A group of us are waiting to be served in a restaurant. The waiter arrives, and the person facing me evidently ordered paper-wrapped baked owl. (What he gets looks like a little owl mummy.) I puzzle over why this seems somehow wrong and disturbing even as the diner peels off the first bit of the wrapping, releasing a gust of cooked-bird steam and exposing a naked, baked owl wing. It actually looks pretty tasty. The diner sitting next to me is Françoise Mouly, which, although tenuous at best, is enough of a connection for me to consider this a comics-related…
Things to See: Tony Millionaire portraits #501 & 502
Tony Millionaire drew these portraits of Occupy Wall Street protester Manissa Maharawal and ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer for Frank Rich's column at New York magazine. Tony's 500 Portraits is coming soon. (The numbers here are bullshit, since we cut a few dozen images from the book and there have probably been more in the intervening time, but it made for a great headline, didn't it?) [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots of new Things to See every day.]
Prince Valiant: New York Times (#1) Best Seller
You can add one more posthumous laurel to Hal Foster's already-impressive pile of achievements: New York Times Best Selling Author. Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 shows up at #8 on this week's Hardcover Graphic Books top 10 list. It comes as no surprise to us: we've been selling out multiple printings of the series as fans old and new have been snapping the books up. What else would you expect from one of the greatest comics of the last (or any) century? UPDATE: Well shut my mouth, it was #1 last week!
Things to See: Peanuts, up close
I'm not sure where webcomic creator Mark Stokes dug up this close-up image of Charles M. Schulz art for a 1951 Peanuts strip (as collected in this lovely hardcover volume) but it's pretty great to see how Schulz tried out some alternate poses for Patty and Charlie Brown in the pencil stage. (Via The Daily Cartoonist.) [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots of new Things to See every day.]
Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga – Now in Stock
Now that this title has been released to comic book shops, we are pleased to also make it available to our mail-order customers: Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga 32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" comic book, with jacket • $7.95Part of the Ignatz Series See Previews / Order Now Can you make an exciting comic out of insomnia? Kevin Huizenga rises to the challenge as he depicts his alter ego Glenn Ganges wrestling with sleeplessness, trying to trick it by reading a particularly abstruse book, obsessively breaking his past, present and future life down to ever more hallucinatory, complex grids, and…
Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson by Kevin Avery – Now in Stock
Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship for our mail-order customers: Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson by Kevin AveryForeword by Nick ToschesCover illustration by Jeff Wong 512-page 6" x 9" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-475-7 See Previews / Order Now What happened to Paul Nelson? In the '60s, he pioneered rock & roll criticism with a first-person style of writing that would later be popularized by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer as "New Journalism." As co-founding editor of The Little Sandy Review and managing editor of Sing Out!, he'd already…
David B. Exclusive Limited-Edition Signed Exhibit Print – Now Available!
David B. "My Story – My Stories" Exhibit Print – Signed 16" x 20.5" two-color silkscreen print • $20.00 Order Now! The signed, limited-edition 2-color silkscreen print for David B.'s August, 2008 exhibit at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery features imagery from his short story "The Armed Garden," collected in 2011 in The Armed Garden and Other Stories. Signed by the artist, in an edition of 75. We are pleased to now offer this item to our mail-order customers! Printed in black and metallic bronze on white heavy bond paper. Designed by Adam Grano; printed by Art Garcia in Seattle, WA….
New Comics Day 10/26/11: The Frank Book, Mickey Vol. 2, probably Ganges #4
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. (Please note we have several additional explanatory notes below as well!) The Frank Book (New Softcover Edition) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $34.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-500-6 The Frank Book (New Hardcover Printing) by Jim Woodring 352-page black & white/color 8.75" x 11.25" hardcover • $45.00ISBN:…
Daily OCD: 10/25/11
Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Feature: At Maclean's, Jaime Weinman gets to the bottom of Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: Through the Wild Blue Wonder, talking to co-editor Kim Thompson and calling the volume "the first book that gives a full sense of what it was like to read Kelly’s pioneering strip from the beginning. The first volume goes up to 1950, when Kelly began to incorporate more pointed humour…; the McCarthy character hasn’t shown up yet, but allegories about Communist witch-hunting already pop up. But the darker daily strips alternate with cheerful Sunday…
Editor’s Notes: 500 Portraits
So, a year or two ago, Tony Millionaire tells us, "I've have over 500 portraits of people on my computer. Let's make a book!" We say, "Sure!" (Because this is what you do when Tony Millionaire says, "Let's Make a Book!") We schedule the book for the end of 2011, and this spring we start to have a conversation about it between myself, Tony and Jacob Covey (designer and co-editor). Tony sends us about 500 files that he's pulled from his hard drive. Jacob and I start going through them. We soon discover that this book is going to be…
