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Publishers Weekly names You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler to its list of Best Books of 2009 — Comics… …and the editors of Amazon.com name Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime Hernandez to their Best Books of 2009: Comics & Graphic Novels Top 10, in the #6 position. (Ed. note: As more end-of-year lists come in, we will collect the listed titles in a 2009 Critics' Picks category in our online shop, as we did for the 2008 Critics' Picks, in addition to noting them here on Flog.)

The blogosphere never rests — it's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Boyreau laments how digital phased out analog when it comes to our movie viewing; has the Internet done the same with his book [Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box] commemorating the losing side of that battle? I say no. It's not just because of the tremendous job Boyreau and Covey did with the cover reproductions, or the lovely, solid paper stock, or the cutesy slipcase. It's because Boyreau is right: the aura of the object is irreplaceable. A book collection of VHS box art contains…

  The November issue of JUXTAPOZ is out, and it's pretty much all Robert Williams, all the time, promoting his new show at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, which opened on Halloween night, as well as our art book/catalog of the show, CONCEPTUAL REALISM: IN THE SERVICE OF THE HYPOTHETICAL, which is available exclusively right now at the Shafrazi gallery, but will be available everywhere else in about a month (and also available for preorder on our own website very soon). The issue is a great one for fans of Robert, the highlight being a particularly lively talk between Williams and Don Ed Hardy (who also wrote an…

You might call it the Crossover Event of the year. You might call it "Maakwood." You might call it an unholy alliance. Ladies and gentlemen, the Achewood guest strip by Tony Millionaire.

From Michael Steven Gregory, on YouTube: "Author Monte Schulz discusses the sale of his critically acclaimed first novel, and his decision to write a better book, This Side of Jordan, at the Southern California Writers' Conference."

Flickr user Moonage Daydreamer has a few photos from the Art of Stan Sakai exhibit (from early 2009) that I hadn't seen before. The anecdote posted with this photo is typical Sakai, one of the truly gracious men of comics.

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.

In a must-read interview at Comic Book Resources, Kiel Phegley talks to the entire editorial staff of The Comics Journal (Mike Dean, Kristy Valenti and el jefe Gary Groth) about the future print and online iterations of the magazine as outlined in our announcement earlier this week. It's quite the scoop, and juicy details and revelations abound!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Like a Dog By Zak Sally One man’s heartfelt and irreverent record of his time on this rock, Zak Sally’s unflinchingly veracious book, Like a Dog, is both direct and oblique, which we find rather miraculous considering the messy and murky waters of human experience it manages to navigate. Like a Dog is among the few comic book testimonials burdened by the yen to understand and articulate the mundane and the magnificent. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself laughing and crying as you claw your way through each hard fought…

We are pleased to debut a brand new weekly strip in this week's webcomics update: The House of No by Mome contributor Derek Van Gieson! These are Derek's rejected New Yorker cartoons, and we'll be adding a new one every week. We'll leave it up to you to guess why they were turned down — for our money, they're pretty damn funny. And in our veteran strips: All-y all-y in-come-free! It's this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and the Zip-a-Toned adventures of Barack H. Obama continue in this week's strip from Steven Weissman!