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For the month of March, we're helping you put some bunny in your basket for Easter and beyond by offering 20% off all Usagi Yojimbo titles! Brimming with exciting swordfights, authentic locales and costumes, drama and humor, Stan Sakai's tales of a rabbit ronin (with a colorful cast of his allies and foes) is an all-ages classic that will get the kids in your life hooked on great comic storytelling. Stock up now for holidays, birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs… and extra copies to keep for yourself. (Sale ends 11:59 PM Pacific time, March 31, 2008.)

It's crazy hectic here at Fantagraphics so I only have a moment to thank all the people submitting art to the open call slot in BEASTS! Book Two. Deadline is Monday morning when I come into the office (I originally said March 1st but that's a Saturday). I'm pretty amazed and grateful at the response (170 submissions already) and have no idea how I'll choose the art to be published. THANKS EVERYONE! * That beautiful piece above submitted by Ian Huebert. (His site www.themilkmachine.com is not currently up.)

It's your Leap Day installment of Steven Weissman's "Chocolate Cheeks!" In this week's strip: an update on the condition of Lumpy Noodle. (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

From the Never In America files: an Australian publisher is using a Jim Blanchard piece from Glam Warp in a high school history textbook. More info and larger image at Jim's blog.

From Variety: "To learn how to format a screenplay, [Diablo] Cody picked up a shooting script for Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World at a local bookstore."

LUST: Kinky Online Personal Ads from Seattle's The StrangerBy Ellen Forney Multimedia reading and performancePlus! Dazzling dancer Fuschia FoXXX! (Voted one of the Stranger's "Sexiest Citizens"!) Scantily-clad boy AND girl sirens, including Holly Chernobyl! (Also voted one of the Stranger's "Sexiest Citizens"!) Chocolate kisses! More!! Thursday, February 28, 7pmBailey/Coy Books414 Broadway Ave. E. (across from QFC) Ellen Forney's follow-up to her wildly popular I Love Led Zeppelin is a collection of cartoons celebrating the sometimes stunningly crude, sometimes surprisingly sweet online world of kinky personal classifieds. Forney has for several years been illustrating the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger's "Lustlab" classified ads by interpreting the most…

This week's free preview is a downloadable 10-page excerpt from Jessica Farm Vol. 1, the first installment in a life-spanning epic by House author Josh Simmons. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. (As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up…)

  The Northwest Film Forum, Seattle's non-profit cinematheque with two screens located on Capitol Hill, along with a little help from their friends at Fantagraphics Books, is presenting a trio of film adaptations of classic comic strips. These family-friendly versions of DICK TRACY, ANNIE, and POPEYE are sure to win the hearts of new young viewers. These films will be a treat for parents too; they revisit the peculiar results of the unlikely directoral assignments for John Houston, (ANNIE), Robert Altman (POPEYE) and Warren Beatty (DICK TRACY). Also, all attendees of the series will receive a 20% off coupon to the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, where you…

More of our Spring 2008 releases are now available for pre-order! Pictured above: the fifth and final issue of Ted Stearn's mini-series Fuzz & Pluck in Splitsville; the first installment of Josh Simmons's multi-decade epic Jessica Farm; The Comics Journal #289, featuring Robert Kirkman on Marvel Zombies and much more; and Castle Waiting Vol. II #11 by Linda Medley. Below: the new, revised, expanded version of Rebel Visions; Bottomless Belly Button, the massive new graphic novel by Dash Shaw (with dual covers); the final (for now) installment of our Love and Rockets Library series, Amor Y Cohetes, collecting all the…

"I was at Bob Kane's funeral," Mark Evanier said. "There were only four people from comics there: me, Stan Lee, Mike Barr and Paul Smith. A whole bunch of Batman toys were put into Kane's coffin and they were lowering it down. As Kane was being put into the ground, Stan turned around to me and said ‘Steve Ditko was the best inker Jack Kirby ever had.'" This anecdote is so sad and poignant on so many different levels, it just breaks my heart. I don't think I've ever felt more empathy for Stan Lee. Link via Ian Brill, bless him.