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

• Drew Friedman strikes straight to the heart of the zeitgeist in his new cover illo for The Nation

• Tim Hensley takes you through his process for creating the cover lettering for D&Q's new Tatsumi book

• This week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman

• This week's Maakies from Tony Millionaire

• We've featured this Robert Goodin piece before but it's up on the Covered blog today

• At Three Men in a Tub, Ted Dawson presents the original art for a 1933 Popeye vs. Bluto Thimble Theatre strip (published in Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!"; via The Comics Reporter )

• Celebrities is a new fine art print available from Jim Flora Art

• More preliminary sketches from Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Ghost World feels like a really apt bit of social history to me now, rather than a piercing look at real life.  I believe it, but I believe it happened, not that it happens, at least not quite this way, at the age shown here. But, what is timeless is the theme that crops up towards the end: the unsettling feeling one gets when contemplating the lurch into adulthood." – Christopher King, Timmy's House of Sprinkles

• Plugs: The bloggers at Comics And... Other Imaginary Tales comment on our offerings in the current issue of Previews, including Four Color Fear ("This will be awesome!"), Grotesque #4 ("This is a great story with great art and well worth the money"), and Wally Gropius ("The dichotomy between the clean and wholesome lines and the dirtyness of the story is what's pulling me in.")

• Profile: Christina Whiting of the Homer News reports on Jim Woodring's current residency at the Bunnell Street Arts Center: "The Bunnell gallery space has been transformed into an exhibition of Woodring's art and into a working studio. His work table is covered with pads of paper, bottles of ink, quill pens and unfinished drawings — basic tools of his trade. ... Throughout the month, Woodring also has been working on a 100-page graphic novel, which he plans to publish. The first 20 pages are currently displayed in the gallery exhibit area, and he is adding a new page to the wall every couple of days. 'I'll likely create ten new pages while I'm here,' Woodring said."

• Interview: At The Comics Journal, Alex Dueben talks to Ho Che Anderson about his new book Sand & Fury: "I’ve always been highly, highly influenced by movies, as much if not more so than comics. There were certainly comic book influences on S&F, like Richard Sala’s work and also Richard Corben whom I’m a big fan of, and even a little Jason Lutes though it’d be difficult to see. But it’s true that the majority of the influences were cinematic, particularly Dario Argento and David Lynch."

• Interview: Bob Fingerman (right) & comedian Marc Maron (left) chat it up on Marc's WTF podcast

For your viewing and clicking pleasure:

• What better way to start things off than with a full dozen sketchbook pages by Jim Woodring? Put down some plastic to collect your melted brain

• This is just one of three adorable self-portraits by Tim Hensley

• More wackiness from Derek Van Gieson

Have a look, have a click:

• Johnny Ryan's latest comic for Vice almost seems like it could be a Prison Pit prequel

• Of Renee French's daily drawings, this was an easy one to choose to feature after it thoroughly heebied my jeebies

• Steve Brodner illustrates some recent news items that would have Orwell spinning in his grave — and Orwell spinning in his grave for good measure

• A bit of Ted May fan art by Kevin Huizenga

• Dame Darcy is having another print sale/painting raffle (that's the painting above; the print is different), and also taking commissions for wedding invitations — all this and more on her latest blog update

• A 1946 illustration by Jim Flora

• Sunday's New York Times featured 4 illustrations by Lilli Carré (via her blog)

• Hey Mike Sterling & Nat Gertler, can we use this image in all of our advertisements forever and ever?

• Page 12 of Hans Rickheit 's Ectopiary

• Speaking of Hans, he painted a couple of murals in his old house

• More adventures with Alfred Hitchcock by Tim Hensley: Torn Curtain, Topaz, The Man Who Knew Too Much

• More cats-n-Proverbs from Steven Weissman

• Happy New Year 2009 from Gabrielle Bell

• A "Thing to hear": Tim Lane presents the first of the pseudo-"radio dramas" produced to accompany his next book, Folktales

Here's something to keep an eye on: John Orlow has a series of video interviews with the likes of Tim Hensley, John Pham & Sammy Harkham, Lisa Hanawalt, and Paul Hornschemeier (above), who tipped us off to their existence via his blog. They're posted on the Royal Jelly blog and in high res on Orlow's Vimeo page. Stay tuned for future installments to see if he gets out of the H's.

Looky (and clicky for better lookies):

• Newave! contributor Molly Kiely poses for a self-portrait with the book

• These and more sketchbook wishbones by John Hankiewicz

• The Skittish Horse by Jim Flora

• An unpublished commissioned portrait of Johnny Cash by Jim Blanchard

• What's this, new Fight or Run art from Kevin Huizenga? (click for full image)

• Hans Rickheit 's Ectopiary, page 10 (plus more on his blog)

• Ooh, Tim Hensley does Hitchcock: Frenzy (above), Marnie, Lifeboat

• A 2009 diary strip from Gabrielle Bell

This looks like a great show: 

FUNNY (not funny)
Recent Comic Art Exhibiting Signs of Black Humor
Curated by Ryan Standfest

January 22 - February 26, 2010
Reception: Friday, January 22 6-9pm

The University of Michigan Work : Detroit Gallery
3663 Woodward / Suite 150
Detroit, MI 48230

Participating Artists:
Ivan Brunetti
Chris Cilla
Sue Coe
Lisa Hanawalt
Glenn Head
Tim Hensley
Ian Huebert
Ben Katchor
Michael Kupperman
Mats!?
Daniel Maw
Taylor McKimens
Travis Millard
Tom Neely
Mark Newgarden
David Paleo
Jonathon Rosen
David Sandlin
Rob Sato
Jon Vermilyea

The "FUNNY (not funny)" exhibition seeks to elicit uncomfortable laughter in the realm of black humor-a place where the serious and the taboo are fodder for comic provocation. Artists in numerous media have long sought to overturn convention and challenge what is funny with what is not as a means of producing humor out of the unlikeliest of situations. Work by the twenty artists on view in "FUNNY (not funny)" demonstrates that cartooning is keeping the tradition of black humor alive and flourishing. The very form of the comics page itself is as relevant a vehicle as ever, freed from so many of the commercial restrictions placed on other art forms, to effectively deliver potent images and narratives that carry with them a very immediate and accurate measure of the absurdity of our age.

Unused Daniel Clowes artwork for Victor Banana's Split album, circa 1989 — see this and much more (cassette J-card!) at Blog Flume courtesy of Tim Hensley.

A Tim Hensley crime comic? Somebody pinch me! Actually this is from The Comics Journal Special Edition, Winter 2004, newly reformatted and colored, for purposes unknown. Read the whole thing at Blog Flume. So great.