Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

What could be more festive than a cake decorated with the cover of The Comics Journal #301 (featuring artwork from Robert Crumb's Genesis)? This gorgeous edible monstrosity was procured by TCJ's Matt Silvie for the Thanksgiving festivities chez Groth. Photos by Jacq Cohen.

Rolling Stone presents 10 of Tony Millionaire's best drawings of musicians from 500 Portraits and, what's more, the magazine's Matthew Perpetua got Tony to talk about each one — both the musicians themselves and the experience of drawing them. Check it out unless you hate wonderfulness.

This coming March, Fantagraphics releases the comics collection Kolor Klimax: Nordic Comics Now… and when the Nords say "now" they mean it, as editor Matthias Wivel has already thrown a "Pre-Release Party" for the book last week in Copenhagen!  You can view more pictures from the party here. And the fun doesn't stop, as today Friday, November 25th, there will be (was?) a signing at the comic book store Fantask [ St. Pedersstræde 18, Copenhagen ]. Wivel will be (was?) joined by artists Peter Kielland, Johan F. Krarup, Mårdøn Smet and Thomas Thorhauge. Nordic Comics NOW, indeed! [Ed. note: Edited…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: After appearing on Amazon.com's Best Books of 2011 — Comics and Graphic Novels top 10, Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 and Pogo Vol. 1 show up on Amazon.ca's list of the same name, in the #5 and #4 positions respectively • Plug: At NPR's Monkey See, Glen Weldon recommends Pogo Vol. 1 as a "tryptophan-tastic tome" for your turkey-coma reading enjoyment: "Walt Kelly's seminal, satirical, exquisitely rendered, hugely influential (and, not for nothing, actually funny) comic strip is getting a deluxe treatment by Fantagraphics. Crisply reproduced at a generous size that makes…

"Carl Barks’ 1974 painting 'The Sport of Tycoons,' which features the iconic image of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold-filled vault, sold at auction last week for a record $262,900," reports Robot 6. You'll be able to buy our hardcover collection which includes the comic the painting is based on for less than 0.01% of that amount next June, in case your liquid assets aren't swimmable.  

Fantagraphics friend Csaba Mester checks in with "Beardo" — a suitable mascot for seasonal merriment. 

Kevin Avery stopped by the Vanity Fair offices recently to record an excerpt from "his colorful new anthology" Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson for their "Writers Reading" podcast. Listen with the embedded player below or on the Vanity Fair website. And see our book page for another excerpt & previews. Kevin Avery Reads from Everything Is an Afterthought by Vanity Fair

My god, that's a beautiful baby, right? His name is Elliot, and we'd like to congratulate his wonderful parents, Jonathan  and Amy Bennett , on their great fortune.  They were already one of the most talented couples I know, but this is their greatest work yet!

Forget about Black Friday. It's time to get in line for Black Monday, when Lou Reed descends upon Brooklyn on December 12th! Join Lou at BookCourt [ 163 Court Street ] at 7:00 PM.  He will be signing and discussing The Raven, his collaboration with legendary Italian illustrator and cartoonist Lorenzo Mattotti, based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe. The last time Lou signed The Raven, The New Yorker was there to report: "Mattotti's illustrations, which were projected in a slide show, saturated the room with a kind of terror and despair. There was also something about the sound…

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. "It’s certainly Fantagraphics’ week, with the release of two amazing reprint volumes." – Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks 240-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-474-0 "Fantagraphics' reprinting of the complete Carl Barks duck comics, wisely, starts…