Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Gage Academy of Art, gracious host of the debut performance of Jim Woodring's giant dip pen, presents this snazzy short video of the event produced by Don Porter. In other Jim news, he just dropped by the office to drop off the last 20 pages of Congress of the Animals. The story is now complete — all that's left is the cover and endpaper illustrations. Days like this always send an electric thrill through our office!

Esther Pearl Watson's painting The Denny's Parking Lot is now available as a limited-edition archival print in a variety of sizes from 20×200. These go fast so get it while you can!

I'm frequently invited to conduct workshops on comix as an educational tool at regional conferences of K-12 librarians, teachers, and administrators. These educators appreciate the appeal of graphic novels but sometimes lack the familiarity to employ them effectively. Here are some of the conclusions we've reached on the judicious use of comix in school. Comix are extremely useful as a tool to address students struggling with limited literacy or English as a second language (ESL.) In remedial situations, students are reluctant to be assigned material substantially below grade level. With many comix, the age level is ambiguous, which removes the…

Mome Vol. 21 – Winter 2011 by various artists; edited by Eric Reynolds 112-page full-color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-394-1 Ships in: February 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Our acclaimed art-comics anthology forges into its 6th year with another diverse and wonderful volume full of returning favorites and a few surprises. On the cover, a detail from Sara Edward-Corbett's haunting, Gorey-esque tale of nocturnally animate objects. Also in this issue: Steven "Ribs" Weissman's freewheeling, sometimes-satirical, sometimes-deeply-weird webcomic "Barack Hussein Obama" (starring the President of the United States and his associates) makes its print debut; Sergio Ponchione…

• Heads on poles by John Hankiewicz at his Clip Joint blog and Lilli Carré at her Kettle of Fish blog for an eponymous exhibit at Western Exhibitions in Chicago • Josh Simmons has several new portfolio sites on the web: illustrations, storyboards, commissions (as above), and a store where you can buy some of his older comics And more Things to See from the past week: • A glimpse of Frank Santoro's New Values art show at his Cold Heat Comics blog • Artwork by Marco Corona at his Il Canguro Pugilatore blog • Vintage Jim Flora illustrations, sketches…

Ellen Forney returns to her old hometown of Philadelphia next month at the invitation of the Philadelphia Public Library as part of their featuring the Forney-illustrated book by Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as part of their citywide reading program. She'll be giving a talk and workshops at a few locations — see her blog for the schedule and details.  

At his Cats Without Dogs blog, Jason shares some rough sketches for the cover art of his next book of short stories, Athos in America, coming late this year. I really like the one where he's sitting on the girder. Jason's posted a lot of great stuff over the past week, including some rare vintage strips and illustrations, like this one of A-ha from a 1988 Norwegian music magazine:

  Visit Andrew Sullivan's blog for the full pic and description.

* Other People's Publications** Yeah, You Know Me. "Down with OPP" spotlights excellent titles from other publishers that you can find at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.  And this week, I present to you Make Me a Woman by Vanessa Davis (Drawn & Quarterly). This week's column ain't exactly for the ladies. I'm sure we all bought this book when it first came out, gleefully pouring over this collection of sketchbook drawings that Davis did from 2004 to 2010. Some of these stories were originally published online in a monthly column she did for Tablet magazine, but they were new…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: At Seen, Sam Humphries names Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 The Best Comic of 2010: "While it’s astonishing to see Los Bros Hernandez deliver some of their greatest work at this stage in their careers, at the same time, it should be no surprise at all. They’ve been killing it for nearly 30 years. […] Both brothers are digging deep into the psyche and hearts of the human condition. The results are powerfully moving." • List: "[It Was the War of the Trenches] burns with a sense of outrage at the meaningless…