Fantagraphics Blog Eric Reynolds

Fantagraphics Books & Rocketship Brooklyn are proud to present: A HOTWIRE COMIX RELEASE PARTY & SIGNING!    WHO: Jonathon Rosen, Glenn Head, Sam Henderson, Danny Hellman, Mark Newgarden, David Sandlin, Chadwick Whitehead, Craig Yoe, R. Sikyorak, Doug Allen, Marc Dean Veca and other guests t.b.a.! WHAT: HOTWIRE COMICS Vol. 2 Release Party & Signing   WHERE: ROCKETSHIP, 208 Smith St., Brooklyn, NY 11201   WHEN: Friday, Feb. 22, at 8PM  Insanity, dementia, stray bullets, hangovers, hillbillies, sci-fi, candy-rods, carnies, Wilhelm Riech, PCP, decayed portraits, Tijuana bibles, gags, mobsters, Mick Jones, zombies, paranoia, orgones, and psychedelia… it's all here!   HOTWIRE COMICS…

  I don't link to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive site nearly as often as I could — they seem to post absolutely stunning historical work on a daily basis and I highly recommend adding the site to your RSS feed. Today they added some classic comics from Virgil "Vip" Partch's greatest collection of cartoons, The Wild, Wild Women. You can never go wrong with some VIP. Why hasn't anyone (okay, us) done a VIP coffee table book yet?!  If you like what you see at the ASIFA site, you might consider supporting it.

LA Weekly has a nice Joe Sacco interview/feature up, written by our pal Scott Thill. Worth a read. Oddly, it's one of the few interviews with Joe that I've read where he is asked about Bush's foreign policy in the middle east, and needless to say, he's not happy. Sacco for President!

Scientists discover a new material promising to be the blackest on earth; contrary to initial reports, it was not discovered in the inkwell of Charles Burns. Speaking of Charles, he's about to head out on tour to promote the softcover edition of Black Hole.

This is undoubtedly one of the unlikeliest ad campaigns ever: David Boring, spokesman/model for Hong Kong fashion company Chocoolate.

GEORGETOWN MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF MONTHLY SECOND SATURDAY GEORGETOWN ART ATTACK! Seattle's colorful, industrial Georgetown neighborhood – home of the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery – has drawn a lot of recent attention as the last outpost of a true blue-collar Bohemian arts community. In an effort to showcase the many accomplished artists and creative enterprises based in the neighborhood, the Georgetown Merchants Association is pleased to launch the first Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack. The first of these lively monthly artwalks will take place on Saturday, February 9, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. More than two dozen galleries, studios, nightclubs, boutiques, and cafes…

  This Classic Television Showbiz clip is fantastic, featuring To Tell the Truth with guest William M. Gaines, publisher of EC Comics and MAD Magazine. It's pretty funny how the contestants clearly refuse to believe that a big ol' hippie like Gaines could possibly be a Madison Ave. publishing mogul.  

The new issue of the Believer features not only another typically great cover by regular cover artist Charles Burns, but also features Burns himself as the cover feature! Very sweet. The issue includes a lengthy interview with Burns, but you can read an excerpt via the first link.

This has little to do with comics, but I was crestfallen to read on Pitchfork this morning that Dave “Day” Havlicek, the amazing electric banjo wizard for The Monks, passed away yesterday. The Monks were one of the most badass bands who ever lived; if you don’t believe it, check this shit out (or any other clip on YouTube). A group of misfit GIs stationed in Germany during the mid-60s found each other, shaved their heads, and became the first proto-psychobilly/punk rock punk rock band, and they wrote killer songs. Anyway, Dave had long since settled just outside Seattle and…

Johnny Ryan was interviewed this morning by Howard Stern's '100 news' (his SIRIUS Satellite 'news' channel) and we're told the interview will run this afternoon at about 2:00PM Pacific Time. Johnny was interviewed about this drawing he did of the Stern show cast of characters.