Fantagraphics Blog Blog

Sam Jackson is following in the honorable footsteps of his father —Jack Jackson, the great underground cartoonist and graphic historian and documentarian— in more ways than one: he is an artist and a man of conscience. The tribal lands of the Huichol people are currently, to quote from their web site, “under siege by mining companies and agro business polluters who have illegally obtained land, water and mining rights. While the Huichols hold title to their lands in their mountain homeland, they do not have formal title to the sacred sites on these desert lands that they consider to be…

Doctors Questions By RJ Casey, Daniel Johnson, and Vicki Lo How do the pages’ colors correlate with the events that take place on them? What is the significance of the panels and objects colored in white? How does Charon compare and contrast with the figure in Greek mythology? Games play what role in the Cho family’s relationships? Should the doctors be responsible for the patients’ “new life?” After the dead patients are hooked up to the Charon, are they in a dream? The after-life? Or something else? What does the imagery and design of the front and back covers add…

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Keith Barbalato, Lucy Kiester, and Daniel Johnson put together this set of questions. Note that this is intended for those who have read the book and may contain spoilers. – Ed.] Inio Asano's Nijigahara Holograph cuts back and forth between two timelines, filling in details bit by bit: events ripple throughout a town and take their toll for years to come, resulting in violence and sexual guilt. A foreboding force circulates among a community following a woman's suicide. A group…

December 23, 2013 – Seattle, WA. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is pleased to present The Cartoon Utopia, an exhibition and book signing with visionary cartoonist Ron Regé, Jr. opening Saturday, January 11 with a festive reception for the artist. The show continues through February 5, 2014. In The Cartoon Utopia, Regé examines religious, mystical, and spiritual philosophies employing an imaginative narrative construct. The subject ideally suits the artist’s intriguing rendering technique. In the words of cartoonist Chris Ware, Regé is "One of a handful of cartoonists in the history of the medium to not only reinvent comics to suit his own idiosyncratic…

Guantanamo Courtroom Sketch Artist Janet Hamlin at Fantagraphics Bookstore on December 28 December 17, 2013 – Seattle, WA. Please join us at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, December 28 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM as we host a reception and book signing with Janet Hamlin. Her fascinating book, Sketching Guantanamo, captures the conditions faced by detainees in the makeshift island internment compound. Hamlin served as the media pool sketch artist, and was among a handful of journalists to bear witness to the military tribunals of accused terrorists and “enemy combatants.” Neither sentimental nor didactic, Hamlin’s evocative drawings provide a…

[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. Our interns Keith Barbalato, Lillian Beaty, and Sonya Selbach put together this set of questions. – Ed.] Rendered in vivid black and white (though it evokes psychedelia), Jim Woodring's Fran depicts a story of love, loss, and healing — all in wordless panels. From one page to the next, Woodring builds a fantastical world Frank readers will be familiar with: the Unifactor is the landscape against which Fran and Frank's love plays out. In Fran, the impetuous titular character drags reluctant Frank along on adventures that clearly…