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All these top ten lists are making me realize that I don’t really have the disposable income I deserve.

So without further ado …

The best books of the year and my half-ass reasons for not reading them.

Ganges #3 by Kevin Huizenga
I’ve read zero Huizenga outside of anthologies. There. I said it.

Excuse = No Excuse

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
This one looks just full of great storytelling tricks and techniques. The kind that are perfect for lifting and using as my own. It’s probably in my own best interest to stay away from this one for a while.

Excuse = Creeping Mimicry

Monsters by Ken Dahl
I may actually read this one. Maybe someone I know has a copy.

Excuse = I’m Cheap

George Sprott by Seth
I’m going to have to buy a bigger coffee table if I mean to continue reading books like this. That Jack Survives book should probably be on this list too.

Excuse = I’m Cheap

Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years by Charles Schulz
It looks like a really comprehensive overview of Schulz’s entire body of work with clever quotes by him sprinkled throughout. It seemed like reading that book would give me a good idea of what volumes to purchase from that neverending Fantagraphics reprint epic.

Excuse = I’m Cheap

Genesis by Crumb
I actually own this one. I should read it. It’s probably really good. But, you know, it’s THE BIBLE.

Excuse = Lazy

This Saturday is the Pinewood Derby Art Car show at the Pink Hobo Gallery. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Festivities begin at 7PM at 507 East Hennepin Ave.

I’ve been looking online at some of the cars that are already finished. To be honest, they look just amazing. These cars are clever, attractive, ambitious and classy. Like a really good date.

MY car is none of those things. I didn’t put nearly the time and care into my entry. I guess my car is more like a quick and easy date. In other words, it’s FAST.

Check out these slow pokes:

Mitch Loidolt’s car looks like he took a time machine, went back in time to the very first Cub Scout race, STOLE the winning car and then brought it back to 2009. Beautiful. But look at those wheels. SLOW. Next!

Kevin Cannon’s car is the car I wish I had made. That’s all I have to say. He’s a right bastard, and he can eat my dust as I race to the victory line.

Yui Tanabe’s racer looks like a real car. How do you do that? But you know what? Real cars like that are not good at racing. They’re good for driving grandmothers around. And grandmothers like you to drive slowly.

Brett Von Schlosser’s car is the kind of car a true racer like me worries about. I’m thinking he has buzz saws and an oil slick dispenser somewhere on that thing. I mean, I can see the weights under that car! That’s not regulation!

My car has a face wood-burned onto it. A face! Look at how the hair is blowing behind that face. It’s because that car is so damn speedy! Plus, there are two (TWO!) coats of shellac over the entire body. That is because everyone knows: shellac=speed.

Hope to see you at the finish line, suckers!

Rob Clough has a Mini-Comics Round-Up over at High-Low.

Mind-Mapping gets looked at along with Just So You Know, Trivial, Beard-Growing Contest and Manny & Bigfoot.

A while ago, I picked up this very strange cookbook by Dana Crumb and Shery Cohen just filled with Robert Crumb drawings. Right away I made a Macaroni Casserole. This time around I made Chicken a la Golden Post:

It turned out pretty good. Here’s the recipe from the book:

Rob Clough has a new review up at sequart.org. He takes a look at Shift, Errand Service and Beautiful Cool & Irreplaceable.

Check out Julia’s review of Habitual Entertainment #4 over at Book By Its Cover. Julia’s site is great and always worth checking out.

•I don’t usually do this, but since no one else seems to be linking to it I will. The Great Bill Watterson comes out of hiding to review the new Charles Schulz Biography. I was on the fence about this book (because of the reported negative reaction from Schulz’s family) but a Watterson endorsement is all I need to purchase this one.

•I’ve updated the website some.

•Holy crap Steven Stwalley has the most comprehensive recap of Fallcon I have ever seen.

Newsarama reviews a selection of books from the MoCCA Festival, one of which is An Endorsement of Smoking.

Well, I’m back from MoCCA and starting to play catch-up. What a great show.

First up, here is a new review over at CBR.

Thanks to Optical Sloth who reviews An Endorsement of Smoking.

Try one for yourself. Only five bucks. Everybody’s doing it.

Rob Clough reviews my two new books (along with few other great minis) over at the Sequart Research and Literacy Organization.

Eat It, by Dana Crumb and Shery Cohen with illustrations by Robert Crumb, is probably the second cookbook I’ve ever owned. When I purchased it last week I was surprised by the number of drawings by Crumb it contained. One for every recipe—about 2-3 recipes a page.

The middle of the book even contains a funny “Kitchen Kut-Outs!” section. It’s four pages of psychedelic kitchen objects that look WAY too happy and alive to eat with.

I decided to make the Robert Crumb’s Favorite Macaroni Casserole. It looked the easiest and actually read like it would taste pretty good. Another recipe that sounded interesting:

Five Joint Soup
Step five of this recipe: … get away from the stove, sit down, roll one, have some tea, look out the window—relax.

That’s how cookin’ was done in the 1970’s.

Here’s how it looked shortly before I dug in. And you know what? It wasn’t half bad. The recipe instructed me to make enough for a small army, so I’ll be eating this Cassarole all summer.

All said, this is a pretty fun cookbook for a cartoonist to have. I stumbled across my copy in a used book store. However, even if you aren’t much of a cook (like myself) you can appreciate Eat It for all the really fantastic Robert Crumb artwork.