Artist Dan Schultz dropped by Fantagraphics Bookstore store last week anxiously awaiting the arrival of Dungeon Quest Book 3 by Joe Daly. (Soon, Dan. Soon.) While discussing his enthusiasm for the comic, he conjures up a picture of his amazing Millennium Boy action figure fashioned from plastic. Then he pulls up an equally awesome array of original pop art. Remarkable. Really. Keep an eye out for this guy.
Heating up with Summer releases
Things have been hectic around here and they're only going to get hecticer. Here are the advances and sample copies that have arrived at the office since the last sneak-peek update a few weeks ago, some of which have already been spotted out in public making their debuts during our current convention gauntlet and all of which should be available between now and July. It's hard to tell from this angle but Joe Daly's Dungeon Quest Book 3 is thicker than Books 1 & 2 put together: We already gave you this first glimpse of Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons: The…
Fantagraphics Bookstore video profile
Family Feel from Helene Christensen on Vimeo. Filmmaker Helene Christensen took it upon herself to create this marvelous short video about Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, largely shot back in February during our Jack Davis tribute exhibit. Its primary star is, of course, our own Larry Reid, with additional interviews with Gary Groth, Jim Woodring, Frank Santoro and others, and there's also a clip of Jack Davis's video chat at the tribute exhibit opening. Lots more familiar faces make appearances too — maybe you're in it!
Daily OCD: 5/1/12
Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview (Video): VICE's Rocco Castoro: "Johnny Ryan has been filling the back page of VICE magazine with twisted comics for the past ten years. Not to toot our own horn here, but it's fair to say that his strips are some of the funniest and grossest being published anywhere right now. We sat down with Johnny at his house in LA to discuss how he got started, his feelings towards R. Crumb, and how he used to barely give a shit about the work he submitted to us." • Interview: At Stumptown, our pal…
Flannery O’Connor: The Cartoons excerpted in the Paris Review
This summer's release of Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons is fast approaching, and The Paris Review teases the book with a selection of artwork and an excerpt of editor Kelly Gerald's Afterword, "The Habit of Art," about how O'Connor's experience with drawing and its emphasis on visual observation informed her writing. And look, your first glimpse of the physical book!
MoCCA wrap-up at The Beat
The newest addition to our marketing staff, Jen Vaughn, underwent her baptism by fire at this past weekend's MoCCA Fest, and she writes about her experience for her freelance writing gig at The Beat (whose Heidi MacDonald took the photo of Jen above). What's it like to "graduate" from having your own table as a self-publisher to being behind the table for a big, fancy-pants publisher like us? Jen's got the perspective, with photos a-plenty (ooo, Daniel Johnston!).
This Week in Fantagraphics Events: 4/30-5/7
It's a quiet week for events. I think most of us are either recovering from Stumptown and MoCCA, or gearing up for TCAF! Friday, May 4th • Toronto, ON: It's the opening night of Gabriella Giandelli: A Toronto Retrospective at the Italian Cultural Institute! Over 80 original drawings will be on display. More information about this wonderful (and free!) event is coming to the FLOG later this week. Saturday, May 5th • San Francisco, CA: Mario Hernandez will be a special guest at the 2012 Latino Comics Expo! He'll be signing copies of Love & Rockets from 1:00 to 2:30…
Fantagraphics at TCAF in Toronto This Weekend!
Ain't no party like a Fantagraphics party 'cause a Fantagraphics party don't stop, and WE DON'T EVER STOP. We are now taking this party across the border for the 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival in Canada! Join us this weekend, Saturday, May 5th and Sunday, May 6th, at the Toronto Reference Library. I love selling books in a library. Here are the debuts we'll be bringing that you will NOT find on the reshelving cart! (Unless we have to borrow it from Ab again.) • Interiorae by Gabriella Giandelli • Dungeon Quest 3 by Joe Daly• The Furry Trap by…
Mysterious Traveler: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 3 – Previews, Pre-Order
Mysterious Traveler: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 3 by Steve Ditko; edited by Blake Bell 240-page full-color 7.25" x 10" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-498-6 Ships in: May 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Five years before his breakthrough as the co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and other classic super-heroes for Marvel Comics in the early 1960s, Steve Ditko, inspired by the freedom he found at the laissez-faire Charlton Comics, was turning out some of the best work of his career. Mysterious Traveler, which collects stories from (among others) Tales of the Mysterious Traveler and This Magazine Is Haunted, reprints…
Daily OCD: 4/30/12
Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Austrian cartoonist Nicholas Mahler cheerfully spoofs superheroes and modern comic-book publishing with Angelman… These kinds of jokes about the venality of superhero industry have been made many times before, but Mahler’s little squiggly characters are adorable, and his gags are genuinely funny, especially as poor little Angelman gets more and more loaded down with quirks and complications. Angelman is a satire, yes, but it also revels to some extent in the goofiness of revamps, retcons, and all the other gimmicks that keep mainstream comics afloat." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club • Review:…
