More primate themed art from Gorillaz team

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn designed characters based on a 16th-century Chinese tale for the opening sequence of BBC's Olympic coverage. More here. Larger images here.

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Cassanova/ Paper Planes

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba ink Casanova to the sounds of MIA. Is anyone else surprised that they pencil their names in before signing their work?

The Muppets take "Manhattan"

Forget Jason Segel- the next Muppets movie should be done by Woody Allen.

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Elvis to barbers: "Shazam!"

James Robinson on the Elvis/Captain Marvel connection:

So Elvis Presley wanted a unique haircut. And at the time, in the fifties, especially in Memphis, he couldn’t get it because everything was short, back and sides. So he would go into ladies hair salons with copies of ‘Captain Marvel Jr.,’ show them Captain Marvel’s haircut and that’s the original look of Elvis. And when you think about Elvis later, Vegas Elvis, with the cape, think about it in your head, turn into red and gold or blue and gold and it’s a Captain Marvel costume.

Read the rest of Robinson's interview about assembling his new Justice League team and his upcoming run on Superman.

Original Spidey Logo Revealed!

Ditko's intended "Spiderman" logo (no hyphen) was hidden beneath a paste-up. Read more about the difference between the artwork and the printed page at Blake Bell's website, Ditko Looked Up.

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Tekkonkinkreet

Manga artist Taiyō Matsumoto bio here.
Studio 4°C official site here.
"Making of" interview with Studio 4°C 's Eiko Tanaka here.
Interview with director Michael Arias here.
Can a westerner direct anime? Find out here. I haven't read the whole article yet, but- judging from how "Tekkonkinkreet" turned out- I bet the answer is 'yes.'

The Valiant Alphabet

Brian Cronin's recent "Comic Alphabet of Cool" over at Comics Should Be Good featured the Valiant Universe. It was a lot of fun. Of course, I've always found that reading about Valiant comics is more entertaining than actually reading them.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

It a good primer since Valiant's attempting a comeback. Didn't you hear? The 90s are back.

Plague of Frogs!

Check out this CNN video: Tiny Frogs Invade Community!

Geoff Klock talked a little bit about the frog / Hellboy connection on his blog here

New Gods' New Duds

Newsarama has posted some pages from the Final Crisis sketchbook (out today!).

Robert Rauschenberg (1925- 2008)

Assoiated Press obituary here.
American Masters here.
Wiki here.

Now...which of these belong to you...already?

Mystery Tales #40, the comic book from last night's episode of 'Lost,' featured some of Steve Ditko's first work for Atlas Comics (Marvel's precursor).

The titles of stories in this anthology comic fit into 'Lost' too perfectly-
"The Hidden Land!"
"The Voice of Warning!"
"The Travelers""Crossroads of Destiny!"
"Sammy's Secret!"
"The Silent Stranger"
"March Has 32 Days"

In an early 'Lost' episode, Locke describes the rules of backgammon with a statement that doubles as his world view- "One side is light, and one side is dark." I'm sure Ditko would appreciate that sentiment.

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Update 05.27.08- Page by page scans and analysis of the issue are now available at Mysterytales40.com.

Porcellino's Thoreau

Check out a Drawn & Quarterly's preview of John Porcellino's 'Henry David Thoreau' here. It's the latest part of a series of comic biographies from the Center for Cartoon Studies (edited by James Sturm).

More on Porcellino's comics here.

Visit the website of the CCS here.

Glass/ Ware

Check out previous Chris Ware/ 'This American Life' post here.

House of Mystery

Sam Weber provides the covers to DC comics horror/mystery series revival.
More on House of Mystery here.

The Red Future

Check out more government sponsored and approved illustrations from 1950s Soviet science fiction books here.

Watermelon Nights

Have a happy Monday!

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“the Moth or the Flame” Book Release Party

(click image to enlarge)

Joshua Ray Stephens is having a book release party at Desert Island on Sunday, May 11th. Check out the details here.

Daniel Rozin

Daniel Rozin's official site here.

Library of Congress Receives "Amazing Fantasy #15" Art

The original Steve Ditko artwork for the first appearance of Spider-man was anonymously donated to the Library of Congress. Press release here.
Mercury News on the story here.

Thanks for the tip, Dad!

The Best and Worst Toy Tie-in Comics

ad drawn by Kurt Shaffenberger (left), comic by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano

Top 5 worst toy tie-in comics here.
Top 5 best toy tie-in comics here.

Coyote vs. Wolf

"Berlin" comic creator Jason Lutes has a blog about his thoughts on comics, games and life. He also shows some behind the scenes work from his Houdini: The Handcuff King as well as scenes from the Center for Cartoon Studies.

More about "Berlin" here.