Just as we finished writing our story on an American Splendor story appearing in the Sunday New York Times' Arts and Leisure section (see 'American Splendor Strip in Sunday Times'), we opened this week's Entertainment Weekly to discover a six-page story written by Pekar and illustrated by long-time collaborator Gary Dumm.  'My Movie Year' (a play on his 'Cancer Year' storyline) tells Pekar's history from 1962, when he first met Robert Crumb and began working in the comics medium, until 2003 and the American Splendor film's critical acclaim (Sundance Grand Jury and Cannes International Critics Awards).  This reinforces our pick of American Splendor as this year's Ghost World, an indy film hit with the potential to drive large quantities of comics and trade paperback sales (see 'American Splendor Theater List' and 'American Splendor Movie Debuts August 15th').

EW was also all over Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse, recently released by Fantagraphics (hardcover, $24.95) in an illustrated piece in the Books section titled '5 Reasons To Love... Chris Ware.'  Among the reasons cited are, 'Quimby is...Mickey Mouse on the Atkins Diet,' 'Quimby offers mind-blowingly detailed instructions on how to build 'your own working cat head' out of wood,' and the prose introduction to the book, in which Ware reminisces about his grandmother.    Ware's work has already been selling well in both book and comic store channels; this gives a great push to his newest release (and oldest work -- Quimby was actually drawn in the early 90s).