And we are back with more cross-country and international comics mania!

Item: Jeet Heer writes about Hall of Fame cartoonist Jimmy Frise. This piece was originally written for the Sequential print edition but due to a muffed deadline on my part was left out. It’s really an excellent article and you should go read it.

Item: Speaking of Hall of Famers, the Doug Wright backlash begins: Andrew Wheeler trashes Nipper, and Kevin Boyd of the Shusters blog makes a case for renaming the new Doug Wright book.

Item: On the international front, Kent Worcester looks at the growth in comics acceptance in universities.

Item: Cartoonist Nick Craine is the latest graphic novelist to be hired to class up an otherwise pictureless Canadian prose novel.

Item: Inkstuds’ Robin McConnell reviews Dater’s Dozen by Melaina.

Item: Quillblog reports on the BookCamp that “replaced” Book Expo Canada.

Item: The Beguiling, European comics publisher?

Item: Seth talks George Sprott to Time Out Chicago (“Boring Can Be Interesting”). Seth also created a book bag for the Strand bookstore in New York (above).