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

• The New Yorker's current Caption Contest cartoon is by Gahan Wilson

• Drew Friedman's Spitzer-take for The New York Observer

• It's your all-new weekly installment of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• This week's clammy Maakies from Tony Millionaire

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents a guest strip from Noah Van Sciver

• This week's "I, Anonymous" and some fighter jets by Steven Weissman

• A page from a comic-in-progress by John Hankiewicz

• Richard Sala presents the original art for the endpapers of his first book Hypnotic Tales — a larger version is linked here

• It's this week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop and it features the logo for his upcoming series from Fantagraphics

• Quackers and Randy Gander funny business from Josh Simmons & co.

• This guy, plus a trap and a kung fu fly (?) from Renee French

• Renee also makes her first guest appearance at the always-great Trubble Club (where Laura Park & Lilli Carré are also known to hang out)

• Video: "How to Draw Judge Martin Feldman" by Steve Brodner

• Anders Nilsen presents photos of his thesis installation from 1996

• Two new batches of drawings from Derek Van Gieson

• A pair of recent illustrations for the Globe & Mail by Ray Fenwick

• Laura Park's recipe for kimchi cream cheese

Clips & strips from the last few days — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Michael Kupperman's cover art for the book Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus? by A.G. Pasquella

• Gilbert Hernandez fanzine art from 1981 as unearthed by Frank Santoro at Comics Comics

• ComicsAlliance presents selections from the 1991 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special

• From Jim Woodring, Frank, Fran and the skullfruit

• Leon explores the mystery of Poffo's Hat in this Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga

• Another 1975 flashback from Bob Fingerman

• This week's "I, Anonymous" and one two three four Post-It Show previews from Steven Weissman

• New artwork for sale, Portugal tour diary and more in Dame Darcy 's latest blog update

• On the Jim Flora Art Blog, a circa 1940 woodcut depicting fishing in New Orleans (guess those days are over, thanks BP) and a commemoration of Pete Jolly's birthday

• Recent nature sketches by Debbie Drechsler: Narrowleaf onion, ground squirrels, a blue-bellied lizard, and Ithuriel's spear

• Four new screenprints by Lilli Carré — these and other products of her residency at Spudnik Press will be on display this Thursday, June 10, 2010, 6-7:30pm: more info here

• Several recent sketches by Mark Kalesniko

• It's your all-new weekly installment of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• I believe this is last week's Maakies by Tony Millionaire

• Sergio Ponchione contributed this illustrated recipe to an anarchist cookbook, it seems (and also drew Linda Lovelace)

• Speaking of illustrated recipes, here's one from Laura Park

• It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop — another classic

• From Josh Simmons & co., the latest Quackers & Randy Gander hijinks 

• From Renee French, this thing, this guy, this thing, this photo, this thing, and this guy

• Steve Brodner takes on the Gulf oil disaster in this segment from PBS's Need to Know, with commentary and two more disaster-related sketches on his blog

• Anders Nilsen posts photos of his recent "button installation" for Ogilvy & Mather's lobby, along with time-lapse video of its creation

• Page 27 of Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

• Derek Van Gieson presents "The Cycle of Love"

• From Ray Fenwick, a comics illustration for an article in the Globe and Mail

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources:

• The conclusion of Steven Weissman's "This Already Happened" is up at What Things Do — you gotta go back and read the whole thing

• This week's "Belligerent Piano" by Tim Lane is up

• Gonna try to remember to send you to Tony Millionaire's new Maakies strip each week from now on

• OLMH is a new lithograph from John Hankiewicz

• Floating Moats is a new abstract minicomic/art zine from our own Tony Remple, available at Profanity Hill

• Nobody draws the mysterious object quite like Renee French

• Two recent illo jobs by Ray Fenwick

A quick Online Commentary & Diversions update to close out the week:

• List: Popmatters names Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box one of The Best of Books 2009: Non-Fiction: "This awesome picture book... [is] filled with a delightfully odd array of vintage video covers... VHS cassettes may be treated like toxic waste in the age of the Blu-ray, but Portable Grindhouse offers that micro minority who still remain faithful to their trusty VCR a long overdue reprieve." – Ronald Hart

• Review: "Half the fun of [The Troublemakers] is trying to figure out just who is getting conned the worst? I zipped through this fun read, filled with backstabbing, double-crosses, and the spectacular art of Gilbert Hernandez. There is enough sex, violence, and treachery for any fan of pulp fiction. ... This offshoot of the Love and Rockets series is too much fun to miss." – Joseph Jay Franco, Bookrastination

• Plug: The Geeks of Doom flip through January's issue of Previews: "The next item I’ll definitely be picking up is It Was the War in the Trenches [by Jacques Tardi] from Fantagraphics. You know how I said before that I’m a fan of military history; well this book will scratch that same itch. This book takes a look at World War I from the eyes of the soldiers in the trenches. I’m very excited to read this one."

• Profile: Meathaus spotlights the work of Ray Fenwick

• Things to see: This is cute, though I'm not sure whether Sparky would approve (via Boing Boing)

Go look: New Ray Fenwick paintings!

