Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:
• Review: "There is no one remotely like Jim Woodring. I admire dozens of living cartoonists, but Jim's wordless comic book stories… are some of the most mindbending books I've ever read…. Is there a lesson to be learned from Congress of the Animals? What is the meaning behind it, and Woodring's other books? That's the question I'm unable to answer. His comics affect the part of my brain that can think and feel, but cannot verbalize. His comics change me, but I can't say why or how." – Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing
• Review: "Every step along the way is documented thoroughly and honestly, effectively killing any romantic notions I still had about my final years…. Reading [Special Exits] was like watching an incredibly slow train wreck, where you got to know everyone on board before it crashed… Laura was inspiring in that she continued to respond with love and wanted to help." – Dawn Rutherford, The Unshelved Book Club
• Review: "Fantagraphics Books has put out a lot of amazing collections. Most notably, their year-by-year reprinting of the works of America’s greatest philosopher: Charles Schulz. But my new favorite project of theirs has to be the multi-volume Steve Ditko Archives…. The Steve Ditko Archives lovingly and chronologically reproduce large swaths of both Ditko’s pre- and post-code output, highlighting his ability to draw gallons of emotion and inner turmoil in tiny sequential frames…. Ditko is one of the most elusive and complex characters of comics’ golden age, but these volumes (two so far, Strange Suspense and Unexplored Worlds, both with illuminating forwards by Blake Bell) at least give a compelling glimpse into the creative development of the man behind the panels." – singer/songwriter Chris Mills, guest editor at Magnet