Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Buz is back for another volume of romance and adventure! Buz Sawyer Vol. 3: Typhoons and Honeymoons collects two more years of Roy Crane's masterful strip, from 1947-1948. In our downloadable excerpt, Buz reluctantly skips out on his vacation and heads to the West Indies to help his old Navy buddy Thirsty out of a jam — which turns out to be an acute case of cold feet over impending marriage. Thirsty sends Buz to let his bride-to-be down easy, but it turns out his real plans are more devious, and things get complicated. On top of all that, a hurricane blows through and…

This time each year we look forward to yet another odd-numbered volume of The Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. The Complete Peanuts 1991-1992 takes us into the strip's final decade, with Schulz adding more surprising twists and flights of fancy to his repertoire of classic themes. Our downloadable excerpt includes all of the strips from January, 1991 (plus a couple more for good measure). Snoopy fixates on cookies and works as a construction flagger; Lucy looks for serenity and questions Linus's fundamental beliefs; Peppermint Patty and Marcie confuse athletics and academics; snowflakes are vied for; Snoopy and Woodstock debate the merits of their…

"First of all, the veil of anonymity is being pulled away and John Liney is finally getting some recognition. And best of all, you are about to have the opportunity to enjoy some of the fine work of this overlooked comic book creator." – Kim Deitch, from his foreword "We hope you enjoy our efforts to bring this long-unseen material to the public and that the name of John Liney will finally find its rightful place among the great names in the business, alongside Barks, Stanley, Kelly, Carlson, Wolverton, and others." – editor David Tosh, from his introduction Henry Speaks…

The decades-spanning, on-again-off-again relationship between Maggie Chascarillo and Ray Dominguez reaches its emotional apotheosis in The Love Bunglers. After receiving rapturous, near-universal acclaim during their serialized run 2010-2011, Jaime Hernandez's stories from Love and Rockets: New Stories #3-4 are collected in this single hardcover volume, bigger and better than ever. In our downloadable excerpt, Maggie is the subject of scrutiny from three men across the street, one of whom has a special interest in her. Later, the hint of a triangle forms as Maggie misses and makes connections with Reno and Ray as she describes her dreams and takes in an art show. How…

Henry Speaks for Himselfby John Liney (Henry created by Carl Anderson)Edited by David Tosh 160-page full-color 7.6" x 10.45" softcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-733-8 Ships in: February 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now What is it about odd-looking comic strip characters that catch the public's attention? Carl Anderson's classic comic strip character Henry was certainly not your average-looking youngster, with knobby knees, a pencil neck, and a bulbous, bald head, but for years, he entertained millions of readers worldwide with his pantomime pranks. He was also the subject of a long-running comic book series, with one significant difference from the…

"M.K. Brown turns the orderly world we think we all live in upside-down, shakes up our perceptions of normality — then hands everything back to us profoundly altered in some way only our subconscious mind truly understands." – Bill Griffith, from his introduction "What you are holding is a work of a rare talent. M.K. Brown is the Irene Dunne (do Google) of the print world. Hard core fans can, at last, rejoice; first time readers will witness true comic enchantment. So come along children, let us follow and see where this divine woman takes us this time." – Brian…

Stranger Than Life: Cartoons and Comics 1970-2013 by M.K. Brown 248-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-708-6 Ships in: February/March 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Women: what do they want? They might want to float into the sky while hosting a brunch party. They might want a couple of handsome cops to come over and get rid of a snake problem. They might seek a doctor's treatment for "wise-ass disease" or fantasize about revenge and forgiveness at the dentist's office. They might want to sing the White Girl Blues and dance the White Girl Twist. And…

Our acclaimed and beloved Carl Barks Library series continues with Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn. It's more adventure and laughs in Duckburg and beyond, all with our impeccable production and presentation, and supplemented with the usual expert commentary (including, in this volume, an intro by superstar "Wimpy Kid" creator Jeff Kinney). In our downloadable excerpt, Uncle Scrooge summons an unusually agreeable Donald and the nephews to send them off on a mission, but Donald's attitude makes a 180 when he finds out it's to retrieve the titular fabled beast! Meanwhile, sneaky Gladstone Gander wants in on the…

The printer sent us this handmade sample of our 4-volume EC Comics Slipcase Vol. 1 (which contains Corpse on the Imjin, Came the Dawn, 50 Girls 50 and 'Tain't the Meat… It's the Humanity!) for our inspection. We caught one design error (first person to spot it gets a no-prize), which we fixed, and now the boxes are getting printed up, the sets will be assembled & shrinkwrapped, and the whole shebang will hit shelves in April. Pretty darn handsome, huh? It's a good deal, too, saving you over $20 versus buying the volumes separately and sans box. (Sorry, we're not going to be able to…

Reinforce your coffee table and stock up on Visine: you'll need to prepare yourself for our massive, mind-blowing tome The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection, coming in March. Starting with an intro to Glenn and the collection — and it's a colorful story — the book then goes on to display hundreds of works of art by just about every important comics creator or artist working in the cartoon idiom, ever. The bottom photo shows the breadth of work collected in this book: through alphabetical proximity, outré underground visionary Rory Hayes shares a spread with Russ…