Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Check out a big honkin' exclusive 31-page preview of Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition by Stan Sakai at Comic Book Resources!

What better place for a tattoo of Loady McGee from Johnny Ryan's Angry Youth Comix? This unidentified gentleman was posted by Johnny on Flickr. UPDATE: The gentleman in question has come forward to identify himself! He's Joel Beck, and he notes that "the artist was Yanni Vera and the shop is Third Eye Tattoo in Melbourne, Australia." Thanks Joel!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: For The Economist, Picturebox publisher and our sometime editorial collaborator Dan Nadel names his picks for the best comics of 2010: "Tim Hensley’s Wally Gropius was maybe my favourite graphic novel of the year, and I’m still trying to figure out just what exactly it is. Drawn and written in the graphic idioms of throwaway 1960s comic books such as Richie Rich and Archie, Wally Gropius is about an angst-ridden, dumbfounded millionaire, looking for love in a lopsided modernist space fraught with emasculation, poverty, rock jingles and other things that make grown men…

We noticed that our new releases have been omitted from Diamond's shipping lists over the last few weeks, which means they've been arriving in comic shops with little to no notice (which means very few blurbs from the usual blog sources we quote here). We've contacted Diamond about it and we're getting it straightened out (I won't go into the gory details, and I'm not sure if it was a Diamond policy change, but there was a reasonable explanation and solution). Anyhoo, the books below are already out or arriving tomorrow — check with your local shop to confirm availability….

Set your RSS readers for D.J.'s new LJ, where he kicks things off with the above illustration (meow!) and reveals the origins of his story "Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt" in Mome Vol. 19.

On his Jackie No-Name blog Tim Lane shares his true-crime cover illustration for the next (I think) issue of the St. Louis newsweekly the Riverfront Times, along with his Wally Wood inspiration AND the good news that there will also be a third issue of his self-published comic book series Happy Hour in America!

Thanks to the anonymous employee at the Barnes & Noble in Glendale (CA?) who put together this excellent Destroy All Movies!!! display. Pic by DAM editor Zack Carlson.

Gage Academy of Art, gracious host of the debut performance of Jim Woodring's giant dip pen, presents this snazzy short video of the event produced by Don Porter. In other Jim news, he just dropped by the office to drop off the last 20 pages of Congress of the Animals. The story is now complete — all that's left is the cover and endpaper illustrations. Days like this always send an electric thrill through our office!

Esther Pearl Watson's painting The Denny's Parking Lot is now available as a limited-edition archival print in a variety of sizes from 20×200. These go fast so get it while you can!

Mome Vol. 21 – Winter 2011 by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds 112-page full-color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 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…