Re/Read in a recurring column by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid that examines backlist titles you may have missed or are worthy of another read. This time we’ll look at Guy Colwell’s essential Inner City Romance. Inner City Romance collects five issues of the transitional underground comic book series of the same name, originally published from 1972 to 1978. Colwell’s comix provide an unvarnished look at the impact of crippling poverty, substance abuse, and violent crime in the aftermath of the Bay Area’s sixties counterculture. His work is informed by his incarceration at McNeil Island federal penitentiary as a Viet…
New Comic Book Day! Oct. 12th 2016
Digging those fall vibes and digging these #NCBD releases. You can find these titles in any decent store near you, or on any decent website (like ours!) Band for Life by Anya Davidson Band for Life is the story, told in comic strip form, of a noise rock band and their community of friends and acquaintances based in an alternate reality version of Chicago. Though beset with disaster at every turn and frequently reduced to squabbling, they stick together because the band is the fulcrum of their otherwise confounding lives, and together they help each other find their way. Fusing…
This Week’s Digital Releases
Old favorites Fuzz and Pluck are back with a brand-new adventure and an incredible artists makes their Fantagraphics debut . . . this week in digital releases! You might know Ted Stearn’s Fuzz and Pluck from Zero Zero or Mome. You might know them from their own series and previous collection. The only thing you need to know now, however, is that they’re back! Carrying on their tenuous, co-dependent friendship, the irritable rooster and awkward bear find themselves on a ramshackle barge slowly drifting out to sea. How they got there, how they will escape, and all the classic cartooning…
Bill Griffith and Zippy Go Digital!
Today Fantagraphics and comiXology are teaming up to celebrate one of the all-time greats: Eisner Award winner Bill Griffith! Not only is Griffith’s underground comix collection Lost and Found available digitally for the very first time, but also all of his Zippy the Pinhead comic strip collections ranging from 2004 to 2013. Whether you are an avid Griffith fan catching up on all his work or someone who’s just being introduced to his unique brand of comedy, it’s all here! Starting today you can find all these books on comiXology: Lost and Found: Comics 1969–2003 Zippy the Pinhead: From Here…
What’s in Store: Northwest Exposure
Don’t miss the Northwest Alternative Comics exhibition at Washington State University’s Museum of Art featuring Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, David Lasky, Max Clotfelter, Tom van Deusen, Eroyn Franklin, Taylor Dow, Mita Mahato, and Paul Chadwick, on view through December 17. Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid served as a consultant and will speak (very briefly) at the opening reception on Thursday, October 6. Artist talks, workshops, and related activities are planned throughout the run of the show. WSU is conveniently located in the middle of nowhere, on the border between Washington and Idaho south of Spokane. Then tune up…
Check Out This Week’s Digital Lineup!
New comics from living legends and new favorites, underground artists and Fantagraphics Underground — this week’s got it all! We are proud to present four new digital debuts that both run the gamut of subject matter and celebrate the comics medium as a whole. Gilbert Hernandez is back is with a brand-new, full-color, sexually-explicit retelling of Bible parables. As only the unfettered id of Hernandez could conceive, Garden of Flesh retells the stories of Adam and Eve up to Noah’s Ark, blurring the lines between erotic and pornography. Find this book on comiXology and Google Play today! …
What’s in Store: Incomparable Cartoonist Charles Burns
Fantagraphics continues its commemoration of 40 years of publishing the world’s greatest cartoonists with an event focusing on one of the founders of the alternative comix movement. Charles Burns appears at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, October 8 at 7:00 to discuss his graphic novel masterpiece Black Hole and other seminal works. Seattle native Charles Burns emerged from the Evergreen State College in nearby Olympia with Lynda Barry and Matt Groening in the mid-’70s. Together, this trio of gifted cartoonists popularized a new approach to contemporary comix. Burns came to the attention of future Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman, who…
Re/Read: Big Baby by Charles Burns
Re/Read is an occasional column by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid that examines backlist titles you may have missed or are worthy of another read. This week we’ll focus on Big Baby by Seattle native Charles Burns. Big Baby collects four stories created by Burns between 1983 and 1992 from works published in RAW comix anthology and his syndicated “Big Baby” comic strip. Much like the Hernandez Brothers‘ Love & Rockets stories of this period, science fiction plays an important role, though Burns’ EC horror comics influences are more evident. His primary protagonist is a peculiar little boy with an…
SPX 2016: The Panels
In celebration of our 40th Anniversary, SPX has generously put together a slate of panels and workshops that feature our artists in a wide variety of topics that’ll inform and spark inspiration. Panels Saturday, September 17th, 2016 Comics Journalism with Joe Sacco and Sarah Glidden 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM White Oak Room Comics journalism is a form of journalism crafted by Joe Sacco in his award-winning graphic novels (Palestine, Safe Area Goražde, Fixer, Footnotes in Gaza, The Great War) and explored in depth by Sarah Glidden in her new release, Rolling Blackouts. Join these two amazing comics creators as…
What’s in Store: An American Treasure
Only rarely is there discovered a significant body of work by an artist as important as Robert Crumb. The drawings and related artifacts found in the forthcoming exhibition R. Crumb: Early Works, 1965 – 1967 represent a rare opportunity to experience the evolving aesthetic of a prominent American artist. Join us this Saturday, September 10 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery as we unveil this exceptional collection of seminal works by one of history’s most gifted cartoonists. Below is a narrative explaining the origin of this work by Crumb confidant Mimi Currier, who will attend the…
