Fantagraphics Blog

This has little to do with comics, but I was crestfallen to read on Pitchfork this morning that Dave “Day” Havlicek, the amazing electric banjo wizard for The Monks, passed away yesterday. The Monks were one of the most badass bands who ever lived; if you don’t believe it, check this shit out (or any other clip on YouTube). A group of misfit GIs stationed in Germany during the mid-60s found each other, shaved their heads, and became the first proto-psychobilly/punk rock punk rock band, and they wrote killer songs. Anyway, Dave had long since settled just outside Seattle and…

Johnny Ryan was interviewed this morning by Howard Stern's '100 news' (his SIRIUS Satellite 'news' channel) and we're told the interview will run this afternoon at about 2:00PM Pacific Time. Johnny was interviewed about this drawing he did of the Stern show cast of characters.

Inkstuds has a new interview with one of my favorite cartoonists (and graphic designers), Jonathan Bennett. Jonathan says at the end that he thinks it went terrible, but he's wrong, I enjoyed it.

I suspect this is more true than any of us here care to admit. (Though I'm not sure it's an either/or thing.)

Google news just alerted me to this parallel universe called "Utah" where there's a real estate agent named Eric Reynolds selling homes in the town of Herriman.

…in January 2009, according to an [adult swim] promo I just saw during a DVR'ed episode of Metalocalypse. 2009!

The New Yorker has announced a contest inviting cartoonists to design their own version of the magazine's mascot, Eustice Tilly (originally designed in 1925 by Rea Irvin for the very first issue). My favorite Tilly probably has to be the above Crumb version, which was perceived as a blasphemous betrayal of the mag's proud tradition by some of its more calcified subscribers when originally published in 1994. Now it's a decade and a half later and folks like Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Chris Ware (see his Tilly below), Adrian Tomine, and Daniel Clowes are fairly regular contributors to the mag. Mouly…

Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace Box Set 1955-1958By Hank Ketcham A swell custom-designed case containing the third and fourth volumes of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace with strips from the years 1955 through 1958. (Sorry, case is not peanut butter or root beer resistant.) two 672-page B&W 5.5" x 6.25" hardcovers with custom box $39.95Order Now!

Acme Novelty Library #18By Chris Ware In keeping with his athletic goal of issuing a volume of his occasionally lauded ACME series once every new autumn, volume 18 finds cartoonist Chris Ware abandoning the engaging serialization of his "Rusty Brown" and instead focusing upon his ongoing and more experimentally grim narrative , "Building Stories." Collecting pages unseen except in obscure alternative weekly periodicals and sophisticated expensive coffee table magazines, The ACME Novelty Library #18 re-introduces the characters which New York Times readers found "dry" and "deeply depressing" when one chapter of the work (not included here) was presented in its…

… regarding Chris Ware's recent output. From the aforementioned publications earlier this week, to the recent film poster for The Savages, and now to obscure midwestern literary journals, he continues to shame underachievers everywhere. More here. Tip 'o the Floghat to reader A.T.