Fantagraphics Blog Mike Baehr

This month's Diamond Previews catalog is out now and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread (download the PDF) with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in April 2013 (give or take — release dates are likely to have changed since the issue went to press). We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions. (Retailers! These updates are also available in a new monthly email newsletter especially for you. If you're not already getting it and would like to sign up, contact…

The Hollywood adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel The Prone Gunman, from which Jacques Tardi adapted the graphic novel that we named Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot, has lined up Taken director Pierre Morel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. So the producers didn't take Kim Thompson's suggestions, but the film's a big step closer to reality. Mostly this was just an excuse to repost my Photoshop goofery featuring the film's star, Sean Penn.

And now a message from Gene Deitch:  A new 2013 (cheaper) edition of the 2003 (expensive) book of my 1940s jazztoons is coming out in a more reasonably priced (and neatly printed) edition by Fantagraphics, who are determined to get you to buy it.   Not only is this new edition cheaper, but is e – x – p – a – n – d – e – d with lots of rediscovered drawings, previously seen only by moldy old souls who played those black, breakable 10 inch 78RPM phonograph records, which required steel needles to follow wiggly shellac grooves, producing a hissing and clicking sound which…

We're so excited about the arrival of advance copies of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby Vol. 1, we all busted out our cameraphones for these snapshots! Eric Instagrammed this one:  This one's by Jen, of Jacq's desk: Good gravy this book's a beaut! Boasting art direction by the one and only Daniel Clowes and comprehensively collecting the first two years (1942-1943) of Johnson's beloved strip between flexi-bound covers, it's one of the last items to cross off the list of "uncollected great American comic strips." And it's finally almost here! You'll be able to get your hands on a copy in late March or early…

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 3: Starring Fritz the Cat (New Softcover Ed.)by Robert Crumb 128-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-0-93019-375-1 "…[S]ince I'm going off the deep end anyway, I'll add The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 3: Starring Fritz the Cat ($19.99), from Fantagraphics, so I can…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 2 by Michael Kupperman 176-page full-color 7.25" x 10" hardcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-615-7 See Previews / Order Now   BARGAIN COMBO: Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vols. 1 + 2 Gift Set Price: $49.98 $39.98 Hot on the heels of his acclaimed Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 comes Michael Kupperman’s second all-comics collection of surreal slapstick and crazy non-sequitur goofiness, all from the pages of his beloved comic book series Tales Designed to Thrizzle. Tales Designed to Thrizzle Volume Two features two of Kupperman’s recurring duos: America’s favorite mustachioed physicist/writer…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  7 Miles a Second by David Wojnarowicz, James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook 68-page full-color 9" x 12" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-614-0 See Previews / Order Now 7 Miles a Second is the story of legendary artist David Wojnarowicz, written during the last years before his AIDS-related death in 1992. Artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook unsentimentally depict Wojnarowicz's childhood of hustling on the streets of Manhattan, through his adulthood living with AIDS, and his anger at the indifference of government and health agencies. A primal scream of a graphic…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  The Grammar of Rock: Art and Artlessness in 20th Century Pop Lyrics by Alexander Theroux 352-page 6.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-616-4 See Previews / Order Now National Book Award nominee, critic and one of America’s least compromising satirists, Alexander Theroux takes a comprehensive look at the colorful language of pop lyrics and the realm of rock music in general in The Grammar of Rock: silly song titles; maddening instrumentals; shrieking divas; clunker lines; the worst (and best) songs ever written; geniuses of the art; movie stars who should never have…

The book's at the printer, we're reviewing the proofs and it's officially official, so here's the cover art for Peter Bagge's Other Stuff, coming in April. Collecting Pete's collaborations (with Alan Moore, Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, R. Crumb, etc.) from the back pages of Hate, along with other short subjects from Hate Annual and elsewhere, it's your handy one-stop must-have volume of Bagge miscellanea. Soon you won't have to go rummaging through your longboxes and break the hermetic seal on your mylars to read classics like "Shamrock Squid" and "The Hasty Smear of My Smile" or revisit with Lovey, Murry Wilson…

Yes, some artists do still send in their original artwork for scanning — case in point, Leslie Stein, who shipped us her lovely pages for Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2, all neatly organized in three portfolio binders which are safely ensconced in our flat files (nestled alongside those bundles of Barnaby clippings) awaiting their turn on the scanner. Looks like we're well on track for the book's scheduled release in August! Since critics (correctly) called Vol. 1 "a treat," "phenomenal," "great," "a joy from cover to cover," "irresistible," "a triumph," "such a pleasure" and "one of the best graphic novels of the year," it's…