Fantagraphics Blog Kim Thompson

…Caught in a bad romance! Every six months I get to read a full two years' worth of Peanuts strips in preparation for writing blurbs for our next Complete Peanuts edition, beginning with the "In our next volume" telegraph-style paragraph for the one headed off to the printer. And even though I thought I'd read pretty much every Peanuts strip ever done I always come across something previously unseen, or surprising, or jaw-droppingly weird. Like, who knew there was a recurring Peanuts character called "Crybaby" Boobie? Not I, until last year! Well, this time around, prepping our 15th volume (covering…

Not sure exactly what the provenance of this clip is [ed. note: it's an official promotional behind-the-scenes video; Kim came across an unauthorized re-posting on YouTube, hence the mystery], but it starts off with some clever juxtapositions of ADELE BLANC-SEC panels and pages with clips from the movie version, and segues into some nifty behind-the-scenes shots, including a set visit by Jacques Tardi (you see him first at 0:48 watching as his wife Dominique Grange chats with Adele). I can report that I have finished the translation of ADELE BLANC-SEC VOLUME 1 (which comprises the first two books in the…

Here is a very long series of blog posts about HUMBUG by our good friend Jean-Pierre Dionnet, whom Eurocomics-philes will recognize as a founding member of METAL HURLANT and Les Humanoides Associés, and whose list of achievements in the field of la bande dessinée is as long as your arm. Enjoy…if you read French!

The Luc Besson adaptation of Jacques Tardi's ADELE BLANC-SEC movie, due this Spring, now has a teaser trailer which can be seen here: No shots of Adele herself yet, but the bearded fellow in the final scene is Armand Fallières, whose name Jeopardy! champions (paging Ken Jennings!) will shout out, preceded with "Who is…?" — if the clue is "President of France from 1906-1913." Encouragingly, the scene is taken straight from the book. Will this be a movie adaptation of a classic comic that remains totally faithful to the original, without COUGH*Watchmen*COUGH embalming it? I'm sure everyone is now thinking,…

One of the funnest parts of editing the CRITTERS anthology lo these many years ago (1985 to 1990 if you're counting — gah, two, two and a half decades ago!) was working on the great "Gnuff" stories by my old buddy Freddy Milton. I was always sorry that there was not enough demand for these charming, neo-Barksian adventures to graduate to their own books, and of course by now those original CRITTERS comics are nigh impossible for find. Well, thank God for the internet! Freddy, who is now a respectable retired gentleman of leisure (although he still cartoons up a…

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.

This has been a bit under the radar for American fans (I don't remember seeing a peep about it on such sites as aint-it-cool) but Luc Besson is well underway filming his adaptation of what looks like the first two or three Adèle Blanc-Sec albums by Jacques Tardi , and the movie is supposed to premiere in France next Spring and open throughout Europe during the Spring and Summer. (No American distributor yet, but it's hard to believe a Besson movie wouldn't find a Stateside berth.) It's intended as the first of a trilogy, too, presumably adapting the whole series….

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.