Fantagraphics Blog

Code Cute, Code Cute! The Cute Boy Alert is hitting Portland and hitting it HARD. On Thursday, October 9th from to 5pm-8pm, Australian cartoonist Simon Hanselmann and Canadians Michael DeForge and Patrick Kyle will be throwing off their coats and letting their hair out, ready to hit the dance floor. Nearing the end of their world tour, Simon is celebrating the release of his 'stoner tragedy' Megahex, made popular on his Girl Mountain Tumblr, now available in a sexy hardback from Fantagraphics. Poverty, misanthropy, depression all fogged up in substance abuse grace these watercolored pages but you'll still be rolling in tears laughing…

Tuesday, October 7 San Francisco: The fantasy train, with Hanselmann, DeForge, and Kyle, is making it's way North, and stopping this night at the beloved Mission Comics. To make this tour stop even more exciting, Ed Luce of Wuvable Oaf, is joining them! We hope the good time party vibes of this tour never end, and you can ride the waves by heading to Mission Comics at 5 pm. Kitties in abundunce! (More Details)   Wednesday, October 8  New York: The Society of Illustrators is holding a special lecture series tonight highlighting the work of Drew Friedman and his new oversized, full color spectacular, Heroes of the Comics. A stacked…

Set to Sea [Softcover Ed.]by Drew Weing 144-page color 5" x 6.25" hardcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-771-0 Ships in: October 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now The central character of Set to Sea is a big lug and an aspiring poet who runs up tabs at the local bars by day and haunts the docks by night, writing paeans to the seafaring life. When he gets shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong, he finds the sailor's life a bit rougher than his romantic nautical fantasies, but he learns to live — and love — a Conradian life on…

It's always a good day at the office when we get to hold a freshly printed advance copy of a new EC Comics Library book! Here is Aces High, featuring high-flying, plane-focused illustrated stories of George Evans, as written by himself, Harvey Kurtzman, and Al Feldstein. The book is due to arrive at your local shop this November, but trust us, you'll want to pre-order it sooner rather than later.

 On Thursday, October 16th, author Kipp Friedman will be presenting at the 2014 Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, Wisconsin. His Fantagraphics' book, Barracuda in the Attic, has captured the nostalgia of the 70s in New York and LA, all wrapped up in a comedic family dynasty. His reading is 5pm at the Central Library (The Bubbler). Perhaps Kipp will talk about shooting pool with the mobster Crazy Joey Gallo, attending a dinner party hosted by an aged but remarkably spry Groucho Marx, or simply playing doctor with a classmate in the former estate of F. Scott Fitzgerald…it'll be just racy enough to make a librarian or…

From their days not too long ago as part of Closed Caption Comics to simultaneously releasing books via Fantagraphics, friends and former roommates Conor Stechschulte and Lane Milburn have a lot to be happy about. Maybe you've seen Stechschulte's Lurking/Nocturners, Water Phase or The Amateurs amongst a pile of mini-comics at your friend's place. Seeing the brilliance in the brutal, Fantagraphics has taken Stechschulte's 60 page comic and printed in with a gorgeous uncoated texture cover stock that you'll soon be gripping, hands dripping with fear sweat. Meanwhile, Xeric-award winner Milburn went on to produce Death Trap and then finally the sci-fi epic, Twelve Gems, with Fantagraphics….

In the opening pages of The Late Child and Other Animals, a new biographical memoir out from acclaimed artists and powerhouse duo Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger, Van Cook's mother Hetty navigates the ruins of Portsmouth, where Nazi bombings have destroyed buildings and started fires. Meanwhile, her husband Fred—with whom she has decided to adopt a child—is stationed somewhere in North Africa. You can read and download the full 17-page (10.2 MB) excerpt here. We'll have more previews soon, but in the meantime, our presale is up and ready to take your orders.

With Halloween approaching, it's a good time to consider some spooky favorites from Fantagraphics Books.     The formative work of Charles Burns in Big Baby foreshadows the brilliance that would follow. Alluring stories like "Curse of the Molemen," "Blood Club," and "Teen Plague" remain creepy and compelling while exploring themes of adolescent angst. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes is a similarly insightful examination of the otherworldly imaginations of its youthful protagonists. It remains among the greatest graphic novels – and film adaptations – of all time.   Al Columbia's Pim & Francie is at first blush a collection of meticulously rendered drawings, but a closer…

The boys are rolling into Mission Comics and Art right as everyone is waking up from APE! Simon Hanselmann is casting spells right and left with his bong magic in Megahex, while Michael DeForge and Patrick Kyle are taking readers on epic, strange journeys in their books, Lose #6 and Distance Mover respectively. It all starts on Tuesday, October 7th at 5pm! Also joining the illustrious line-up is everyone's favorite, Ed Luce, of Wuvable Oaf! His Fantagraphics' collected edition is coming out next March but he has a ton of single issues and fun comics like the Music Mini (choose from one of four crazy covers) to read and rock out…

"[Sacco’s comics are] a vital pure comix experience." – Time "Joe Sacco is a genius. Easily one of the most important journalists, writers and cartoonists alive, every stroke of his assured and humblingly mature pen captures what the camera simply cannot. Through his reserved yet compassionate use of words and pictures, he allows us to occupy the horrifying inner and outer boundaries of human cruelty and desperation — yet all, I believe, with the aim of returning to what it means to be a civilized, sympathetic and possibly even forgiving soul." – Chris Ware "There’s nobody else anywhere near Sacco’s…