Fantagraphics Blog Eric Reynolds

  I want to direct you all to THIS. Last Gasp is the only vital, surviving publisher of the original underground comix movement, truly living up to its name. They're also the last meaningful, independent distributor of just about every great non-mainsteam comic (plus lots more) you've ever read. This is no coincidence. You couldn't write a book about American counterculture without Gasp's founder "Baba" Ron Turner  figuring prominently. Well, you could, but it would be a lame book. Last Gasp is at the vanguard of promoting, selling and publishing books that aren't lame, and has been doing so now for something like…

  Nothing will get me off my lazy Flog! butt than the convergence of my two favorite things: comics and beer. Dave Eiffert is the President and General Manager of Snoqualmie Falls Brewing , located just east of Fantagraphics' home of Seattle. Snoqualmie Falls is famous for being used as a locale in Twin Peaks, but the brewery is increasingly what beer lovers like myself associate the locale with. Eiffert grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late '60s and early '70s, where he was exposed to Bill Griffith ’s comic strip Zippy the Pinhead . He's been reading the strip and buying Zippy…

  Today would have been the 58th birthday of Kim Thompson. Recently I stumbled across this photograph, from the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in 2012, while looking through the Fantagraphics flickr feed; I keep coming back to it. That's Kim with his back to the camera, looking at the work of our friend and former art director, Dale Yarger, who passed away that spring, another wonderful human being we lost to cancer way too soon. It would have been unfathomable at that time to think that Kim, too, would be gone within a year. Yet here we are. That's the great…

  Advancements in modern technology have rendered the art of the prank phone call to be something of an anachronism. Which is a shame, and all the more reason why I'm rooting for this kickstarter to succeed. Never forget. Once upon a time, Park Grubbs was legendary, if mostly known only via tenth-generation cassette tapes shared through the mail by weirdos and misfits. Longtime Daniel Clowes  fans will remember Grubbs as the esteemed winner of the "Eightball  Prank Call Contest" (surely the Oscar of prank phone call awards). One of the kickstarter rewards is a signed print from longtime Grubbs co-conspirator / Fantagraphics friend…

  Just watch this. It's called "Nightmare," by The Francies. Written and Directed by Al Columbia. What else do you really need to know? Al has plenty of well-deserved fans for his visual art, but he's a helluva musician and filmmaker, too.

Images not on the bottles courtesy Charles Burns and The Believer magazine. Actually, images on the bottle are also courtesy Charles Burns and The Believer. Fancy that. On behalf of Charles Burns, The Believer and Fantagraphics Books, we say: Fuck you, Agua Castello of Portugal, and the shitty idea-bankrupt ad agency you hired.

As work progresses on our long-awaited third volume of Ernie Bushmiller's NANCY (titled NANCY LOVES SLUGGO, and collecting the years 1949 through 1951), we belatedly realize that we are missing a half-dozen strips needed for this volume. So we are sending out the plea to NANCY collectors: If you have clippings for any of the following NANCY dailies, we would love to hear from you. (For that matter, we are also including dates for two strips that were omitted from our previous volume, which we will run in Vol. 3 if they can be found). (Note: We know it's possible to…

Just stumbled across this picture I took at Comic-Con circa 2000-2001, of Al Feldstein and Dan Clowes signing in our booth.

We need a better version of the 9-23-1950 Nancy daily for our long-awaited third Nancy volume coming this fall. Our scan has a damaged first panel. Perhaps a faithful Flog reader might be able to hook us up? If so, please drop us a line.

London • Valentine's Day 2014SEQUENTIAL, the graphic novel storefront and reader app focused on literary graphic novels, has announced that it is releasing titles by legendary art comics and graphic novel publisher Fantagraphics Books. The first tranche of titles, released on Valentine's Day, includes essential work from Fantagraphics flagship title Love and Rockets in the form of Jaime Hernandez's seminal Locas series, which tells the tales of Maggie and Hopey and a unique cast of characters. Fantagraphics associate publisher Eric Reynolds said, "SEQUENTIAL's efforts to curate a quality selection of non-mainstream digital comics and graphic novels is something that we…