Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

  Jim Woodring posts on his blog: "Page 36 of the forthcoming CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS; lamisters Frank and Quacky tour the terminal play zone." That guy's name is Quacky? Awesome! The book's due next Spring.

For quite some time we've had the 1987 first hardcover edition of Love and Rockets Book 3 (Las Mujeres Perdidas, as it was known for subsequent editions), available to order from our warehouse. Apparently all this time we've been displaying the wrong cover art, which is a shame — that's the actual cover above (and back cover below) and holy cow, look at that gorgeous coloring by Eric Vincent. This edition also features a spiffy endpaper pattern featuring your favorite L&R characters, plus a color section reproducing the covers of the original issues! This really is a handsome package thanks…

This weekend is Seattle's BUMBERSHOOT festival ("bumbershoot" is old-timey for "umbrella" — get it? it rains a lot here!), one of the biggest cultural events of the year in the great Pacific Northwest, and Fantagraphics will have a presence at the show in a few different ways, most notably a massive art exhibit curated by our own Larry Reid. Here's the skinny on all FBI goings-on:    NORTHWEST COMIX: A 30-YEAR SURVEY OF SEATTLE ALTERNATIVE CARTOONISTSCurated by Larry Reid in Association with Fantagraphics Books Venue: Northwest Rooms Open free to the public September 4-6 with admission to Bumbershoot 2010 This retrospective examines…

Nice to see Pearl Jam posed in front of our conjoined neighbor Georgetown Records for this publicity photo for their new album — it'd be even nicer if the photographer had gotten the boys to shuffle over 20 feet to get a shot in front of our window too… (Thanks to our pal Kurt Schlosser for forwarding the image.)

Underwood is a new literary audio zine which presents short stories in a 12" vinyl format, a beautiful idea made even more beautiful by Jordan Crane's gatefold artwork for the current edition. Scans and info from Hard Format, link via our own Jacob Covey.

At his blog, Drew Friedman wishes Robert Crumb a happy 67th birthday with a selection of his favorite Crumb work and his cover illustration for The Life & Times of R. Crumb. Happy birthday Bob, and congratulations for picking up the Harvey Award for Best Artist over the weekend.

Kim Deitch will be keynote speaker at Graphic Engagement: The Politics of Comics and Animation , a conference presented by the Comparative Literature Program at Purdue University in Indiana this Friday, September 3 at 4:30 PM, with a signing to follow. Kim says "I'll have some original art for sale — if you are in the neighborhood, stop by!"

This would be hard to believe if there weren't the photos to prove it: "Behind the scenes of the second promotional short film for the graphic novel The Sanctuary — filmed on location on the 63rd floor of the Empire State Building!" Nate Neal, you nut!

Rip M.D. by Mitch Schauer & Michael Vosburg et al. 88-page full-color 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $12.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-369-9 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Rip M.D. is the debut graphic novel from The Angry Beavers creator Mitch Schauer, a creepy, fun-filled all-ages adventure introducing Ripley Plimpt, an eleven-year-old boy whose ordinary life is turned upside-down when he discovers that monsters are not only real, but are also in desperate need of his help to overcome their very real problems. One foggy night, while searching for monsters in the cemetery behind his house, Ripley finds and…

Tony Millionaire's been plugging his Maakies t-shirts available from I Love Waterloo, so we will too! There's a bunch of designs (that last one is my favorite), plus limited-edition signed posters. Do some weekend shopping!