Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

  Pull up a stool to our entry in Hazradfactory's famous Power Tool Races at the Georgetown Carnival this Saturday. The Fantagraphics Bar Car blends Pina Coladas while leisurely tooling down the track. (The resulting cocktails will be served to race officials following each run.) Inspired by the mid-century motifs of Shag, Fantagraphics Bookstore's annual entry is going for cool, not speed. Come watch us win. The Power Tool Races commence at noon and continue all afternoon, concluding with a delirious demolition derby. Enjoy an afternoon of free entertainment including acrobats, aerialists, brass bands, tall bikes, belly dancers, stiltwalkers, fortune tellers, burlesque acts, beer…

  Pull up a stool to our entry in Hazradfactory's famous Power Tool Races at the Georgetown Carnival this Saturday. The Fantagraphics Bar Car blends Pina Coladas while leisurely tooling down the track. (The resulting cocktails will be served to race officials following each run.) Inspired by the mid-century motifs of Shag, Fantagraphics Bookstore's annual entry is going for cool, not speed. Come watch us win. The Power Tool Races commence at noon and continue all afternoon, concluding with a delirious demolition derby. Enjoy an afternoon of free entertainment including acrobats, aerialists, brass bands, tall bikes, belly dancers, stiltwalkers, fortune tellers, burlesque acts, beer…

Anders Nilsen wrote a beautiful and thorough post on his process for creating The End in addition to where some of the disparate parts were printed and many of the outtakes. "It can be a bear keeping everything flowing just right – balancing the rhythm and content of the individual pieces with chronology while also keeping two-page spreads on even/odd pages… Keeping all this straight can be a little crazy-making." Pretty, pretty, pretty.

The fastest hot-to-trot release of online Commentaries & Diversions: • Review: Good Dog has it this week. Graham Chaffee's return to comics gets a starred review from Publishers Weekly. "Chaffees’s art is both lyrical and dramatic when it needs to be, mixing Craig Thompson and Gilbert Hernandez. As with White Fang and Black Beauty, Chaffee goes inside the psychology of animals without over sentimentalizing and shows why the human/pet relationship is so precious for both sides." • Review: Diamond Scoop is all over Wake Up, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian. "Malkasian fills the story with multiple levels, never once making…

Good Dog marks the welcome return of alternative cartoonist Graham Chaffee, one that comiXology has made available digitally the same day as the book is out in print! Ivan, who is plagued by terrible nightmares about chickens and rabbits, is a good dog — if only someone would notice. Chaffee combines illustrative gravitas with cartooning verve for a richly textured, dog’s-eye view of the world. Preteen-and-up dog fanciers, especially, will warm to the well-meaning Ivan and his exploits with a motley assortment of Scotties, Bulldogs, and mutts. Chaffee combines illustrative gravitas with cartooning verve and creates a richly textured, dog’s-eye…

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. Good Dog by Graham Chaffee 96-page black & white 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 "hardcover parable for all ages (CONTAINS LIGHT CUSSING), concerning a stray dog who navigates the concept of – yes – goodness" –Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal "I got choked up a couple of times which is the…

The king of erotic, creator of Lann, Ghita of Alizar, Moonshine McJuggs (Playboy), plus The Iron Devil and Devil's Angel is having an art show in New Jersey. Frank Thorne, all of 82 years, graciously invites you to see his new mixed media and pantings this Sunday, June 2nd from 2 to 5pm at the deCret School of the Arts. From the press release: Thorne began his comics career in 1948, penciling romance comics for Standard Comics. He turned out a multitude of stories for Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Green Hornet, and many more. For Marvel, he continued the…

The coldest Dip'n'Dots of Online Commentaries & Marketing:  • Interview: Comic Book Resources and Alex Dueben interview Peter Bagge about Other Stuff and his favorite collaborations in the book, "The earliest one in the book, "Life in These United States," didn't come out looking at all like I had envisioned it…what Clowes did with it was truly remarkable. Also, Gilbert [Hernandez] radically changed the faces, ages and even genders of almost everyone in the "Me" strip. That threw me for a loop! Though it didn't negatively impact the story in the slightest." • Review: The A.V. Club looks at Peter…

This month's issue of Booklist reviewed three recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below: Peter Bagge's Other Stuff by Peter Bagge et al. "The pleasing hodgepodge includes multipart sequences featuring Bagge creations like hipster wannabe Lovey and clueless suburbanites Chet and Bunny Leeway (resurrected from Bagge’s 1980s series, Neat Stuff); Bagge-scripted stories drawn by other alt-comics titans, including R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez as well as a story scripted by Alan Moore…While his rubbery, exaggerated visual style may be one-note (as effective and appealing as that single note might be), this diverse assortment of work, nearly…

We've had three books hit the NY Times Best Sellers list for two weeks this past month! Dig into yer wallets and read what's on everyone's mind: some quality EC Comics and books from the comic strip master himself, Charles Schulz.  50 Girls 50 and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library) illustrated by Al Williamson et al.; written by Al Feldstein et al. "…here we’re dazzled by romanticized sci-fi heroics and delicate line-work of the ilk of FLASH GORDON’S original artist Alex Raymond, Williamson’s main inspiration. Dinosaurs, spaceships, and outlandish otherworldly creatures populate the flora of faraway worlds, accompanied by buxom, exotically garbed beauties." –Rick…