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Unfortunately, the Al Columbia event at Desert Island this Friday has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience. That said, pick up PIM & FRANCIE this week at Desert Island or your local comic book store / bookstore of choice! It's a killer. 

Jonas Seaman, whom you may remember from his amazing photos of our Johnny Ryan event last month, is back with a new set of photos from this past weekend's Al Columbia art opening/book signing. Al: Jim Woodring: Al signing an issue of Mome: L to R: Jason Leivian from Floating World Comics in Portland, Al, and comics artists Mike Allred & Matthew Southworth: Many more photos can be seen here; thanks again to Jonas!

 I'm told that Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes' GHOST WORLD film premiered on your local Movies On Demand channel over Halloween weekend. I don't have a local Movies On Demand channel myself, so I'm not really sure how this works but hopefully you can figure it out yourself. If you've never seen it, you owe it to yourself to, and if you have seen it, you know you're probably due for a repeat viewing. 

See a slideshow of the entire exhibit (and more photos) here (or just browse here). Mike Allred was there but I missed him; hopefully more photos will turn up and we'll share those when we get them. Much fun was had by all; thanks to everybody who came out, and to Al for making the trip (and for kicking off volume 3 of my Yoda sketchbook). The show's up through December 9, so even if you missed the opening, come on down and check it out. Good pieces remain at very reasonable prices!

Good evening. Time to present our weekly batch of new online strips… …starting with a visit to ancient Troy in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …continuing with spooky times in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and it's international relations with Barack H. Obama in this week's strip from Steven Weissman!

Dan Zettwoch organized a show of art based on movie villians, which sounds great. But more importantly he made this badass poster. OPENS TONIGHT in SAINT LOUIS. And NEXT WEEK in CHICAGO Jesse LeDoux has a show of paintings at the Rotofugi gallery. I've seen a little of what he's been up to and I would not miss this if I were near that gallery.

Wrapping up another week's worth of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Bookmark: Presenting the newly redesigned BobFingerman.com • Feature: At the Washington Post blog Double X, Sasha Watson recounts the emergence of female underground and alternative cartoonists, talking to Trina Robbins, Carol Tyler, and others, with an accompanying slideshow featuring Tyler, Jessica Abel, Lilli Carré and 10 more • Review: "I really love comics. Reading a collection like Joe Daly's Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, I'm reminded of just why. … It's drawn like a combination of Tintin, Dilbert, and King of the Hill. It's hilarious, both in terms of…

Now available for preview and pre-order following its best-selling debut at APE: Sublife Vol. 2 by John Pham. Continuing the serials "221 Sycamore St." and "Deep Space" from the previous issue, this new installment of the one-man anthology also includes the post-apocalyptic action-adventure tale "The Kid" and a few other one-off short strips. Download an exclusive PDF excerpt of the first 5 pages of "The Kid" right here. This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship sometime later this month and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that (subject to change). View a photo & video…

Online Commentary & Diversions, now with more Tonya Harding than ever: • Review: "Occasionally, there are works of art or literature that defy simple classification. The brain breaks upon them like waves and they give up different secrets with each tide but never all the secrets and never all at once. These creations challenge as much as they entertain and ask for obsession as toll on the road to understanding. The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit is just such an enigma. … Surreal, gorgeous, and both satisfying and confounding, The Squirrel Machine is a hypnotic, occasionally repulsive, always entertaining, and…

Back in June Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth and I were trouble-shooting ideas for packaging "Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons." Most of the ideas were unfeasible or enough of a gimmick that it felt distracting from the work. (Sure an iron maiden clamshell box is funny but do we really want the case to be that cumbersome?) As we axed ideas, so to speak, I kept returning to this classic gag of a man pressed under glass and was interested in how it echoed the idea that we're capturing the legacy of Gahan Wilson within this boxed set. A…