Here’s a cool idea I haven’t seen before. Pat Race, one of our gracious hosts when we visited Juneau during the 50 state tour, has posted a “see-through” comic on his site.

As Pat explains it, you can download and print a 2-sided pdf, read the front page, then hold it up to the light so that the backside shows through and literally see the comic in “a new light.” There’s a flash version too, though the effect is a bit different.

It’s a nice trick, giving a new dimension to a charming, if melancholy, short subject.

Neo-Mento is a new flash-based web and print comic series created by Dylan Culhane. Sharp stuff in a readable, innovative format.

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.

As long as I’m a bit distracted this week by humongous, wonderful graphic novels , here’s a German photo comic you may not have seen that’s kind of cool.

And while we’re at it, a Canadian photo comic many of you may already know about, but that’s always worth a visit.

Yeah, I’m just re-reading Asterios Polyp (see last post) instead of blogging. Sorry! Will post more soon.

— start reading the book!

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli is finally in bookstores everywhere.

I’ll have more to say after I’ve read it a second and maybe third time, but I can tell you already that if you buy one graphic novel this year, this should be it.

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.

Pronounced “BYOO-sik” by the way.

The man who got me into comics in middle school finally has a self-titled domain and a great new website to go with it.

Welcome to the club, Kurt!

Sputnik Observatory launched yesterday. Cool site with lots of video interviews including a few with me from 2006 (note shark in background — it’s my old studio).

Be sure to pass your mouse over their logo once you get there. It made me happy (though I am easily impressed).