Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

"Being in an Ed Piskor comic is cool enough to freeze hot water." – Fab Five Freddy "This is the comic of all time." – Biz Markie "This is the comic I've been waiting 40 years to read." – Harry Allen (Public Enemy Media Assassin) "If ever a chapter of modern American history were ripe for the Classics Illustrated comic book treatment, it is hip-hop's first decade. Ed Piskor, a talented writer and artist who has long savored the connections between comic books and hip-hop, has now written that chapter in the seductive and entertaining form of Hip Hop Family…

Will Elder: "Robert Crumb said that he's gotten everything he needed from me. That son of a gun." William Gaines: "I've never believed in any kind of censorship against anything in any way for anybody nohow." Al Feldstein: "It was an industry of a few innovators and a lot of followers." Johnny Craig: "The Code insisted that we put in the last sentence, about how 'he knew in his heart she could not escape, for he wouldn't rest until she was punished.' And that made me angry at the time…" Frank Frazetta: "I didn't realize you could actually paint for…

A gender-swapped class production of Romeo and Juliet… what could possibly be more fraught for a couple of gender-questioning junior high schoolers? Maybe shopping for underwear for their changing bodies? That's the territory Shimura Takako sends her heroes Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san into in the new volume of Wandering Son, with their idiosyncratic cast of friends, rivals, mentors, teachers and families adding to the drama, embarrassment and laughs. In our free downloadable excerpt of the complete first chapter, see what the kids are up to on the first half of their summer vacation. The book should be out right around Christmas or New Year's,…

Hip Hop Family Tree (Vol. 1) by Ed Piskor 112-page full-color 9" x 13" Flexibound softcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-690-4 Ships in: November 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The lore of the early days of hip hop has become the stuff of myth, so what better way to document this fascinating, epic true story than in another great American mythological medium — the comic book? From exciting young talent and self-proclaimed hip hop nerd Ed Piskor, acclaimed for his hacker graphic novel Wizzywig, comes this explosively entertaining, encyclopedic history of the formative years of the music genre that changed global culture….

The Comics Journal Library Vol. 8: The EC Artists edited by Michael Dean 240-page black & white/color 10" x 12" softcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-608-9 Ships in: November 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The Comics Journal Library series is the most comprehensive series of lavishly illustrated interviews conducted with cartoonists ever published. To celebrate our republication of the legendary EC line, we proudly present the first of a two-volume set of interviews with the artists and writers (and publisher!) who made EC great. Included in the first volume: career-spanning conversations with EC legends Will Elder, John Severin, Harvey Kurtzman, and…

So many new readers of all ages discover Stan Sakai's wonderful, multiple-award-winning, now-classic Usagi Yojimbo as the years go on that we keep having to go back to press — twelve times on Book 1: The Ronin now! Read the rabbit ronin's first adventures in this compact softcover, sporting the new trade dress designed by Jacob Covey a few years back. Fresh copies in stock now and in stores soon!

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Vip: The Mad World of Virgil Partch by Jonathan Barli 208-page full-color 10.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $49.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-664-5 See Previews / Order Now Virgil Partch burst onto the scene in the nation’s magazines with his zany, sometimes surreal, but always hilarious cartoons, catapulting his career virtually overnight. Known to millions by his signature, “Vip,” this comedic genius was unlike anything the world had seen before. His unique brand of humor and trendsetting approach to cartooning ushered in a new era of the gag cartoon and pioneered a standard of madcap…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  Maria M. Book 1 by Gilbert Hernandez 140-page black & white 5.75" x 8.5" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-719-2 See Previews / Order Now Gilbert Hernandez continues his metafictional realization of the film career of his troubled heroine Rosalba "Fritz" Martinez, who abandoned her psychotherapy practice to become queen of the Z-grade exploitation movies. Now she's starring in the role she was literally born to play, in a dramatization of her own mother's life! The "true" story of Maria M. was told in Hernandez's classic Poison River, collected from the pages of Love…

Praise for other books in the "Fritz B-Movie" series: "I picture Gilbert Hernandez approaching his drawing board these days like Lawrence of Arabia approaching a Turkish convoy: 'NO PRISONERS! NO PRISONERS!'" – Sean T. Collins, Robot 6 "Gilbert Hernandez is one of the great craftsmen of modern comics… Hernandez’s new Fritz book, Love from the Shadows, is as bracing as a slug of bottom-shelf rotgut…." – Douglas Wolk, The New York Times Sunday Book Review "If alternative comics can be equated to independent film, then Hernandez has become the medium's David Lynch or Guy Maddin, rolling his personal obsessions and…

Maria M. Book 1 by Gilbert Hernandez 140-page black & white 5.75" x 8.5" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-719-2 Ships in: November 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now A woman comes to the U.S. from Latin America to escape her shady past, only to fall into a new shady life. After a go at the adult entertainment business, Maria marries a drug lord and her dangerous past is nothing compared to her new life in America. The drug lord's son, Gorgo, secretly falls in love with her and he watches over her like a guardian angel. Danger and corruption (and of course…