A preview of Miss Lasko-Gross' new graphic novel, A MESS OF EVERYTHING, is up now at ACT-I-VATE. I recently visited my parents in California and took this book with me to read. I accidentally left it there, and this weekend my mom told me how much she liked it. "Poor Melissa!," she said. Go read the preview and pre-order, already!

Now available for preview and pre-order: A Mess of Everything, the new sequel to Escape from "Special" by Miss Lasko-Gross. Follow Melissa through high school in this collection of intense, honest, funny semiautobiographical tales. This book is scheduled to be in stock in early April and in stores approximately 4 weeks later.

View a photo & video slideshow preview embedded here. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended). And visit the product details page for a downloadable PDF excerpt of the first 21 pages!

We have a whole mess of exclusive short excerpts of new and upcoming books that have gone up on the ICv2.com site recently. They're intended for "industry pros" but there's no reason everyone can't check 'em out:

• Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier (our product page)
• Humbug by Harvey Kurtzman et al. (our product page)
• Unlovable Vol. 1 by Esther Pearl Watson (our product page)
• The Wolverton Bible by Basil Wolverton (our product page)
• A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross (our product page)

A late-nite update to alert you that Miss Lasko-Gross appears today (Saturday Jan. 17) at Cool Stuff Comics & Collectibles at 417 Burmont Rd. in Drexel Hill, PA (just outside of Philly) from 3-5 PM to sign copies of Escape from "Special" and show off the original art from its forthcoming sequel, A Mess of Everything (out this spring).

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?

By Miss Lasko-Gross, Ted Stearn, Leah Hayes, Dash Shaw, Sam Henderson, Jason, Lynda Barry, Michael Kupperman, and Alex Cox. (Click the thumbnails for larger versions.) Fantastic, one and all. I'll get you next time, Mr. Panter.

Miss Lasko-Gross has a new 8-page strip online at SMITH mag. 

Check out Day 0 and Day 1, and then read on for the final day of the MoCCA Art Festival for 2008.

Sunday was a bit mellower than Saturday at the Festival... at least until the now-infamous fire alarm evacuation! Our first signer of the day was Leah Hayes, seen here, seated, with the just-arrived Ted Stearn and Dash Shaw:

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That's what you would have seen if you were among the first attendees to visit our table at this year's MoCCA Art Festival. Check out our "Day 0" recap here, and read on for the full rundown on Day 1 (Saturday, June 7, 2008).

We got to the Puck Building (traditional site for the Festival) early (so very early) on Saturday morning to meet Alex and Mary from Rocketship. This year we arranged to have our books shipped to their store, and they made two trips across the river from Brooklyn to deliver everything to us at the Festival. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Alex and Mary, who were solid-gold superstars, going above and beyond the call of duty and providing us with invaluable assistance the entire weekend (not to mention loaning us a spare spinner rack). If you're in the area, get your butt over there ASAP and have yourself a spending spree -- you'll be giving your comics budget to two of the nicest folks in the business. (Plus, their store is fantastic.)

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