Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

Toronto, put on your party pants! Ed Piskor is gonna shake the shack this Saturday at The Beguiling's Free Comic Book Day event! On Satuday, May 3rd from Noon-6pm, Ed Piskor will be signing and sketching in free copies of his Hip Hop Family Tree Two-in-One comic book (in addition to your Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1 graphic novels). Cartoonist and Ed's studio mate, Tom Scioli, will also be there signing his FCBD book, Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe.  The fun is only a few days a way. Show up EARLY 'cause those books are gonna be gone fast!The Beguiling…

The terrific meltdown in the grocery line of Online Commentaries & Diversions:      • Review:nbsp;Cosplayers by Dash Shaw "It's a clever idea, and Shaw brings surprising insight to the very short stories. He uses different panel configurations and color palettes to break each story up into scenes, as if they were movies themselves, and his deft linework makes it all look easy." –Bridgid Alverson, Robot 6     • Review: Locust Moon on New School by Dash Shaw "…golly-gee wide-eyed comic classicism mixed with an antiquated, old-testament use of language and heavy moral seriousness, all in service of a surprisingly traditional and very relatably human story of a young kid's worship,…

Los Angeles! We told you before and we'll tell you again! Tonight is pure joy and a celebration of The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection with a special book release party at Wacko/Soap Plant. Collector extraordinaire Glenn Bray will be joined by special guests, Todd Hignite and Robert Williams, who each supplied a foreword to this exceptional book! Get a copy of this gorgeous book featuring artwork from all of your favorite cartoonists and even a section of special Krampus commissions Bray had made once he exhausted the world's supply.  See you tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the La Luz de Jesus…

This Friday, April 25th, the digital comics reader Sequential has put up four new titles for your digital reading pleasure. The sultry black inks of Jaime Hernandez shine in Penny Century, Esperanza, God and Science while Richard Sala splatters a deadly palette on the page with his latest graphic novel the 50 page full-color Violenzia, which is not available in print! Download a great read today. 

Today, Joyce Farmer announced at the Penn State Libraries talk on Underground comics that Jim Woodring's Fran is the next recipient for the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize! Sponsored by Penn State University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize is presented annually to the best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, published in the previous calendar year by a living U.S. or Canadian citizen or resident. Fran is the first Fantagraphics books to win the prize (a runner-up…

Don't forget! Tonight at  Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles Love and Rockets' Jaime Hernandez will be on a 7pm panel at Meltdown Comics with fellow cartoonists and animators Pendleton Ward, Bryan Lee O'Malley and Thompas Herpich. They will be interviewed by Inkstuds radio show host, Robin McConnell and cartoonist, Brandon Graham in what will be a packed room. After the panel, Jaime will be signing books INCLUDING the newest collection The Love Bunglers.  There will be free tickets available at the door so you can still go loiter and hope to meet one of the cartoonists. It will also be broadcasted LIVE via MeltdownTV here. Pick…

WINTER (BREAK) IS COMING Now being serialized at comiXology, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson (loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom). This second and concluding volume picks up where the first volume left off (winter break) and finishes Tammy's tragicomic sophomore year of high school in 1985. In the epic saga that is Unlovable, Tammy finds herself dealing with: tampons, teasing, crushes, The Smiths, tube socks, facial hair, lice, celibacy, fantasy dream proms, gym showers, skid marks, a…

April 22, 2014 – This just in! The New York Public Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers has picked its sixteenth class of Fellows: fifteen extraordinarily talented independent scholars, academics, and creative writers whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Chosen from a pool of 288 applicants from 24 countries, the 2014 class of Cullman Center Fellows Dash Shaw will be the David Ferriero Fellow. While at the Cullman Center he will work on a graphic novel about a Quaker during the American Civil War. "I…

Preparing for next month's Chicago Alternative Comics Expo aka CAKE, the organizers have an excellently curated art auction on Sunday, April 20th! CAKE FRAME 2: Live Art Auction and Brain Frame Comics Performance Event directly benefits CAKE. Doors open at 6pm, show at 7pm. Artwork up for auction included works by Ivan Brunetti, Lane Milburn, Chris Ware, David Alvarado, Kevin Budnik, Andy Burkholder, Neil Brideau, Danielle Chenette, Anya Davidson, Jo Dery, Nick Drnaso, Krystal DiFronzo, Keith Herzik, Lyra Hill, Nicole Hollander, Edie Fake, Rebecca Mir Grady, Steve Krakow, Bret Koontz,,Brett Manning, Ben Marcus, Max Morris, Paul Nudd, Peanut Gallery, Onsmith,…

Tammy Pierce is ready BACK with a new digital issue on comiXology, Unlovable Book 1 #3 "Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Esther Pearl Watson. From the pages of Bust magazine and Unlovable Book 1, the sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and frequently hilarious exploits of '80s teen underdog Tammy Pierce: big hair, boogers, boys and other high school pitfalls. Learn how to kiss using household objects, shoplifting do's and don'ts PLUS the effects of raspberry wine coolers. These 106 pages of fun in the sun are only $4.99! Time to laugh until that wine cooler squirts out your…