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Readers of last Sunday's edition of the Boston Globe were treated to Jane Roy Brown's travel guide to Massachusetts roadside attractions that have been featured by Bill Griffith in Zippy the Pinhead strips! You can read the article online but it lacks the illustrations, so we've posted images of the pages (provided by Bill) above. Thanks Bill!

Due to our hectic release schedule and the geographic vagaries of distribution, our comic shop arrivals are a bit of a jumble lately. Our first two titles here may have been available at some shops last week — see last week's post for additional blurbs — and are on the official shipping list for this week; the titles listed thereafter are not on the list yet but may ship to some shops this week. We apologize for any confusion and as always entreat you to contact your local shop to confirm availability. (Ordering in advance is always a good idea,…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Created during two overseas wars, rising inequity, a city lost under flood waters, skyrocketing public debt and the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression, this collection [Twilight of the Assholes] is the pained scream of a frustrated liberal trapped in a nation whose zeitgeist, he feels, spent much of the decade steadfastly marching in lockstep to the Right. The excesses of a neo-Gilded Age provokes Kreider with often hilarious results… Sometimes vulgar and crude but often insightful, always passionate, Kreider's essays and illustrations offer a voice for a nation seemingly without hope."…

Paul Hornschemeier, who says he feels bad about not updating his blog more often, is compensating by offering 20% off everything in his online shop (prints and original art) through Thursday (March 24). See here for more details and the secret magic discount code!

So much convention news to share today! The organizers of the Small Press Expo just announced an initial lineup of featured guests for the 2011 show, one of whom is Jim Woodring! Jim hasn't been to the show in quite some time so this will be an extra treat for SPX attendees. The show's still a ways away (September 10-11) so stay tuned for further details and announcements. (No word yet on whether he'll be bringing the Nibbus Maximus with him, but we're hoping so.) CORRECTION: I should've checked my facts before posting — this will be Jim's first time…

Just announced: The Raven by Lou Reed and Lorenzo Mattotti will be making its debut at the Toronto Comics Art Festival in May! Mattotti, as previously announced, will be a Featured Guest at the festival. TCAF organizer Chris Butcher puts it best: "Look for further information on Fantagraphics’ TCAF 2011 plans, as well as feature events with Lorenzo Mattotti, as the Festival draws closer."

We're a little late in reporting this exciting news: Megan Kelso has been announced as a special guest at the Olympia Comics Festival in our state capitol of Olympia, WA! Olympia, of course, has a storied history as a mecca of zine publishing and indie culture, so we can't imagine a better fit. The festival takes place on Saturday, May 21, and we are currently hustling production of the new edition of Queen of the Black Black along in the hope of premiering it at the show. Stay tuned and mark your calendars!

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind – A Visual History from the Permanent Collection of Experience Music Project Edited by Jacob McMurray, Senior Curator of EMP 248-page full-color 7.5" x 9" softcover with DVD • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-433-7 Ships in: April 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind visually documents the explosion of Grunge, the Seattle Sound, within the context of the underground punk subculture that was developing throughout the U.S. in the late 1970s and 1980s. This musical journey is represented entirely through the collection of Experience Music…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 (Vol. 15) by Charles M. Schulz Introduction by Al Roker; designed by Seth 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-438-2 Previews & Ordering Info Charles Schulz enters his fourth decade as the greatest cartoonist of his generation, and Peanuts remains as fresh and lively as it ever was. (How do we know it’s 1980? Well, for one thing Peppermint Patty gets herself those Bo-Derek-in-“10” cornrows — Peanuts’ timelessness occasionally shows a crack!) That said, The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 includes a number of classic…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004 by Thomas Ott 192-page black & white 6.25" x 10" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-417-7 Previews & Ordering Info This omnibus collection of Thomas Ott’s short shock-ending horror stories — imagine E.C. Comics done with no words, and executed in an impossibly lush black-and-white scratchboard style — collects a dozen stories originally published in three (now out of print) thin European style “graphic albums” (Tales of Error, Greetings from Hellville and Dead End) during the 1980s and 1990s, plus 8 previously uncollected tales, including "The Breakdown" from Fantagraphics'…