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Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources: • Drew Friedman illustrates the latest crop of pop stars-cum-reality TV stars for Billboard (with commentary) • The cover of a new minicomic Miss Lasko-Gross is debuting at SPX (via Facebook) • From Kevin Huizenga, a new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond strip • Two more stages in Matthias Lehmann's scratchboard work in progress • From Jason: a 1996 anthology story page; a lizard lady; an illustration of U2; and three early cartoons • Steven Weissman drew Courtney Love for The Stranger's…

New strips from the Steves this week: — Monday's Strip by Stephen DeStefano (view larger) Originally run as an experiment on Stephen's blog starting in 2008, Monday's Strip is re-presented here. This strip is seen here in color for the first time. — Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "This is too much of an event to ignore: Fantagraphics, Seattle’s eclectic and prolific comics publisher,… is publishing its first volume of manga — comics that may be Japan’s most popular and influential art form. […] A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is a four-decade anthology of graphic short stories by Moto Hagio, the 'founding mother' and premiere creator of shojo manga… Does Hagio’s work justify the hype? Her visual storytelling and graphic invention, by turns fluid, crisp, and stately, certainly do. …Moto’s other later [stories] do indeed raise manga to literature." –…

The Beguiling presents Blake Bell, author of Fire & Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics, and Bill Everett's daughter Wendy Everett, at Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave. in Toronto, on Saturday, September 25, 4:30pm – 6:00pm, for a signing and discussion of the new book and the life and career of Bill Everett. RSVP on Facebook.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Too Soon? Famous/Infamous Faces 1995-2010 by Drew Friedman 204-page full-color 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-357-6 Ordering Info & Previews "Too Soon?" you ask? It's a collection of the last 15 years' worth of Drew Friedman's illustrations, caricatures and portraits lampooning the rich, the famous, the infamous, and the never-will-be-famous. And — promise! — no "Friends." Too Soon? gathers Friedman's best, most strident and scathing work from some of the most popular publications including Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The New Republic,…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Prison Pit: Book 2 by Johnny Ryan 116-page black & white 6.5" x 8.5" softcover • $12.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-383-5 Ordering Info & Previews 2009's Prison Pit was an unadulterated smash hit upon its release at the 2009 Comic-Con International, and the balls-to-the-wall series returns with more action and mayhem like only Johnny Ryan can deliver — again starring CF, the shirtless outer space barbarian antihero who remains damned to the Prison Pit (a vast wasteland beneath the crust of a barren planet, populated by the worst of the worst, where violence is…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 by The Hernandez Brothers 104-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-379-8 This book is available with a signed bookplate as a FREE premium! The bookplate has been uniquely designed for this book, and each bookplate is printed on acid-free cardstock and hand-signed by the author. (Click here for more books available with signed bookplates.) Please select your preference above before adding the item to your shopping cart. Note: Signature plates are VERY limited in quantity and available only WHILE SUPPLIES LAST….

Apropos of our announcement that we're publishing Ah Pook Is Here by William S. Burroughs & Malcolm McNeill next year, here is an award-winning 1994 "Ah Pook" animation directed by Philip Hunt, brought to our attention by Brian Heater.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Remember that kid in school? The one with the pen sketchings on the back of his Trapper Keeper full of wicked violence and jagged lines? Ever wonder what happened to him? Well, he's Johnny Ryan and he's all grown up and making some of the most in your face comics today. Prison Pit is something you have to experience to believe. An artistic achievement in storytelling (most of the pages are wordless) on a pure guttural and simplistic level. Highly recommended for those of you who like a bit of dirt and grit…

Make plans to visit Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle this fall to catch up with the country's most challenging cartoonists, artists and writers. The coming weeks feature the some of the finest in the field. This Saturday, September 11 finds Carol Tyler at the space for an art opening and book signing. On Saturday, October 9 we welcome the incomparable Dave Cooper for an exhibition of original art and book signing, joined by special guest Johnny Ryan. Saturday, October 30 features the triumphant return of Seattle native Charles Burns for a spooky Halloween reception celebrating his new book X'ed…