Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Mome Vol. 12 – Fall 2008 By various artists; edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds Appearing in MOME 12: Cover art and debut story by European master Olivier Schrauwen, who contributes the hilarious "Hair Types." David B. is back with "The Drum Who Fell In Love," while MOME #11 cover boy Killoffer gives us "Dirty Family Laundry." Nate Neal deconstructs the genres of indie comix in "Reality Comics Quartet," while Dash Shaw delivers another full-color gem titled "Train." Tom Kaczynski presents a suite of strips detailing the history of noise, while newcomer Jon Vermilyea introduces the creepy funny "Breakfast…

Grotesque #2 By Sergio Ponchione A long time ago, a devious late-night pact altered the destiny of small community, its inhabitants forever cursed to live as mere clay in the hands of the capricious Mister O’Blique and the Wicked Barons. But is change finally afoot? Professor Hackensack journeys to the town in order to wrest from the Barons the secret of their power. He will be helped (or hindered) on this quest by Inspector Demifayce, Lady Puzzle, the Encephapolyp, the Taxmen and other players in the complex, not always human mosaic that forms the strange and twisted architecture of the…

Delphine #3 By Richard Sala WHERE IS DELPHINE?!? Where can she be, this lovely object of our nameless traveler’s affection — or, perhaps, obsession? Since stepping off the train into Delphine’s hometown — surrounded on all sides by a deep black forest — the traveler has found nothing but trouble. It seems the townsfolk aren’t satisfied with simply being unhelpful — they are openly hostile and may even, for reasons he can’t understand, want to kill him. Perhaps our poor prince charming was hoping for a fairy tale romance, in which case, although he did get the fairy tale, along…

Abandoned Cars By Tim Lane Abandoned Cars is Tim Lane’s first collection of graphic short stories, noir-ish narratives that are united by their exploration of the great American mythological drama by way of the desperate and haunted characters that populate its pages. Lane’s characters exist on the margins of society—alienated, floating in the void between hope and despair, confused but introspective. Some of them are experiencing the aftermath of an existential car crash—those surreal moments after a car accident, when time slows down and you’re trying to determine what just happened and how badly you’re hurt. Others have gone off…

We're still getting back on our feet after the onslaught of intensity that was Comic-Con 2008. As always, we had a blast meeting fans, hosting a load of artist signings, and movin' units. Take a quick video cruise through our booth on Wednesday just before the "preview night" crowd descended: The unqualified hit of the Con for us was the brand-new Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 — we blew through a gross of them, our whole supply, by Saturday afternoon. Other hits of the show were the debuts of Jim Woodring's The Portable Frank and Deitch's Pictorama from the…

Here's the official flyer announcing "La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée – A Week Celebrating the French Graphic Novel," supported by Fantagraphics Books, the 4Culture King County Lodging Tax, the Alliance Française of Seattle and the Cultural Development Fund of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA. Click here for our previous announcement.

Every day in July we've been spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! The sale is ending, so now is your last chance to take advantage of these great savings! Today we present our final spotlight, featuring two realistic, character-driven books by Andrew Zaben. Dream Big Dreams A promising 100-page debut novel, Dream Big Dreams is a complex narrative about a local bar owner grappling with the decision of whether to sell out to…

Steven Weissman continues bringing us in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story continues right here! (We'll be back to our regular Friday update schedule this week, so this page will only be up for a few days! Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! The subject of today's spotlight, Penny Van Horn, cut her teeth in the Weirdo and Twisted Sister anthologies. Recipe for Disaster "The secret was revealed to me by Carl Jung, and was further illuminated by Sigmund Freud, Herman Hesse, Patti Smith, David Bowie, and Sylvia Plath. Laugh if you must at this cast of characters, but at this ripe intersection in my…

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! Today's spotlight is on the artist known as Henriette Valium, who is also known as Montreal's "godfather of punk comics." Primitive Cretin Disgusting! Awesome! Baffling! Astounding! Hilarious! These are just a few of the adjectives that describe the hypnotically weird stories and artwork of Quebec cartoonist Henriette Valium, seen previously in several issues (and on one memorable cover) of Zero Zero. Amazingly,…