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Here's a special blog post from our fearless co-captain, Kim Thompson… Kim, take it away… A shoutout to our buddy Jason, who returned to France last week after a whirlwind tour of the U.S. (New York/Portland/Seattle) to promote his new book LOW MOON and to visit his old haunts (he's lived in all three cities). He manfully signed and sketched for many fans in all three locales despite a persistent miserable cold – a true cartooning hero! This seems like a good time to answer the "what's next" question from Jason fans… Jason and I were so enamored of the LOW MOON format…

From Jim Flora archivist & doyen Irwin Chusid comes the following announcement: Jim Flora Art has released a limited-edition fine art print of a hyperactive 1960s painting entitled THE BIG BANK ROBBERY. This three-tiered tableau depicts characteristic Flora mayhem: inscrutable monsters with misshapen features, Lego architecture, bug-eyed buildings, gumdrop color fills, and — yes — a bank robbery. http://tinyurl.com/flora-bankrobbery Only thirty (30) prints of Big Bank Robbery were produced for this edition, and the first five (5) are available at a launch price of $165 each. Prices will increase for subsequent prints as the edition depletes. Produced by Flora archivist…

From Journalista: Now online for subscribers — and available soon in better bookstore and comics shop shelves nationwide — The Comics Journal #298, chock full of all the comicky goodness you need to get through the summer. Check it out: Diego Assis presents a full-length interview with breakout comic-book stars Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, who discuss their self-publishing apprenticeship in Brazil, their entry into the North American comics scene, their work on such titles as Casanova and The Umbrella Academy, and exactly who does what on their various projects. Shaennon Garrity sits down for a chat with Perry Bible…

A double batch of Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Bdzoom reports that l'Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée (ACBD) has placed Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw on their summer reading shortlist (there's Tardi on there too) • Review: "Nell Brinkley was an icon for several generations of women… The art [in The Brinkley Girls] has been beautifully restored, a task that must have been pure torture given the density of Brinkley's drawings and that sophisticated color work. My hat's off to whoever did that fabulous job." – Allan Holtz, Stripper's Guide • Review: "At one point…

Our head honchos and "the best known good cop/bad cop team in comics today" Gary Groth & Kim Thompson appeared on Bob Andelman's "Mr. Media" interview show on Blog Talk Radio Monday night to talk about all things Fantagraphics. Needless to say, if you have any interest in the history and current state of comics and the comics industry, it’s a must-listen. Listen in streaming audio in the embedded player below or, if you don't roll that way, click the link above.

Don't make me say "tunes & 'toons"! Tonight at 8 PM at Union Pool in Brooklyn, Gabrielle Bell, Michael Kupperman & R. Sikoryak appear alongside 3 bands for a night of interdisciplinary fun:

Apologies for the last-minute alert… according to the official shipping list, Jason's new book Low Moon is scheduled to arrive in comics shops today. As always, check out our bounteous previews and info about the book, confirm availability with your local shop (if they didn't order it, they're chumps), and choogle on down there to snap it up.

Let's see what Online Commentary & Diversions are out there: • Review: "[Michael Kupperman's] work is sublime in the truest sense of the word, speaking to me as a reader in ways that can be discussed and broken down but not quite fully communicated in their Rightness… About the only other humorists who have affected me in the same way were the Marx Brothers… Kupperman saturates each page [of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1] with crazed ideas, bizarre connections, and references that aren't really references. Even a reader who may not be familiar with what Kupperman's (often obliquely) mocking…

Mome contributor and all-around wonderful cartoonist Laura Park is currently soliciting commissions. Send some monetary love, get some delightful art. Ah, commerce!

We are pleased to re-offer one of our most lauded books of 2008 at a newly reduced, affordable sticker price of $45.00. Willie & Joe: The WWII Years By Bill Mauldin; edited by Todd DePastino "The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During World War II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army. Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from 1940 through the end of the war. This collection of…