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No new Fantagraphics releases are scheduled to arrive in comic shops this week. If anything ships next week, we'll let you know right here on Flog…

Petey & Pussy By John Kerschbaum LOONEY TUNES MEETS LUIS BUÑUEL IN THIS GRAPHIC NOVEL DEBUT Petey and Pussy, John Kerschbaum’s new graphic novel, reads very much like a Loony Tunes cartoon — if all of the anthropomorphic animals were kvetching, balding, foul-mouthed misanthropes. Each character is articulate (and, in fact, can speak directly to humans, well enough to order a beer) but still recognizably have the traits associated with their respective species: Pete, the dog, is happy-go-lucky; Pussy, the cat, is self-centered; and Bernie, the bird, is high-strung and constantly a-twitter. Together, they are the pets of a sweet…

The Lagoon By Lilli Carré A family is seduced by a mysterious creature's siren song that can be heard emanating from the lagoon after dark in talented young cartoonist Lilli Carré’s first long-form work, and how each member reacts to the song in The Lagoon is the crux of the story. For the wise — or pixilated — Grandpa, the song reminds him that, in the time he has left, he must pause to respect, appreciate, and fear nature. The song hints at something that Zoey, the daughter, is too young to fully grasp. And the song lures the sexually…

Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville By Ted Stearn Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville tells the hilariously bizarre adventures of Pluck, an irritable and featherless rooster, and his best pal, the awkwardly unsocialized but lovable teddy bear known as Fuzz. These two usually inseparable and co-dependent misfits find themselves suddenly separated and alone. Pluck vows to establish his place in the world's pecking order by becoming a champion gladiator, while the more demure Fuzz finds himself a POW in a stuffed animal collection, only to escape and befriend a mercurial ferryman who recruits him for an impossible task. These absurdities pile on and…

Post-APE catch-up! • We haven't had a chance to listen to this ourselves yet, but we are told that British comedy genius and known Fantagraphics fan Graham Linehan (Big Train, The IT Crowd, Father Ted) sings our praises in this interview with The Sound of Young America • Flickr users Inkyhack and Christopher Diaz (a.k.a. "mr. diazzler") share their APE photos • Publishers Weekly "Comics Week" reviews David Levine's American Presidents just in time for Election Day (scroll about halfway down) • Reason reviews Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester by Bob Levin…

Congratulations are also in order to Dash Shaw and Jaime Hernandez for their books, The Bottomless Belly Button and The Education of Hopey Glass(respectively), being named to Publishers Weekly's Best Graphic Novels of the Year list. 

Congratulations to Dash Shaw for his graphic novel, The Bottomless Belly Button, being named #4 on Amazon.com's editors' list of Best Graphic Novels of 2008. The book also made Amazon's Top 100 books of the year, coming in at #78. 

Ladies & gents, introducing Eddie Altergott!