• This strip by Stan Sakai showing himself interviewing his creation Usagi Yojimbo is so damn cute I'm sharing it even though it was posted on the blog of our rival publisher Dark Horse. Heck, rival schmival, buy Usagi no matter who puts it out! It's Usagi!

• Happy Presidents Day from our own Jason T. Miles

• A glimpse at her story in Mome Vol. 21 from Lilli Carré

• Pick up the new issue of Bitch magazine for a one page comic about Lucy Parsons by Laura Park

• A mess of collaborative drawings by Andrice Arp and friends

• At Covered, it's Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius done Action Comics #1-style by Jeffrey Meyer

And more Things to See from the past week:

• A new illustration from Matthias Lehmann at his Bloc-Notes blog

• Strips, illustrations and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Landscapes in airbrush and pen from Frank Santoro

• Recent timely sketches & illustrations by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• More artwork from Mark Kalesniko's new graphic novel Freeway at his blog — dang a lot of work went into that book

• A page from a Kevin Huizenga "Focus" book at his New Construction blog

• Noah Van Sciver has a Bad Dream and translates a ghost story to video

• New sketches & strips by Laura Park

• The latest from Renee French

• The final batch of sketches from the "21" sketchbook at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Sketches, portraits, & updates from Steve Brodner

• Gipi still illustrates for Internazionale

• A nattily dressed forlorn monstrosity and a portrait of collaborator Shaun Partridge by Josh Simmons

• Daily drawings from Dash Shaw at The Ruined Cast blog

• Recent sketches by Tom Kaczynski at his Transatlantis blog

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Mome Vol. 21 - Winter 2011
by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

112-page full-color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-394-1

Previews & Ordering Info

Our acclaimed art-comics anthology forges into its 6th year with another diverse and wonderful volume full of returning favorites and a few surprises.

On the cover, a detail from Sara Edward-Corbett's haunting, Gorey-esque tale of nocturnally animate objects. Also in this issue: Steven "Ribs" Weissman's freewheeling, sometimes-satirical, sometimes-deeply-weird webcomic "Barack Hussein Obama" (starring the President of the United States and his associates) makes its print debut; Sergio Ponchione provides another full-color prequel story to his acclaimed series Grotesque (translated from its appearance in Italy's Linus magazine); Josh Simmons is back with more "White Rhinoceros" and one of his unparalleled standalone horror stories; Nate Neal takes us back to the world of his graphic novel The Sanctuary; and we welcome Nick Thorburn, cartoonist and frontman of the acclaimed indie bands Unicorns and Islands.

All this plus: a one-pager from Dash Shaw; a blackly comic fable from Jon Adams; a typically trenchant strip from Tom Kaczynski; new chapters of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man," Derek Van Gieson's "Devil Doll," and Kurt Wolfgang's "Nothing Eve" serials; a dreamlike tale from Lilli Carré; and more autobiographical vignettes by Nicolas Mahler.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Like WWI itself, it's difficult to summarize It Was the War of the Trenches — each moment and story is precise and poignant and devastating, and they add up to far more than the sum of their parts, but they add up as a mosaic does, with each shard forming a point of color that only makes sense from a distant perspective. [...] Tardi is one of the giants of world comics, and this is one of his strongest works, a rare combination of ability, ambition, and subject. ...It Was the War of the Trenches is immediate and moving and deeply involving from page to page, showing once again the power that comics has to both illuminate dark corners of the world and to turn them into a compelling narrative accessible to nearly everyone." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Feature: At The SF Site: Nexus Graphica, Rick Klaw dubs Jacques Tardi "the Martin Scorsese of European comics" and runs down his reactions to all of our recent English reprints of Tardi's work: "Before my discovery of the French artist Jacques Tardi, how did I enjoy comics?"

