The new issue of STOP SMILING magazine features a cover interview with R. Crumb. As one might expect from a major Crumb interview, it's a must read.

Drew Friedman captures a watershed moment in comics history. Get the whole story on this piece on Drew's Drawger blog. Damn, I need to subscribe to that.

• Things to see: Happy Friday the 13th from the Jim Flora Blog

• Review: Comics Waiting Room has the first word on Connective Tissue by Bob Fingerman (coming later this Spring), calling it "perversely hysterical"

• Review: PLAYBACK:stl says Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman "brings more of the crazy"

• Interview: du9 talks Bottomless Belly Button and Bodyworld with Dash Shaw; Belgian site XeroXed reprints the interview (in French) with some additional information

• List: In the holiday spirit, the UCD Advocate's rundown of "Cartoon Sex" names Charles Burns's Black Hole "Creepiest," Robert & Aline Crumb's Self Loathing Comics "Kinkiest," and The Girl from HOPPERS by Jaime Hernandez "Most Realistic"

• Things to see: Two things from Tim Hensley

• Social networking: If you're on the Twitter, you can follow cartoonists Paul Hornschemeier and Mack White; meanwhile, we just got our 1,000th Twitter follower, who appears to be a fictional albatross named Fredrik Lotsie (and you could be our 1,014th)

I'm not usually prone to the doom-y flight of fancy, but my first thought upon seeing the photo above was: thank goodness a flaming meteor didn't hit that spot at that moment. L to R: Crumb, Ware, Clowes, Tomine, Buenaventura. Sauve, France, Jan. 27, 2009. Alvin Buenaventura has uploaded many more incredible photos such as above and below, from Sauve and Angoulême, to Flickr. Look for a guest appearance by our very own Jason T. Miles, who promises to post his own Angoulême pics soon.

• 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)

• Dash Shaw and Tony Millionaire are amongst the the official selections from which the the Festival International de la BD Angouleme main prizes will be drawn from at January's festival. That is very cool.

• Joey Anuff has justified the Internet's existence.

• Charles Crumb, who passed away 14 years ago, is gone but not forgotten. 

• Rudy Ray Moore is not so far removed from the realm of this blog that it would be inappropriate to lament his passing here. R.I.P., R.R.M. A tip of the fur bucket to Rick Altergott and Jim Blanchard, who first introduced me to Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-In-Law.

• Dennis the Menace cartoonist Marcus Hamilton is a thankful man. 

• Bob Levin's blog is always worth reading. 

Patrick Rosenkranz, comix historian and the author of the comprehensive tome Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975, will give a lecture about R. Crumb's work and the trangressive movement that it helped define, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia next Wednesday, Sept. 17. The lecture is in conjunction with "R. Crumb's Underground," which opened last Friday and continues through Dec. 7 at the Institute of Contemporary Art (118 South 36th Street, Philadelphia) after previous stints in Seattle and California.

Rosenkranz will also appear at Robin's Bookstore in Center City at noon on Sept. 17th.

We've got a new printing of this perennial favorite book in stock now. Read more info and order here; click here for a preview look.

Here's another multimedia preview of a recent release: the new printing of The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 14: The Early '80s & Weirdo Magazine. (Actually, shhh, the video and photos are of a copy of the previous edition... see if you can catch me covering up the old cover price with my thumb!) Click here if it doesn't appear above.

We've got some teasers of upcoming releases that we'll be unleashing next week, so watch this space...