• 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.)

• The Boston Globe "Out of Line" blog thinks that Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin belongs on more end-of-year Best-of lists

• Sean T. Collins on the unhinged beauty of I Shall Destroy All the Civlized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks

• Johnny Bacardi puts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 on his Top 10 of 2008 list

• Little Nemo's Kat examines The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger (en Español; Google translation)

• Spurious writes an ode to Ivan Brunetti

• Austin English puts 20 questions to Zak Sally

• Those Fabuleous 50's presents a run of Sunday strips omitted from our collection of Jack Cole's Betsy and Me

• "They'd make great Christmas presents," says The Stranger of the Beasts! books

• ...nurgh... looks back at the Golden Age with the help of Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes

• The Philadelphia Inquirer recommends The Complete Peanuts 1967-1970 box set for holiday gift giving

• Seattlest suggests hitting the adults-only section of our Georgetown store for your holiday shopping

• CuatroTipos looks at the reality-based comics of Joe Sacco (en Español; Google translation)

• Post-It pugilism by Steven Weissman, animated by Chris Diaz

• Drawn! names Ray Fenwick's Hall of Best Knowledge one of their Favourite Comics and Art Books of 2008

• Boing Boing spotlights Paul Di Filippo and Jim Woodring's Cosmocopia (you may remember the release party at our bookstore, where you can still purchase copies)

• Venus Zine falls in love with The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• The Vancouver Courier reviews Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• This much-discussed article by Steven Grant at Comic Book Resources has some nice things to say about Explainers by Jules Feiffer and Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin (and our own Eric Reynolds)

• Sequart's issue-by-issue examination of Love and Rockets Vol. I continues with #37 (link not working at press time, but maybe you'll have better luck)

• The Last Visible Blog reviews Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane (and check the "Other Articles of Interest" for more reviews of our books)

• Cover Browser names Daniel Clowes' Eightball one of "10 Comic Books that Changed the Industry (Or Just Look Darn Cool)"

• Time magazine names Bob Staake's post-Obama-victory New Yorker cover the Top Magazine Cover of 2008

• In The Village Voice, our old pal Everett True, inspired by The Complete Peanuts, imagines Charlie Brown and the gang grown up to become indie rock fans

The 2008 Best-Of lists are rolling in fast and furious:

• Bookmunch goes Fanta-crazy this week with reviews of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw ("graphic novel of the year"), Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes ("dazzling") and Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane ("spirited")

• The Independent counts the Love and Rockets reprints Perla La Loca, Beyond Palomar and Amor Y Cohetes among the best comics of the year

• Critic and commentator Alan David Doane names The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez his Graphic Novel of the Year; Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane is his Debut of the Year; Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes is his Reissue of the Year; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell is tied for Comic Art Book of the Year; and 4 more of our titles are Other 2008 Titles of Note

• New York Magazine names Bottomless Belly Button the #2 Graphic Novel of 2008, saying "Shaw's dysfunctional-family epic is so funny and engrossing we'd expect Oprah to pick it, but for all the graphic frog sex"

• The Globe and Mail recommends Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko for holiday gift-giving

• From Steven Stwalley, here's photos of the "Hot Ink: Comic Art" show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (mmaa.org) that includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski among others

• In this video from Comicology.tv, Mort Walker talks about the history of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (look for our collection of Walker's Sam's Strip early next year)

• Publishers Weekly talks to Lilli Carré about The Lagoon

• PW also presents a 10-page excerpt from Anders Nilsen's soon-to-arrive Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes

• Wall Street Journal book critic and Laura Warholic novelist Alexander Theroux weighs in on The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. III

• The Beat goes digging through back issues of The Comics Journal, finds gold

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 Times' list of recommended graphic novels for Christmas includes Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason, The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott, and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• PLAYBACK:stl looks at Amor Y Cohetes and Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Chris Diaz uploads more photos from APE 2008

• Meathaus has a teaser of a forthcoming animated music video co-created by Dave Cooper

• Sketchbook comics from Tom Kaczynski

• A short Beasts! review

• Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Hensley covered in Post-It notes

• In a video clip from The Late Show embedded on The Huffington Post, David Letterman likens Sarah Palin's vice-presidential campaign to a Zippy the Pinhead cartoon in an interview with Katie Couric

• Pol Culture presents a contrary opinion about Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Top Drawer: 10 Questions gets 10 answers from John Hankiewicz

• 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."

• More APE photos, this time from Robert Goodin

• PLAYBACK:stl looks at Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars

• In The Patriot-News: Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers prompts Chris Mautner to wonder if the comic book pamphlet format is dying

Happy Halloween!

• Diamond's Previews, er, previews Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly

• Pol Culture looks at Bill Schelly's Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert

• Public Radio International's Studio 360 talks to Jessica Abel about the formative influence of Love and Rockets (streaming audio embedded below, or download the MP3)