Fantagraphics Blog Kim Thompson

When I decided to launch this "Tardi library" project, I quickly knew that I wanted to include as one of the first books Ici même. This is, if I do say so myself, a bit of nervy move, because Ici même is long (at almost 200 fairly dense pages, it's among his most massive) and, in its satirical, surreal playfulness, difficult to pigeonhole (NOT a World War I drama! NOT a detective novel! NOT a Feuillade-esque fantasy romp!) and not exactly the most accessible of Tardi's works. But Ici même is one of the milestones of French comics. Created in…

Pursuant to my jeremiad yesterday about the absence of any English language editions of Jacques Tardi's work, it gives me enormous pleasure — admit it, you saw this coming — to announce that… Well, let's go to the press release. "This summer, Fantagraphics will launch an ongoing series of hardcover books presenting the works of the legendary French cartoonist Jacques Tardi. "The first two releases will be West Coast Blues (Le petit bleu de la Côte Ouest), a hard-boiled crime thriller adapted by Tardi from the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, and You Are There (Ici même), a satirical, surreal story…

One of my all-time favorite cartoonists, and certainly one my favorite European cartoonist of the last 30 years or so, is Jacques Tardi. It's been a source of constant annoyance and sadness to me that so far, every attempt to bring Tardi's work to an English speaking audience has been, at best, a mitigated success, and certainly never a big enough of one to warrant continuation. And it's been years since anyone even tried. So we've seen Dark Horse (in Cheval Noir) and NBM try to launch the Adele Blanc-Sec series, both Fantagraphics (in Graphic Story Monthly back in the…

This is easily the most awesome art ever commissioned by a mime troupe for their promotional purposes. 

Jonathan D. Howells is putting the finishing touches on a long-simmering documentary about Jim Woodring. In the course of doing this he discovered that he does not have signed releases from two of the people of who are prominently featured, at least for one shot, in the version he has put together. Since he really wants to keep these clips in, he's hoping the two can step forth and identify themselves, and sign the release — or if you know them, notify them or us! (Contact Jonathan directly at johnadhowells [at] hotmail.com.) This woman was at a signing held at…

(click to enlarge) Bill Griffith turned in his spectacular cover to the upcoming WELCOME TO DINGBURG Zippy collection, which focuses heavily on Dingburg, the "city inhabited solely by pinheads." (Other than Washington D.C., of course.) The inside cover will feature a full-color fold-out map of Dingburg, and as a result the front cover is also a foldout and our man Bill knocked himself out on both. Enjoy your sneak peek at the original to the cover (we're keeping the map under wraps for now), and look for the book late this year.

Martin Kellerman's "Rocky" is being adapted for the screen — 13 episodes of hanging out, arguing, eating, reading comics (check out Rocky's preferred reading material below), drinking coffee, listening to music, watching DVD's, playing videogames…and even indulging in the occasional bit of carnal knowledge. No details yet on when and whether there will be an English language version (or at least subtitled episodes), but in the meantime, enjoy these rockin' stills (click them for larger versions) — and watch for Fantagraphics' Rocky Volume II this Fall!

Matthias Lehmann (HWY. 115) is having a Spring Sale of original art. Even if you're too broke to buy any, go check it out because it's awful purty — Matthias is one of the few remaining practitioners of the ancient and crazy-making art of scratchboard, and he ups the ante by handcoloring it on top of that. And if you do want to buy some, don't worry, Matthias speaks and writes excellent English. One Euro is about a buck and a half these days. Buy them before it's two dollars!

Here are the last of the Krazy Kat strips drawn by seven-to-eleven-year old Italian kids, courtesy of their teacher Alessandro Santi. (See previous FLOG!s for batches one, two and three; see the entire set in a slideshow on Flickr.) Incidentally, Alessandro asked us if we were going to reprint the Eclipse volumes featuring the first nine years of Krazy Kat Sundays, and the answer to that is yes, starting in 2009. But we're going to gang them together into three big KK volumes, each containing three years' worth.

Here are still more Krazy Kat strips drawn by seven-to-eleven-year old Italian kids, courtesy of their teacher Alessandro Santi. (See previous FLOG!s for batches one and two.) Last batch to come tomorrow. Incidentally, Jeet Heer and Michael Tisserand just turned in their introduction to the final collection of Krazy Kat Sundays, scheduled for release this Fall. It chronicles the last few years of Herriman's life, and it's a terrific (if sad) read.