Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

  Following a line of Fantagraphics' cartoonists like last year's Joe Sacco and 2011's Daniel Clowes, the great Gilbert Hernandez has won the Pen Graphic Literature Award for outstanding body of work. Judged by panels of distinguished writers, critics, and editors, Hernandez's 30 years of work in comics includes FIVE books out this year! It's nothing to sneeze at. The 23rd Annual Literary Awards Festival takes place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Monday, October 14th, 2013.  

Holy yes-more-please, SPX rocked us. Jacq Cohen, Gary Groth and I traversed across the country for one of the single best comic books shows that exists. We knew it was going to be quite the fun time when we boarded the plane and saw Joseph Remnant. A small favor to stranger later and he was TRAPPED between us for 4+ hours. SPX is that magical place where we stay in the same hotel as the convention so you run into people all the time. We found a Ben Catmull by the elevators right away! Maybe he was haunting the place…

Fantagraphics and comiXology bring you more of the comics of yesterday with the technology of today. The 1939 creation of the Sub-Mariner for the first issue of Marvel Comics assures Bill Everett a place in history. Co-creating Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, for Marvel Comics in 1964 gave Everett a link to one of the most popular superheroes of the past 50 years. Edited and compiled by best-selling author and comic-book historian Blake Bell (Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko), The Bill Everett Archives is a stunning series and a historical treasure. The series follows the format of…

  Embarking on a barnstorming tour of the former Yugoslavia, cartoonists Max Andersson and Lars Sjunneson (Bosnian Flat Dog) cart along a macabre papier-mâché "mummy" of Marshal Josip Broz Tito encased in a refrigerator. At border crossings, intimidating guards are reduced to giddy fans, clambering for photos with the late dictator's effigy. Subsequent stops prove stranger still: artisans incorporate the shells that destroyed their cities into their handicrafts… a makeshift gallery of illustrations is found on the walls of a decimated apartment block… a collector has amassed a menagerie of "mutant" Mickey Mouse figurines originating from former communist countries… Only heightening…

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.     Everybody is Stupid Except for Me (and Other Astute Observations)  by Peter Bagge   "Collecting 10 years' worth of cartoons originally done for Reason magazine, as well as a few odds and sods, [Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me] finds Bagge as sharp and irate as ever, and his art has improved…

On Saturday night, Ulli Lust won the Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel for her large work Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life. Translated by Kim Thompson, the story is set back in 1984, where a rebellious, 17-year-old, punked-out Ulli Lust sets out for a wild hitchhiking trip across Italy.    Charming and well, just plain bad-ass Lust sold out of her graphic novel earlier in the day. Thank you for your support and coming to say hi to our favorite Austrian cartoonist! Get your own copy of her book today!  

Fantagraphics and comiXology give you one of hottest books of 2013, the soon to be sold out The End of the Fucking World  by Charles Forsman. The story follows James and Alyssa, two teenagers living a seemingly typical teen experience as they face the fear of coming adulthood. Forsman tells their story through each character's perspective, jumping between points of view with each chapter. But quickly, this somewhat familiar teenage experience takes a more nihilistic turn as James's character exhibits a rapidly forming sociopathy that threatens both of their futures. He harbors violent fantasies and begins to act on them, while Alyssa…

Boasting one of the most PACKED signing schedules of SPX and Fantagraphics' we have FOURTEEN people signing at our table (and a few more Fantagraphics' cartoonists are tabling all by their lonesome) You can find all these sweet 'n' sassy cartoonists and book debuts at tables W57-6, along the very rightmost wall. Saturday Ed Piskor: 11-12:30pm, 3:30-5:00pmLeslie Stein: 11-12:30pmMichael Kupperman: 11am-1pmJanet Hamlin: 12:30pm-2:30pm (Saturday signing only!)Justin Hall: 12:30pm-1:30pmCarol Tyler: 1-2:00pm, 6-7pmCharles Forsman: 2-4pmGary Panter: 2-3pmDash Shaw: 2-3pmUlli Lust: 3-5pmPaul Hornschemeier: 4-7pmBen Catmull: 5-6pmPeter Bagge: 5-6pmMarc Sobel: 6-7pm SundayPeter Bagge: Noon-1pmLeslie Stein: Noon-1:30pmJustin Hall: Noon-1pmCarol Tyler: 1-2pmPaul Hornschemeier: 1-2pmEd Piskor: 1:30-3pmUlli Lust:…

The Stranger, one of our local alt-weeklies that shares many ties with Fantagraphics throughout the ages ran a tribute to Kim Thompson written by former employee Robert Boyd. Giving context to the comics world as the more commercial spoke the art world wheel, Boyd touches on Kim's job as a creative enabler and rabid music fan. "Kim encouraged and cajoled many cartoonists to produce art they never otherwise would have dreamed possible. I imagine that if Fantagraphics had not been there in 1982, Jaime Hernandez might have gone on to a successful, respectable career as a penciller for Marvel and…

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.  Love and Rockets: The Covers by Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez 144-page full-color 10.25" x 13.25" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-598-3 "As you might expect, Love And Rockets: The Covers is very attractive, very well-put together, and the fact that the production values on display flatter the work inside gives you…