[Above, comics artists to conquer public transit stations, next, the world! Below, the dispatch takes a walk through the feed reader]

• The grocery store check-out line is not a library: A four-page Entertainment Weekly comic strip in which Alison Bechdel, the author of must-read graphic novel “Fun Home,” talks about not being able to read things other people push onto her.
• Every time our own Brian Heater is interviewed by some random blogger, he can’t help but plug his favorite pet project, the DCH. But we’re not complaining.
• Go sit in on Brian Hughes’ Peter Bagge 101 course, given at his blog Again With the Comics.
• You know what happens when comics award nominees are announced? SALE!!!
• Ellen Forney + Public Transportation = Giant Hand Murals.
• Dash Shaw continues his streak of ubiquity: New York Magazine excerpts Bottomless Belly Button and interviews Shaw, who also gets it on with Bookslut.
• New York Magazine’s Culture Vulture delivers a heaping week’s full of full-length comic strips from the Meathaus collective.
• Coco Wang chronicles the Sichuan, China earthquake in comic form.
• First, clever use of the office paper recycle bin. Second, it’s sad that this speaks to me even though I am no longer cubicle-bound. The life just gets inside of you and clings to you forever.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, what's he grinning about? Below, just your usual dispatch]

• Box Brown’s comic Bellen just turned two years old!
• Permagel: New book of gloriously twisted art from Charles Burns.
• Molly Crabapple brings you Victorian age papparazi drama in Act-i-vates latest addition Backstage.
• Largehearted Boy talks music with Dash Shaw.
• Ivan Brunetti curates another anthology of comics by 75 different artists.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, a fresh batch mini-comics from the Lutefisk series. Below, the dispatch du jour.]

• Be ready at the door with this list of Free Comic Book Day offerings.
• How’s the weather in Minnesota? Good day to see a show featuring 50 cartoonists packed into a Bento box?
• Cartoonist takes advice on how not to draw like Daniel Clowes.
• Anders Nilsen gives us the monologuist.
• Hope Larson enters the NSFW zone. (via The Beat)
• Johnny Ryan Font = Hours of Fun. (via Flog)
• Gary Panter talks about how he put together his latest book.
• Comics Reporter makes it easy to live vicariously through this year’s Stumptown attendees.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, a member of the Loony clan from Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button. Below, a dispatch with a hard shell and a soft creamy center.]

• Get inside the mind of Dash Shaw through this desktop wallpaper.
• Fox Hollow: Fantagraphics house band?
• Throw your name into a drawing for artwork from Joe Infurnari’s The Process.
• CCS grads provide variations on a theme with “Sorry,” a new anthology available at the “I Know Joe Kimpel” store.
• Comic celebrities through the Seth Kushner’s camera lens.
• Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, Warren Pleece, Dave Marshall bring a bite out of the lives of your average, teenaged vampires in Life Sucks.
• Warren Craghead takes the Ikea approach to mini-comic content delivery.
• Previews of Dash Shaw’s 720-page comedy/mystery, Bottomless Belly Button, are available on his website and Fantagraphic’s flickr.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, Aqua Leung gets a drink at the Village Pourhouse. Below, a great week in links]

• Your favorite cartoonists will have drawing pen in one hand, and a beer in the other at the Village Pourhouse (in New York) next Tuesday, April 15, as they support the Comic Book Legal Defense cause and ogle Paul Maybury’s new comic book Aqua Leung.
• The only way to mind somebody else’s business is by reading about it in a comic. Take a peek at the limited edition Tomine wedding tell-all.
• My hometown (Los Angeles) PBS station KCET recently interviewed Jaime Hernandez, Esther Pearl Watson, and Johnny Ryan.
• Blogger Jeet Heer gives Francois Mouly much deserved props for her work in promoting the comics medium. (via the Beat)
• Take some time to look through the gallery of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez.
• Wow. Jeopardy guy Ken Jennings might just know the answer to all your comics-related trivia. (via Flog)
• Smith magazine starts up a new comics series edited by Dean Haspiel.
• Oliver East gives is it away for free. Mini-comics, that is. (via Comics Reporter)
• An interview with Leah Hayes, who does a comic in scratchboard technique.
• NY Magazine takes you inside Josh Simmon’s Jessica Farm.
• For those who collect pictures of toys, here’s one of a giant Enid head.
• Times features Cambodian cartoonist Ing Phousera, or Séra.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, Hope Larson's entry in the Tori Amos tribute anthology. Below, dispatch morsels from this week.]

