A variety of Online Commentary & Diversions:
• List: The Comics Journal's R.C. Harvey names Sam's Strip ("because its spoof of comic strip cartooning is a joy to behold and because it has been so long awaited") and Humbug ("because, like Sam’s Strip, we’ve waited so long for a reappearance and because of the exquisite care Fantagraphics took in making the copies of the magazine’s pages as exact as possible") as two of the Best Reprints of 2009
• Review: "…[T]he handful of short stories [in The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.] represent great leaps in, or at the very least previously unseen examples of, [Shaw's] innovative approach to comics coloring, as well as some inventive storytelling techniques." – Christopher Allen, Comic Book Galaxy
• Analysis: At PopMatters, Oliver Ho explores the resonances between Gipi's Wish You Were Here #2: They Found the Car and the classic noir film Out of the Past: "It’s as though the story is trying to invert noir’s cliches. For example, Gipi avoids flashbacks, where Out of the Past is built on them. In this respect, the comic feels like a distilled, even-harder-boiled noir story."
• Links: Love & Maggie concludes their exhaustive, annotated breakdown of the contents of The Comics Journal #38
• Changes: Best of luck to frequent OCD link-ee Heidi MacDonald as The Beat leaves the PW umbrella and goes solo
• Things to see: More kids-book illustrations by Richard Sala
• Things to see: I can certainly understand why Kevin Huizenga did this particular piece of fan art
• Things to see: Mark Newgarden would gladly paint a mural for you Tuesday for a hamburger to-day (via The Comics Reporter)