Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Going to the Sub Pop Records 20th Anniversary Festival this Saturday and Sunday? Us too, and we couldn't be happier about it. The Sub Pop and Fantagraphics families have been deeply entwined through the years. Not only that, the festival's proceeds are being donated to charities chosen by each of the acts performing, and Green River and Mudhoney are donating their share to the Northwest Parkinson's Foundation in honor of Seattle rock mainstay and former Fantagraphics staffer Tom Price. Be sure and stop by our table to pick up a catalog and some other free swag, especially on Sunday when…

This week's batch of reviews from 'round the web: • Comic Book Galaxy's Alan David Doane on Blake Bell's Stranger and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko • Fantasy writer Icats Nitram discovers Linda Medley's Castle Waiting • Art Blog by Bob looks at Explainers by Jules Feiffer • PopMatters reviews Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button; meahwhile, Laura Hudson takes a close and thoughtful look at the animated trailer Dash made for the book and decodes the book's coded letters (spoiler alert applies to both links) • PrettyFakes on the first two issues of Kevin Huizenga's Ganges • The Austin…

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 installment features the debut volume from Eve Gilbert, which garnered high praise and an introduction from Robert Crumb: Tits, Ass & Real Estate Populated by junkies, grifters, hustlers, strippers, pimps and various strains of victims and criminals, this is a biting and satirical portrait of America as seen from the lower depths. A collection of autobiographical stories, this volume by Eve…

Hey, haven't done one of these in a while… presenting this week's free preview, a downloadable 19-page excerpt from Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes, a first-ever collection of work from the notorious Underground primitive. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. (As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up…)

Our Gang Vol. 3 By Walt Kelly Walt Kelly created dozens of Our Gang stories by the end of its 59-issue run in 1949, the year he quit comic books to switch careers a final time — as syndicated artist/writer on the immortal newspaper strip, Pogo. In Our Gang’s third volume, Kelly begins to hit his stride by relying more on original ideas than following trite MGM scripts which had lacked in charm since the departure of producer Hal Roach in 1938. Keeping alive the wit that had been absent from the film series, this volume contains eight adventures of…

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 installment features Francesca Ghermandi, who is justly lauded in her native Italy but remains underappreciated here in North America. Hopefully that will change with her new graphic novel Grenuord, coming soon from Fantagraphics. The Wipeout One of the brightest lights in the modern Italian comics firmament, Ghermandi infuses her work with a gorgeous full-color palette of stylized graphics and a decidedly…

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 installment features Mary Fleener, a true grande dame of the underground/alternative comix movement! Life of the Party The ultimate collection of Mary Fleener's groundbreaking Drawn & Quarterly series Slutburger in book form! Mary recounts tales of rock n' roll, southern California life, strange phantasms, and more in the pages of Life of the Party. Fleener's trademark neo-cubist cartooning ("cubismo") and her…

Via the Forbidden Planet International blog comes word that Swiss artist Thomas Ott will be honored in his home country with an exhibit dedicated to his most recent book, The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8, as part of the BD-FIL festival, taking place September 12-14 in Lausanne. Here's more info in French, and Google-translated into English.