Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

The lucky seventh volume of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant is off to the printer for release in August and here's our final, fine-tuned cover art. From an investigation of black magic to a quest for Christian missionaries, from epic derring-do to lighthearted domestic comedy, this volume runs the gamut of what readers love Foster's dashingly-told, masterfully-drawn strip for. This Saturday, May 4, head to your participating local comic shop for a FREE excerpt from this volume in our Prince Valiant: Free Comic Book Day Special Edition comic book! And we'll have more sneak peeks for you right here in the coming weeks. Of course,…

Ben Catmull's eerie new book is at the printer a little early for release in July or August (with a debut at Comic-Con in San Diego), bringing you some much-needed chills and goose pimples in the dog days of summer. The author introduces the book thusly: "Welcome to Ghosts and Ruins, a compendium of old, forgotten haunted houses, their strange histories, and the experiences of those brave enough to visit. It is highly recommended that you read this book alone late at night in the dark far away from civilization, preferably during a power outage." Get ready to explore "The Buried House,"…

“I fell madly in love with Cathy Malkasian’s beautiful Percy Gloom graphic novel a few years back, which was as beautiful as it was unexpected, so there is little to no way that I am not eagerly anticipating this follow-up. For those who like gorgeously-illustrated, melancholy and touching books: This is for you.” – Graeme McMillan, Robot 6 Wake Up, Percy Gloom! by Cathy Malkasian 192-page two-color 8.25” x 10.25” hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6 Due to arrive in about 3-5 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here: http://www.fantagraphics.com/wakeuppercygloom

Wake Up, Percy Gloom! by Cathy Malkasian 192-page two-color 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6 Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now BARGAIN COMBO: Percy Gloom Gift Set Price: $47.94 $38.35 Cathy Malkasian's second Percy Gloom graphic novel is another fable that the author brings to vivid life through her lush and detailed pencil renderings, surreal humor, absurdist characters, breathtaking landscapes, and luminous storytelling. Kindhearted, Candide-esque Percy wakes up from a 200 year nap and finds himself in a strange new land. Searching for his mother, lamenting his long-lost love and soul-mate Miss Margaret, Percy meets bizarre, wise,…

Jim Woodring posted this on Facebook just a few hours ago and I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share it: "Almost eighteen months after work was begun on it the completed FRAN is being placed in the loving hands of Fantagraphics tomorrow. Meet me at the intersection; I'll bring the ether." See you tomorrow, Jim! 

He's fitting in okay but he's only shown a real interest in one of our books. 

Assembled from work done in the author’s sketchbooks in the year following the death of his partner in 2005, The End is a collection of meditations on loss and a record of his struggle to reconcile her death. The book encompasses a variety of forms, from finely observed depictions of a newly transformed daily life, to mutating abstractions of internal turmoil, and imagined dialogues with the dead. The book carries the reader through a year of grief tinged by turns with humor, anger, absurdity, and grace. The Endby Anders Nilsen 80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25” x 10.5” hardcover…

It's a Love and Rockets two-fer! These books are in the can, ready for press, available for pre-order, and coming to you this Summer: At last, all of Gilbert Hernandez's New Tales of Old Palomar are collected between two covers for your bookshelf, with a new name: The Children of Palomar. These stories flash back to the "Heartbreak Soup" days — and before! — and expand the Palomar mythology in new and surprising ways. When first released in comic form, this material was hailed by critics as some of Gilbert's best work ever, and the stories, while richly rewarding for longtime fans, stand on…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 6)by Carl Barks 232-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 See Previews / Order Now With this volume, "The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library" loops back to Barks's earlier days, collecting the entirety of Barks's (astounding) 1948 output. The title story, "The Old Castle's Secret," is notable not just for being the first full-length 32-page adventure instigated by Scrooge McDuck (in his second-ever appearance), but for featuring some of Barks's spookiest, lushest settings in…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Peter Bagge's Other Stuff by Peter Bagge et al. 144-page color/black & white 7.25" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-622-5 See Previews / Order Now   FREE HATE! Order this book and get a FREE copy of Hate Annual #1! During the 1990s and 2000s, Peter Bagge worked mostly on his "Buddy Bradley" stories in Hate and a series of standalone graphic novels (Apocalypse Nerd), but in-between these major projects this ever-energetic cartoonist also cranked out dozens of shorter stories, which are now finally being collected in this riotously anarchic book. Peter Bagge's…