Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

If you missed the Mr. Media interview with Monte Wolverton about The Wolverton Bible when it was originally broadcast, now you can listen right here thanks to the magic of this embedded player below (or click here if it's not visible):

• Interview: The Mother Jones "Mojo Audio" podcast talks to Steve Brodner (includes audio stream/download and transcript) • Preview: If you didn't receive our latest FBI Informant email newsletter yesterday but still want to check it out, the good folks at Comic Related have you covered • Things to see: Now here's a bracket I can get behind: French comics arm wrestling comics jam death match! Featuring Killoffer, Olivier Schrauwen, Lewis Trondheim and many others (via Drawn)

Every year during the baseball season, when the All-Star teams are announced, some beat writer will put together a team of non All-Stars that could potentially rival the quality of the actual All-Stars. To that end, here's my non-Eisner Nominee Fanta Heavy Hitter starting line-up for 2009, with their non-nominated 2008 books in paretheses: Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets: New Stories #1) Jaime Hernandez (Love & Rockets: New Stories #1) Steve Ditko (or Blake Bell, for Strange & Stranger) Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4) Bob Levin (Most Outrageous) E.C. Segar (Popeye V. 3) Tim Lane (Abandoned Cars) Daniel Clowes (Ghost World: Special Edition) Charles M. Schulz (Complete…

Blazing Combat By Archie Goodwin & Various Artists Written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by such luminaries as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, and Gene Colan, Blazing Combat was originally published by independent comics publisher James Warren in 1965 and ’66. Following in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Goodwin’s stories reflected the human realities and personal costs of war rather than exploiting the clichés of the traditional men’s adventure genre. They were among the best comics stories about war ever published. Blazing Combat ended after its…

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 By Michael Kupperman Thrizzle #5 is the Old People's issue, dedicated to the Greatiest Generations! Aliens give an innocent man sexy woman's legs, and Twain and Einstein have many, many adventures, including a journey through multiple dreamscapes, a superhero/private eye caper, and a meeting with an enraged badger. Plus noir arts & crafts, hobo fashions, the birth of the Monkees and other old-timey favorites. 32-page duotone 6.75" x 9.5" comic book • $4.50 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

• Plug: In an interview with Newsarama, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz says "I adore that Richard Sala miniseries Delphine that he's putting out through Fantagraphics" (new issue out this summer!) • List/reviews: The Metabunker names and reviews their selections for the best comics of 2008, including Explainers by Jules Feiffer ("After half a century, Jules Feiffer’s classic Village Voice strips read at once as a succinct period portrait and an eloquent portrayal of everyday human affairs at any time… His nervous line captures well both the specific anxieties of the time, and the more general ones of simply being…

Fantagraphics warehouse manager and poet-in-residence Nico Vassilakis passes along the following info and links — if you're in NYC, go on out and meet the man: reading st marks – april 24th 10pm my visual poetry show in chelsea – april 16th – may 9th and a new book of poems coming out – Disparate Magnets

Seattle's most festive monthly cultural encounter continues on April 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack features unexpected visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic neighborhood. The public is invited to explore this charming, creative cultural enclave, which has been repeatedly selected by area publications as the city's most vibrant community. Among the highlights of the April 11 Art Attack: Full Throttle Bottles hosts an exhibition of "Satan's Birdcages" by Richard Lemmert; Simultaneous painting exhibitions by Cheri O'Brien at Georgetown Tile Works and the adjacent, recently-relocated Dog Dream boutique; Photographer Bill Hughlett at the…

I stumbled across a copy of Jeff Levine's old Destroy All Comics zine from 1996 and was re-reading a classic interview with Drawn & Quarterly Publisher Chris Oliveros, which contained the following exchange that was interesting to me insofar as it underscored just how much has changed in the world of comics in a little over a decade:  Q: Do you think it's possible that there could be more work in the future where the artist could sit and draw for two years, and release the entire story, or do you think just the way the industry is set up, and with history on…

… I've ever read to a Fantagraphics submission: My name is [*], and I'm a long haul truck driver. I gave college a try several years ago, and when I started, I bought me a laptop computer.  The whole letter is almost as good, and I can't help but read it in Sam Elliott's voice.     * Name omitted to protect the innocent