The American Library Association has announced their Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) 2011 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and bringing up the rear alphabetically by author last name, it's Weing, Drew with Set to Sea! Great news for a great book. Congrats Drew!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions from HuffPo, Flavorwire, Omnivoracious & elsewhere:

• List/Review: Critical Mob names Jim Woodring's Weathercraft one of the Top 10 Books of 2010. As a reminder, their review called it "the kind of Pilgrim's Progress tale that David Lynch might have conjured up if he were a cartoonist" (Lynch was a cartoonist, in fact) and "Woodring's best work yet. And for an artist of his caliber, that's saying something."

• List: At Flavorwire, Desert Island's Gabe Fowler names Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 #9 of 10 of the Year's Most Buzzed About Comic Releases: "Lots of people were blown away by this — it’s a comic that epitomizes 20 years worth of work in 50 pages. Jamie Hernandez has just been doing it so long that he’s a natural. Comics just seem to flow out of this guy."

• List: Julien from Librairie Drawn & Quarterly names A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio one of "Les 5 livres indispensables de l'année" (the 5 essential books of the year): "With coming of age stories that are sentimental, dramatic, poetic, offbeat and not mawkish..., A Drunken Dream and Other Stories showcases trailblazing manga has forged its own way since the '70s." (Translated from French.)

• Plug: "In typical Fantagraphics fashion, A Drunken Dream is presented in a gorgeous, golden-hued, and hardbound package. From the front to end papers, it is packed with stories, artwork — both black and white and in color — and an interview with the influential artist that’s just as engaging as her stories. For me, 'Iguana Girl' was the standout tale, full of emotional and psychological twists. It’s sophisticated and defies expectations." – Alex Carr, Omnivoracious "Graphic Novel Friday: Holiday Gift Guide"

• Review/Profile: A feature on Joyce Farmer and Special Exits by Paul Gallagher at The Huffington Post: "Farmer's beautiful, moving and truly exceptional book deals with the very real closing down age brings, and its problems. Rarely have I read such an honest, heart-breaking, yet darkly humorous tale."

• Review: "Carol Tyler has chosen a scrapbook format for her memoir series You'll Never Know, but the editing is the reverse of the usual—instead of airbrushing over her family's troubles, she focuses on them. [...] Tyler has a good ear; her conversations, whether it's the grownups kidding around when she was a child or the grown daughters trying to figure out how to negotiate their parents' illnesses, always ring true. Her art is sketchy and expressive, changing to fit the story, often deliberately breaking borders as she transitions from one setting to another." – Brigid Alverson, Graphic Novel Reporter

• Review: "...Rip M.D. is a bit silly, but it’s offbeat and funny too. It’s got the kind of gross-out humor that kids will love... While the book has its own somewhat silly logic, it also has a tremendously engaging look and feel that’s all its own." – John Hogan, Graphic Novel Reporter

• Review: "Stark and vivid, scary and heartbreakingly sad as only a children’s tale can be, this darkly swashbuckling romp [The Littlest Pirate King] is a classy act with echoes of Pirates of the Caribbean (which it predates by nearly a century) that will charm, inspire and probably cause a tear or two to well up." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

• Plug: "While I’ve yet to see a copy, Fantagraphics’ Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition finally released this December, and it clocks in at 1,200 pages. The 25th Anniversary of Stan Sakai’s rabbit ronin is celebrated across two hardcovers housed in a slipcase. The set promises plenty of extras, and its delayed publication has been lamented loudly enough to make this holiday publication cause for plenty of raised glasses of eggnog." – Alex Carr, Omnivoracious "Graphic Novel Friday: Holiday Gift Guide"

• Awards: ActuaBD reports on the nominees for the Prix Artémisia, including Gabriella Giandelli's Interiorae (in its French edition). "This is an award directed towards female creators from an association bearing the same name as the prize," reports The Comics Reporter.

