Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

This weekend, our friends at Giant Robot kick off a very important exhibit to raise money for the devastation in Japan. Funds will be donated to UNICEF, to help children impacted by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. There are so many wonderful, generous artists involved in this show, including Fantagraphics' own Andrice Arp, Renee French, and Esther Pearl Watson. And not only will Giant Robot donate proceeds from the sale of artwork, they'll also be donating: 1. Proceeds from the sale of water bottles featuring labels created by artists and signed by celebrities. 2. Fifty percent of proceeds from…

We are pleased to share the news that Joyce Farmer's graphic memoir Special Exits has been nominated for the 2010 NCS Division Award for Graphic Novels! The winner will be announced at the 65th Annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet on May 28, 2011 in Boston, MA. Congratulations Joyce! (We're also rooting for Stan Sakai, nominated in the Comic Books division for his ongoing (formerly-Fantagraphics) Usagi Yojimbo series!)

Thanks to Flog commenter Alberto Garcia for pointing this out — it's an old Stephen DeStefano illustration of Popeye repurposed for the cover of last month's issue of the research journal Cell Metabolism, in a scan posted at Nas Capas. (Forearm mitochondria and spinach can label added after the fact. Dig the "Swiss" typography.)

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Fantagraphics' collection Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s, edited by Greg Sadowski, is a wonderfully creepy hurtle through the exuberant, cheerfully gross and icky horror comics that prevailed in the golden, pre-Comics-Code era. …[T]he art is brilliant: indistinct piles of slimy viscera, purple-green zombies, skull-faced vampires and demons, Satan in a dozen guises, witches and occult symbols, creatures from the eleven hells of the darkest mythos of the human spirit." – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing • Review: "Considering how much I enjoyed the first four years, when Foster was still…

From our colleagues over at Yale University Press comes this great video trailer for their new edition of Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti.

The Cartoon Bank Blog's new interview with cartoonist Shannon Wheeler gives you your first glimpse at his artwork for Oil & Water, which we are publishing this Fall. Wheeler explains the book: "Mike Rosen, a manager at the Bureau of Environmental Services, Watershed Division, organized a group of writers, scientists, activists, environmentalists, teachers, and students to go to the Gulf Coast to get a better understanding of the oil spill and its implications. It is possibly the greatest manmade disaster in our history. Steve Duin, metro columnist for The Oregonian, is fictionalizing our side of the story to build a…

On The Ruined Cast blog Dash Shaw posted this page from his story "Blind Date 3" appearing in the next issue of Mome. Looks like a bit of a stylistic departure from the first two "Blind Date" strips. If you're not already familiar, yes, these are comics adaptations of actual episodes of the TV show Blind Date and yes, they're as funny and weird as you think.

Erstwhile Mome contributor Gabrielle Bell and some of our other pals will be participants in a special presentation of R. Sikoryak's long-running "Carousel" series of cartoonist slideshow talks at Parsons in NYC, in conjunction with the Cartoon Polymaths exhibition, next Monday, March 21. More details here.

On his Cozy Lummox blog, award-winning designer Eric Skillman discusses his process for putting together the new issue of The Comics Journal: "I was pretty excited when Jacob Covey emailed me to ask if I might be interested in re-designing the venerable Comics Journal for its upcoming relaunch as an annual (rather than monthly) publication. Then I found out it was going to be 600-something pages. But by that point it was too late to say no! (I'm kidding… mostly.)" It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek!

  Mike and I spotted these Popeye Candy Treats at the Bartell Drugstore in Ballard. Definitely my preferred method of power.