Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

• USA TODAY Pop Candy names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw the top comic of 2008, with The Lagoon by Lilli Carré at #6 • Rob Clough has a typically thoughtful review of The Lagoon • The Miami Herald casts a favorable eye on Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell and Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly • Tim O'Shea interviews Ivan Brunetti • The Daily Cross Hatch presents part 2 of their interview with Kevin Huizenga • A last-minute Christmas gift from Ellen Forney: free sexy-elf desktop wallpaper!

I just want to give a public salute to our intrepid Fantagraphics staffers who have been braving Seattle Snowpocalypse 2008 for the past week or so (nearly a foot of snowfall in parts of the city, where 2 inches is considered a blizzard, with more coming tomorrow), risking life and limb in hazardous driving conditions and enduring wretched public transportation hassles to keep our office running, our customer service phone line manned (1-800-657-1100, call in your order today), and our bookstore open and staffed, while the rest of us work from home in comfort and safety. Kudos to you, brave souls!

I haven't been posting much this month because I'm working from home part-time and taking some time off to spend with my six-month-old daughter. Plus, we're buried in nearly a foot of snow right now. Earlier this month, a number of comics pundits invited me (along with everyone else in their address books) to contribute to their blogs' "Best of the Year" features, and although I wanted to contribute and prove my good taste — and oh yeah, love — for comics, I blew each and every deadline. But I did attempt to create one and so I thought I'd…

I don't think we've pointed this out yet: The Faded Line Clothing Co. has some very attractively-designed shirts featuring Jim Flora artwork for men, women and youths (and a pretty good deal on our Jim Flora art books, too).

Apparently this dates back to 2005, and I have no idea why it was produced, but this short stop-motion Krazy Kat film (YouTube link) by UK animation studio Banana Park is beautifully animated. Maybe we already Flogged it back in ’05, but it’s certainly worth another look. Found via Joakim Gunnarsson.

• Parka Blogs talks about the Beasts! Print Show • Iconoctlán reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham (Google translation) • MEGATONik looks at Popeye Vol. 2: "Well Blow Me Down!" by E.C. Segar • Comics & Graphic Novels features The Complete Peanuts 1963-1966 Box Set • Sean T. Collins examines The Mystery of Woolverine Woo-Bait by Joe Coleman • Newsarama noted Jack Cole's birthday last week by recommending some books of his work, including ours • Newsarama also previews You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!, our next collection of the comics of Fletcher Hanks (coming next year)…

In Time Out Chicago, this illustrated story from Paul Hornschemeier (with some explication by Paul)… …and this sillier-than-usual illustration from Anders Nilsen (detail below):

This is a must-read and deserves its own post: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon talks with Fantagraphics Vice-President and Co-Publisher Kim Thompson about a range of topics relating to Fantagraphics past and future.

Janice says if you bring the Olive Oyl dress to Comic-Con she will totally wear it.

We linked to this a few days ago, and now we'll go one better and let you listen right here via the widget embedded below: Bill Schelly talks about his book Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert with Bob Andelman on the Mr. Media internet radio program (after the brief commercial message).