Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "[High Soft] Lisp has its share of tender moments and tragic ones, although it’s relatively buoyant with humor throughout. … This is the stuff of soap operas, minus the melodrama. Lisp comes loaded with palpable emotions and heaps of honesty, even amid a cartoony backdrop." – Rod Lott, Bookgasm • Review: "Part one of a proposed trilogy, King Of The Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave is an extremely promising title from French crime comics artists Pascal “Mezzo” Mesenburg and Michel Pirus. … Its approach to violence and turmoil is surprisingly fresh, although the story bears…

We're no longer distributing Mineshaft, but we're happy to report that the essential underground comix zine is still going strong and the new 25th issue, with a cover by Sophie Crumb and featuring Peter Bagge, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch's review of papa Crumb's Genesis, Pat Moriarity and much more (see above), is at the printer and will be available from the publisher soon! If you order or subscribe now you can get $1 off select back issues — whatta deal!

In this week's New York Times Sunday Book Review, Douglas Wolk writes: "Peanuts always had a bite to it; Schulz’s favorite source of comedy was the anxieties and humiliations of childhood. Still, some of these strips are unnervingly bitter even for him, as when Marcie destroys Snoopy’s doghouse in a rage, then screams at Peppermint Patty that she needs to 'face up to reality.' It provokes laughter, of course, but shocked laughter: you can tell these kids aren’t going to grow up happy." "Jacob Covey’s design for E. C. Segar’s Popeye series is appropriately tall, imposing and sturdy, with a…

Your daily Fantagraphics-related artblog links: • The penultimate installment of Steven Weissman's "This Already Happened" at What Things Do • Rick Veitch presents part 1 of a mid-1990s comic based on a dream he had while being interviewed for The Comics Journal #175 (via The Comics Reporter) • A censored cover by Marco Corona • This week’s episode of Belligerent Piano from Tim Lane

It's today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Commentary: At Manga Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson comments on our recent manga publishing news, saying "I’m expecting great things." • Interview: At The Comics Journal, part 3 of Matt Thorn's Moto Hagio interview from TCJ #269 • Interview: On KBOO Community Radio's "Words and Pictures" program, host S.W. Conser welcomes Dame Darcy for a half-hour chat • History: At Comics Comics, Jeet Heer gives a brief overview and critical commentary on Fantagraphics anthologies throughout the years: "Any complete history of Fantagraphics will have to tell the story of how they slowly learned…

 

   … and he's got the pictures to prove it! More details at the MoCCA site.

Now arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson 416-page two-color 5.75" x 5.75" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-314-9Add to Cart • More Info & Previews Loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This second and concluding volume picks up where the first volume left off (winter break) and finishes Tammy’s tragicomic sophomore year of high school in 1985. Tammy has built a devoted following over the…

J.R. Williams has been killin' it on his flickr "blog" with a new series of comic and horror-inspired paintings. Don't forget to also check his original art page at comicartcollective.com.