Fantagraphics Blog FantaBlog

It's a bye week for us as far as new titles arriving at comic shops, though you will find the Brunetti-edited, Clowes-covered An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories Vol. 2.

A smart idea from the mind of Ray: Little books that act like arts grants. If you make real money for a living I don't know why you wouldn't buy a Coffee Money Zine. You will get bored with your new gadgets. From Ray: "The purchase of a CMZ pays for one month's worth of coffee, and allows me to loiter in the coffee shop from 7 – 8:30 a.m. every weekday while I practice writing. CMZ sponsors get 30 days of little drawings, some good, some not, much like my own notebooks. The concept for each one is different….

Jim Flora Art has just announced a new edition of this Jim Flora woodblock print, Jugglers, which appears on page 58 of The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

We've put together a generous selection of our most spine-tingling horror and monster comics and, for the month of October, we're brutally slashing the prices by up to 25% off! From mildly macabre all-ages adventures to classic creepfests to down-the-rabbit-hole Lynchian nightmares, we've got your Halloween heebie-jeebies right here. (Above: Rhea Patton's Richard Sala-inspired jack-o-lantern from last year.)

From the mind of Johnny Ryan… crafted by Jenny Ryan… appearing at: United nations of cupco December 6 – 22 www.damienmintongallery.com.au/

Minnesotans! See Jaime Hernandez interviewed by Zak Sally at the Twin Cities Book Festival in downtown Minneapolis this Saturday, October 11 at 1 PM. Man that sounds great. More info here.

Jason T Miles pointed this out to me. I am sincerely honored to be part of the Comic Book Database but I'm way, waayyy more thrilled to have my lifelong dream realized of being cover artist for Tony Millionaire's Billy Hazelnuts!  Which isn't to take away from the fact that I was a cover artist for Peter Bagge's legendary Hate comics before I ever learned to drive, nor that I lettered the entirety of the Beasts! anthology (I bet you thought those were typefaces, didn't ya???). Internet: I love you and your, shall we say, Facts!! * [Note to CB…

  In Barcelona, Spain, there lives a man who seems to be a fountain of creative energy. Possibly a horse. A man or a horse who compulsively creates art with a diversity of style and intent. I find him hugely inspiring– one of these men or horses that imbues every little scrap of paper he touches with honest-to-god life. Some of it very polished and commercial, much of it feeling dashed off in an intuitive dervish. Sometimes it's like someone who speaks only in semaphore trying to speak braille. But my view is biased since I can't speak Spanish and…

The Comics Journal #293 Edited by Mike Dean and Kristy Valenti; Gary Groth, Executive Editor The Journal's Bob Levin interviews Zap artist S. Clay Wilson, best known for his panoramas of sex and violence involving lesbian bikers, zombie pirates and a Checkered Demon. Alex Robinson, the Harvey-and-Eisner-winning cartoonist, will discuss his graphic novels Box Office Poison, Tricked and Too Cool to Be Forgotten. Our reviews section tackles Ware, Hergé, Huizenga, Spiegelman, Hernandez and more. Plus a cartoon chat with Joe Matt and a special back-to-school section featuring a gallery of undiscovered potential comics masterpieces by the 2008 graduating class of…

Adam Grano is upset with me being too blanket-statement-y in my post on scanners. I'm like that. I just wanted people to be aware of what to look at in their scans. Adam has a better idea of what to look for in a scanner brand. Here's his scholarly response: "I don't deny that some cheap scanners are shitty. I was just arguing that the pinup scans look more affected by jpeg compression than JUST a shitty scanner. I'd wager that if he upped the resolution a bit and sent you an LZW compressed tiff, it'd look a lot better….