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R.I.P.

Poster by Tim Silbaugh.  

Time for a new installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. In this week's episode: a brief solemn moment. (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

In anticipation of Halloween, Playboy presents a gallery of classic cartoons by Gahan Wilson, along with a handful of interview features. They also spill the beans on Fantagraphics' upcoming collection of every cartoon Wilson ever published in Playboy, a 3-volume hardcover slipcased set due next October, in time for Halloween 2009! Yow! (Having been a fan of Wilson's work since I was a little kid reading Matthew Looney books, I personally can't wait for this set!)

The Internet weighs in on our books this week: • The Times names Daddy's Girl by Debbie Drechsler and Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes two of "the summer's best graphic novels" • NPR.org reviews and excerpts Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw; Sean T. Collins calls BBB "a deeply pleasurable, and rewarding, read" • Sean T. Collins also digs into Mome Vol. 12 • Chris Allen reviews Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell • Jeff Lester thinks Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 is so nice, he reviews it twice: once for The…

Mome contributor Andrice Arp has an art show opening at Secret Headquarters in L.A. on Friday Sept. 19. More info here.

Jeremy Eaton is selling two dozen gouache drawings (including those seen above) in a one-night only studio show/sale, Sept. 13, 6-9 p.m. The same work will be available online at the same time (go to Comic Book Collective), but those in attendance at the opening get a special "locals only" price. His studio is at 521 NW 43rd St., Seattle, WA 98107 (north side storefront of the big blue building at the junction of 6th Ave. NW & 43rd, just across from Hale's Brewery, on Leary Ave.). Seattlites best know Eaton as the illustrator of The Stranger's I Love Television column, as…

  Patrick Rosenkranz, comix historian and the author of the comprehensive tome Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975, will give a lecture about R. Crumb's work and the trangressive movement that it helped define, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia next Wednesday, Sept. 17. The lecture is in conjunction with "R. Crumb's Underground," which opened last Friday and continues through Dec. 7 at the Institute of Contemporary Art (118 South 36th Street, Philadelphia) after previous stints in Seattle and California. Rosenkranz will also appear at Robin's Bookstore in Center City at noon on Sept. 17th.

… is gonna knock baseball fans' socks off. Some of the most crackling baseball action in comics I've ever seen (and there's more than you'd think).