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Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Artichoke Tales and The Squirrel Mother have established Kelso as one of the most original talents in comics. The dozen stories in Queen of the Black Black show an emerging talent, but not a fully-formed one; Kelso tries out a variety of styles here, from primitivist to expressionistic, and tries out a variety of genres too, from slice-of-life to historical fantasy. This book isn’t the best introduction to Kelso — that would be The Squirrel Mother — but it’s essential for fans…" – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club • Review: "Now collected and…

(Click to enlarge) Gary Panter's collected Dal Tokyo is on our spring list and production on the book is proceeding apace. Here, courtesy of Raymond Sohn, who is working on the book with Gary P., is a sneak peek at the new, much much improved (from the "horrible protocover" — Gary's words — that we used for our catalogs last time) cover. If we publish the first Pogo book, the Joost Swarte collection, and this one all within about six months of each other, then, dear readers, what will you have left to complain about in terms of superlate books…

The Santa Barbara Writers Conference kicked off this past weekend and runs until Thursday, June 23rd. And on Tuesday, June 21st, join Gary Groth at 4:00 pm for a special Graphic Novel Panel! He'll be joined by a powerhouse line-up of Joyce Farmer, Tim Hensley, and Sammy Harkham. The Santa Barbara Writers Conference is held at the Hotel Mar Monte [1111 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara, CA], which is an actual hotel, and not the fancy name for Monte Schulz's house.

Drew Weing gave an illuminating talk about his career and the creation of his debut graphic novel Set to Sea a short while ago at the behest of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book in Philadelphia after the book received the 2011 Lynd Ward Prize for Best Graphic Novel Honor Award (runner-up to the main prize) earlier this year. Watch the complete talk, with introduction and follow-up Q&A session, embedded above or on YouTube here; also, in this video, you can watch the jurors for the Lynd Ward Prize discuss their selection of the book.

You've got another chance to bid on the eye-popping Josh Kirby print set The Voyage of the Ayeguy, now listed at a reduced price on eBay. Our eBay jockey Eric Buckler tells me he's got an onslaught of more treasures from our attic to be listed over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned to our seller page and add us to your favorite sellers to keep on top of it all.

Look for this stunning portrait of Groucho Marx by Drew Friedman on "the forthcoming second edition of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House, Steve Stoliar's memoir of working for the comedian during the mid-1970s" — or hanging on your wall if you're one of the lucky 15 to pick up one of the ultra-limited-edition prints of the artwork from the Drew Friedman Art shop.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "There is no one remotely like Jim Woodring. I admire dozens of living cartoonists, but Jim's wordless comic book stories… are some of the most mindbending books I've ever read…. Is there a lesson to be learned from Congress of the Animals? What is the meaning behind it, and Woodring's other books? That's the question I'm unable to answer. His comics affect the part of my brain that can think and feel, but cannot verbalize. His comics change me, but I can't say why or how." – Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing • Review:…

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web (with a couple of new and hopefully regular additions): — Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): And elsewhere: Amazing Facts… and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga: Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Humblug by Arnold Roth (4 new udpates!): Gonna try running Keeping Two by Jordan Crane here: Maakies by Tony Millionaire: Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Delve into the peculiar mysteries of the Unifactor as Seattle artist Jim Woodring unveils the secrets behind his brand new graphic novel Congress of the Animals, released this month by Fantagraphics Books Inc. Congress of the Animals is the highly-anticipated follow-up to last year’s Weathercraft, and in 2010, Woodring was awarded the Stranger Genius Award for literature. Join us at the Elliott Bay Book Company at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 30th as Woodring himself takes us page by page through his latest creation, with explanations and anecdotes on his first full-length graphic novel to star his signature character, Frank….

[In this installment of our series of Editors Notes, Kim Thompson interviews himself (in a format he's dubbed "AutoChat") about Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot by Jacques Tardi and Jean-Patrick Manchette, now available to pre-order from us and coming soon to a comics shop near you. – Ed.] Okay, if I already have West Coast Blues, why should I buy Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot? My promotional tagline for Sniper is, “For those who thought West Coast Blues wasn’t violent enough.” Seriously? West Coast Blues was pretty brutal. Sniper mops the floor with it. It was…