Fantagraphics Blog Jen Vaughn

A+ B, Down, Down + Forward, Down + Back, Pencil, Ink, Fail. GAME OVER. To celebrate Geek Girl Con and PAX Prime, Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery presents “GAME OVER.” This exhibition, opening on Saturday, August 11th, will feature the “box art” of some of our most famous graphic novels reimagined as failed videogame adaptations. No set of killer button combos or brute force could make these “graphic novels as games” playable, but Prison Pit for Nintendo 64 is even gorier than Mortal Kombat, and you can bemoan Pete Bagge's Hate-come-to-virtual-life as a CD-ROM. You can even draw your own failed…

  It's Thrizzlin' Hot outside on the first day of August. To celebrate the heat, the next two issues of critically-acclaimed humor series Tales Designed to Thrizzle (#5 and #6) by Michael Kupperman are now available for download at $2.99 each at comiXology. No need to choose between the Old People issue, #5, or the issue with those charming Cockney grave robbers, #6, when they are such a steal of a deal! Now with too much color! "Seriously, go to your local comics shop and buy this. In fact, buy everything Michael Kupperman's ever done. Not only is he hysterical,…

The sun is shining on the newest Online Commentaries & Diversions:   •Interview: Creator of the epic series Dungeon Quest, Joe Daly, is interviewed about the third graphic novel on The Comics Journal by our own Eric Buckler. "I liked the idea of creating a character without shame, and a almost healthy polymorphous sexuality, and within that a kind of an innocence, or at least a pureness. I also try to challenge myself to see what cartooning can achieve, what it can get away with. There seem to be things that cartoon characters can get away with, that would be…

  Charles Forsman of future Fantagraphics titles Celebrated Summer and The End of the Fucking World, is a mini-comics publisher in his own right. Forsman is curating a great set of cartoonists and publishing their work via his Oily Comics Boutique. If you become a "Friend of Oily Comics" you get ANY publication created from July – September ($30) or July – December ($60) via monthly deliveries through September or December (respectively). Check out what our local mailmain delivered this month! Comics by Max de Radigues, Aaron Cockle, Melissa Mendes, Forsman and Andy Burkholder. Forsman was recently interviewed about his…

  Just when you think Professor Van Sciver couldn't find a more complicated member of the extended Todd-Lincoln family, BLAMMO: Ninian Wirt Edwards arrives. "Ninian married Elizabeth Porter Todd, Mary Todd’s older sister, and played a key role in Mary and Abraham Lincoln’s marriage. . . After the Whig party’s successes, Ninian would invite all of his friends over to the house for oysters and cigars to celebrate." And this is where Mr. Lincoln started to really garner some attention. Read more about Noah Van Sciver's historical research for The Hypo on his blog and preorder The Hypo today!

  Love and Rockets by the Hernandez Brothers is filled from indicia to back cover with a love of music, creating jams, going to concerts and odes to punk songs. Robert Boyd recently compiled a nice list of songs in Jaime and Gilbert's comics. Then LA-based comic store, Secret Headquarters, went ahead and built a playlist around said list of music. Listen away on Spotify, whether you are drawing, walking around town, hanging with friends or generally being a badass. Playlists Locas by Jaime and Palomar by Gilbert.

The newest, brightest bulb Online Commentaries & Diversions: •Review: Sarah Hansen of Autostraddle looks at No Straight Lines. "I like my queer comic anthologies like I like my women. Handy AND beautiful. . .What No Straight Lines really achieves is putting all of these influential comics in one place. Together, they contextualize each other and the LGBTQ scene at the same time." •Review: Paste's 'breeder' journalist Sean Edgar cracks open No Straight Lines and has a baller time. "The work in this book illustrates a sweeping chronology of our generation’s greatest civil conflict with all of the tears and smiles that follow. It’s…

While reading a particularly engrossing book or graphic novel, it is not abhorrent to combine the experience with a fine drink. We are not above such fun. In the weekly article from iFanboy, Comic Shots picks one tasty drink and pairs it with a delicious read: Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man. Josh Christie waxed on quite a bit about Carl Barks' stories. "I was, perhaps, predestined to love these new editions of Barks’ classics. Nevertheless, these stories tap into something deeper – they are, at their core, good stories. Barks’ characters are funny and charming, and…

 The newest Online Commentaries & Diversions:   •Interview (audio): NPR affliate 89.c KPCC interviewed both Significant Objects' editor Joshua Gleen and contributor Mark Frauenfelder (of BoingBoing and MAKE). Madeleine Brand says, "One's man trash is another man's treasure, especially if it comes with a really good story."   •Review: The Comics Journal shakes down Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons, edited by Kelly Gerald.   •Interview (video): Bill Moyers interviews on comics journalist Joe Sacco "I'm not interested in tears, I'm not even interested in sentimentality. But I am interested in telling peoples' stories who are repressed or are poor." Sacco and…

Today is New Comics Day! In the second series of comics to be released digitally after Love and Rockets going digital, Michael Kupperman's critically-acclaimed humor series Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3 and #4 are now available for download at $2.99 each. Thanks to comiXology you can buy issue #3 that has long been sold out featuring devil girls and their Owls, Snake'n'Bacon, The Mysterious Avenger, history of porno coloring books and much, much more. "Is there anything more delightful than a new issue of Michael Kupperman’s hilarious comics? …I submit to you that there is not." – Newsarama "Be warned:…