Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Make your way to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this weekend for two of the liveliest events of the year. On Friday, October 10 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM we host Danny Bland in conversation with noted Northwest novelist Jonathan Evison. They'll discuss Bland's new book of haiku, I Apologize in Advance for the Awful Things I'm Gonna Do featuring calligraphy by Exene Cervenka of X and photographs by Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs. Look for an engaging dialogue from these unlikely literary luminaries, followed by a reading, book signing, and reception. This Saturday, October 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM,…

"Peanuts was, is, and will continue to be the finest comic in the world. Bravo." – Ray Bradbury "The daily black-and-white comics were great but the full-color Sunday strips gave Schulz a big, beautiful canvas to let his expert pacing and amazing linework breathe in a rainbow of color…it’s really the entire mix of characters …and their mix of adult prickliness and childlike naiveté that made Charles Schulz’s iconic comics strips so timeless." – Evan Narcisse, Kotaku Peanuts Every Sunday: 1956-1960 (Vol. 2)by Charles M. Schulz 288-page full color 13.25" x 9.5" hardcover • $49.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-794-9 Due to arrive in…

  I want to direct you all to THIS. Last Gasp is the only vital, surviving publisher of the original underground comix movement, truly living up to its name. They're also the last meaningful, independent distributor of just about every great non-mainsteam comic (plus lots more) you've ever read. This is no coincidence. You couldn't write a book about American counterculture without Gasp's founder "Baba" Ron Turner  figuring prominently. Well, you could, but it would be a lame book. Last Gasp is at the vanguard of promoting, selling and publishing books that aren't lame, and has been doing so now for something like…

  Nothing will get me off my lazy Flog! butt than the convergence of my two favorite things: comics and beer. Dave Eiffert is the President and General Manager of Snoqualmie Falls Brewing , located just east of Fantagraphics' home of Seattle. Snoqualmie Falls is famous for being used as a locale in Twin Peaks, but the brewery is increasingly what beer lovers like myself associate the locale with. Eiffert grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late '60s and early '70s, where he was exposed to Bill Griffith ’s comic strip Zippy the Pinhead . He's been reading the strip and buying Zippy…

ALTERNATIVE COMICS: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE HERNANDEZ BROTHERS   This Thursday, October 9th at Stanford University, not one but ALL three of the Hernandez Brothers are meeting to give a free talk from 5:30-7:30pm.This event will celebrate alternative comics by bringing renowned artists, the Hernandez Brothers, or Los Bros Hernandez, as they are often called, to campus. As perhaps its most well-known figures, the Hernandez Brothers offer unique insight into the complex dynamics of the alternative comics industry. Love & Rockets, the brainchild of Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez, emerged from the confluence of punk rock culture and the Latino community…

Portland, we know, you've just got too much party for the square mileage. Tough cookies though because we've got Simon Hanselmann, Michael DeForge and Patrick Kyle joining Gridlords performance on Friday, October 10th (right after the Milburn and Stechschulte signing at Floating World!) at the IPRC.   $5 to get in or free with book purchase. Gridlords recently interviewed Patrick Kyle so get the knitty-gritty from this member of the Cute Boy Alert tour. "My goal is generally just to create nice compositions, but people can derive whatever meaning they like from those images…" Read more on Kyle's process, the tradition of repetitious images and more on their site….

Fantagraphics' cartoonist Lucy Knisley just unveiled a new website and it is a thang of beauty! It comes to your computer via wifi complete with some quality photos of her comics like *coughcough* An Age of License and some peaks at pages from Displacement from your favorite comics publisher. Really, you need to go see the photos on her site, we can only handle 450 pixels-wide and gosh-darn-it, nice photos of watercolor chips are like artist porn. Still on the fence about her books? Read some original webcomics there or read a short preview on our website.    You can also see examples of her work for hire…

Sock Monkey: Into the Deep Woodsby Matt Danner and Tony Millionaire 80-page color 6" x 9" hardcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-746-8 Ships in: October 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The precocious sock monkey Uncle Gabby, his innocent pal Mr. Crow, and their tiny doll-friend, Inches, are the heroes of this funny, unsettling, and all-new Sock Monkey storybook. Convinced that their human, Ann-Louise, has been kidnapped by a vicious monster dubbed the Amarok, our heroes bravely venture into the Haunted Woods to rescue her. The epic quest that follows takes them by sea, land, and air through many fantastic lands…

Code Cute, Code Cute! The Cute Boy Alert is hitting Portland and hitting it HARD. On Thursday, October 9th from to 5pm-8pm, Australian cartoonist Simon Hanselmann and Canadians Michael DeForge and Patrick Kyle will be throwing off their coats and letting their hair out, ready to hit the dance floor. Nearing the end of their world tour, Simon is celebrating the release of his 'stoner tragedy' Megahex, made popular on his Girl Mountain Tumblr, now available in a sexy hardback from Fantagraphics. Poverty, misanthropy, depression all fogged up in substance abuse grace these watercolored pages but you'll still be rolling in tears laughing…

Tuesday, October 7 San Francisco: The fantasy train, with Hanselmann, DeForge, and Kyle, is making it's way North, and stopping this night at the beloved Mission Comics. To make this tour stop even more exciting, Ed Luce of Wuvable Oaf, is joining them! We hope the good time party vibes of this tour never end, and you can ride the waves by heading to Mission Comics at 5 pm. Kitties in abundunce! (More Details)   Wednesday, October 8  New York: The Society of Illustrators is holding a special lecture series tonight highlighting the work of Drew Friedman and his new oversized, full color spectacular, Heroes of the Comics. A stacked…