• Newsarama's "Top 5: Best Archival Comics, 2008" includes Jules Feiffer's Explainers (#3) and E.C. Segar's Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" (#2)

• The Synesthetic Fugue Incident looks at Explainers

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents the first of a three-part interview with Bob Fingerman

• Now Read This! loves Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• Mr. Thirsty delves into Blood of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez (also collected in Human Diastrophism)

• USA TODAY Pop Candy names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw the top comic of 2008, with The Lagoon by Lilli Carré at #6

• Rob Clough has a typically thoughtful review of The Lagoon

• The Miami Herald casts a favorable eye on Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell and Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly

• Tim O'Shea interviews Ivan Brunetti

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents part 2 of their interview with Kevin Huizenga

• A last-minute Christmas gift from Ellen Forney: free sexy-elf desktop wallpaper!

• I Love Rob Liefeld reviews The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should Be Good" places Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga at the #5 and #4 positions, respectively, on their "Top Ten Comics of 2008"

• They also mention Ellen Forney and Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly on a list of "Top Ten Moments of Comic-Related Happiness in 2008"

• Steven Stwalley features Tom Kaczynski and praises Mome

• Bram Meehan puts this year's two major Bill Mauldin releases, our collection Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Todd DePastino's biography A Life Up Front, in a shared #10 position on his "Top Ten Comics of 2008" (via TCR)

• The Oklahoman, which published Mauldin's early cartoons, looks at Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• The A.V. Club gives straight As (two As and an A-) to The Compete Peanuts 1969-1970 by Charles M. Schulz, Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes, and Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• This 2005 interview with Charles Burns and Chris Ware was found and blogged by Paul Hornschemeier

• Inside baseball: in a must-read slice of industry history from the mid-1980s, former Fantagraphics staffer Dave Olbrich comes clean about the debacle of the Jack Kirby Awards. Be sure to check the comments for official reaction from Kim Thompson

• Cartoon Brew recommends Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn

• Comics - History & Price Guides takes note of Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1932 by George Herriman

• Stella Matutina says Castle Waiting by Linda Medley would "make a great present for the fairy tale-loving feminist in your life"

• Rob Clough reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• Jim Hanley's Universe recommends Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian as a Staff Pick

• The Seattle Times includes Beasts! Book 1 and Book 2 in their listing of new local book offerings

An explosion of end-of-year lists:

• USA TODAY Pop Candy places Lilli Carré at #58 on the list of "Top 100 People of 2008" 

• Book By Its Cover includes Beasts! Book 2 in their Top 10 of 2008

• Jeff Smith says Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" by E.C. Segar was a favorite of 2008

• Robert Boyd names Jules Feiffer's Explainers and the Hernandez Brothers' Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 two of "The Best Comics of 2008"

• Brian Nicholson places Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw at the top of his list of Best Comics for the year, with Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga not far behind

• Dustin Harbin's top 10 "Best Comics of 2008" has Bottomless Belly Button at #2, Popeye Vol. 3 at #4, and Ganges #2 at #7

• Johnny Bacardi puts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 on his "2008 Personal 10 Best in Comics" list (previously noted, but I forgot the link)

• Mindless Ones names I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks a "Top Comic of 2008" (yes, it came out in 2007 but I think they're UK)

• At comiXology, Tucker Stone unveils #30-11 of his "Best Comics of 2008," with Mome Vol. 12, Jessica Farm Vol. 1 by Josh Simmons, Angry Youth Comix Vol. II #14 by Johnny Ryan, and Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 making the list

• GraphicNovelReporter names Bottomless Belly Button one of their "Best Graphic Novels of 2008"

• On the Forbidden Planet International blog, Mike Carey names Things Just Get Away from You by Walt Holcombe ("a strange little masterpiece") and Jessica Farm Vol. 1 ("willfully perverse") as two of his three favorite comics of the year

(Hat tip to Largehearted Boy's diligent compilation of "Best of 2008" Book Lists for a few of these links.)

• USA TODAY Pop Candy interviews Dash Shaw, who's named #81 of the "Top 100 People of 2008"

• The Daily Cross Hatch talks Glenn Ganges with Kevin Huizenga

• Quick Stop Entertainment leads off their last Weekend Shopping Guide with Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!"

• We weren't the only ones who had a jam-packed art opening last Saturday: spot Johnny Ryan, Tim Hensley, Jordan Crane and Steven Weissman in this video from the opening of the Post-It show at Giant Robot LA

Holy figs, this daily link post looks like one of my weekly roundups of old:

• PopMatters takes a quick look at Robert Pollard's Town of Mirrors

• PopMatters again, on Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• Iconoctlán examines The Comics Journal #293 (en Español; Google translation)

• The Austin American-Statesman's lengthy roundup of coffee-table book holiday recommendations includes Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• NuVoid wraps up the 2008 output of Robert Pollard, including Town of Mirrors

• Did you know that if you buy the Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943 (Vol. 3) DVD set you also get an exclusive Popeye mini-comic we produced with a story from our upcoming Popeye Vol. 4 collection? Booksteve noticed

• Chris Barat reviews Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!"

• Forward talks to Miss Lasko-Gross for a profile of Jewish women cartoonists

• The North Adams Transcript looks at Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch includes Abandoned Cars, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, and Jules Feiffer's Explainers on its list of "Best Books of 2008: Graphic Literature"

• Beard reviews Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Tropismes (l'Appartement) is yet another French site looking at Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw (Google translation)

• Terri Torres is excited for the new issue of Linda Medley's Castle Waiting

• On the USA TODAY Pop Candy blog, Whitney Matheson declares Lilli Carré's The Lagoon is the "Best book [she] read" last week

• Cartoonist Mark Kaufman is looking forward to our Humbug collection

• Dustin Harbin's top 10 "Best Comics of 2008" includes Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga, Popeye Vol. 3, and Bottomless Belly Button

• Here's video from Pat Moriarity's art opening at 108 Occidental Gallery in Seattle, with music from Pat and his son Jack

• Bill Willingham looks back at Coventry

• Wayno talks about contributing to our forthcoming collection of 1980s "New Wave" minicomics

• On the Comics Comics blog, Mark Newgarden & Paul Karasik need your help in dating an Ernie Bushmiller Nancy strip

• Dan Zettwoch discusses his contribution to Beasts! Book 2

• The Dallas Morning News reports on an exhibit of Bill Mauldin cartoons at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City

• Mark Mattson compares our annual catalog favorably to the Sears Wish Book -- did you get yours?

• The Daily Vanguard gives Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga the #1 spot on its Top 10 Graphic Novels and Comics of 2008, a list which also includes Mome Vol. 12, The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez, and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• The Daily Cross Hatch calls Beasts! Book 2 "downright stunning"

• Ward Six looks at The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring

• USA TODAY Pop Candy is excited about the Brian K. Vaughn interview in The Comics Journal #295

• There's a great illustration by Max in this New York Times article about the future of the publishing industry that we're all reading with great interest

• New Robert Crumb comics (via everywhere)

Got some extra links from Eric today:

• The Village Voice looks at Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum and The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Dr. K calls Petey & Pussy "vile and wrong" in the nicest way possible

• CMJ and the Philadelphia City Paper both feature Town of Mirrors by Robert Pollard

• The Gosh! Comics Blog blurbs Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1934 and 1935-1944

• Dark Worlds enjoys our collections of Walt Kelly's Our Gang

• Rip Post presents a bunch of Dave Cooper's recent artwork

• At Comicon.com, Jennifer M. Contino interviews Kevin Huizenga