Fantagraphics Blog Larry Reid

Prepare to be fully entertained at Fantagraphics Bookstore in the month of August. On Saturday, August 10 we'll host a haunting reception for Ben Catmull and Josh Simmons. Catmull will sign copies of his new book Ghosts and Ruins, while Simmons will sign his recent collection of horror stories The Furry Trap. Frightening fun coinciding with the colorful Georgetown Art Attack. (Catch the Trailer Park Trannies drag show at the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall.) On Saturday, August 24, Fantagraphics Bookstore welcomes Brandon Graham. The cartoonist behind popular projects like Prophet, Multiple Warheads, and King City returns to his former Seattle…

To take in the action in Georgetown this weekend you may have to navigate a detour. Exit 162 off I-5 is closed for repairs. Use Albro Place exit 161, public transportation or surface street options.   This is the last weekend to visit the temporary Sub Pop Mega Mart across the street from the bookstore. Catch a free DJ set by Shabazz Palaces on Friday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.  Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery commemorates the occasion by giving away a free bottle of Sub Pop Soda Pop with every purchase all day long. And don't miss the delightful photography exhibition CP25/SP25…

If you had the misfortune of missing the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee in Georgetown last Saturday, you can still catch some action at Fantagraphics Bookstore, All City Coffee, and the Sub Pop Mega Mart.  The seminal years of the legendary Seattle label remain on view in SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz at Fantagraphics Bookstore, where you'll find early works by Peter Bagge, Charles Burns, Lynda Barry,  Daniel Clowes, and other important artists creating the Sub Pop aesthetic. Next door at All City Coffee is the companion exhibition CP25/SP25, featuring 25 arresting mages by famed photographer Charles Peterson commemorating 25 years of the Sub Pop phenomenon.  Don't miss the last weekend of…

Fantagraphics curator Larry Reid caught a ride in the back seat of a helicopter on Thursday for Mudhoney's unprecedented set on top of the Space Needle as famed photographer Charles Peterson leaned out the open door to take photos. Yikes! You can catch a down to earth Mudhoney show for free this Saturday, July 13 in Georgetown at the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee.  Before the music begins on Saturday, join Peter Bagge, Charles Peterson, Danny Bland, Bruce Pavitt, Greg Dulli, Jim Woodring, Owen Connell, and others at the opening of SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. We'll be open all day with celebrity guests…

Join us this Saturday, July 13 from noon to 9:00 PM for an extraordinary event. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz in association with the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee celebrating 25 years of the legendary Seattle music label. Free concerts by Mudhoney, Built to Spill, J Mascis, Chad VanGaalen, Father John Misty, Tom Price Desert Classic, and many more — right outside the bookstore doors. The SODA POP exhibition examines the seminal years of Sub Pop from 1980 to 1990 as a hand crafted zine, cassette label, and music column with an emphasis on its correlation to…

The evolution of the Sub Pop empire will be examined at Fantagraphics Bookstore in SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz opening Saturday, July 13. These hand made publications serve as exquisite time capsules of early 80s indie culture. I recall sessions at Rosco Louie gallery with Bruce Pavitt and Russ Battaglia in 1981 individually coloring issues of Sub Pop #3 with crayons. The only directive I remember was "Don't stay inside the lines." Covers and random interior pages were scribbled with infantile abandon. Multiple examples of these early Sub Pop zines (with a quaint 80¢ cover price) will be on…

My first encounter with Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt came when he participated in an art show I co-curated at Rosco Louie gallery called "Famous Artists of the 80s," which opened on New Year's Eve at the dawn of that decade. Bruce contributed a delightfully playful painting rendered on the headboard of a baby crib. Though still a student at Evergreen State College, he came closest to fulfilling the ironic premise of the exhibition. Pavitt soon began producing his hand crafted Subterranean Pop fanzine, enlisting recent Evergreen alumni Lynda Barry to create the cover of issue 2 and Charles Burns to illustrate…

SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore examines formative years of Sub Pop coinciding with Sub Pop Silver Jubilee Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee celebration in Georgetown with an exhibition, panel discussion and reading on Saturday, July 13. The show examines the influence of alternative comix, illustration, and graphic design on the legendary music label, which gave rise to the last significant youth movement of the millennium. This event coincides with the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee, a free music festival commemorating 25 years of Sub Pop featuring 15 bands on 3 stages…