Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Gene Deitch, whose new book Nudnik Revealed! is out now, sent the following note to Irwin Chusid, editor of The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora, also out now: THE HIGH-FIDELITY ART OF JIM FLORA arrived! This latest treasury of Jim's art is the closest to my heart, as it covers the exact material that led me to him in the mid 1940s-and which had an overpowering influence on my own graphic attempts. Everyone who followed my work in the Record Changer magazine, reproduced in the Fantagraphics book, THE CAT ON A HOT THIN GROOVE, knows that much of my stuff was flat-out…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 8: The Death of Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb 144-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99978-1-56097-076-7 Previews TK / Order Now! The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 8: The Death of Fritz the Cat continues the multi-volume series comprising the complete works of the legendary cartoonist R. Crumb, one of America's most original, trenchant, and uncompromising satirists. The series includes the earliest, heretofore unpublished comic strips, as well as his underground comix, dramatic and autobiographical strips, and his classic cartoon creations Fritz the Cat and…

Jean-Christophe Menu just sent this very sweet strip to us today. Thanks, J-C.

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Sketching Guantanamo: Court Sketches of the Military Tribunals, 2006-2013 by Janet Hamlin 172-page full-color 11.25" x 8.25" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-691-1 See Previews / Order Now Camp X-Ray in the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, opened in January, 2002 in the wake of the 9-11 attacks to house alleged terrorists — off the American mainland, unaccountable to the U.S. judiciary — in "indefinite detention." Newer and more permanent prisons were later built miles away, and continue to house terrorist suspects today. The United States government does not allow photographs of…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez 100-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-679-9 See Previews / Order Now Love and Rockets enters its fourth decade with this installment of its acclaimed graphic novel-format iteration, featuring both old friends and new faces, and some genuine surprises… The cover shows Gilbert's new star Killer in a pose and milieu that will bring back memories for long-time fans — imitating the hammer-wielding Luba in her adopted Palomar. That’s because Killer has discovered that her great-grandmother Maria (Luba's…

"Yes, there are cannibals, racially insensitive caricatures, cripples (let’s not dress it up with the politically correct terminology), bodily functions, etc. But the glue are the almost Beckettian scripts. or at least Ionescoesque. Rodrigues played with form often….  These are conceptual, writerly, formalist masterpieces. "I refuse to analyze why, because nothing sucks the joy of out humor more than analyzing it. It’s like explaining a joke, and humor, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. That said, Charles Rodrigues created a whole lotta unbeautiful beauty and for that i am eternally grateful." – Bob Fingerman, from his…

Ray and Joe: The Story of a Man and His Dead Friend and Other Classic Comics by Charles Rodrigues edited by Bob Fingerman 184-page black & white (with some color) 8.25"x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-668-3 In Stock! See More Previews / Order Now Fantagraphics is proud to announce the release of the first volume of another great, under-appreciated, quintessentially American cartoonist. "Black as sin and decay and perversion" is how National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra described the work of Charles Rodrigues. By all accounts, this small, politically conservative, devout Catholic, was a good-natured dumpling of a man. But inside lurked an untapped…

Jesse Reklaw, whose long-running strip Slow Wave has been an alternative comics mainstay for many years, emerges with his longest work to date, Couch Tag, a years-in-the-making memoir composed of themed vignettes which together form a revelatory self-portrait. Like life, the book is both harrowing and humorous, dealing with uncomfortable subject matter (death, sexual trauma, drugs, mental illness) in an accessible way. My cameraphone snaps didn't come out so hot, but fear not, better-looking sneak peeks are on their way, and the book is available for pre-order now for estimated delivery in late November or early December. 

If you like smart, creative people, Paul Hornschemeier's portrait collection Artists Authors Thinkers Directors is for you — it's chock full of 'em (and by one of ’em). Paul's been filling up his Daily Forlorn sketch blog with their portraits in a variety of styles (pointillist, cubist, blind continuous line, tiny, etc.), and now we're bringing them to you in a collectable little hardcover. Our downloadable excerpt gives you a few samples from each of the 4 sections (guess what they are), plus Paul's intro and a page of his end notes for the full flavor of the book. It should be available 3-4…

Coming in November, a new volume in our in-depth TCJ Library series, The Comics Journal Library Vol. 8: The EC Artists (Part 1)! In these pages you'll get the inside scoop on one of the most revered and influential comics publishers of all time, EC Comics, straight from the horses' mouths, plus insight on their careers before and after. In these 22 downloadable pages you'll see the Table of Contents (spoiler alert: feature-length interviews with Will Elder, Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman, George Evans, Al Jaffee, and John Severin) and read Ted White's introduction and the first third or so of the Will Elder interview,…