Seems like the Crumbs aren't the only family of talented alternative cartoonists. Jim and Mary Woodring, together with their son Max, all have pieces in the Friends of the Nib "Medieval Thinkers" exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore this Saturday, December 11 — part of the store's festive fourth anniversary celebration.

Of course the Deitch family - father Gene and siblings Simon and Kim — qualify as well. We're thrilled to include an original drawing by Kim Deitch in the exhibition. In addition, the event will mark the debut of the Kim Deitch File, a portfolio published on Zak Sally's La Mano 21 imprint. See you all this Saturday.

We're no longer distributing Mineshaft, but we're happy to report that the essential underground comix zine is still going strong and the new 25th issue, with a cover by Sophie Crumb and featuring Peter Bagge, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch's review of papa Crumb's Genesis, Pat Moriarity and much more (see above), is at the printer and will be available from the publisher soon! If you order or subscribe now you can get $1 off select back issues — whatta deal!

I didn't find any links yesterday, so there was no update (in case you were wondering). Today, however:

• Review: Beyond Race Magazine says that Deitch's Pictorama by the brothers Deitch is "entertaining, as well as a unique way to read comics"

• Review: Sean T. Collins presents his review of Mome Vol. 4 that originally ran in The Comics Journal in 2006

• Review: The Groovy Age of Horror examines the psychology of Fletcher Hanks and I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (link via Sean T. Collins)

• Blurb: Thanks to Mike Lynch for hyping Humbug

• Things to see: Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents a whole bunch of vintage Barry Windsor-Smith art

• Things to see (and buy): A new blog of drawings for sale by Matthias Lehmann

• Things to see (and buy): Johnny Ryan drew a new strip to promote his Angry Youth Comix dolls from Span of Sunset

Just when I thought the storm of year-end critics' lists had subsided, three heavy-hitters and one up-and-coming cartoonist have posted theirs, leading off today's update:

• List: Jeet Heer names his "Best Comics of 2008," including the fraternal one-two punch of Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers and Deitch's Pictorama by the Deitch Brothers

• List: Frank Santoro posts his "Top 9 of '08," with Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 at #3 and Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane at #2

• List: Douglas Wolk lists his favorite book-length comics of 2008, with Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw at #3 and The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez at #1

• List: Tom Kaczynski highlights the comics of fellow Mome-ster Dash Shaw in his look back at the best comics of 2008

• Things to see: 999 posts a short excerpt from Jason's Meow, Baby!

• Things to see: Gary Panter + Black Sabbath + video = win

• 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")

Deitch's Pictorama
By Kim Deitch, Simon Deitch and Seth Deitch

Kim Deitch, creator of the acclaimed Fantagraphics collection Shadowland and the Pantheon graphic novels Alias the Cat and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, has recruited his siblings to produce a unique, all-new "picto-fiction" pocket book. Alternating between heavily illustrated near-comics stories and outright prose pieces, Deitch's Pictorama is a testament to the Deitch family's amazing yarn-spinning abilities!

The book leads off with Kim's lengthy picto-story "The Sunshine Girl," a typically Deitchean tall tale involving bottle cap collectors, drug dealers, family secrets, and the innocents who wind up in the middle of the hullaballoo. Then it's time for Seth's prose short story "Children of Aruf," about a man and his very unusual dog; "Unlikely Hours," a paranoid picto-story about a conspiracy of sentient rats written by Seth and illustrated by Kim; the prose novella "The Golem," once again written by Seth and decorated with a series of superb pencil illustrations by Simon; and finally Kim's autobiographical "The Cop on the Beat, the Man in the Moon and Me." This entire "Deitch treat" is wrapped up with an introduction by legendary Academy Award-winning animator, cartoonist and illustrator and proud papa Gene (Tom Terrific, Terr'ble Thompson, Tom and Jerry) Deitch.

240-page black & white 6" x 8" softcover • $18.99
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The Comics Journal #292
Edited by Michael Dean and Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, executive editor

Gary Groth interviews father and son cartoonists Gene and Kim Deitch. Academy-award-winning Gene Deitch, whose wide-ranging career has spanned 60+ years, talks about doing illustrations for The Record Changer, directing cartoons such as Munro and Krazy Kat, and creating his comic strip Terr’ble Thompson. Underground comics pioneer Kim Deitch, touches on his father’s influence, reminisces about the New York-based scene and outlines the evolution of Waldo the Cat. Plus: The innovative Grant Morrison fills us in on his X-Men run, All Star Superman, the ambitious Seven Soldiers “maxiseries” how he became one of the architects of the current DC Comics universe. Our comics gallery presents an historical essay and highlights from the turn-of-the-19th-century work of Puck cartoonist F. M. Howarth.

200-page b&w/color 7.5" x 9.5" squarebound softcover magazine • $11.99
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Learn all about Gene Deitch 's Terrytoons days, including his reflections on a young Ralph Bakshi ("a minor cel painter, and not a very good one"), over on his site dedicated to "How to Succeed in Animation."

Above is an obscure 1957 CBS promotional photograph of Gene drawing Tom Terrific (or Terr'ble Thompson if you use your imagination) with his young sons Kim and Simon. Wotta family!