Wow. See, this is why you do stuff. When you do stuff, sometimes you get to do awesome stuff, sometimes with people who are awesome.

My pal Ben Schwartz has been compiling and editing the new Fantagraphics book The Best American Comics Criticism all year long (release date: Mar 3 2010). That in itself is awesome enough. But then I come to find that one of his blessings was to work with the incomparable illustrator Drew Friedman on the cover of said tome.

Word is Ben asked Drew – one of the most gifted conceptual realist illustrators the world has ever seen – what he thought American comics critics looked like. And this is what he – and we – got.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Not just objectively perfect, either. For me, this is a rare crossing of two favorites: Drew Freidman has been blowing my mind since I first saw his stuff in the pages of Heavy Metal and National Lampoon way back in high school. Ben Schwartz has been cracking me up since I first read him at Suck.com back in the days of dialup Internet.

Suffice it to say, I approve of this collaboration so much, I don’t have enough thumbs to raise. Can’t wait to read it.

And that’s an important blogger telling you this.