• Interview (Audio): Host Robin McConnell chats with Nate Neal about Nate's new graphic novel The Sanctuary and other topics on the Inkstuds radio programme; in his blog post Robin says "Sanctuary has a really great language all to itself, and his work in Mome utilizes a while different skill set. Good comics."

Congratulations to Stephen DeStefano for being nominated for an Individual Achievement Annie Award ("Animation's Highest Honor") for Character Design in a Television Production for his work on Cartoon Network's Sym-Bionic Titan! (It's an awesome show.)

The organizers of the Festival International de la Bande Desinée in Angoulême France (you know, the big one) have announced their Official Selections for the festival, including the French edition of The Man Who Grew His Beard (L'homme qui se laissait pousser la barbe) by Olivier Schrauwen, which we will be publishing in English in August 2011. Congratulations Olivier! (The list also includes recent books by our homeys Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, Joe Sacco & Dash Shaw. Nice work, boys.)

Congratulations to Monte Schulz, whose 2009 novel, THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, published by Fantagraphics, was the Award Winner in the "Fiction: General" category of the 2010 Best Book Awards sponsored by USA Book News! 

Look for Schulz's next novel, THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER, in December from Fantagraphics.  

The nominations for this year's Lulu Awards have been announced and Miss Lasko-Gross & Carol Tyler are both in the field of candidates for Lulu of the Year, "For the creator, book or other entity whose work best exemplifies Friends of Lulu’s mission statement." Congratulations to both! The online ballot is here.

We are pleased to report that Ganges by Kevin Huizenga, which was nominated for all 3 major industry awards this year (Eisner, Harvey & Ignatz), took home the Ignatz brick for Outstanding Series at the award ceremony at SPX this past weekend. (See the complete list of winners in all categories here.) Congratulations!

To celebrate, all 3 issues of the series are now 20% off for a limited time! There's never been a better time to fill in the gaps in your collection or catch up on the whole series at once!

No lie: just a couple days ago I was wondering when they were going to announce this year's Ignatz Award nominees, and lo and behold, here they are today! Our artists & books received 8 nominations in 5 categories, and as per our typical M.O., we've put all the nominated titles on sale for a limited time! Congratulations to all; see the complete list of nominees here.

Outstanding Artist: Al Columbia, Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days by Al Columbia

Outstanding Artist: John Pham, Sublife
Outstanding Series: Sublife by John Pham
Outstanding Comic: Sublife Vol. 2 by John Pham

Outstanding Series: Ganges by Kevin Huizenga

Outstanding Story: "John Wesley Harding," The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, by Joe Daly

Outstanding Story: "Untitled", Mome Vol. 16, by Laura Park

(Additional congratulations to Noah Van Sciver, nominated for Outstanding Comic for Blammo #6, and to Lilli Carré and Martin Cendreda, both nominated for Outstanding Mini-Comic.)

We all knew it, but now it's official! Congratulations to Jim Woodring for being awarded this year's Stranger Genius Award in Literature. Announcing the award on The Stranger's blog Slog, Paul Constant says "Woodring is the first Stranger Genius of Literature who has been published by local publisher Fantagraphics Books (they've been ardent promoters of Woodring's work from the very beginning of his career). Quite simply, that's insane: They're the best comics publisher in the world. They publish geniuses on a regular basis, and many would argue that Woodring is the greatest cartooning genius on the Fantagraphics roster. We agree with that sentiment." Well thanks Paul! Read the rest of the announcement for more info, including what Jim plans to do with the $5000 prize money.

(Photo by The Stranger's Kelly O.)

This is somewhat belated news, but we didn't get the photo uploaded until just now: Peter Bagge, Moto Hagio and C. Tyler were all awarded with Inkpot Awards at Comic-Con this year! Above, Peter and Carol pose with their trophies; Moto didn't bring her trophy to her signings, so if anyone has photos of her receiving or holding the award, we'd love to see them!

Update: found at Comicsgirl!