Things to see: 3/30/10

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • More kids-book spoofs from the dream team of Johnny Ryan & Julia Wertz • Speaking of Johnny, he uploaded this E.T.-meets-Destro drawing without explanation • Various sketch ephemera from Anders Nilsen • Renee French celebrates 2 years of daily art-blogging today and the world reaps all the reward

Daily OCD: 3/30/10

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Flashlight Worthy asks various comics bloggers to name some Great Graphic Novels By Women About Women: David Welsh says "[Linda] Medley's Castle Waiting is as funny and generous a mash-up of fairy tale and feminism was you could wish for. … Medley focuses on quiet moments that reveal character rather than constructed intersections of fairy-tale tropes. Her small observations about human (or mostly human) nature are always warm and potent…" • Review: Comics Comics' Joe McCulloch looks back at Paul Ollswang's out-of-print 1992 comic Doofer: Pathway to McEarth: "I’d say they don’t make ‘em…

Gary Groth: The Early Years, Part 3 (Fantastic Fanzine #12, 1970)

At ComicAttack.net, Ken Meyer Jr. looks at another piece of historical Gary Groth juvenilia, the 12th issue of Fantastic Fanzine from 1970 (that's the full-color cover by Robert Kline above), saying "I hope you will be interested in all the elements that make this fanzine such a great representative of the enthusiasm, the imagination, the skills, and the fun that fueled fandom at this time." You can download the whole issue as a 62.1 MB PDF file at the link.

Warehouse find: Jim Vol. II #1-6 Pack by Jim Woodring, with Signed Plate

Discovered in a cranny in our warehouse: Jim Vol. II #1-6 Pack by Jim Woodring six 24-page b&w/color comic books with signed plate • $20.00 UPDATE: Sold Out! It is with pride and pleasure that Fantagraphics Books presents the second "volume" of Jim, Jim Woodring's comix autojournal. Combining the best aspects of Woodring's now out-of-print Jim magazine (most of which is available in The Book of Jim) with his work in Tantalizing Stories, the new Jim was released on a regular quarterly basis in the deluxe part-color Eightball format. Woodring's work in Jim is derived primarily from his richly detailed…

Things to see: 3/29/10

Daily clips & strips — click for improved viewing at the sources: • Dame Darcy is selling framed original spot illustrations from Frightful Fairytales in her Etsy shop for crazy cheap (if they're not already all sold). How can you resist Zombie Jesus? • Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond keeps bubbling along with Kevin Huizenga's latest • Thank goodness Renee French is giving the teeth a rest — this guy's name is Rocky • From Hans Rickheit, page 17 of Ectopiary and another unpublished Cochlea & Eustachia strip • All those nutty Derek Van Gieson pages I've been…

Daily OCD: 3/29/10

Online Commentary & Diversons: • Review: "A marvel… [Supermen!] is a non-stop visual delight as much for the art as for the colors as for the audacious (sometimes by default) layouts: A way of doing comics that would soon disappear and would return only in the 1960s and 1970s with the ascent of American underground comics, for the early days of comic books were like the underground: Everything was possible, especially the impossible. You absolutely must buy this book…" – Jean-Pierre Dionnet (co-founder, Les Humanoïdes Associés; translated from French) • Review: "King of the Flies is a very surreal and…

The Best American Comics Criticism – Previews, Pre-Order

The Best American Comics Criticism Edited by Ben Schwartz; cover illustrations by Drew Friedman 360-page 6" x 9" illustrated (b&w) softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-148-0 Ships in: May 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Whether you choose to call them “comics lit,” “graphic novels,” or just “thick comic books,” book-length narratives told in words and pictures confidently elbowed their way into the cultural spotlight in the first decade of this new millennium — beginning with the simultaneous 2001 release of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and Daniel Clowes’ David Boring, and continuing on through ground-breaking and…

Honk Fest West Joins the Georgetown Art Attack on April 10

The wildly entertaining Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack gets rowdy on April 10 with the inclusion of Honk Fest West. In addition to countless art exhibitions, open art studios, performances, workshops and demonstrations, the Art Attack welcomes more than 20 eccentric marching bands from all over the country. The cacophonous Honk Fest West features free performances at several locations throughout the historic industrial arts quarter.   The diverse Art Attack programming on April 10 includes: Arun Sharma’s "(de)composition" autobiographical sculpture and film installations at Georgetown Arts and Cultural Center; open salons at Equinox Studios including a blacksmithing demonstration by Lisa…