Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Our little stuffed pal Bully visited our booth at New York Comic-Con and took lots of pictures.

Steve Brodner's brilliance is on full display in this series of YouTube videos called "The Naked Campaign" presented by the New Yorker. Here's the most recent installment:

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery’s resident curator Larry Reid presented a very engaging and informative slide lecture on the topic “WEIRDOS: Seattle’s Alternative Comics Culture in the Context of R. Crumb’s Underground” at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle last night. Stay tuned — we'll be adapting Larry's presentation into an online feature here on the website in the near future.

It's time for your weekly installment of Steven Weissman's "Chocolate Cheeks"! In this week's strip: Spence, smacked, with a shiner and smashed specs! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

This week's free preview is a downloadable 25-page excerpt — the entire first chapter — from the upcoming expanded and revised softcover edition of Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975, the definitive history of the era by Patrick Rosenkranz. 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…)

Jessica Farm Vol. 1 By Josh Simmons Hot on the heels of his first graphic novel, House, Josh Simmons' Jessica Farm fuses serialized adventure, fantasy and psychological horror and stamps it with his signature macabre sensibility in his atmospheric new graphic novel. Like a Lynchian take on Alice in Wonderland, Jessica Farm opens with an exterior of what could be any Midwestern farmhouse: once inside, we track our titular heroine as she bounds out of bed on Christmas and goes about her morning routine, eventually breakfasting with her grandparents. The banality of the situation is subverted by a ratcheting sense…

Mineshaft #21 By various artists Front cover hand lettered and designed by Robert Crumb, plus five wonderful pages of sketchbook drawings inside! Back cover by Christoph Mueller, "My Angel of Sin"! The life of famous Beat underground poet, Diane Di Prima, drawn and written by Mary Fleener (with guest Harvey Pekar)! Poetry by Diane Di Prima! "Pat & Corky" fiction by J.R. Helton, Zippy the Pinhead and how Bill Griffith got his start! New artwork by Christoph Mueller (with guest Joe Coleman) and William Crook, Jr.! Jay Lynch & Ed Piskor's story about Lynch and Crumb going to visit Chester…

The Comics Journal #289 Gary Groth, Executive Editor In this issue of The Comics Journal: In a mammoth interview, Marvel Zombies writer Robert Kirkman discusses everything from starting out as the publisher of Battle Pope to his work with Image and Marvel Comics. Plus: Kirkman-related essays by Michael Dean and Simon Abrams, and zombies, zombies, zombies! The Arrival author Shaun Tan talks about the Australian comics scene, children’s books and the breakaway success of his immigrant-themed latest work. Our comics section this issue features 100 consecutive strips from Ed Wheelan’s classic Minute Movies, plus a history of the strip by…

Apparently in the alternate universe known as Sweden cartoonists are given their own glossy entertainment magazine and hang around with Fiddy and his G-Unit crew. (Photo supplied to Kim Thompson by Häkon Strand of Strand Comics.) This seems like a good time to remind you to stay tuned for daily Rocky strips in English here on Fantagraphics.com starting in the near future!

We recently received a large package of original art from Al Jaffee for our upcoming complete Humbug collection. Here's just one amazing example — click the image above to see a high-res version, and click here for a set with close-up detail photos. Also, if you haven't seen it already, see our nifty feature detailing the production process of restoring a Humbug page.