• Interview (Audio): Guests Jean Schulz, Nat Gertler (The Peanuts Collection) and Kevin Fagan (Drabble) discuss the legacy of Charles M. Schulz on yesterday's episode of Southern California Public Radio's AirTalk (via Spurge)

• Interview (Audio): Tom Kaczynski is the featured guest on the new episode of The Comix Claptrap podcast

• Coming Attractions: Publishers Weekly spotlights a half dozen of our upcoming releases in their "New Graphic Novels Coming in 2011" feature: 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago; Celluloid by Dave McKean; Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring; Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: A Career Retrospective; Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson; and Wandering Son: Book 1 by Shimura Takako

• Jason draws R. Crumb and other memories of Angoulême 2000, plus more sketches, illustrations and film reviews at his Cats Without Dogs blog

• Dash Shaw 's new zine for this year's Angoulême Festival

• Betty Boop x Eraserhead by D.J. Bryant

• After a couple of very well-received mainstream comics efforts, Roger Langridge is back in the minicomics game

• Another panel from the concluding chapter of Derek Van Gieson's Mome serial

• Tom Kaczynski's lovely tribute to the late Trish Keenan from one of my top-20 favorite bands, Broadcast

And more Things to See from the past week:

• Steven Weissman's latest "I, Anonymous" spot on his Chewing Gum in Church blog

• Sketches by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog

• More artwork from Mark Kalesniko's forthcoming graphic novel Freeway at his blog

• More great sketches at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog

• Drawings, sketches, photos from Renee French

• A Joe Kimball 1998 "artyfact"

• A new batch of sketches by Eleanor Davis at her We Be Ouija blog

Mome Vol. 21 - Winter 2011
by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds

112-page full-color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-394-1

Ships in: February 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Our acclaimed art-comics anthology forges into its 6th year with another diverse and wonderful volume full of returning favorites and a few surprises.

On the cover, a detail from Sara Edward-Corbett's haunting, Gorey-esque tale of nocturnally animate objects. Also in this issue: Steven "Ribs" Weissman's freewheeling, sometimes-satirical, sometimes-deeply-weird webcomic "Barack Hussein Obama" (starring the President of the United States and his associates) makes its print debut; Sergio Ponchione provides another full-color prequel story to his acclaimed series Grotesque (translated from its appearance in Italy's Linus magazine); Josh Simmons is back with more "White Rhinoceros" and one of his unparalleled standalone horror stories; Nate Neal takes us back to the world of his graphic novel The Sanctuary; and we welcome Nick Thorburn, cartoonist and frontman of the acclaimed indie bands Unicorns and Islands.

All this plus: a one-pager from Dash Shaw; a blackly comic fable from Jon Adams; a typically trenchant strip from Tom Kaczynski; new chapters of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man," Derek Van Gieson's "Devil Doll," and Kurt Wolfgang's "Nothing Eve" serials; a dreamlike tale from Lilli Carré; and more autobiographical vignettes by Nicolas Mahler.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 15-page PDF excerpt (2.4 MB) with pages from every contributor.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Periodic clips & strips, just under the wire (for the Pacific time zone anyway) — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• From Wilfred Santiago, a cartoon drawn for our 30th anniversary back in 2006

• A glimpse of Ben Catmull's current work in progress

• From Jason: A 1981 cartoon; a couple of cover illustrations; a Mjau Mjau back cover painting; and I think "T.W." is Tom Waits

• Steven Weissman's Truman Capote strip re-redux

• Richard Sala presents selections from his Comic Art Collective offerings, including Peculia pinups and this 1991 illustration

• The last page of Marco Corona's "briganti" story

• The latest installment of Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano

• Speaking of thieves: a detail of Jim Flora's The Big Bank Robbery, circa mid-1960s

• Lilli Carré presents a still from an animated loop drawing in progress; also, she announces that her short film Head Garden is part of a film program at Chicago's Lincoln Hall tomorrow/tonight (Sept. 1)

• The fifth installment of Gabrielle Bell's San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary features her ex Michel Gondry, nudity, and awkwardness

• More AMC Pacer studies by Mark Kalesniko for Freeway

• Paul Hornschemeier's latest t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• A happy/sad Lewis comic by Laura Park 

• From Renee French: mitt guy, a stage, the cover to something called Tag K

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 39

• "The Devil Doll" part 4 page 4 by Derek Van Gieson, plus another Moomin parody strip

• Tom Kaczynski draws comics scholar Isaac Cates, who returns the favor; Tom's also been writing a series of thought-provoking essays on comics on his Transatlantis blog, well worth reading

• As seen on Boing Boing, it's Jon Adams's cereal-mascot mashup; plus a new Truth Serum strip

