Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

OH NO, you did not just get invited to the Unlovable Volume 3 Launch Party, we were just SHOWING you that there is one. Kim said that she and Erick were gonna like, crash it, but we just got these swede pants from the thrift store and new earrings from the Collin Creek Mall—OH FINE, EVERYONE IS INVITED! Skylight Books in Los Angeles is proud to announce they are hosting the Unlovable Volume 3 Launch Party with cartoonist Esther Pearl Watson on Sunday, May 4th. Summer vacation is here and Tammy Pierce is back with more sometimes ordinary, often humiliating,…

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. 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. Batter Up, Charlie Brown! by Charles M. Schulz 64-page black & white (with spot color) 5.75" x 5.75" hardcover • $9.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-725-3 "If baseball had a fictional Hall of Fame for philosophical managers, an entire wing could be devoted to Charlie Brown who invests new meaning in that old line…

Our main man Tony Millionaire is signing the night before CAKE in Chicago! Join him at Graham Crackers Comics Loop location on 77 E. Madison for imbibing and scribblin' in his new book Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey Treasury. From 5-7pm, he is yours to pester with great questions and post for pictures. The precocious sock monkey Uncle Gabby and his innocent pal Mr. Crow are the heroes of this endearing new and all-ages collection. Follow them as they try to find a home for a shrunken head, play matchmakers between the bat in the doll's house and the mouse in…

This April 24th at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles Love and Rockets' Jaime Hernandez will be on a panel 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 (please let them have A/C). After the panel, Jaime will be signing books INCLUDING the newest collection Love Bunglers. Please register by email/Eventbrite by April 24th to guarantee your seat in this standing-room only event! So keep earning money on that paper route so you can…

Next weekend, April 5th and 6th at the regal 69th Regiment Armory Fantagraphics will be participating and doing a little dance for the MoCCA Arts Fest. Gary Groth will be presiding on his court with Frank Santoro at the Fantagraphics tables for MoCCA fest on April 5-6th. We'll be on the slight right just as you enter the convention at tables A20-A23!     Debuts: • The Amateurs by Conor Stechschulte Two butchers arrive at work to find their shop empty of meat and their minds empty of how to do their job. As customers arrive, events become increasingly disastrous….

This Saturday, March 29th the new Appleseed Comic Con is sponsoring a screening of Ghost World, the Terry Zwigoff-directed film adaptation of the Daniel Clowes comic! Join the gang at 8pm at the Fort Wayne Cinema Center for a pre-show drink & draw (complete with artist alley) followed by the fim at 9:30pm. Only $7 to see this Oscar-nominated classic with Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson and the incredible Steve Buscemi.   And don't forget to buy your tickets now for Appleseed Comic Con! It's coming up in MAY and special guests include Peter Bagge and Ed Piskor. Ghost World  Fort…

Get through detention with Unlovable! Loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. Since serialized from the pages of Bust magazine, you'll laugh so hard you'll cry at 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. Only $4.99 for 100 pages of fun in Unlovable Book 1 #1 "Another Crappy Day" to read on your digital…

Last week, our newest manga also made the NY Times Best Seller list for at #6 for Manga. Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano is the dark and rewarding tale for fans of suspense, horror and mysteries. We even had our Umpteenth Millionaire club create some discussion questions for you and your book club! Check it out today.

Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1 just enjoyed its first week on the NY Times Best Seller's list for paperback graphic novels at #7. This book is practically sold out of its second printing, the third is on its way so better preorder Volume 2 now! "The beginnings of hip-hop music and its surrounding culture are lovingly told with a 1970s Marvel Comics house style in this collection." –NY Times

Next month's issue of Booklist will include two reviews of a recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below: Stranger Than Life: Cartoons and Comics, 1970-2013 by MK Brown "Brown's cartoons were a mainstay of National Lampoon during its salad days of the 1970s… Remarkably, this is the first comprehensive collection of her distinctively daffy work. Although the visual and conceptual non sequiturs of her singlepanel cartoons are clever and diverting, it's her comic strips where Brown's unique brilliance really shines…Brown's drawings, with their bulbous figures and ornate rendering, are every bitas unmistakable and memorable as her humor."–Gordon Flagg  Nijigahara Holograph…