If you ever happen to find yourself in Hinsdale, Illinois, as I have myself, be sure to check out Zingelman’s (13 W. 1st St.). The deli is filled with charmingly incompetent murals of cartoon characters, including odd pairings like Superman and SpongeBob. Here are a few more images from the establishment:

Something nobody thought they’d see in 2009: Warner Bros.’ first animated star Bosko appearing on a book cover eighty years after his debut.

(Thanks to Twitter reader SquidyUK)

Within the last few days, many of the Hollywood award associations and motion picture critics have selected their best-of picks for 2009. It’s been an incredible year for animated features and that’s being reflected in their selections. The most amazing of all was Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss selecting animated features as the top three of his Top Ten: 1. The Princess and The Frog 2. Up and 3. The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The Golden Globe nominees were announced yesterday. They nominated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Up For Best Animated Feature. They also nominated Michael Giacchino for Best Score (UP).

NY Film Critics selected George Clooney as Best Actor for his performances in both Up in the Air and Fantastic Mr. Fox. They also handed the award for Best Animated Feature to Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The American Film Institute announced its official selection for the 10th annual AFI Awards. Their list included Coraline and Up.

Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. gave its Best Animated Feature award to Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and its runner-up prize to Disney/Pixar’s Up

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle gave its first ever award for animated feature. It went to Henry Selick’s Coraline. Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach won best adapted screenplay for Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The African-American Film Critics Assn. granted their screenplay award to two winners: the live action Precious, adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher and The Princess and the Frog, scripted by Ron Clements, Rob Edwards and John Musker.

The Southeastern Film Critics Assn. and the Boston Society of Film Critics both voted UP as Best Animated Feature.

December 8th is the 105th birthday of Elzie Segar, creator of the Thimble Theatre comic strip and Popeye the Sailor. Google is commemorating the day with this graphic on its main page.

UPDATE: The Popeye drawing was done by Stephen DeStefano.

(Thanks Joseph Game and Bill Andres)

The Simpsons have been on everything, from fruit snacks to Playboy magazine. So why not stained glass? Just in time for the holidays, artist Joseph Cavalieri (not to be confused with comics writer/editor Joey Cavalieri) is offering several panels of Simpson art on glass - for all those who worship at the altar of Homer. You can examine these one-of-a-kind pieces on Cavalieri’s website.

Russell Wiseman, the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, is fuming because he believes that Obama deliberately timed his speech about the war in Afghanistan to interfere with the airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. According to Time magazine, this is what Wiseman posted on his Facebook page:

Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’….you obama people need to move to a muslim country…oh wait, that’s America….pitiful.

Sounds like Wiseman holds two positions in Arlington: mayor and village idiot.

Illustrator Joe Fournier spotted this worrisome sign in Illinois. [Insert your Cartoon Network jokes here.]

The Bergdorf Goodman Men’s Store in Manhattan has fantastic window displays this season…Fantastic Mr. Fox displays that is. The twelve windows feature character puppets, props and background elements that were used in the production of the film. The store is located at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street. My pal C. Edwards who snapped the iPhone pics above pointed out that Wes Anderson’s twee aesthetic was also applied to the Louis Vuitton display windows with The Darjeeling Limited. Better photos of the displays can be found on this website.