• WFSB Eyewitness News in Hartford, CT learns “weird is good” with the help of Bill Griffith and Zippy the Pinhead.
• Bryan Lee O’Malley ate sushi with Michael Cera.
• Cartoonists re-imagine the songs of Tori Amos, herself a comic book fan.
• Justin Green love makes the blog rounds. Jim Woodring recommends an exhibition of Green’s original art at Shake it Records in Cincinnati, while the Thought Balloonists reread Binky Brown.
• Which cute lil’ guy has made his way to your heart? Today is your last chance to vote. You can only vote for one!

–Elizabeth Chou

[Above, Matt Kindt takes a page from Dorothy Parker. Below, a Dispatch with lots of interviews and links to pretty pictures]

• Illustration.org talks to Mome regular Robert Goodin.
• Steven StWalley of the StWallSkull blog writes an ode to Kevin Cannon. But you don’t have to take his word for it.
• One of those mainstream media stories about the greatness of comics. The writer even dug up a great picture of a dynamite young couple–Art Spiegleman and Francoise Mouly.
• Chris Mautner posts the interview transcript for his feature on Jeff Smith and his new book RASL!
• Kristy Valenti finishes up her interview with Matt Kindt, author of Super Spy. The first part is here.
• Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, and Dan Zettwoch team up to produce a weekly comic strip.
• For those who can’t seem to get enough of Charles Burns, this time translated from the French.
  Cartoonists and illustrators render their favorite literary figures.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, A Comic by Dakota McFadzean. Below, A Dispatch by DCH]

• It’s okay to drool on these fashionable Cathy Malkasian baby bibs.
• Wall Street Journal profiles Paul Pope and talks about his foray into fashion.
• Expozine awards the best at its 2008 event. To sample some of the talent, check out the works of Dakota McFadzean, Malcom Sutherland, and John Martz.
• IFC has picked up the collection of suspenseful, eerie, nocturnally-inspired animation shorts, Fear(s) of the Dark. There are six different shorts by six different artists. Richard Maguire is one of them.
• CBR previews 21, a biography of baseball hero Roberto Clemente.
• Last month Anthem did Gary Panter. This month they interview Jaime Hernandez.
• Adrian Tomine sits. And when he moves his mouth, sound comes out of it. No speech bubbles, though. (Video Alert!)
• Comics Journal is making its latest issue free for a whole week. Come and get it.

-Elizabeth Chou

[Above, panels from Sam Henderson's Magic Whistle. Below, your humble guide...]

• KGB Bar is hosting its’ annual Easter Comix Reading. Full of laughter and a sip of drama, the festivities start at 7pm March 23^rd. Scheduled to appear: Julia Wertz, Liz Baillie, Sam Henderson, Jason Little, & Tom Hart. Oh, and there’s no cover, but “refreshments”, i.e. beer, is available.
• Animation Invasion! The New York Animation Society ASIFA- East has announced the dates for 3 screenings in March of student, sponsored, and independent animation films. To be held at the School of Visual Arts, members cast their votes for their favorite films. Democracy in action!
• Also in the world of animation, the “Women’s Side of Sex: Animated” event will be held March 22 at the Millennium Film Workshop. This event highlights women film makers exploring the sexual side of life.
• Jeff Smith’s Bone was acquired by Warner Bros. to produce a movie. Whether we see the people of Boneville in live-action, or animated has yet to be decided.
• Shocker Toys brings your favorite (at least some of them) independent superheroes to super-poseable, miniature scale life. Their new Indie Spotlight will produce such characters as Jim Valentino’s Shadowhawk, Rob Schrab’s Scud, Terrry Moore’s Katchoo, David Mack’s Kabuki, and many more, and that’s just Series 1. The figures are due out June/July ’08.
• The first images for Watchmen have been released. At least Nite-Owl doesn’t look like a big brown turd walking around the set. Gasp! Ozymandius has nipples. Please don’t screw this up.

-Jason Owen

[Above, a page from the Inkspot Chronicles. Below, the infamous Dispatch.]

• Stumptown Fest sells out. The demand for exhibitor tables has been incredible, selling out a day before the “early-bird” specials flew the coop.
• Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is hosting a fundraiser with a launch party for the Best Erotic Comics 2008. The event will be held at Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Houston St. in NYC. The collection features work by some of today’s top talent and will have comedians there to “act-out” these wild fantasies. Titillating!
• Plagiarism runs wild at Vertigo. The publisher is in some serious lawsuit trouble, OR this guy has way to much time to play with Photoshop at work.
• Out later this year, The Inkspot Monologues, from The Friday Project. The book chronicles a therapist’s attempts to help Jack and Alice “exorcise their unsuccessful romantic relationships.”
• Brian Andersen does Perez Hilton. The artist commissioned a piece for Hilton’s site and Hilton gave a shout out to Andersen’s own So Super Duper site.
• The 2008 Glyph Award Nominees have been named. The Awards honor the best in black comics and creators.

-Jason Owen