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Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: On the Inkstuds radio programme's "Best of 2011 with the Cartoonists" episode, Aaron Costain, Dustin Harbin and John Martz discuss their favorite comics of 2011 with host Robin McConnell, including: Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Patrick Manchette Approximate Continuum Comics by Lewis Trondheim Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson Prison Pit Book 3 by Johnny Ryan Mome Vol. 22 • List: Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 was the second-highest vote-getter in Forbidden Planet International's…

We love it when folks share their fan tattoos and it's even better when it's someone from one of our favorite comic shops: Julie from Secret Headquarters in L.A. just got this one based on a Jason illustration. Go buy some comics and ask to see it in person!

Tuesday, January 24th •  New York City, NY: The mighty Michael Kupperman hosts another installment of his monthly comedy series The Crime Stoppers Club, co-hosted with Kate Beaton, and this month, featuring Matt Koff, Lisa Hanawalt, Dyna Moe, Geoff Lapid, Anthony Wilson, and Sam Henderson! The fun starts at 7:00 PM at Luca Lounge. And stay tuned to the FLOG for some video sneak peeks tomorrow! Saturday, January 28th •  Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics is proud to co-sponsor the 2012 Graphic Novel Panel, held by the Seattle Graphics Arts Guild, featuring panelists Megan Kelso, Matthew Southworth, Brandon Jerwa, Emi Lenox, and…

Our weekly strips from Mahler & Weissman — Kupperman is on a secret mission and has to miss this week — plus links to other strips from around the web: — Black Classroom by Steven Weissman (view at original size): Angelman by Nicolas Mahler (view at original size): And elsewhere: The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE: Forming by Jesse Moynihan: Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 updates this week): Lucky by Gabrielle Bell : Maakies by Tony Millionaire: The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider: Les Petits Riens by Lewis Trondheim: Truth Serum…

Tomorrow is the first kick-off event for the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse brought to you by the Elysian Brewing Co. and Fantagraphics Books, featuring the art of Charles Burns! It's the debut of the first brew in the series, Nibiru Yerba Maté Tripel, with a cask-tapping, survival demo, and a piñata of Planet Nibiru to smash. It all takes place tomorrow, 4-7 PM at Elysian's Capitol Hill brewpub at 1221 E. Pike St. in Seattle!

It just wouldn't be Comic-Con without the Hernandez Brothers, and CCI has confirmed today that all 3 of the comics-creating bros., Gilbert, Jaime and Mario, will be special guests of the 2012 convention in July. This, of course, will be just one stop on their epic Love and Rockets 30th anniversary tour — stay tuned for lots more details and announcements!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Reviews: Robot 6's Chris Mautner looks at our 3 newest Golden Age collections: "…[W]hile I enjoyed [Action! Mystery!] Thrills[!] (I’m especially grateful for being exposed to the neon-color stylings of L.B. Cole, who seems to prefigure the era of black velvet paintings), it’s definitely the slightest — the most coffee tableish — of Sadowski’s books so far. It feels like a book designed more to flip through than to mull over…. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — there’s certainly pleasures to be had in re-examining these covers…" "What’s exciting for me about this…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Feature: Jennifer Anderson, one of the participants in the PDX2GulfCoast project along with Steve Duin & Shannon Wheeler which resulted in Oil and Water, writes for the Beaverton Valley Times: "As the newspaper reporter character in the book, I can attest — 100-percent objectively, of course — that the book is at once tragic, funny, poignant and thought-provoking," and talks to some local experts and Duin himself about the book (via Bleeding Cool of all places) • Plugs: At Blog Martins Fontes Paulista, Raphael Fernandes runs down "10 Must-See Comics from Fantagraphics for 2012,"…

I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Apologies to Gilbert for hijacking his artwork for my doofy jokes.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review (Audio): On the latest episode of the Give Me Comics or Give Me Death! podcast, hosts Michael Bradbury and Lee Scott [SP?] discuss Jason Conquers America • Review: "[Newave: The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s] was a treasure to find for me, because I got to read some of the stuff I was reading in the Chicago burbs being all 'punk rock' and 'rebel rebel.' You have to live it to understand it, and while I’ll look at 1960’s underground comics as a history tour, this comic brought back live living memories…