[Above, Matthew Thurber takes on Ike and Tina. Below, river deep, Dispatch high.]

• The Fart Party’s Julia Wertz will be at Bar Matchless in Brooklyn this Friday at 8:00.  She’s one of five storytellers who will be mining their past for powerful (and perhaps painful) tales around the theme of “The Beach Boys.”
• There’s another comics and drinking sort of event coming up at Union Pool in Brooklyn.  This one’s called “Telling Stories: Fiction In Comics,” and it’s happening this Saturday from 2:00-4:00 PM.  Jessica Abel, Jason Little, and Matthew Thurber will be speaking.
• Illustrator Molly Crabapple is launching the tour for her first graphic novel, Scarlett Takes Manhattan, with a series of steamy July parties, beginning this Wednesday at the Slipper Room in New York.
• Lar and Sohmer, the dudes behind Least I Could Do are planning a four-day binge of comics events in Montreal this August.  The list of cartoonists in attendance continues to grow!
• This Saturday in New York, it’s the Asian American Comicon, from 10:00 to 5:00 at the Museum of Chinese in America.  Only 250 tickets are available, so early registration is highly advised.
• The same goes for “The Persistence of Animation,” an animation studies conference happening this weekend, July 10-12, in Atlanta, Georgia.  Registration ends this Wednesday!
• Charlotte ComiCon, “The Best One Day Family Friendly Comic Show In The Country” is happening this Sunday, from 10:00 to 4:00, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Which American cities have the highest density of cartoonists?  The people deserve to know!  So do your part to help by adding more names to Tom Spurgeon’s list.

–Athena Currier