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…

Celebrate 7 Years of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery with “cARToons: The Art of Alternative Comix” on December 14. November 26, 2013 – Seattle, WA. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery opened seven years ago in a deserted south Seattle industrial district. In the intervening years, both the bookstore and the neighborhood have woven themselves into the cultural fabric of the region. Celebrate the impact of this unique urban enterprise on Saturday, December 14 with a festive holiday gala and opening reception for “cARToons: The Art of Alternative Comix.” From its inception, the showroom for Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics Books has endeavored to demonstrate…

Fantagraphics Books Partners With ComiXology to Debut Violenzia Fantagraphics Books’ First Digital Exclusive Comic November 20th, 2013 – Seattle, WA/New York, NY – Fantagraphics Books, publisher of the world’s greatest cartoonists, partners with comiXology, the revolutionary cloud-based digital comics platform, to debut Fantagraphics’ first original, digital exclusive comic book: Violenzia. Written and illustrated by acclaimed creator Richard Sala (Delphine, Cat Burglar Black), Violenzia is an all-new, full-color, $5.99, 50-page one-shot exclusively available today across comiXology’s entire platform including iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows 8 and comiXology.com. "Let there be no mercy or forgiveness for they have shown none." With these…

November 19, 2013 – Seattle, WA. The Seattle music scene in 1989 was on the precipice of altering the course of global pop culture. Ironically, the punk music of the Pacific Northwest was having difficulty gaining traction beyond a small but enthusiastic regional following. While critically acclaimed, the embryonic movement was in imminent danger of a premature demise. In an effort to draw international attention to their fledgling label, Sub Pop sent their three marquee acts to Europe. The rest, as they say, is history. Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989 is Bruce Pavitt’s account of this pivotal period of…

Fantagraphics Books Launches a Kickstarter Campaign to Help Fund Spring-Summer 2014 Comics Publishing Season FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS IS ASKING FOR READERS' SUPPORT THROUGH KICKSTARTER. HELP FINANCE OUR SPRING-SUMMER SEASON, AND BE A PART OF THE COMPANY THAT HAS PUBLISHED MORE OF THE BEST CARTOONISTS IN THE HISTORY OF COMICS THAN ANY OTHER PUBLISHER. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantagraphicsbooks/fantagraphics-2014-spring-season-39-graphic-novels November 5 – Seattle, WA – Fantagraphics Books is launching a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to help finance our Spring-Summer 2014 season of books. Earlier this Fantagraphics Co-Publisher Kim Thompson was diagnosed with cancer and died four months later, on June 19, 2013. Because Kim was such an active part…