* Tom Spurgeon keeps rolling out his holiday interview series on the books of the decade: Here’s Bart Beaty on Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and here’s Kristy Valenti on Peter Maresca’s reprint of Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland strips, So Many Splendid Sundays. In both cases we have critics touting the greatness of works for which there was massive popularity and acclaim but against which there’s been something of a backlash. Of the two I think Valenti does a better job in making the case for Nemo‘s greatness–I would have liked to hear Beaty argue for Satrapi’s art beyond his assertion that the book’s gradually improving draftsmanship mirrors Marjane’s personal growth. But the story of Persepolis‘s reception in France and what it’s meant to L’Association was something I’d never heard, and it’s fascinating.
* Josh Simmons teases “White Rhinoceros,” the graphic novel he and Shaun Partridged will be serializing in MOME. Sounds staid and conservative just like all of his work. [/kidding]
* So does Ron Rege Jr and he’s always posting lovely images like this one on it.
* Aside from strange TCJ.com messageboard-style digression about the evils of assembly-line corporate comics that equates collaboration with corruption, this Ken Parille piece on Daniel Clowes’s Ice Haven–in its original form as Eightball #22, probably the best single issue of any comic ever–is quite good.
* Future time travelers have my permission to revisit me at any point throughout the preceding few years and read this to me aloud, punching me in the face once per word.