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BY CONRAD GROTH – On Thursday, August 22, about thirty people gathered in the Strand's Rare Book Room to hear Samuel "Chip" Delany and Mia Wolff discuss their collaboration on the graphic novella Bread & Wine. For the uninitiated, the comic tells the story of how a novelist's chance encounter with a man who had been living on the streets of New York City for six years led to a loving relationship that continues to this day. As one might imagine about an author willing to divulge his love story, and an erotically charged one at that, Delany is an…

This digital drop Wednesday brings you two comics from two masters, Gilbert Hernandez and Jason. With a same day and date release as the print version, The Children of Palomar is Gilbert Hernandez's much-anticipated return to the small Central American town of Palomar. Originally released as a three-issue magazine series titled New Tales of Old Palomar in the acclaimed international "Ignatz" format, these stories are finally collected into one handsome book. All of these stories deal with the classic characters of Palomar (and stand alone from the series) such as sweet Pipo, her sharp-tongue sister Carmen, sheriff Chelo, and the…

Earlier this year, world-famous cartoonist and filmmaker Max Andersson screened his first feature-length film Tito on Ice at the Seattle International Film Festival.  And now, Tito on Ice is taking on Canada with screenings at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September! Catch this inventive documentary on Thursday, September 19th and Sunday, September 22nd at the Empire Theatres in the World Exchange Plaza [ 111 Albert Street ]. To promote their Fantagraphics book Bosnian Flat Dog, Andersson and fellow Swedish artist Lars Sjunnesson toured the countries of former Yugoslavia with a mummified Marshal Tito in a refrigerator. Now comes the…

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.  The Children of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez 108-page black & white 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-625-6 "It's an engaging collection of vignettes full of magical realism and compelling characters…evoke[s] comparisons to the short fiction of Jorge Luis Borges or, in the case of the science fiction-styled entries, Ray…

We're Friedman fans through and through: we've published several books by Drew, including work in collaboration with his brother Josh, and we're great admirers of their dad Bruce Jay. Now we finally bring the youngest sibling, Kipp, into the fold with Barracuda in the Attic, a memoir of growing up in a family of, and surrounded by, literati, artists, and pop-culture titans, not to mention other colorful characters. Anecdotes ahoy! We've baited our hook with the complete first chapter for you to read and download for free! The book lands on shelves next month and you can pre-order right here.

Charles Rodrigues took morbid humor to new highs (or lows) in the pages of the National Lampoon and elsewhere, and Ray and Joe: The Story of a Man and His Dead Friend collects his comics for the first time. In addition to the titular serial about post-mortem pals, the "Other Classic Comics" referred to in the subtitle star conjoined twins The Aesop Brothers (seen above); Sam DeGroot, the private eye in an iron lung; the mind-shatteringly ugly Deirdre Callahan; and other saps and miscreants. If you equate "outrageous" and "offensive" with "delightful," these comics will poke you right in your joy…

* Other People's Publications** Yeah, You Know Me. Need an appetizer for your Green Eggs and Maakies?  Well, we're serving up these great Maakies newspapers at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery!  Printed by our pals at Desert Island Brooklyn, this tasty tabloid collection packs in over 100 Maakies strips within 28 pages! Burp! The magnificent Mr. Millionaire tells us on his blog, it's "mostly reprints, but in a form I’ve always wanted. Good old fashioned full page width in a newspaper. Like an old movie re-released in 3D but old-fashioned and better." Come get yours before we sell out again,…

It's back-to-school time for Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san and they are both in awe of their new classmate. She's pretty, cool, daring, and OK, maybe a little unstable. You'll meet her and reunite with the rest of the gang in the first chapter of Shimura Takako's Wandering Son Vol. 5, which you can read for free and download! This new volume will be arriving in just a few weeks — if you haven't already pre-ordered or taken advantage of our discounted 3-volume subscription, do it now to be among the first to read it!

Hey, dummies! Some of you didn't listen the first time around, so Peter Bagge is back with the answers again in a new, expanded hardcover edition of 2009's sold-out, Eisner-nominated Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations. Pete brings his sharp wit and curmudgeonly perspective to such topics as "Stupid War," "Stupid Sex," "Stupid Arts," "Stupid Business," "Stupid Boondoggles," "Stupid Tragedy," "Stupid Politics," "Stupid Country," and "Stupid Biography," gathered mostly from the pages of Reason magazine. This new hardback includes everything in the previous softcover, plus 20 new pages of material! Look for the book to grace shelves next…

Gary Panter at his Fantagraphics Bookstore signing, 9/9/12 Tuesday, August 20th • Seattle, WA: The great Gary Panter puts down the pen and picks up his guitar for an opening slot with Sub Pop band No Age at Washington Hall. Don't get your copies of Dal Tokyo squished in the mosh pit! (more info) Saturday, August 24th • Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery welcomes Brandon Graham. The cartoonist behind popular projects like Prophet, Multiple Warheads, and King City returns to his former Seattle home to sign copies of Walrus from PictureBox press! (more info)