June 2011 has turned into a landmark month for Yale University Press’s beloved cartoonist-author Ivan Brunetti. Earlier this summer, his wonderful Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice landed at #17 on the American Booksellers Association’s “Indie Comics & Graphic Works bestseller list” based on sales in independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending June 5, 2011.

This is the second time Brunetti and YUP have visited a bestseller list together. The critically acclaimed Brunetti-edited collection An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories landed on Publishers Weekly’s “Comics Bestseller” list in January 2007.

Brunetti also started the month by appearing with two fellow cartoonists, Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos and Onsmith, at the renowned Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest. Just ahead of that event, the Chicago Tribune ran a brilliant profile that is well worth catching up on if you missed it. It’s very funny, informative, and loaded with amusing Brunetti factoids. Which famous cartoonist named her cat after Ivan Brunetti and now plans to teach a course using Cartooning as the text book? Which famous comic-strip characters did Brunetti name his own cats after? Which editor at one of the most legendary of American magazines has never turned down a Brunetti? Find out the answers to these and other pressing questions on the Chicago Tribune website.

And finally—but certainly not least—partake of a lesson from the master himself, in this video based on a chapter from his new book, Cartooning.