Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

(not final cover) The living will forever be obsessed with death and those who have started on that grand adventure before them. This Fall, Fantagraphics presents two books to capture the imagination and haunt each and every night by the young and talented Julia Gfrörer and Ben Catmull. Black Is the Colorby Julia Gfrörer September 2013 $9.99 Paperback • 72 pagesBlack-and-white • 6" x 9"ISBN: 978-1-60699-717-8 The push and pull, ebb and flow of the water calls out to all men. In this harrowing new graphic novella, Black Is the Color, Julia Gfrörer delicately hatches away this sailor-at-sea story until…

Dash Shaw's animated music video for Sigur Ros entitled SERAPH is showing at Sundance this week. As part of the Film Festival Shorts, SERAPH is also promoted on the YouTube Screen Room Channel. Check out Shaw's animation and enjoy others like Catnip and What Do We Have in Our Pockets? Keep your eyes on the sky for a new Shaw animation coming soon along with his two new comics, New School and 3 New Stories.

 The chest rackiest cough of Online Commentaries & Diversions: • Review: Andy Shaw reviews Chris Wright's Blacklung on Grovel. "The characters have enormous depth, and the book explores interesting themes on the nature of violence. It’s particularly strong on class structure, exploring the different levels of what’s acceptable to different people in different walks of life…While extremely dark this is definitely one of the most sophisticated horror books I’ve read in some time." • Review: Blacklung by Chris Wright makes another best of list on Comic Book Resources. Greg Burgas writes "Wright’s pirate comic is a strange animal – it’s…

Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano; translated by Matt Thorn February 2014 $26.99 Hardcover • 200 pages Black-and-white • 7" x 9.25" ISBN: 978-1-60699-583-9 Fantagraphics continues its line of acclaimed literary manga with new classic Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano. As society slowly spirals into darkness an unexplained explosion in the butterfly population is just the first of many curiosities in the town where rumors of a creature in a tunnel under the school spread like wildfire. A curse haunts the town as the story follows the scapegoat, Arié, who is plunged into the tunnel's horrors and offered up to the creature. Many…

Fantagraphics and comiXology are ready to show you something fit for a kid or any fan of Gilbert Hernandez! The Adventures of Venus is super-affordable little book collects all the previously uncollected “Venus” stories from Measles in which Luba’s niece creates and collects comic books, walks through a scary forest, plays soccer, schemes to get the cute boy she likes, laments the snowlessness of a California Christmas, catches measles, and travels to a distant planet (OK, the last one may be a dream). Plus a new story done just for this book! Pick up this lovely little read at comiXology…

The gnarliest gnome of Online Commentaries and Diversions: • Review: Zack Davisson of Comics Bulletin reads the weighty Castle Waiting Vol 1 (softcover) by Linda Medley. "It is whimsical, unexpected, packed with a deep knowledge of folklore and fairytales, irreverent, interesting and a whole lot of other adjectives that add up to something great… I would rank it up there with Bone in terms of just being a sheer delight to read…I'm a 40-year old guy, and I don't really see gender issues coming into play here —  Castle Waiting is just a great comic, with interesting characters and an…

Here's a preview of the sassy Libby aka Lady Liberty as drawn by THE Jaime Hernandez for the 2013 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's card. And they must have answered my prayers because I've been wanting a new baseball tee for a long time. I'll let Deputy Director Alex Cox tell you more below: Legendary cartoonist Jaime Hernandez rings in 2013 for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund by providing the art for this year's membership program!  CBLDF protects the freedom to read comics by providing legal aid, resources, and education in the service of protecting the comics medium's First…

• Review: Publishers Weekly gives a starred review to 7 Miles a Second by David Wojnarowicz, James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook. "The author’s prose is poetic, arriving with a light touch while delivering a heavy, dark, and understandably angry message. Part of what makes the book unusual is that it does not go out of its way to be uplifting… Romberger and Van Cook’s art is hyperactive, with splattery color that suggests the out-of-body acid-trip world of contradictory values and constantly shifting danger that Wojnarowicz lived in." • Preview: Publishers Weekly also posted a preview of the comic 7 Miles a…