Also, go HERE for a sneak peak at Ray's next book, MASCOTS, coming later this year from Fantagraphics. I bet you didn't know about that. You did? Well, did you also know that Ray's in a band? I'll stump you yet.

Starting with today's Online Commentary & Diversions, some minor formatting changes to hopefully make it easier to scan all that text:

• Review: "Published in the oversize Sunday page format ala the Fantagraphics’ Popeye collection (also, brilliant), Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 collects the earliest of Foster’s tales of the exiled Prince of Thule. ... The colors are warm and vibrant, and the line art pristine. The stories themselves are a delight. ... The art is consistently stunning... each page is spectacular to behold. ... The strips in Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 are merely the first installment of a massive, groundbreaking, and thoroughly exciting adventure saga that was better than nearly anything during its time, and remains better than nearly anything on the shelves today." – Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Plug: On Twitter, The Believer calls Dash Shaw's animated IFC.com web series The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. "eye-meltingly lovely"

• Plug: "Fantagraphics is so cool. If I won the lottery I’d buy a copy of everything they stock and build a library to house it all." Thanks, Anika in London!

• Things to see: Comic Book Resources presents a hilarious one-off Peter Bagge strip from Neat Stuff #1 as part of their "Year of Cool Comic Book Moments"

• Things to see: Comicrazys presents a bunch of classic Don Flowers strips (via Mike Lynch)

• Things to see: Sean T. Collins posts a bunch of updates to his awesome David Bowie sketchbook, starting with Jon Vermilyea

• Things to see & buy: Wow, this etching by John Hankiewicz is really something (having done some etchings myself, I know a lot of work went into it), and also for sale

• Things to see & buy: How'd you like a refillable glass water bottle with graphics designed by Ray Fenwick (or one of two other artists)? Faucet Face can make it happen (via Drawn)

• Real estate: If you have $2.9 million, you could own a house that Charles M. Schulz lived in in the 1970s, reports the San Francisco Chronicle (via Comix 411, who breaks the asking price down to 58,000  Complete Peanuts box sets)

This is "Twelve Stories," Ray Fenwick's new letterpress print for Tiny Showcase. Super nice.

Above, Ray Fenwick's contribution to the latest edition of Cloudy Collection limited-edition letterpress art prints, available here.

Online Commentary & Diversions

• Analysis: "For me, Tom [Kaczynski]'s work is an oasis in the desert... Tom K builds comics that could be likened to a brick house. These are solid comics." - Frank Santoro, Comics Comics

• List: I haven't heard of pop group 3OH!3 before, but their frontman Sean Foreman has pretty good taste in comics going by this Top 10 list he gave to The AOL Radio Blog: Black Hole, Bottomless Belly Button, Monster Parade, Epileptic, Jimmy Corrigan...

• Review: "For my money, [Joe] Daly is hilarious, with an ear for great dialog, a nice feel for the way characters and convertibles glide across the landscape of the comic page, and a zest for uniquely convoluted plots [in The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book]."- Steve Duin, The Oregonian

• Review: "Previous assemblages of [Prince] Valiant being out of print, Fantagraphics, a leader in the field, has stepped forward with gloriously restored art reproduced in generous dimensions and abetted by the essays of experts. This initial volume... demonstrates just why Valiant continues to burn so brightly... Simultaneously nostalgic and eternal, Hal Foster's populist masterwork deserves this accessible enshrinement." - Paul DiFilippo, The Barnes & Noble Review

• Review: "I dont think I’ve ever read anything like Low Moon by Jason and I mean that in a good way... Low Moon has a brilliant almost tightrope deadpan mix of sad and funny... Jason is capable of stories with heart like no other; particularly stories with an aura of heartrending and heartbreak. Low Moon might be the second most melancholy book that I’ve read over the past year... Low Moon by Jason continues to push the medium forward and confound readers expectations with brilliant stories that defy categorization." - Brian Lindenmuth, BSCreview

• Profile: La Perse looks at the "disturbing... beautiful" comics of Dave Cooper (Google translation)

• Plug: Cartoon Brew recommends The Comics Journal #299 for the reprint of Myron Waldman's Eve, "a rare treat for Fleischer Studio fans - or anyone interested in clever, cartoon story-telling."

• Plug: "[Abstract Comics is] more proof that comics are truly an art form. They can be just as weird, surreal, absurd, artistic, expressive and transcendent as any other medium." - Corey Blake

• Plug: At Arts Journal, Regina Hackett blurbs the "Comics Savants" exhibit at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery: "Some of these people are the best of the best."

• Things to see: Ray Fenwick attends Dweebo's School of Art (a day-long collaborative drawing performance); plus further adventures of Dweebo & Pupil

We Are the Friction is a very rad-sounding short fiction/illustration book/exhibit project from Sing Statistics which features artwork from Ray Fenwick (above) and a mess of other great contributors. Photos from exhibit host Analogue Books in Edinburgh.