Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: 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 See 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…

Arriving in just a few weeks, Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Christmas on Bear Mountain is the fifth release (and the fifth volume) of the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. In our downloadable preview, you'll see the first appearance of Barks's most famous original creation, Uncle Scrooge McDuck, in an excerpt from the title story, plus another chunk of a longer story (Donald tries his hand at horticulture; what could go wrong?) and two complete one-pagers. It's another handsome hardcover full of some of the greatest comics ever! Our final batch of sneak peeks is still to come, but why wait? Pre-order your…

From the editorial offices of The Comics Journal comes the latest TCJ Library edition, The Comics Journal Library Vol. 8: The EC Artists (Part 1)! This hefty oversized book, edited by TCJ co-editor Michael Dean, includes 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 — some from the pages of TCJ, some from other sources, some expanded from previous appearances, and some published here for the first time! Together they form the first part (yes, there will be a Part 2) of a wide-ranging oral history of the greatest mainstream comic book publisher,…

"In the 30 years they’ve been writing and drawing Love and Rockets, Los Bros Hernandez have created wonderfully complex story lines and characters… This web of superior magical-realistic storytelling involves readers in the perplexed yearnings of a huge cast of unforgettable characters unaware of their own capacity for general self-delusion and occasional self-discovery." – Publishers Weekly "Los Bros. are plain-spoken and sympathetic, finding pathos in even the grimiest character." – Newsday “There are acclaimed filmmakers and novelists who can't do what Jaime Hernandez does — or Gilbert, for that matter. When the two of them are at their most inspired, as…

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 Ships in: October 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-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 mother) starred in a late…

Julia Gfrörer's haunting debut graphic novel Black Is the Color started life as an acclaimed webcomic and is coming to print sometime around Thanksgiving. In this downloadable excerpt from the beginning of the book, young sailors Warren and Xavier are literally cast off to their fate in order to ensure the survival of their ship's crew. Later, there are mermaids. And black humor. And doomed romance. And romantic doom. After you've had this salty taste of the story, secure your copy of the book by pre-ordering now.

"With Naughty, Monte Schulz infuses old school noir with the depth and complexity of the best historical fiction — it’s what James M. Cain would’ve done with The Postman Always Rings Twice had he taken himself more seriously. Following his ill-fated lovers Joe and Ida down a rabbit hole teeming with greed, lust and ultimately, murder, readers will find themselves transported in time to late '50s California — where an ambitious looker like Ida could either get rich, or kill a few suckers like Joe trying." – Gar Haywood, author, Hollywood Cemetery Road "Naughty is a book in the fine…

Naughty by Monte Schulz 440-page 6.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-682-9 Ships in: September 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Veteran Joe Krueger is drifting in 1950s California, looking for work wherever he can find it. Tired after a long drive, he stops at a boardinghouse and meets sweet — and sexy — Ida, who rents him a room. That very night, Ida tells him "Mother" and "Father" have run their auto over a cliff, then seduces him in the teary aftermath. Smitten now, Joe starts helping out around the boardinghouse, and the two marry. The honeymoon is over when…

The Complete Peanuts 1989-1990 (Vol. 20) by Charles M. Schulz 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-680-5 Ships in: September 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now   This 20th volume is particularly dense with romantic intrigue, as Marcie and Charlie Brown end up at camp together, sending Peppermint Patty into mad jealousy (especially since Marcie can't resist teasing her)… and an old friend of Charlie Brown's attempts to look him up again but confuses him with Snoopy and goes on a date with him instead. But the most crucial event in romance is Charlie Brown's romance with…

"Charles Schulz was an American treasure — an artist, philosopher, and keen observer of human life." – Bill Clinton "The Complete Peanuts has framed Charles Schulz’s enduring masterpiece about as well any lifelong fan could’ve hoped." – "The Best Comics of the '00s: The Archives," The A.V. Club "The Complete Peanuts confronts us afresh with what a brilliant, truly modern and totally weird idea it was to create a comic strip about a chronically depressed child…" – TIME "Fantagraphics has won numerous awards for this series and they deserve them all for creating such a wonderful archive of this American treasure. This series is…