Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:
• List: Nick Gazin reluctantly does a Top Ten Comics of 2011 for VICE, including…
#3 Popeye Vol. 5: Wha's A Jeep by E.C. Segar
#4 Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks
…with "All of Fantagraphics' reprint books especially Pogo, Peanuts, and Prince Valiant" in the "Also Good" category
• List: Chris Mautner's list of "12 Comics to Look Forward to in 2012" at Robot 6 includes our first volume of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby: "Johnson’s wonderful, vastly underrated comic strip about a little boy and his underperforming fairy godfather is finally, finally being collected. Can’t wait."
• Commentary: At VICE, Bob Nickas looks at Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson by Kevin Avery ("With it, one of the most thoughtful, soulful, and articulate writers on music in the 60s and 70s has been revived") and uses it as a springboard to examine the respective careers and legacies of Nelson and Patti Smith