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Chock full o' Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The third volume of this comics anthology is a whirl-a-gig of vivid color, giddy fun, black angst, and hauntingly disturbing images… The volume brings together carefully crafted stories with eye-searing artwork, packed with scatological humor, violence, and disquieting sexual acts… Hotwire Comics 3 is not for the faint of heart, but those who love underground comics or want an introduction to that world as it stands today, will embrace the volume." – Publishers Weekly • Review: "Classic kid comics are evoked with a weird, horror-inspired twist in [Chocolate Cheeks]… Weissman has…

Cartoonist Mark Bodé talks about his cartoonist dad, underground icon Vaughn Bodé, in this video for WalrusTV (the video content arm of streetwear purveyors Upper Playground). Link trail: Journalista ← Mike Lynch ← WalrusTV

Now available in an open edition, signed by artist Drew Friedman, only 40 bucks from Drew Friedman Fine Art: all hail Kippy Spagenbusch! Kippy's bio is worth a million bucks and they're giving that away for free.

Speaking of Desert Island, they had a packed house for their Hotwire Comics Vol. 3 release party on Friday night, as these photos they posted on Flickr attest! Thanks to Gabe, Glenn and the gang for putting on a great event.

Now available at Desert Island in Brooklyn! Just in time for Vermalentine's Day.

Congratulations to Joe Daly, whose Dungeon Quest: Book 1 (already published by our friends at L'Association in France and coming this Spring from Fantagraphics) received the Prix special du Jury at the Festival International de la Bande Desinée d'Angoulême over the weekend. See The Comics Reporter (or any number of other sites) for the complete list of prize winners.

Peter Bagge held forth to an appreciative crowd at Seattle's Central Library on Saturday to close out this month's Comixtravaganza programming at SPL, presenting a slideshow and discussing his work and career, followed by a lively Q&A session. Check out photos of the whole slideshow on our Flickr page, including a couple of shots of David Lasky (Hotwire) and Greg Stump (The Comics Journal) leading an all-ages comics workshop. SPL should be posting the audio from Peter's talk on their website soon — we'll let you know when that's up (and if we're feeling ambitious, maybe we'll make a video…

Friday nite webcomics party… new weekly strips for you… The last of three sequential bar gags in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …your situation may be desperate, little guy, but that's probably not a good idea in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and unless I'm mistaken this is Michelle's first appearance in Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman.

Not many Online Commentary & Diversions links today but they're high-powered: • List: Matthew J. Brady posts his top-20 Best Comics of 2009, with You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler at #10 ("It's an artful mix, matching a biographer's insight for detail with beautifully-flowing art and real emotions.  If the next two volumes are this good, Tyler's work will be a modern classic, one for others to study for years.") and Low Moon by Jason at #8 ("It's funny, poignant, and, as always, full of insight about humanity, even though everyone is a…

The new issue of Johnny's self-published series is now available from his online shop!