First of all, if you haven’t read David Mazzucchelli’s fantastic graphic novel Asterios Polyp, I strongly recommend getting yourself a copy. And stop reading this post now until after you’ve read the book.

If you’ve read Asterios Polyp once…

Read it again.

Seriously, Mazzucchelli’s book is a great re-reading experience. There are things you’re only likely to notice the second or third time around, and at least a few locked doorways in early sections that only open with keys from later chapters. And they’re much more fun if you find them on your own, so again you might want to ignore the rest of these ramblings if you haven’t plunged back in yet.

If you’ve read Asterios Polyp more than once…

Okay, NOW we can talk.

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Dylan Horrocks’ Three Tijuana Bibles turns the old timey format (learn about the original TBs here) on its head with some genuinely erotic contemporary moments. It originally ran in Fantagraphics Dirty Stories 2, but it works well online.

NSFW, Adults only, etc… (thanks to Tom for spotting this one first).

It’s worth saying once in a while, so I’ll say it again now:

Sex is a huge part of life. There’s no reason that honest, explicit depictions of it can’t be a huge part of literature and art, including comics. The idea that explicit sex has to be forever hidden, that the audience’s “imagination” is the only appropriate place for such things, is misguided at best, and at worst it betrays the unhealthy self-loathing that we really need to shake off as a species.

Horrocks, like Moore and Gebbie in Lost Girls, does use the audience’s imagination to connect the dots in some powerful ways. It’s true that what isn’t seen can be erotic. But he’s also not shy about using whichever “dot” gets the job done, nor should he be.

They’ve announced it, so I will too.

On Thursday, July 23, at Noon, Comic-Con will be featuring one of North America’s funniest and most innovative cartoonists, Bryan Lee O’Malley for an hour of conversation, and I have the best seat in the house—right on stage with him. Cue up early at Room 5AB to make sure you get a seat.

BTW: The whole family and I will be at Con as usual, but this might be my only official appearance, since I’ll mostly just enjoying the sights. I’ll let you know if anything else comes up.

Chris Duffy presided over years of wonderful comics in the recently demised and dearly missed Nick Magazine. In the best of all possible worlds, he’d still be hard at work on that front, but if Chris and the great cartoonists who worked with him are saddled with a little spare time, at least they found a fun way to spend it last weekend creating the July 4th Project.

Here’s Chris’ call to arms (and here’s the post at the Beat that led me there).

Cat Garza has kicked off “Flash Fridays” with a loving, adorable take on a classic Tattoo motif. Cat’s offering line files for anyone who might want to wear his designs. Keep a watch for more tatoos in the coming weeks.

Cat always called the San Diego Comic-Con “Sandy Eggo,” Larry Marder called it “The Gathering of the Tribes,” and Heidi MacDonald and others have been calling it “Nerd Prom,” but whatever you call it, the greatest of all American comics conventions is drawing near.

We’ll be there, as we have for all but one of the last 21 years, but taking it easy this time around. Mostly just relaxing and seeing friends (though I am a small part of at least one cool panel event I’ll be telling you about soon).

Con passes are — incredibly — sold out already, but if you want them and can’t get them, you may want to follow the Con’s Twitter account where they’ve been announcing official auctions regularly for the few passes they still have.

Oh, and as always, don’t miss Tom Spurgeon’s fantastic, insanely comprehensive 2009 Comic-Con Guide.

One of the comics I picked up in Barcelona last month was Arrugas by Paco Roca, a story about an old man’s encounter with Alzheimer’s Disease. I don’t read Spanish, but visually “reading” it panel to panel at the airport still provided a coherent and sometimes moving experience. Here’s a scan of some early pages to give you a sense of the storytelling. Looking forward to seeing an English edition, it’s clearly a good book.

When I worked at DC Comics in the production department in 1982 (my first job out of college), I spent many lunch hours flipping through the huge collection of untranslated manga at the nearby Kinokuniya, Manhattan’s largest Japanese bookstore. I admired how many could be understood on the strength of their visual storytelling alone. It was refreshing to experience that again.

I met or was introduced to the work of a number of talented artists in Barcelona (many through Astiberri) including Alberto Vazquez, Fermin Solis, David Rubin, Felix Diaz and Tony Sandoval. Most haunting, though, might have been the album I found by French artist Ivan Brun called No Comment, a silent, funny and extremely dark look at modern society.

Writing with pictures (or screaming with pictures, in Brun’s case) in the language of comics.

Patrick Farley makes it visible.

Congratulations to Jason Little who recently finished his online serialization of the latest Bee story “Motel Art Improvement Service.” It’s available from Jason’s comics page, a treasure trove of inventive wonders.

Reading the story over again, I was reminded of what a unique, uncategorizable gem Bee is. It’s cute, sexy (NSFW in fact), brainy, slapsticky, and subtle, all at once. Definitely worth sitting down with to read the whole thing.

So, no sooner do I post about my search for some Shawn Cheng comics you could read online, when Shawn contacts me and graciously offers to put all of his great mini The Would-Be Bridegrooms online in a great click-through format. Read it, thank him, buy things. All is right with the world.

And as long as I’m following up on earlier posts, y’gotta love this miniature masterpiece by Mr. Turner. Though y’gotta read it TWICE to know why.

Oh, and Bryan Lee O’Malley is offering his full third Kupek album for free. (I thought it was great, but don’t tell him; we don’t want him to stop making comics.)

So, yeah. Good stuff this week! Way to go, The Internet.

Since the last couple of posts were about searching for fragments of a cartoonist’s work online, here’s a cartoonist who’s been putting up whole stories for a while: Kris Dresen.

Dresen recently uploaded a brand new story She’s in the Trees, her first in color. It’s a beautiful short, wordless tone poem you could probably squeeze in before the boss comes back from the bathroom.

And if you have a bit more time to spend, I can highly recommend Dresen’s earlier story Grace, also available online (some nudity and adult themes). It’s a full-fledged story (with words even) I enjoyed when it was being serialized, but I’m glad to link to now that it’s finally complete.

Good stories, good storytelling, and smart, easy-to-read formats. And you can even order the print versions here if you like.

Thank you, Ms. Dresen.