The latest Online Commentary & Diversions:
• Review: "Known to her classmates at Georgia State College for Women as 'the cartoon girl,' Flannery O'Connor provided satirical illustrations GSCW's student newspaper, The Colonnade, and other school publications while earning a social sciences degree and planning a career in journalism. Executed in the high-contrast technique of linoleum cut from the fall of 1942 until her graduation in 1945, her cartoons skewering the denizens of the Milledgeville campus — roughly drawn but formally dynamic, and often accompanied by punchy, dialogue-driven captions — are the subject of a revelatory new book by O'Connor scholar Kelly Gerald…. While her cartoons only hint at the fully drawn grotesques of O'Connor's mature fiction, they foreshadow her vividly imagistic prose and close observation of her characters' quirks and foibles-and, in their own right, they are delightful." – Stephen Maine, Art in America
• Review (Audio): What better way to kick off the pilot episode of Comics Books Are Burning in Hell, the new podcast joint by Matt Seneca, Joe McCulloch and Tucker Stone, than with a discussion of Josh Simmons's The Furry Trap?
• Review: Nación del Comic looks at Kolor Klimax: Nordic Comics Now. Salient quote as translated by KK editor Matthias Wivel: "I think those who like independent and alternative comics will like it a lot"
• Profile: At Hogan's Alley, Ron Goulart examines the "brief but legendary run" of Jack Cole's newspaper strip Betsy and Me (via TCJ.com)
• Commentary: At Bleeding Cool, Cameron Hatheway gives his picks for the 2012 Eisner Awards, selecting our Prince Valiant collections for the win in Best Archival Collection/Project – Strips: "If it’s one thing Fantagraphics knows how to do, it’s superb high quality hardcovers of collected works. …Fantagraphics continues to give you the most bang for your buck with this Hal Foster classic series. One of the reasons the art looks much cleaner than previous softcover collections is because Fantagraphics obtained access to Foster’s own collection of the pristine art proofs, housed at Syracuse University. It’s that attention to detail and commitment that just scream ‘Eisner worthy’ in my opinion."