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[Above, Bryan Talbot takes us to "Grandville." Below, the Dispatch takes you to Funkytown.]

• On Saturday, May 23 SIUniverse Media and Midtown Comics (Times Square) in New York City are hosting a signing with the editors and contributors of SECRET IDENTITIES: The Asian American Superhero Anthology.
• Next weekend, Sunday May 24 is the Brooklyn Comic Book Brunch in NYC, where folks get together to trade comics, nosh, nerd-out and drank some free mimosas – hosted by yours truly.
• Best commencement speaker…ever? Jeff Smith will be giving the commencement speech Saturday at the graduation ceremony for The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.
• The Dresdner Comicfest is this weekend, May 16 in Dresden, Germany. Beeil’ dich!
• Also this weekend, Summer Komikon will be at the University of the Philippines’ Bahay ng Alumni in Diliman Quezon City, Philippines – who knew?
• Bryan Talbot’s gracing the world with a new book, GRANDVILLE, – as Heidi MacDonald puts it in THE BEAT, “best described as a steampunk alternate history mystery with anthropomorphic characters, in the Euro tradition.”
• Fantagraphic’s Johnny Ryan shares in his blog parts of a crazy six-volume comic autobio of a Turkish actor.
• Illustrator Danny Hellman was commissioned to draw Mike Bloomberg for the cover of this week’s Village Voice – a masterpiece!

- Adri Cowan