Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

On the interview blog Top Drawer, artist Hans Rickheit breaks some publishing news: our forthcoming publication of his graphic novel The Squirrel Machine, currently projected for a 2010 release. The interview includes some samples of Rickheit's pages, including some "deleted scenes" from The Squirrel Machine, such as above. (Link via Sean T. Collins.)

• The Boston Globe "Out of Line" blog thinks that Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin belongs on more end-of-year Best-of lists • Sean T. Collins on the unhinged beauty of I Shall Destroy All the Civlized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks • Johnny Bacardi puts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 on his Top 10 of 2008 list • Little Nemo's Kat examines The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger (en Español; Google translation) • Spurious writes an ode to Ivan Brunetti • Austin English puts 20 questions to Zak Sally • Those Fabuleous 50's presents a run of…

If you want your order shipped within the U.S. to arrive before Christmas via USPS Priority Mail, tomorrow (Tuesday, December 16) is the deadline to get your order in! Orders placed with the Standard shipping option right now will most likely arrive after the holiday. After tomorrow, you'll have until Friday for orders shipped by 2nd Day UPS. We'll post a reminder for that deadline as well. Don't forget to check out our handy Holiday Gift Guide for lots of gift ideas for every interest and budget!

…by animator Nick Cross in this music video (I forget where I first spotted this): Danko Jones – King Of Magazines from Bad Taste Records on Vimeo.

Speaking of the Beasts! print show opening tomorrow, Jacob Covey has been previewing some of the prints that will be on display and for sale there on the Beasts! blog (including Tom Neely's "Skinwalker," above). This show is going to be incredible.

While we wouldn't complain if you blew your entire art budget at our Beasts! print show, here are some other worthy things to spend your money on:   • If you would like to buy some original pages from House, or perhaps some X-rated ABBA fan art, or commission a portrait of your kittycat, Josh Simmons has your hookup (hat tip: Spurge) • Maybe you'd like to buy a limited-edition print based on Jaime Hernandez's cover art for the Criterion DVD of Divorce Italian Style? (Detail above — via Spurge again) • Lots of good stuff at the WFMU Benefit…

Regular edition! • The Washington Post names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw one of the 6 "Best Comics of 2008" • The Wall Street Journal profiles David B. • Our own Kim Thompson provides some Eurocomics commentary in a letter to The Comics Reporter • Look for Paul Hornschemeier's "Bearsly Windinski" in the next issue of Time Out Chicago, and the German edition of The Three Paradoxes not quite as soon

A couple of interviews for your Friday listening pleasure: • Inkstuds has an audio chat with Ivan Brunetti • On his Mr. Media internet radio program, Bob Andelman talks to Joe Kubert biographer (Man of Rock) Bill Schelly

Time for the new installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. In this week's episode: Dear Diary… And don't forget to catch up on our current 5-day chunk of Martin Kellerman's hilarious Swedish smash-hit Rocky, updated Monday-Friday!