Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

Thanks to fan Jose M. Mendez for sharing his terrific photos of April's Humbug event at the Strand Bookstore with us on Flickr! That's Arnold Roth & Al Jaffee above; check out the whole set of photos right here.

Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations By Peter Bagge STOP! Instead of clicking "Add to Cart" below, call in your order to our toll-free customer service line at 1-800-657-1100 and you will get FREE standard shipping within the U.S. on your order of this plus any other books and comics by Peter Bagge! Offer only valid for phone orders, NOT for web orders, within the U.S., through July 31, 2009. What are you waiting for?? Call now, and don't forget to mention this offer to our friendly operators! Fans of Peter Bagge’s generation-defining, satirical fiction may…

Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 By Hal Foster HAROLD FOSTER’S LEGENDARY MEDIEVAL EPIC, FINALLY IN ITS DEFINITIVE EDITION Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal Foster. (Such was its popularity that today, decades after Foster’s death, it continues to run under different hands.) The giant Sunday-funnies pages (Valiant ran only on Sundays) gave Foster a huge canvas upon which he was able to limn epic swordfights, stunning scenes of pomp and pageantry, and some of the most beautiful human beings…

The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora By Jim Flora; edited by Irwin Chusid & Barbara Economon A third collection of amusing nightmares from the demonic wand of Jim Flora Jim Flora (1914­-1998), long admired for boisterous 1940s and ’50s record cover illustrations and a later series of best-selling children’s books, has been rediscovered in recent years as an alchemist of bizarre and politely disturbing imagery. The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora burnishes the reputation of one of the great overlooked paintbox fantasists of the twentieth century. Like its two predecessors (The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora and The…

A fresh heap of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!… collects all the [Fletcher] Hanks material not included in the first book. Hanks' hyperactive, colorful, robust, and crazily disproportionate art is perfectly matched to his over-the-top storytelling… There are few artists, from the Golden Age to today, that so deftly blended goofy dialogue with terrifying violence and surreal situations; for better or worse, Hanks was a real original. [Grade] B+" – The A.V. Club • Review: "[Ho! The Morally Questionable Cartoons of Ivan Brunetti] is a brutally funny and disturbing attempt to…

Above: cover of Amazing Heroes #117, published by Fantagraphics Books, May 1987 (artwork by Tom Yeates, I think; scan from Comic Collectors Live). Below: MJ strip by Paul Hornschemeier from the Wall Street Journal, 2008, as collected in the forthcoming book All and Sundry. Yes, Jackson's cultural influence extends all the way to Fantagraphics.

I just stumbled across this on Flickr today. Devlin Thompson says "I scanned this for possible inclusion in the book, but it didn't make it. You should buy the book anyway." Click for larger.

A quiet day for Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "There's always a touch of melancholy in everything that Jason writes, but there's a bleakness in some of these stories [in Low Moon] that I haven't seen since Hey, Wait…. All told, this is still a book every Jason fan should read…" – Rob Clough • Plug: "Buy [Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1]! It's amazingly good." – Jackson Publick (co-creator, The Venture Bros.) • News: Robot 6 reports that Michael Kupperman will provide the cover for the 2009 Best American Comics volume edited by Charles Burns • Sincerest form…

Ellen Forney makes a triumphant return to the pages of our hometown newsweekly The Stranger in the new annual "Queer Issue" with the full-page strip "How to Have a Mind-Blowing, Decadent, All-Day Threesome!" They've made it available as a downloadable PDF file, enabling you to print out one copy to laminate for future reference and one to insert with her other "how-to" strips in your copy of I Love Led Zeppelin.

Mome contributor Ollie Schrauwen posts intriguing images on his blog. (Hat tip: Spurge)