• Backwards City got some good press in Poets and Writers Magazine.
• George Saunders profiles the Buddha Boy, talks with the photographer, and sings the praises of Babel.
• McSweeneys is having a contest based on the very funny “Thirteen Writing Prompts.”
• The sham that is the unpaid internship. Great graphic, too.

this started out as a Brian Kitely exercise (#109, “Nudes”), and then turned into something else.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Oxford at my cousin’s house, visiting friends, celebrating Meg’s birthday (24!), and going to a beautiful wedding on a farm outside Cincinnati.

Steven told me that Art Spiegelman had an article in the June Harper’s about the Muhammad cartoons, with a level of analysis that would put any literary critic to shame. It’s a good thing he promised he’d send me a photocopy.

After talking to a few of my old professors this weekend, I’ve promised myself that I’m only going to an MFA program that will accept my visual/comics work with open arms. Otherwise, it’d be a waste of my time, and my work would suffer.

I have yet to listen to the new Futureheads album. I really like the way Paul Simon has laid out the lyrics for his new one, SURPRISE, “sonically engineered” by Brian Eno. And, it’s true: if you write, you should read.

We’re driving back to Cleveland this morning. I get so many good ideas for my work when I go on trips…it’s too bad you can’t draw while you’re driving.

Our man maintains that comics are a first-rate art form, Fantagraphics’ battle against lousy cartooning runs on 30 years, Michael Pollan and Meghan are in Texas at the same time, and the Walkmen rock out NPR.

Great article on LOST, and the inspiration for including OUR MUTUAL FRIEND in the plot. I studied O.M.F. in Cambridge and loved it. I drew these crazy maps of the “psychological geography” of the London in the book, which my tutor found far more interesting than any of the drivel I wrote up for him. Guess I should’ve known then that my pictures trump my words…

Anyways, my co-workers always ask me what’s my pet theory about LOST, and I always have to say, “I don’t have one, and really, I don’t care.” For me, it’s all about the ride of the episode, and the characters, and the great writing. And the pneumatic tubes! Sometimes I think I should get one of those: just roll up my latest sketchbook, stick it in a cartridge, and pop it in the pneumatic tube to nowhere…

Based on a true story we watched on the news a couple nights ago. (There’s also a plan out there to construct highway overpasses in such a way to make them safer for wildlife, and us.)

• A full MP3 set of Van Morrison live at the Fillmore West, San Francisco, California, April 26, 1970. Unbelievably good.
• The same blog posted Andrew Bird doing “Sovay” with My Morning Jacket.
• Stanley Donwood’s linocut cover for Thom Yorke’s new solo album is fantastic. The original linocut is from a project called London Views. What is a linocut, you ask?
• The audio for the Stuart Dybek reading and interview with Silverblatt is up at Lannan. Here’s a great quote about being a “regional writer.”
• And here’s an article on how comics had a big presence at BEA. (Check out the Fantagraphics display!) This is really good news for comics, as is the addition of comics to the BEST AMERICAN SERIES, as is Kevin Huizenga’s new one, CURSES.

Some links for your week-end:

• We went to see ISLANDS last night at the Grog Shop. Big ol’ band. The sound wasn’t great, the singer needed a haircut, and the violin players looked like Martin Yip, but it was a good show. Great bass player. Get two tracks not on the new album: “Abominable Snow” [MP3] and “Flesh” [MP3]
• David Byrne on packaging and music.
• I got my In Persuation Nation fan kit in the mail from Riverhead this week. Check out the new goodies on George’s site: “I Can Speak!” [MP3] and “In Persuasion Nation” [MP3] read by him.  ALSO: Here’s our man on Studio 360 this week.
• Imagine no religion.
• James Kochalka is reading Etgar Keret’s new one.
• Tom on “Deal or No Deal?”
• Backwards City turns two, and Newpages has a review that says for a lit journal, it’s “a different kind of read…[one that] knows how to laugh.” I have good news about those folks on the way…