Ethan Persoff (the fellow who is covering the riot police at the DNC) has printed a special edition of his (X-rated) McCain "Tijuana Bible" to hand out to folks at the convention. Uncivil Society reports: Any complete account of the evolution of communications media in the twentieth century must include the Tijuana Bible -- small pornographic comics featuring bootleg versions of popular comic strips and celebrities. ... In Denver this week, delegates to the Democratic National Convention will have the opportunity to get printed versions of this Bush-McCain Tijuana Bible, presented as a replica of a prophetic 1934 comic from Lieberman's Lil' Squeezer Books. Whatever one's moral stance regarding porn & politics, it's a rather clever piece of neo-retro performance art. Bush McCain Tijuana Bible at the Democratic National Convention...

Last weekend, I was one of the guests of honor at 3PiCon in Springfield, MA, along with Randall "XKCD" Munroe, who once infamously depicted me as blogging from a hot-air balloon in cape and goggles. This has become a motif for me, so that wherever I go, people give me capes and/or goggles. I brought along a set and wore them to our final panel together on Sunday, and Dan Noe, the Pi-Con photographer, got some nice shots of the event. 3Pi-Con (Thanks, Dan!)...

Trenchant commentary on surveillance from webcomic Boy on a Stick and Slither -- have a look at other comics in the series for more. Boy on a Stick and Slither (Thanks, R!)...

L.A. street artist Buff Monster has a new solo show opening tomorrow night, Saturday 8/23, at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA. I dig his superflat, anime-inspired, Pepto-dripping paintings. Click on the images above to see the work larger. From the show description: Inspired by Japanese fine art, pop culture, and anime, Buff Monster paints his trademark imagery in Superfl at style, blending pink, black, and metallic silver shapes into an array of squirting scenes. Moving in a more technical direction, the series of paintings will be executed on custom birch panels in an assortment of sizes. A new limited-edition signed and num- bered serigraph will be released on opening night. Open to the public, the reception for “The Sweetest Thing” will take place on Saturday, August 23 from 7 to 10pm and will be on view until September 2, 2008. Inspired by heavy metal, porn, kaiju, Japanese kawai culture, and ice cream, Buff Monster is known for changing the land- scapes of Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Barcelona with his iconic Buff Monster character. Born and raised in Hawaii, Buff Monster moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California where he earned degrees in Fine Art and Business Administration by day and postered the streets with his hand-screened posters by night. Corey Helford Gallery, Buff Monster site...

Little Sammy Sneeze was the initial comic strip by surrealist comics pioneer Winsor McCay, best known for his masterwork "Little Nemo in Slumberland." McKay's strips were gigantic watercolors, taking up huge swathes of space in the newspapers of the 1900s and 1910s (Nemo ran full pages, while Sammy was a half-page). If you've seen these seminal comics reproduced in little comics histories, you haven't seen them at all -- it's not until you get a chance to browse them at their full size that you really understand what made these such classics of the field. That's just what you get with Sunday Press Books's Little Sammy Sneeze: Complete Color Sunday Comics 1904-1905, a gigantic (11"x16") book with a lay-flat binding that reproduces all the Sammy Sneeze strips at full size, interleaved with McCay's other experimental early works, like The Woozlebeasts (Dr Seuss-esque poetry captions for drawings of fantastical beasties) and Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo (comics whose illustrations can be read upside-down or right side up, so that eight panels become sixteen). But the main attraction are the full color Sammy Sneezes, which all follow the same format: for the first six panels, supercilious grownups conduct a ridiculous or dull conversation or activity while Sammy, a little well-dressed boy, looks on, making pre-sneeze sound-effects ("Um, Eee, Aaa, Aah, Awww, Kah"). In the seventh panel, Sammy sneezes, blowing everything to hell and back. And in the concluding panel, someone kicks Sammy in the pants and shoves him out of the frame. The strips have the elegant formality of a sonnet, and within each one, there's a little morality play or lesson about the world, and an obsessively elaborated scene of sneezular carnage for comic relief. They're as addictive as popcorn and far more anarchic than Sammy's descendants from Dennis the Menace to Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. Like the Little Nemo book, the Sammy Sneeze book is a work of art -- beautifully made, and with a little bonus in the form of a Sammy Sneeze kleenex-box cover for proud display. Little Sammy Sneeze See also: Gigantic Little Nemo book does justice to the loveliest comic ever...

Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire is a fantastic comic-book adaptation of Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States (the best and most important critical history of the life of everyday people in America from 1492 onward), a new edition illustrated by Mike Konopacki and aided by historian Paul Buhle. American Empire focuses on the history of American foreign policy, starting with the policy of conquering America itself, with brutal massacres like Wounded Knee. Zinn is an uncompromising critic of the imperial history of America, the unilateral deeds of its leaders, the atrocities committed by its military and its contractors through Asia, Africa, Europe, and around the world. But the book is also part memoir, describing the emotional commitment to democracy and America that led him to join the military and fight in WWII in Europe -- a campaign that ended with the first-ever napalm drop on a village in France, roasting surrendered German soldiers waiting to be taken away to a POW camp. Zinn is a fierce lover of democracy, of justice, and of freedom, and he makes it clear that America is a land divided by dreams of affluence (no matter the global cost) and dreams of liberty for all. As a wise man once said, "All countries fail to live up to their ideals. America fails to live up to better ideals than most." We can't forgive or forget the atrocities of Iran-Contra, My Lai, Wounded Knee, or the many other shameful moments in American imperial history, because the price of forgetfulness is fresh horrors, in Abu Ghraib, in Guantanamo, in Afghanistan. Zinn shows us that loving American means taming her, controlling the plutocrats who assert the unilateral power to crush dissent, act in secret and go to war. The comic book form is a great way of delivering this message, the spreads mix text, cartoons, reproductions of historical documents and photos, making the whole thing visual, dynamic, and absolutely captivating. A People's History of American Empire...

Today on Boing Boing tv, we are proud to share the sneak-preview of a television pilot, the AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW!, a live-action and animation program featuring the popular superhero ska band, The Aquabats (MySpace). Jon Berrett of Yo Gabba Gabba explains: This spring the Aquabats completed a pilot for a new television show based on the misadventures of rock and roll's greatest super dude men. The Aquabats have been a band for over a decade, have toured the world, and put out 5 full length studio albums. The AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW! TELEVISION PILOT will have a special screening at the San Diego House of Blues show on July 25th, 2008 [during Comic-Con]. If you already have tickets, you are STOKED! The excerpt we are world-premiering on BBtv today is an animated portion of the show's first episode, and includes angry mushrooms, vengeful unicorn princesses, and a subterranean paradise with lakes of hot pink lava. The AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW! also includes live performance and real-world hijinks. We think it's pretty awesome. Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast. (Huge thanks from all of us at Boing Boing to Jon Berrett and the crew at Yo Gabba Gabba, and to The Aquabats for allowing Boing Boing to share this first with the non-subterranean world!)...

Rstevens, creator of the wonderful webcomic Diesel Sweeties, sez, "I finally got off my ass and finished my 10 volme set of CC-ebooks. Opted out of Wowio or any of those stinky services that are ad-supported because not all countries can sign up. Just some weekend reading for the blogosphere!" Ten volumes of Diesel Sweeties! w00t! Link (Thanks, R!)...

T. Campbell writes in to announce that he's revived his long-running webcomic, Fans: "One of the first science-fiction webcomics, "Fans," returned this February. The premise's appeal is pretty obvious: science-fiction fans are the ones most qualified to save the world from science-fictiony threats. From such beginnings, the series has pushed outward in all directions, mixing humor and intensity, science-fiction and fantasy, historical and pop-cultural references, tributes to the power of imagination and portraits of flawed dreamers. The latest stories have seen the creation of a fan-based armed services division, and the beginnings of a menage a trois between three central characters. With over 1600 installments, the series is a time-wasting treat for fans everywhere. Hope you enjoy!" Link...

Canadian copyfightin' law prof Michael Geist sez, "Gordon Duggan of Appropriation Art has created a remarkable comic book [PDF - 2.8 MB] chronicling the recent battle over Canadian copyright reform. The book includes over 100 links to websites, articles, and other resources as every quote or reference is hyperlinked. It concludes with references to groups actively involved in copyright issues and suggestions for how to get active. This left me absolutely speechless." I concur 100 percent -- this is just staggeringly great, the perfect primer on the shameful attempt by Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice to smuggle the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act into Canadian law without debate or public input. Link to PDF of comic book, Link to Appropriation Art (via Michael Geist)...