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

• Michael Kupperman posted this "doodle" to Twitter

• Go bookmark Émile Bravo's art blog — he posts daily (via The Comics Reporter)

• More uncollected Jason strips: one from Mjau Mjau, one possibly unpublished (plus more Audrey Hepburn movie reviews)

• Renee French's work from The Rock Show can be seen at the Meyer Gallery website; also, more guys with mitts and these

• From Steven Weissman: This week's "I, Anonymous," sketchbook studies over on the Covered blog, and more sketchbook pages here and here  

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea pages 126, 127 & 128

• The story behind this page by Marco Corona is amusing, if slightly confusing in translation

• This week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane 

• Debbie Drechsler documents some crayfish and their habitat

• Paul Hornschemeier's latest t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• Noah Van Sciver stumps for your Ignatz votes

• I feel a little strange re-posting the deeply personal comics that Laura Park has been making about the recent loss of her kitty Lewis, but they're just so amazing

• Josh Simmons introduces Prof. Quackenstein

• Tom Kaczynski previews MIX and teases a new Ransom Strange story

• A new Truth Serum strip by Jon Adams

The Minneapolis Indie Xpo takes place this Saturday, and the kick-off pre-party at Big Brain and the 501 Club on Friday night is doubling as a release party for a handful of new comics, including Zak Sally's Sammy the Mouse #3! More info at Zak's La Mano blog. Look for Zak, Tom Kaczynski and Noah Van Sciver at the fest as well. Looks like a fun show!

Buckle in for two weeks worth of clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• Jaime Hernandez, 1977 (from friend/fan Bernie Ramirez on the Love and Rockets Facebook page)

• Anders Nilsen's Dennis Hopper for Cinefamily is magnificent

• How about a little Dennis the Menace/Lost mash-up at Big Shiny Robot?

• Moscow-born San Francisco-residing cartoonist Roman Muradov sends us some pages done in homage/tribute to Jason — they're good, and got a thumbs-up from Jason

• Again with the Comics presents a Scooby-Doo story drawn by... Ivan Brunetti?? (via Steven Thompson)

• Jason's sketch of Jean-Pierre Melville, plus more recent blog entries about Lino Ventura, Alain Delon, and summer reading

• Rosebud Archives presents a super-rare promotional flyer for Charles M. Schulz's Young Pillars

• It's the two latest weekly installments of "Cartoon Boy" from John Kerschbaum

• Gipi describes his new video "Antony" as "a classic film thriller"

• For The Bold Italic, Jon Adams profiles 3 real-life Bay Area Comic Book Guys (via Robot 6); also, two installments of Truth Serum

• From Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond

• From Dash Shaw: a new silkscreen print; sketchbook pages; Ruined Cast sketches; The Lion King

• From Steven Weissman: "I, Anonymous" for last week and this week; Lumpy Noodle

• Frank Santoro gives another sneak peek at his Strange Tales Silver Surfer

• Drew Weing presents Set to Sea pages 112, 113, 114 & 115. Also, could someone snag me a set of these buttons? 

• Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano episodes 21 and 22

• A 1950 profile of Jim Flora

• Johnny Ryan has a bunch of new prints for sale. We saw Matt Groening admiring the one above at Comic-Con, our own Kristy Valenti very happily bought the cat one, and the "Nachos" one is just 100% pure genius

• Debbie Drechsler's latest round of nature sketches features squirrels, birds, bugs & spiders

• From Mark Kalesniko, two sets of quick sketches

• Sergio Ponchione posts some pages of his artwork from Cattivi Soggetti, an anthology of noir stories written by Danielle Brolli

• Paul Hornschemeier's latest t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop

• Noah Van Sciver posts an excerpt from Blammo #5

• From Josh Simmons & co: King Quackers, Skeezy Quacker, Quacker dreams, Quokkers, cupcake crimes

• Renee French has too many updates to link all of them individually; just go to her blog and work your way down. This, this, and this are highlights for me

• Steve Brodner's latest segment from PBS's Need to Know, "Obama Where Art Thou?" and his tribute to the late John Callahan

• I think the painting from Josh Simmons's House snuck into Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary

• Tom Kaczynski's sketches from the La Mano 2nd Annual Report and another show

• Something new & untitled from Joe Kimball