Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

This Saturday evening, April 10, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery features music by our resident warehouse composers Martin Bland, Tom Price and friends in the dissonant Zinjanthropus, joined by the audio assault of Ajax in Ardent Vein. Don’t miss your chance to view the stunning artwork of Gilbert Hernandez from his new book HIGH SOFT LISP. Outside, our annual Spring Cleaning Sidewalk Sale will be accompanied by the sounds of more than 20 eccentric marching bands from across the country. Lots of books up to 50% off cover price with music provided by the cacophonous Honk Fest West, featuring free performances…

Arriving in comic shops today, the long-awaited new issue of Peter Bagge's comic book series! Hate Annual #8 by Peter Bagge 32-page color/b&w  6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $4.95ISBN: 978-1-60699-373-6 Newsarama's J. Caleb Mozzocco says it's "Thirty-two pages of Peter Bagge for $5" — fair enough. At Comics Comics Joe McCulloch counts Peter among the "cartoonists I like to see making comic books" and lauds the presentation of "a genuine 32-page Fantagraphics comic book." Obviously the blogoscentia think the comic fairly speaks for itself. We think you'll like the glossy cardstock cover, the 20 pages of Buddy & Lisa…

Daily clips & strips — hit the links for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • What-Took-Them-So-Long Dept: This Jaime Hernandez illustration accompanies a short story by Junot Diaz in the March 22 New Yorker (via The Comics Reporter) • Gabrielle Bell's "Manifestation" gets even nuttier in part 3 • Another layout rough from Mark Kalesniko's Mail Order Bride

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The… leaps in chronology and POV can be jarring for those not familiar with Hernandez's episodic style…, but [High Soft Lisp's] offbeat humor and manic sexual energy make the adjustment more than worthwhile. Fritz's hypersexuality, bizarre fetishes, rampant vanity, and burgeoning alcoholism provide many of the volume's finest comic moments, but the ample sex on view is rarely sexy. Rather, the characters' libidinous pursuits are tied into an affecting strain of loneliness and regret that pervades even the most outlandish panels. Add to that Hernandez's characteristically thick, expressive line and character design that owes…

This weekend (April 10-11), Mike Baehr, Janice Headley, Gary Groth and myself head out to the Big Apple for the annual MoCCA Arts Festival. I haven't been to MoCCA in a few years, so I'm especially looking forward to the trip. We have a slew of signings all weekend long as well as a remarkably potent lineup of new books debuting at the show, including:  Artichoke Tales by Megan KelsoBest American Comics Criticism, edited by Ben SchwartzBilly Hazenuts and the Crazy Bird by Tony MillionaireCaptain Easy Vol. 1 by Roy CraneDungeon Quest by Joe DalyCulture Corner by Basil WolvertonBlazing Combat s/c…

Sorry you had to wait all weekend for our weekly online strips! That's one grumpy-looking cat in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …but that horse doesn't look as grumpy as you might expect in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and now Steven Weissman says he wants to give B.C. a run for its money with this week's one-day-too-late Barack Hussein Obama strip.

Daily clips & strips — click through for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Via the Family blog, Gary Panter draws a chalk mural (YouTube link)  A bunch of g-g-g-ghosts in development by Steven Weissman • Sketchbook page by John Hankiewicz • Some kind of stuff in progress by Frank Santoro • An old Fantagraphics issue of Usagi Yojimbo gets the Covered treatment by Carla Rodgrigues • Steve Lafler's 1980s Fantagraphics series Dog Boy is being serialized at CO2 Comics • Google translates the title of this Marco Corona story excerpt as "Merits of Satan" (very NSFW) • Johnny Ryan…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Look out, it's Tom Spurgeon's Best of 2009 list at The Comics Reporter. Fantagraphics category rankings are listed below, with complete lists and Tom's commentary to be found at the link above: Best Archival/Reprints: 14: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me by Peter Bagge 13: The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book by Joe Daly12: The Complete Peanuts 1971-1974 by Charles M. Schulz10: The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940 8: You Are There by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Claude Forest7: Luba by Gilbert Hernandez4: Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime…

Daily clips & strips — click through for improved/additional viewing: • Wally Gropius gets animated by Tim Hensley — I had't previously noticed the floppy ascot action • The fourth and fifth installments of Tim Lane's Belligerent Piano • I love it when Renee French takes these lo-fi snapshots of her sketches • Steve Brodner's latest — it seems I've been missing a lot of his stuff because I've been following the wrong feed, so there's lots to catch up on • Johnny Ryan presents The Lighter Side of Being an Unstoppable Killing Machine

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: We published 3 of "The 6 Most Underrated Comics of 2009" according to Robot 6's Chris Mautner, including Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life by Bruce Paley & Carol Swain ("Swain's low-key, nonchalant art fits perfectly with Paley's tales of hippie wanderings and punk-era decadence, stripping the stories of any rock glamor and tinging them with a genuine sadness. Really, this book just underscores how talented and sharp an artist Swain really is") From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium ("…Nikoline Wedelin's haunting, chilling Because I Love You…