Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

Well folks, it's our first batch of 2013 releases and a swell batch it is. In the past month we've received the gorgeous new definitive edition of the '90s cult classic 7 Miles a Second; Tom Kaczyinski's acclaimed short story collection Beta Testing the Apocalypse; the mammoth new issue of The Comics Journal; a reprint of a Complete Crumb Comics volume loaded with Fritz the Cat classics (and a sweet deal on multiple volumes); Alexander Theroux's encyclopedic, entertaining rant The Grammar of Rock (with Crumb on the cover); true Tejas tales in Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost…

If you're impatient for us to start tackling Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy Sundays (we're just publishing the dailies right now), follow our pall Scott Allan's new Nancy Every Sunday blog for a regular fix. Above, Nancy's first Sunday appearance in Fritzi Ritz, 1933.

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  The Comics Journal #302 edited by Mike Dean & Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, Executive Editor 672-page black & white/color 7" x 8.5" softcoverISBN: 978-1-60699-603-4 See Previews / Order Now The newly formatted, 600+ page Comics Journal proved a resounding success with 2011’s edition. 2012’s Volume 302 is sure to prove just as essential and exciting to comics readers worldwide. This edition’s cover feature is a long, intimate interview-portrait with and of Maurice Sendak, the greatest and most successful children’s book author of the 20th — and 21st — century, the author…

Release of Heroic Tales: The Bill Everett Archives Vol. 2 has been delayed because editor Blake Bell is still searching for two stories to complete the book:  Silver Streak Comics #1 (Dec '39) – text story with two illustrations by EverettTarget Comics v1 #8 (Sep '40) – Chameleon 6-page story Blake (and us) are offering a free copy of the book and credit in the acknowledgments to anyone who can direct us to someone who has an unslabbed copy of either of these comics. (The owners of the comics will also get comp copies and acknowledgement.) See Blake's blog for more info.

Take the plunge! Starting right now and running through Sunday, February 3, 2013, it's the third annual edition of our "Undergroundhog Day" Sale with at least 30% OFF almost every book and comic in our Underground Comix category, including books by R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Joyce Farmer, Bill Griffith, Rand Holmes, Jack Jackson, Victor Moscoso, Spain Rodriguez, Frank Stack, Robert Williams and more! Yes, this includes new and recent books like Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977, Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause, Malcolm McNeill's The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here, Diane Noomin's Glitz-2-Go, and…

Designer Jacob Covey is putting the final touches on our newest Tony Millionaire strip collection Green Eggs and Maakies and it's off to the printer any moment now for release in May. Look at this gorgeous cover! Look at it! We like it on a boat. We like it with a goat. As usual, this volume contains two years of Drinky Crow, Uncle Gabby, and more Maakies madness in a widescreen hardcover. If you're not already familiar with America's Funniest Comic Strip (so says I), we'll have previews for you soon, or you can catch up on Tony's website. And…

Hot on the heels of our exciting Peanuts Every Sunday announcement, we present this sneak peek at an advance copy of The Complete Peanuts 1987-1988 by Charles M. Schulz, the upcoming 19th volume in the series! I've laughed out loud multiple times with just the merest glance at the contents so far, so put that in your supper dish and, uh, smoke it. And you won't want to miss the foreword by another giant of the comics page, Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau. The book should be hitting shelves in April, and we'll certainly have more detailed previews for you between now and then. Right now,…

Drew Friedman's illustration of former NYC mayor Ed Koch appears in the current issue of The New Yorker. And now Koch is dead. Correlation… or causation? RIP Hizzoner. (Post title suggested by Drew himself.) 

Julio's Dayby Gilbert Hernandez 104-page black & white 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-606-5 Ships in: March 2013 (subject to chage) — Pre-Order Now   It begins in the year 1900, with the scream of a newborn. It ends, 100 pages later, in the year 2000, with the death rattle of a 100-year-old man. The infant and the old man are both Julio, and Gilbert Hernandez’s Julio’s Day (originally serialized in Love and Rockets Vol. II but never completed until now) is his latest graphic novel, a masterpiece of elliptical, emotional storytelling that traces one life — indeed, one century in…

We love our last-minute tinkering! We switched out one of the panels on the cover artwork of Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret by Carl Barks, to give us that extra spookitude we were looking for, so it looks a little different from the first version we showed you. There's some creepy doings a(webbed)foot at the ancestral Clan McDuck castle of Dismal Downs! This new, improved version got the thumbs-up from our pals at Disney and it's off at the printer for release in June. We should have some previews put together for you in the near future; you can get…