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Some major comics writing out there over the holiday weekend making for an extra-beefy (and late) Online Commentary & Diversions update: •Review/Profile: "Sure I'd read [Hal] Foster before, but I'd never found a way in. Fortunately, Fantagraphics recently released Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-38, and I was able to absorb the material in a wholly new way…. I found this first book completely engrossing. Prince Valiant opens up a world that I wanted to stay in — a wide-eyed early 20th century approach to fantasy with a now-vanished sincerity and wholesomeness. It's an all too rare pleasure in comics." –…

Rachel Maddow tells Jimmy Fallon and the NBC viewing audience that she weathered swine flu by reading what could only be Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco last week in this video clip from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (please pardon the commercial; hat tip to The Daily Cross Hatch).

Things From Another World has two exclusive previews of upcoming Fantagraphics books up today! First up, Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days by Al Columbia — in the brief profile of Al they posted on their blog they say "This is a stunning collection, offering an up-close-and-personal look at Columbia’s artistic mastery – and his psyche – that is impossible to ignore." Next up, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD by Dash Shaw, collecting his Mome short stories and prep art for his IFC.com animation.

Drew Friedman and Jerry Lewis in Las Vegas this past weekend, backstage at the MDA telethon. 

  Please join the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA forABSTRACT COMICS: a panel discussionSaturday, September 12th, 4 p.m. 2009Admission: $5 | Free for MoCCA Members featuringDerik BadmanRichard HahnPatrick McDonnellAndrei Molotiu Anders PearsonHenrik RehrAlexey Sokolin Join MoCCA for a discussion about Abstract Comics: what they are, who is making them and why. Abstract Comics explores what is essential to the medium of comics – panel rhythm, page layout, the sequential arrangement of formal elements – and tells us how comics function and where they can go. This talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition Silent Pictures at James Gallery, CUNY,…

  Event: PERSONALITY PARADE "Pop Cult® Paintings by Jim Blanchard"What: Art OpeningHost: Jim BlanchardStart Time: Friday, September 11 at 6:00pmEnd Time: Friday, September 11 at 9:00pmWhere: Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, WA Jim Blanchard debuts a dozen new portrait paintings and who knows what else at the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle this Friday, September 11 (and through October 3).  Jim says, "This series of paintings  was done using a technique that simulates the grid effect of the 'sticker paintings' I did for Roq La Rue years ago– The subjects are: Lee Marvin, Klaus Kinski, Diana Rigg, Clint Eastwood, Marty Feldman,…

Join Editor Andrei Molotiu, Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, and others this Thursday afternoon at Jim Hanley's Universe for an exciting ABSTRACT COMICS signing!    WHAT: ABSTRACT COMICS signing WHO:  Andrei Molotiu Patrick McDonnellRichard HahnGeoff GroganHenrik RehrAlexey SokolinAnders Pearson WHEN: Thursday Sept. 10, 5PM WHERE: Jim Hanley's Universe, New York City 

Next week's Not To Be Missed Event: Paul Karasik and "The Fletcher Hanks Experience," an illustrated tour over the brutally surreal Hanks mindscape narrated by the late Fletcher Hanks, Jr.  Part visionary lunatic, part vengeful alcoholic, part cartoonist, Fletcher Hanks created the weirdest comic book stories of all time. And he did them back before anyone even knew what a comic book really was. Hanks worked during the first three years of the comic book industry and then vanished leaving behind 51 twisted tales of omnipotent superheroes and sexy jungle godesses. Unlike most comic book artists, Hanks was a genuine auteur: he wrote, pencilled, inked,…

Start your Labor Day weekend off with some webcomics! The next panel is an explosion of sound effects in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan… This week it's the penultimate installment of Steven Weissman's "Blue Jay," an epic 51-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures…. And Rocky tries fishing and goes to see Ghost World in our Monday-Friday Rocky strips by Martin Kellerman. Enjoy!

Have a great holiday weekend in the USA; Online Commentary & Diversions updates will resume on Tuesday. • Review: "If there is a 'true truth' in relation to Jason it is that the Nordic author can resist no genre. From Western noir to science fiction of manners, everything passes through his own personal, non-transferable filter to offer these stories, parsimonious in words but full of 'depth charge.' Low Moon… is no exception to this maxim." – Alita Cómics (translated from Spanish) • Review: Chris Mautner of Robot 6 says Nikoline Werdelin's story "Because I Love You So Much" in From…