Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Special Exits by Joyce Farmer 208-page black & white 8" x 10" hardcover • $26.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-381-1 Ordering Info & Previews Joyce Farmer’s memoir chronicles the decline of the author’s parents’ health, their relationship with one another and with their their daughter, and how they cope with the day-to-day emotional fragility of the most taxing time of their lives. Elderly parents Lara and Rachel, who have enjoyed a long and loving married life together, are rendered in fine, confident pen lines. Set in southern Los Angeles (which makes for a terrifying sequence…

DESTROY ALL MOVIES trailer! (final) from Hadrian Belove on Vimeo. The book tour for Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film makes the final stops on its current West Coast leg over the next few days — Santa Cruz tonight, San Francisco tomorrow, and the big two-night finale in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday! Posted above is the very excellent trailer for the final L.A. stand at Cinefamily. Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing for plugging the L.A. tour stop!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Library Journal names It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi as one of the Best Graphic Novels of 2010: "Originally inspired by his grandfather's first-person stories, Tardi has created not a formal history but a masterful graphic and visceral tone poem about war." • List: It's also #5 on the Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2010 list posted by Leeds UK comic shop OK Comics • Review (Audio): On the new episode of the Manga Out Loud podcast, host Ed Sizemore and guests discuss Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and…

Woo hoo, a new 'toon from Steven Weissman & co.! He says there should be a new one every week for a while. Yay!

In Spring 2011 we'll be publishing Eye of the Majestic Creature, the debut book from the young cartoonist Leslie Stein. Her uniquely charming semi-autobiographical comics star a young woman named Larrybear whose day-to-day adventures are inflected with surreal and magical-realist elements — her best friend and roommate is a talking anthropomorphic guitar named Marshmallow, for instance. Leslie's comics have already earned praise from the likes of Peter Bagge, Gary Panter and Michael Kupperman. Get familiar with Leslie's warmly funny, idiosyncratic stories and rubbery, stippled cartooning at her recently-launched Majestic Creature blog, where she's posting new strips and stories.

FUC_ __U, _SS __LE: Blecky Yuckerella Vol. 4 by Johnny Ryan 104-page black & white 5.5" x 7.25" softcover • $11.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-415-3 Ships in: January 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now "'Fucussle'?! What's that mean?" "No, it's Fuck You, Asshole! by Johnny Ryan." Thus begins the fourth and final collection of comic strips starring the stupidest, ugliest, stubbliest girl in grade number two. Blecky and her "pals" are back and so are the fountains of blood, urine, and other bodily fluids (not to mention profanity) in these riotously hilarious, eye-poppingly offensive four-panel gag strips. Co-starring the usual cast of…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Deb Aoki of About.com: Manga names A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio the Best New Manga of 2010: "Conjoined twins who share a painful co-existence. A young girl rejected by her mother who can only see her as an iguana. Ill-fated lovers who are doomed to be separated in several lifetimes. These characters came to life in this collection of smart, sensitive and thought-provoking short stories created by master storyteller Moto Hagio." • List: Drew Weing's Set to Sea is on YALSA's long-list of 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominations:…

The City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development wants you to visit Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. The store is featured on this city-sponsored website and other promotional materials as part of their "Only in Seattle" campaign to encourage local commerce in the city's neighborhoods. The store's curator (misidentified as the owner) Larry Reid (pictured above) talked to Rose Egge of KOMO News about the campaign. Who says government doesn't work?

The organizers of the Festival International de la Bande Desinée in Angoulême France (you know, the big one) have announced their Official Selections for the festival, including the French edition of The Man Who Grew His Beard (L'homme qui se laissait pousser la barbe) by Olivier Schrauwen, which we will be publishing in English in August 2011. Congratulations Olivier! (The list also includes recent books by our homeys Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, Joe Sacco & Dash Shaw. Nice work, boys.)

Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Dash Shaw, and several Abstract Comics contributors including editor Andrei Molotiu are among the artists featured in a group exhibit opening in Arlington, VA this Friday, November 19, 2010. The announcement describes the exhibit thusly: "PARTY CRASHERS mashes up comic art and contemporary gallery culture, and features artists who pass back and forth between the two worlds. This massive two venue show results from a crosstown collaboration between AAC Director of Exhibitions Jeffry Cudlin and Artisphere Gallery Director Cynthia Connolly. The show’s two independent halves feature different types of work: Connolly’s show presents fine artists who…