Fantagraphics Blog Kristy Valenti

Intern RJ Casey recently helped index The Complete Peanuts: 1995-1996 (Vol. 23), which inspired him to write this Flog post. There’s someone who is too heavy for a blimp, too underground for greeting cards, too cool to be afloat on Thanksgiving. There’s someone named Rerun Van Pelt, and he’s the only Peanuts character that matters. Charles Schulz created Rerun as a throwaway character in the ’70s, good for a couple baby jokes here and there; the youngest Van Pelt was mostly relegated to the background for the better part of two decades. But the background was perfect for Rerun. That’s…

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Caroline Sibila, Lucy Kiester, and Daniel Johnson put together this set of questions. As this is intended for those who have read the book and contains spoilers, questions can be found behind the jump. – Ed.]

Jaime Hernandez's The Love Bunglers focuses on Maggie (a.k.a. Perla) Chascarrillo: the graphic novel is full of her old friends, estranged family members, and visits to art exhibitions. Maggie's present is interspersed with flashbacks to the Chascarrillo family's brief move to Cadezza and fraught return to Hoppers. Hernandez's expressive art depicts relationships evolving, and adds new dimensions to older stories. The Love Bunglers serves as both an extension of and an introduction to the Love and Rockets universe.

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Keith Barbalato, Lucy Kiester, and Daniel Johnson put together this set of questions. As this is intended for those who have read the book and may contain spoilers, questions can be found behind the jump. – Ed.]

Inio Asano's Nijigahara Holograph cuts back and forth between two timelines, filling in details bit by bit: events ripple throughout a town and take their toll for years to come, resulting in violence and sexual guilt. A foreboding force circulates among a community following a woman's suicide. A group of students put a classmate, Arié, into a coma. As troubled new student Amahiko attempts to make friends at school, his life intertwines with the cycle of assault and death.

From the editor: Unfortunately, Trina Robbins' acknowledgments were accidentally ommitted from her new book, Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1886-2013. They will be included in the (knock on wood) next printing. Until then, Trina Robbins: A heartfelt thank you to Kyle Ryan, Ellen Klages, Shaun Clancy, Jonathan Warm Day Coming, Patrick Ford, Bill McGrath, Christine Chambers, and Allan Holtz (and his great website, http://strippersguide.blogspot.com), for the priceless material that they provided; to Alexa Dickman, for her detective work that resulted in my finding Fran Hopper; and to Steve Leialoha, for putting together the pieces. This would still be a book…

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Keith Baralato, Eli Powell, and Evans Winters put together this set of questions. – Ed.] Written by Keith Barbalato, Lillian Beaty, and Sonya Selbach Rendered in vivid black and white (though it evokes psychedelia), Fran: The Preceding and Continuing Congress of the Animals depicts a story of love, loss, and healing – all in wordless panels. From one page to the next, Woodring builds a fantastical world Frank readers will be familiar with: the Unifactor is the landscape against which Fran…

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Keith Baralato, Eli Powell, and Evans Winters put together this set of questions. – Ed.] Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is a graphic memoir by Ulli Lust, set in the 1980s, which recounts her journey from Vienna, Austria, down through Italy, finally arriving on the island of Sicily. Seventeen-year-old “Ulli” lives on the streets, traveling with nothing but her best friend Edi, a sleeping bag, and barely enough money to buy a coffee. This rebellious…