Fantagraphics Blog

What says romance more than comics? If there is anything, we don't want to know about it. Woo your sweetie this Valentine's Day with our hand-picked selection of romantic and/or erotic books. From classic romance comics to cutting-edge erotica, from sweet to twisted, these comics are fluent in the many dialects of love.

Several Fantagraphics employees have new projects out now or coming soon. Warehouse manager Nico Vassilakis has Text Loses Time, a new book of bracing poetry and text-based art from Many Penny Press (available at Georgetown Records, the conjoined twin of the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery) — stay tuned for an announcement of the book release party: New sales guy Jason Miles has Dead Ringer, a new book that is part comic, part print portfolio, and all amazing, coming soon from La Mano: And our Art Department production maestro Paul "Diamond Blow" Baresh has a new solo CD titled Luv Juice…

… Tony Millionaire album cover before.    

You are keeping up on the beautiful strip, Bodyworld, from Dash Shaw, right? I mean, after you read Steven Weissman's "Yikes," of course. (Which may still be moving around on our site but is currently at this link.) Meanwhile, the world of bad internet spelling and hobo fetishism has it's very own tribute in Adam Koford's more-than-daily "Laugh Out Loud Cats." It's a gimmick that has limited mileage but it's also a charming homage to classic cartooning that I enjoy seeing. I may even buy a panel featuring his endearing LOL cat, Pip, considering they sell for just 20 bucks….

Avatars… icons… whatever you want to call 'em, we've got a whole mess of 'em that you can save and use to represent yourself in all of your social networking, instant messaging, blogging, and other online endeavors, all right here on this page. From Blecky to Stinky to Zippy… Frank to Fritz to Fantomah… and we're happy to take your suggestions for more, so leave a comment if your favorite character or book isn't represented!

A sneak peek at Tony Millionaire's next strip. Brought to you by MAAKIES.com.

Have you ever wanted Dan Pussey on your computer screen? Or Buddy Bradley? Or maybe naked Hector's more your speed? We've put together a selection of 17 downloadable desktop wallpapers in a variety of sizes for your monitor-enhancing enjoyment, and we'll be adding more as time goes on. Leave a comment here if you have any requests!

… such as Gary Panter working for Marvel! Man, I really gotta get to a comic shop more often.

I just picked up this neat little book that I hadn't heard a thing about: The Conversation Series Vol. 1: R. Crumb & Hans Ulrich Obrist. I've only just started reading; it's small, 50-page chapbook featuring the transcript of an interview conducted with Crumb in Paris a couple years ago by the curator and editor Hans Ulrich Obrist. I'm only five pages in, but I can already recommend it, beginning as it does with a great discussion about the sorry state of contemporary architecture and how we got here. It's somehow reassuring to know that Paris is just as fucked as…

… about his next book, JESSICA FARM, as well as HOUSE and more. At the Pulse.