Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Spot the common thread in today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: At The Truth About Comics Mario Z. Alipio (aka MZA) posts his top 11 comics of 2009, including You'll Never Know Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler at #6 ("A brilliant and disarmingly vulnerable historical memoir that converts a family's personal anguish into adult wisdom and grace. Part documentarian and part emotional wreck, Tyler examines her secretive father's WWII past and her own disintegrating marriage w/ an enviable balance between sensitivity and fearlessness"), Pim & Francie by Al Columbia at #9 ("Gorgeously reproduced —…

If you've attended any events at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery you've no doubt seen and perhaps met John Ohannesian. In addition to being the store's upstairs neighbor and occasional handyman/helper-outer guy, John's a talented surrealist painter whose latest series of "Paintoons" are inspired by daily comic strips and Mad magazine with an underground comix sensibility. At the store you can buy a print of his popular "gods-playing-poker" painting out of the print bin that he built for us, and if you run into him he'll be happy to give you a studio tour.

Your daily art blips: • Kevin Huizenga ponders the philosophy of domestic architecture • Part 8 of Steven Weissman's "This Already Happened" at What Things Do • It was hard to pick just one of Paul Hornschemeier's three contributions to the Game Over 3 art show at GRSF to feature here • Ben Catmull provides a status update and glimpse of the eagerly-awaited-by-me Monster Parade #2 • "Things to See" Prose Corner: A very short Twain & Einstein (& Oscar & Felix) story by Michael Kupperman

Slow-news-day all-square edition of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The book reminds me a bit of my childhood memories, where one gives nicknames to everyone and everything, and the smallest events become epic journeys. Chocolate Cheeks is a fun read, recommended to anyone who is interested in art prints or comic books." – Steven Swigart • Review: "Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable is a rude, crude and frequently hilarious portrait of suburban teenage life in the 1980s. The book’s narrator, Tammy Pierce, is probably the most hapless 15-year-old girl imaginable. … Her life is miserable, but she is anything but…

New Yorkers! Gilbert Hernandez will be signing his new Love and Rockets collection High Soft Lisp at Midtown Comics' Times Square location (200 West 40th Street, 2nd Floor) on Saturday, April 24 at 2-4 PM. I can't recall the last time Gilbert did a signing in NYC, so don't miss it!

Guaranteed to be the glitteriest book slated to arrive in comic shops throughout the land today: Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson 416-page two-color 5.75" x 5.75" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-314-9 Being the second and final installment of the hilarious and humiliating adventures of high school misfit Tammy Pierce. In their weekly recommendations new Comics Comics correspondent Joe McCulloch admits "I didn’t read the first one, but it seems to have been well-received for its gangling verisimilitude" and Robot 6's Chris Mautner calls it "Poignant, cringe-inducing comics, to be sure." Catch up with more info and extensive previews here,…

Cribbed directly from Dash's blog: Making The AbyssDrawings from BodyWorld, Bottomless Belly Button, animations and comic short stories by Dash Shaw. Shaw's recent works (BodyWorld, The Unclothed Man, and Bottomless Belly Button) connect an interest with the human body, informed by figure drawing, with humorous character-driven narratives. This show displays his original art for these stories, which are often a combination of traditional crowquill and ink work with gouache paints, acetate sheets, animation-style backgrounds, colored marker storyboards, and mixed media collages. At the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art594 Broadway, Suite 401 (btwn. Houston and Prince) New York, NY 10012…

Bill Griffith returned my Facebook friend request just in time for me to catch his post with the original to-be-colored cover art for his next Zippy the Pinhead collection coming later this year.

Your daily roundup of art bits from 'round the web: • Is this a glimpse inside Tales Designed to Thrizzle #6 from Michael Kupperman? (Update: Nope) (Update update: Our own Adam Grano IDs it as a colorized page from Snake 'n' Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret — what's goin' on here?) • Steven Weissman's remaining Post-Its from the GR2 show are now available on Comic Art Collective — who are you to resist? • A 5-page Kim Deitch story from 1973, presented by John Glenn Taylor (via The Comics Reporter) • This 1948 Jim Flora illustration accompanies news about a future Flora…

Today's dose of Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: The great John Porcellino names Zak Sally's Like a Dog as one of his favorite comics of 2009 (unsurprising, since he wrote the introduction): "It's impossible for me to be objective about this book, as Zak is one of my closest friends, but this is a really powerful, fascinating collection of comics. Very dark, and even brutal sometimes, but bracing, and highly original." • Interview: Blogcritics' Michael Jones talks to Femke Hiemstra about her art book Rock Candy: "I do not deliberately strive for a 'childlike' feel or a 'children's book…