Elvis Costello's new album National Ransom, featuring cover art by Tony Millionaire, is currently streaming for a limited time on the Colbert Nation website, which means that Tony's artwork appeared on the closing segment of Tuesday's episode of The Colbert Report! (Thanks to Jacob for the screen grab.) Hey Stephen, get Tony on your show — you won't be sorry! Here's a better look at the cover art:

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid will appear with musician and producer Steve Fisk on Seattle's KEXP-FM this Saturday evening at 7:30 [90.3 FM in Seattle and streaming worldwide at KEXP.org – Ed.]. The segment will focus on the recent documentary I Am Secretly an Important Man by NY filmmaker Peter Sillen. The movie chronicles the life of esoteric poet Jesse Bernstein, often cited as "the Godfather of grunge." The movie runs at the Northwest Film Forum October 22 - 29. In the film Reid is interviewed during his stint as a curator at Seattle's Experience Music Project museum, where he organized a Bernstein exhibition. He's standing in front of Charles Burns' original cover art for Sub Pop 200, on which Bernstein appears. Fisk produced Bernstein's posthumous Sub Pop release Prison.

While on the subject, we should congratulate Fisk for his production work on Soundgarden's Telephantasm album, which went Platinum last week and is featured on the new "Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock" video game. Kudos also to Fantagraphics friends Ben, Matt, Chris and Kim. Hey, don't you fellas need some new comic books?

New from Drew Friedman's Fine Art Prints concern is this portrait of John Lennon (originally published in TIME for a tribute to Lennon by Paul McCartney), released to commemorate what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday on October 9. Irwin Chusid's typically well-written description and ordering details can be found here.

Question, video, and answer ("NOTHING.") courtesy Ben Schwartz.

Gary Groth passed this along to me to share with you: Davd Collier appears in this promotional video for Canadian singer-songwriter Luke Doucet's new album Steel City Trawler, which includes "an original comic book interpretation of lyrics from the new songs, Hamilton’s geography and history, as well as Luke’s own life, past and present" by Collier. Samples of the work can be seen in the video and on Doucet's website.

Nice to see Pearl Jam posed in front of our conjoined neighbor Georgetown Records for this publicity photo for their new album — it'd be even nicer if the photographer had gotten the boys to shuffle over 20 feet to get a shot in front of our window too... (Thanks to our pal Kurt Schlosser for forwarding the image.)

For the second time in a row Elvis Costello has tapped Tony Millionaire for the cover art for his new platter. National Ransom streets on November 2nd in the U.S. More info on the album here.

Everyone has seen the strange graphics that grace the covers of obscure albums while flipping through used record bins at garage sales, flea markets and records stores. Some of the weirdest are collected in COVER STORY Vol. 2: Odd, Obscure, and Outrageous Album Art published by Wax Poetics/powerHouse Books. Fantagraphics Bookstore, in association with Georgetown Records, celebrates the publication of this delightfully odd volume with a publication party this Saturday, August 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

The party will feature a display of many of the most outrageous album covers from the book, as well as DJ sets of the actual recordings and a book signing by contributors Aja West and Cheeba. Come discover your own twelve-inch treasures in the record store's 50 cent bins, and peruse a mass of equally unusual comix from Fantagraphics Books.

This event coincides with the colorful Georgetown Art Attack with action throughout the historic neighborhood. Drive down in your vintage ride and join the "Slow Roll" hot rod cruise down Airport Way at 8:00 PM.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) just minutes south of downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: 206.658.0110.

More than 3.000 maniacal bicycle enthusiasts descended on Georgetown last Friday for the annual Dead Baby Bike bash. Mayhem and merriment ensued as bone crushing bike stunts and ear crunching rock collided on the streets — sometimes literally — right outside Fantagraphics Bookstore. Another exquisite evening in the "Summer of Hate." [Above photos by John Ohannesian; click here for more – Ed.]

Peter Bagge collectors! People who like fun! Get yerself some merch from Peter's band Can You Imagine? in the Can You Imagine? merch shop! T-shirts! Buttons! Mugs! 'N' more!