Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

On Saturday night, founder and co-publisher Gary Groth received the Genius Award in Literature from Seattle alt-weekly paper, The Stranger. (Photo above by Kelly O. of The Stranger). His competition was fierce but the force of the movement he created when he founded Fantagraphics with Mike Catron and soldiered on with Kim Thompson created a form of comics so prevalent. Paul Constant interviews Groth yet again after the event on comics at the Stranger's Slog: "Pop culture has become so stupefyingly banal that it's caught up with comics. It's kind of terrifying when you think about it," states Groth in reference to the…

DETROIT! Let's grease the wheels and get on down to the Jazz Cafe. Author Pat Thomas will be in Detroit on Wednesday, October 29th from 7:00pm-9:30pm at the Jazz Cafe at Music Hall, reading from his book, Listen Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 plus spinning rare "Black Power" recordings and showing unusual photos from the era. ML Liebler presents a special Detroit Tonight Live featuring Thomas that will also include special guests: poets Diane DeCillis & Dawn McDuffie plus fiction writer Brian Smith along with The Good Shepherd Poetry Blues Band.  Thomas is also working a new book coming out next year called Invitation to Openness, a book…

This weekend is THE Texas Book Festival in the heart of the state, Austin, on the grounds of the State Capital. Tim Lane of The Lonesome Go and Abandoned Cars will also be in attendence and holding court. Lane is known for his dense cartooning of American legends and dusty Route 66 tales. Stark washes of white and black pools of ink draw readers to the page while the mystery and mayhem leave them fraught with distress at each page turn. Here's were you can find Lane during the festival:    Saturday, October 25th Foxing Quarterly and Fantagraphics LitCrawl with Tim Lane – 9:30 PM The Volstead…

The time has come, the Seattlelite said, to pick a frickin' Genius! The alt-weekly paper in town, The Stranger, is hosting it's annual Genius awards tomorrow after a few events where the genius nominees show it off. Fantagraphics co-founder and editor Gary Groth is nominated in the literature category alongside comics writer/novelist G. Willow Wilson and poet Shin Yu Pai.   The event tomorrow night is F.R.E.E. but you have to reserve and download tickets. SO join the huge, drunken party for all 15 finalists at the Moore Theatre (tickets here), with the Seattle Rock Orchestra and other live performances,…

Congratulations are in order for Simon Hanselmann because his book MEGAHEX just showed up on the New York Times Best Sellers' list sandwiched inbetween Bryan Lee O'Malley and Jules Feiffer. Grab a copy from your local comic shop, bookstore, our online store or your local library. Trade weed for it, do what you have to do to read it because not ONLY is it a best seller but it is almost sold out!    The description is also too perfect in it's simplicity. "Meet Megg. She's a witch and has a black cat named Mogg. She is also depressed and addicted to drugs." This sweeter-than-the-real-thing book has…

The beautiful and well-printed Foxing Quarterly is attempting to host a new convention in Austin, Texas, an area nearly bursting to the seems with comic and illustrative talent, called NEW SOUTH. They have a Kickstarter set up with some amazing awards like a Jim Rugg Tote Bag (if you don't like Street Angel, you obviously have no soul). And they need your help to meet the goal in the next day. From Danithan's mouth, "Two years ago I co-founded Foxing Quarterly, a literary & arts magazine based here in Austin, Texas. My goal with Foxing was to spotlight literature and comics within…

Tim Lane is heading over a little past Route 66 to celebrate his newest collection of comics, The Lonesome Go. On Sunday, October 19th from 3-5pm at The Phoenix, the best local coffeeshop-bar-bookstore with a private library room, Lane will be signing comics and a little bit more!    Lane has been building up Lonesome Go boxes from antique suitcases and folios. Each one is different since they were all from thrift or antique stores. And inside, my oh my, are prints, comics, and recordings by Tim Lane and more. All the ephemera and contents reflect the sultry and dusty portrait of Americana…

Here's a sweet look at the poster for free convention Comic Arts Brooklyn coming up on Saturday and Sunday, November 8-9th! We'll have special guests like Olivier Schrauwen, Tim Lane (who busted out this poster) Dash Shaw, Marguerite Van Cook, James Romberger, Anne Ishii and more… DETAILS SOON.

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.     Bumf Vol. 1: I Buggered the Kaiser by Joe Sacco 100-page black & white 6.625" x 10.5" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-748-2    "the artist is heading back to his underground roots, citing the influence of ZAP and Weirdo and promising an exuberant, satirical and confrontational read…It'll be interesting to see how…

 This week we celebrate Peter Bagge, one of our cartoonists who has been drawing comics for 35 years. He was recognized on Monday by the United States Artists Fellows as a 2014 USA Rockefeller Fellow of Literature! The U.S.A. program is a "grant-making organization funded by philanthropic foundations and individuals to support creativity. The 16 women and 18 men were [chosen] by experts in their fields and were among 116 nominated artists living in the United States." Bagge also received $50,000! "U.S.A. Fellowships are awarded to innovative artists of all ages and at all stages of their careers, who are nominated for their commitment to excellence and…