Fantagraphics Blog

Thursday, September 11  One of the leading courtroom sketch artists, Janet Hamlin author of Sketching Guantanamo: Court Sketches of the Military Tribunals, 2006-2013, is the main subject of a two month long exhibition at the University of Richmond, Lora Robins Galley of Design from Nature. And to open up the exhibition, at 6 pm, Hamlin will be giving a lecture in the Moot Courtroom about her time in military trials at Guantanamo Bay. The lecture is open to the public. As one of the only sketch artists allowed to witness the 9/11 trials, since audio and recordign equipment are banned, Hamlin was presented with…

Sometimes getting together with friends and family for Thanksgiving isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, as Snoopy learns when his brother Spike invites him to spend Thanksgiving in the desert, and things don’t quite work out as planned. At least it’s a change of pace for Snoopy, who spends most Thanksgivings with the ol’ supper dish (and one lonely one at the malt shoppe as Joe Cool). It’s also a tense time of year to be a bird who’s afraid of being mistaken for a turkey and roasted, and Woodstock copes with his anxieties in various ways, including…

Congratulations are in order for Eleanor Davis because for the THIRD week in a row, her new collection How to Be Happy is on the New York Times Best Sellers' list. This gorgeous book has to be seen to be believed but check out what everyone is saying about it. Grab a copy from your local comic shop, bookstore, our online store or your local library.   "Though Davis' tales can be wildly different in look and narrative, they are united by themes of yearning, of characters searching for the thing that will make their lives better." -Carolina A. Miranda, LA Times…

You heard right! THE S. Clay Wilson will be at Mission: Comics and Art signing copies of his new book Pirates in the Heartland: The Mythology of S. Clay Wilson Vol. 1. Along with Pirates writer and noted historian, Patrick Rosenkranz, the guys will be signing copies on Saturday, September 20th from 2-5pm deep in the heart of San Francisco.    Pirates in the Heartland features Wilson's work from underground publications such as ZAP Comix, Snatch, Gothic Blimp Works, Bogeyman, Felch, Insect Fear, Pork, Tales of Sex and Death, and Arcade. This first of a three-volume biography and retrospective gets to the heart and soul…

As the leaves begin to turn shades of red and orange (or fall straight off and green depending on where you live), backpacks are dusted off in preparation for a new load of textbooks, and we move into fall, we figure you could use some cause for celebration. How about our Labor Day/Back-To-School Sale? We've got great titles of all-ages, young-adult, and non-fiction titles at a whopping 40% Off from Saturday, August 30th through Monday, September 1st!    For your wee ones, how about our gift-sized, baseball-themed Peanuts book, Batter Up, Charlie Brown? Or, for something a little cheekier, there's Steven Weissman's Chocolate Cheeks. For the…

Saturday, September 6th  Though the official gallery opening for one of the funniest cartoonists of the last 40 years is on the 30th of August, you wont want to miss the evening reception with M.K. Brown herself, as she gives guided tours through her own exhibition at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. This once in a lifetime reception runs from 4-6 pm, and is completely FREE and open to the public. Brown's cartooning style combines oddball surrealism, with everyday frustrations and obervances to give her audiences a full body laughing experience; relevant to all generations and moments in time. She's a one-of-a-kind cartoonist,…

  One of the highlights of Seattle's Bumbershoot arts festival over Labor Day weekend is the exhibition Jini Dellaccio: January 31, 1917 – July 3, 2014 co-curated by Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid. This show celebrates the life, career, and art of Jini Dellaccio, an American photographer best known for her iconic images of Northwest proto-punk bands including The Sonics, Wailers, Merrilee Rush, Daily Flash and many others. This special tribute show features the diverse subjects of Dellaccio's lens over her long and legendary career. Friday afternoon offers free viewing of the art exhibits. The festival includes music by the Replacements, Mission of Burma,…

"Dash Shaw, it’s fair to say, is something of a genius." –Chris Ware Praise for Shaw’s previous book “New School is about art, about the art that’s in the book itself…There’s stuff going on at other levels, the intuitive, the level of the unconscious, the subconscious I guess you could say…This book is just fascinating…[A] masterful, gorgeous and defiantly odd work that demands close attention—and richly rewards it.” –NPR’s “Best Books of 2013” Doctorsby Dash Shaw 96-page full color 6” x 8” softcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-803-8 Due to arrive in about 2-4 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get…

Today is the DAY, digital readers. Megahex by Simon Hanselmann is available. This is normally where'd we make a joke about digitall rolling up a joint to go with your reading but not everyone is as lucky as Washington (where pot is smoke a-freely). SO how 'bout instead you make some trashcan punch? Megg is a depressed, drug-addicted witch. Mogg is her black cat. Their friend, Owl, is an anthropomorphized owl. They hang out a lot with Werewolf Jones. This may sound like a pure stoner comedy, but it transcends the genre: these characters struggle unsuccessfully to come to grips with their depression, drug…

The current and next month's issue of Booklist will include reviews of recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below: How to Be Happyby Eleanor Davis "What's most noticeable when the stories are laid up against one another is her varied visual approach, adapting her style to best fit the material…The success of this collection suggests that short pieces are likely Davis' métier, but what's here is so accomplished that it's natural to hope for a book-length work next time out." –Gordon Flagg   Jimby Jim Woodring "Woodring launched his comics career in the mid-1980s with Jim, a magazine featuring surreal stories based…