Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

During a pig roast party in Georgetown last Saturday night, Jim Woodring and Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid ran into the proud owner of Fantagraphics old delivery truck. At a 1991 signing at Fallout, this white Econoline van was adorned with exquisite images by Woodring, Daniel Clowes, the Hernandez Brothers, Peter Bagge, Roberta Gregory, Aline Komisnky-Crumb, Michael Dougan, Paul Mavrides and R. Crumb, who lettered his famous "Keep on Truckin" phrase on the front bumper. The van was sold for a song and sat derelict for years, but the owner reported that restoration of the historic vehicle began two weeks ago….

Hokey smokes, look at these gorgeous pages from the tribute to Johnny Gruelle that Tony Millionaire is penning for our upcoming collection of Gruelle's Mr. Twee Deedle. Be sure to head over to Tony's blog for a slightly larger view and some lovely correspondence between Tony and HIS MOM!

Fantagraphics is puttin' the "comics" back in Comic-Con as we head to San Diego this week with a slew of scintillating signings, almost two-dozen dynamite debuts, and a collection of comics sure to please any comics fan… and fill those enormous free tote bags they give away at the door. First up, DEBUTS! • Love & Rockets New Stories 4 by Los Bros Hernandez• Mark Twain’s Autobiography by Michael Kupperman• Prison Pit Vol. 3 by Johnny Ryan• Mome 22, edited by Eric Reynolds• The Raven by Lou Reed and Lorenzo Mattotti•  The Art of Joe Kubert, edited by Bill Schelly• Setting the Standard: Alex Toth,…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Willie & Joe: Back Home by Bill Mauldin; edited by Todd DePastino 288-page black & white 8" x 10" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-351-4 See Previews / Order Now In the summer of 1945, a great tide of battered soldiers began flowing back to the united States from around the globe. Though victorious, these exhausted men were nevertheless too grief-stricken over the loss of comrades, too guilt-ridden that they had survived, and too numbed by trauma to share in the country’s euphoria. Most never saw a ticker-tape parade, or stole a Times…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Willie & Joe: The WWII Years (Softcover Ed.) by Bill Mauldin; edited by Todd DePastino 704-page black & white/color 8" x 10" softcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-439-9 See Previews / Order Now During WW II, the closest most Americans ever came to combat was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army. This new paperback edition of the 2008 two-volume, deluxe hardcover set brings together Mauldin’s complete works from 1940 through the end of the war under one cover. This collection of over 600 cartoons,…

Twentieth Century Eightball (3rd Printing) by Daniel Clowes 100-page 6.75" x 10.25" black & white/color softcover • $19.00ISBN: 978-1-56097-436-9 Ships in: July 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Twentieth Century Eightball collects the very best humor strips from Eightball, written and drawn between 1988 and 1996. Included within are such seminal strips/rants as "I Hate You Deeply," "Sexual Frustration," "Ugly Girls," "Why I Hate Christians," "Message to the People of the Future," "Paranoid," "My Suicide," "Chicago," and over three dozen more. Other favorites include "Art School Confidential," one of Clowes' most popular strips of all time, which was adapted…

  The French are, not unreasonably, excited by the strong showing of French cartoonists and graphic novels in the Eisners this year — nine nominations for eight titles, four of 'em for Fantagraphics: http://www.actuabd.com/Neuf-nominations-pour-la-BD We think it's sort of charming that the item was posted on Bastille Day. Hence our Marseillaise quote above, for those of you who missed it.

Our weekly strips from Kupperman & Weissman, plus links to other strips from around the web. Running a bit late this week; apologies if you've been hunched over your browser clicking "refresh" since last night. — Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size): And elsewhere: Cochlea & Eustachia by Hans Rickheit: Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit: Humblug by Arnold Roth (3 new udpates!): Keeping Two by Jordan Crane: Lucky by Gabrielle Bell (daily diary strips all throughout July!): Maakies by Tony Millionaire: The Pain — When Will It…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "In Joyce Farmer’s powerful Special Exits the people are more people-like than I have encountered in comics in a long time…. It is moving without being sentimental. Real without being pedantic; a solid graphic novel that reads, well, like a novel! …Special Exits is packed with details that can only come from observation and experience. Farmer is a close observer…. Special Exits is one of the most engrossingly human comics and, ultimately, one of the most moving… Joyce Famer has brilliantly conveyed what it is to be human. To live, to die. To ripe,…

Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954 edited by Greg Sadowski 432-page full color 7.5" x 10.5" softcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-408-5 Ships in: July 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Alex Toth’s influence on the art of comic books is incalculable. As his generation was the first to grow up with the new 10-cent full-color pamphlets, he came to the medium with a fresh eye, and enough talent and discipline to graphically strip it down its to its bare essentials. His efforts reached fruition at Standard Comics, creating an entire school of imitators and establishing Toth as the…