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You Are There By Jacques Tardi & Jean-Claude Forest THE SATIRICAL MASTERPIECE THAT USHERED IN THE GRAPHIC NOVEL ERA TO EUROPEAN COMICS… FINALLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH One of the earliest full-length, standalone graphic novels to be published in Europe, and certainly one of the best and most original, Ici Même was serialized in the adult French comics monthly (A suivre) in the early 1980s and then released in book form. A quarter of a century later, this dark, funny, consistently surprising masterpiece has finally been translated into English. An unexpected yet smoothly confident collaboration between the darkly cynical Jacques Tardi…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "[The Squirrel Machine is a] darkly disturbing, brilliantly drawn story… B&W pen and ink drawings elucidate complex machines and Victorian-era architecture in baroque detail, while surrealist imaginings take turns for the truly repugnant. Sexual perversion, putrefaction and serial-killer style artworks are all ornately portrayed, as are the buildings, shops, horse-drawn carriages and crumbling mansions of a 19th-century small town. The story, while told primarily in pictures, includes a stilted and formal dialogue that only adds to the perversity. … Though not for the faint of heart, this obscure tale will offer rich rewards to…

Lilli Carré has updated and redesigned her website, home to her comics, illustrations, films, and bewitching "moving drawings." Much lovely strangeness awaits.

Congratulations to Jordan Crane, who took home two bricks last night at the 2009 Ignatz Awards at SPX: Outstanding Comic for Uptight #3 and Outstanding Series for Uptight. Outstanding! Several sites have the complete list of winners — we'll link to The Daily Cross Hatch since they have video of the ceremony. And don't forget, all of our 2009 Ignatz Award nominees are still on sale for 15% off!

Friday PM is webcomics time! Thus begins a lifelong journey in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. Back to the color! Back to the gags! Back to the standalone strips from Steven Weissman's Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures! This week coins a phrase that I might have to incorporate into my vocabulary…. Breakups, Bruce Lee, and two extra-big strips in our Monday-Friday Rocky strips by Martin Kellerman. Enjoy!

First Online Commentary & Diversions post from my shiny new computer: • Profile: "Published in 1982, the [Hernandez] brothers’ Love and Rockets #1 is considered to mark a creative resurgence in comics, and for good reason. From the beginning the Bros. produced work that was subversive and masterfully crafted, combining the punk ethos with their own crisp intelligence." – Molly Young, We Love You So (the official blog of the Where the Wild Things Are movie — !!!) • Review: "…Jaime [Hernandez]… confirm[s] my beliefs in the heights of his cartooning powers as he delivers the finale to a raucous,…

Washingtonians, don't forget Tony Millionaire is in Puyallup tonight (we can only hope he goes to the Puyallup Fair in that getup) and Seattle tomorrow night with Chris Onstad. (Details here.) Here they are at Powell's Books in Portland OR on Wednesday. Photo courtesy Tugboat Press.

Heads up, it's today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "West Coast Blues is an adaptation of a 70s crime novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette (Le Petit Bleu de la Côte Ouest), and it is a reminder of how good they did paranoid crime thrillers in the 70s. It is also a reminder of how good Tardi has done comics for forty years. …Tardi's remarkable energy and range as a visual storyteller… will have you gobbling this book up in one gigantic gulp and then going back to appreciate the details and the nuance." – Jared Gardner, Guttergeek • Reviews/Preview: The…

Ted Stearn has launched a new, improved version of his website and it's chock full of comics, examples of his animation and illustration work, samples from his sketchbook (such as the above), news, info, and things you can buy from him. Swell!

Online Commentary & Diversions, short but sweet: • Plug: "Fantagraphics Books is now reissuing the first two years of Prince Valiant in the rich original colors — the pages are reproduced from Foster’s own engraver’s proofs. Every panel packs a one-two punch. A witch named Horrit once prophesied that Val would 'never know contentment,' but fans of the strip will find it here." – Cullen Murphy, Vanity Fair • Review: "There hasn't been a bad time to be a fan of Los Bros Hernandez since they started making comics almost 30 years ago, but it's sure a good time to…