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The work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi was introduced to American audiences more than three decades ago. His work was championed by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, who included him in their prestigious RAW anthology in the early 1980s. For the remainder of the century, several North American publishers endeavored to draw attention to Tardi. Yet with the exception of the alternative comics cognoscenti, his work remained marginalized in the United States. Only with the persistence of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books — who have published no fewer than five Tardi titles in the past 2 years – has this acknowledged genius…

Hey, remember that cover art for Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko) Vol. 1 by Shimura Takako that we were so excited to debut last week? Well it turns out we were a little TOO excited as the version we showed you was incorrectly cropped. Here's the corrected version above; we've also fixed it in the original post, which contains more information about the book. Sorry about that folks!

• Michael Kupperman is stepping up the art posts on Twitter, with the "doodle" above and an older strip with the promise of new ones to come (!) • A couple of recent landscapey drawings by Gabrielle Bell (and they're for sale) • An older watercolor sketch (above) and an unused character by Leslie Stein • Album covers and undead Popeye by Tony Millionaire And more Things to See from the past week: • New illustrations from Matthias Lehmann at his Bloc-Notes blog • Odds, ends, outtakes and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog • Steven…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Battling an administration that smugly created their own reality, even if (and sometimes, especially if) it flew in the face of reason, morality and/or common sense, [in Twilight of the Assholes] Kreider employed a vicious, scorched-earth set of tactics that matched the passionate intensity of the right, only imbued with a wicked and outrageous sense of humor to go with a keen sense of observation. Whether or not one agreed with all of Kreider’s observations about American culture…, the sheer relentlessness of Kreider’s attacks combined with the elegance and intensity of his line…

Jaime Hernandez had an illustration in last week's issue of The New Yorker (hopefully still on the stands), for an article on asteroid hunters. This is as big as I can show it to you without a subscription — hopefully you have one so you can check it out full-size!

Photo credit: Jonas Seaman Get ready! This weekend, Friday, March 4th – Sunday, March 6th, Fantagraphics will be taking the 9th Annual Emerald City Comicon by storm! And slashing things open on Friday, March 4th will be Jacques Boyreau, editor and cultural historian of the book Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, a celebration of some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box. Join Jacques at the Fantagraphics booth at space #808! He'll be signing copies of Portable Grindhouse, and showing film footage, on Friday, March 4th from 4:00 to 6:00…

Here's this week's Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web: — "Ham-N-Tashen" by Steven Weissman (for the Henry & Glenn art show in L.A.; view at original size): — And elsewhere: The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum (an encore presentation of John's Act-i-vate strip at MTV Geek) concludes: Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Mugwhump the Great by Roger Langridge (at Act-i-vate): The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider (with essay): Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits depicts old age as a wild, lurching ride from medical crises to euphoric nostalgia to an eerie calm as the end draws near. […] Aging and dying are rare topics in literature and cinema, let alone in comics, which makes Special Exits an automatic standout. But it would be an excellent book even if the shelves were full of fictionalized memoirs about elder care." – The A.V. Club • Review: "…[W]ith Special Exits, Farmer delivers a wonderful memoir about her aging parents and their aging process. […] This is…

Lilli Carré reveals on her Kettle of Fish blog that she's contributed a 4-page story and cover illustration to the next issue of long-running Swedish comics magazine Galago. Lucky Swedes!

Here's the Peanuts cartoon modified by Michael Kupperman which is lighting up the comics blogosphere today after being tweeted by @MKupperman last night. Below, perhaps of more interest to serious Kupperman fans, another tweeted image from last night: a glimpse of his next book coming in September, Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010 (in which "Twain meets with Ike Eisenhower and his unbelievably hot wife, Mame"):