Fantagraphics Blog

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 2: 1981-1983by Ed Piskor 112-page full color 9" x 13" softcover • $27.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-756-7 See Previews / Order Now Book 2 covers the early years of 1981-1983, when Hip Hop has made a big transition from the parks and rec rooms to downtown clubs and vinyl records. The performers make moves to separate themselves from the paying customers by dressing more and more flamboyantly until a young group called RUN-DMC comes on the scene to take things back to the streets. This volume covers hits like…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Megahexby Simon Hanselmann 212-page full color 6" x 8.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-743-7 See Previews / Order Now 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 use, sexuality, poverty, lack of work, lack of ambition, and their complex feelings about each other in ways that have made Megg…

Waiting for the Great Pumpkin by Charles M. Schulz 64-page color 5.75" x 5.75" hardcover • $9.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-772-7 Ships in: September 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Linus and his wait for the Great Pumpkin have been a pop culture touchstone for nearly 50 years thanks to the animated television special ("I got a rock"), and it all started in the classic Peanuts strips from 1959-1962 collected in this affordable, fun-sized gift book. Linus's belief and proselytizing that on Halloween, the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch and travels the world bringing presents to good little girls…

Friday, August 15th If you're in Athens, GA (or feel like taking a vacation) come celebrate an artist of immeasurable talent with the book release party for the acclaimed work, How to be Happy! From 4-6 pm on Friday the 15th, at Bizarro-Wuxtry Comics, Toys, & Records. Whimsical, sensitive, and earthly real, cartoonist, Eleanor Davis achieves a level of quiet poignancy throughout this collection of comics and short stories that leaves the reader wondering, "how did she know?". Pick up one of the most important books of the year, and head over to Bizarro-Wuxtry to say "Hi!" and other pleasantries.

This week's summery, sun-warmed collection of Online Commentaries and Diversions: Review: Unlovable Vol. 3 by Esther Pearl Watson "Though Watson illustrates Tammy’s life in excruciating, embarrassing detail to often-hilarious effect, her clear affection and empathy for her subject shines through. She universalizes Tammy’s experiences, taking us back to relive our own tortured, giddy, deadly serious, horny, boring, and horribly self-conscious teenage years." – Robert Kirby, The Comics Journal   Review: Twelve Gems by Lane Milburn "This is exactly what summer blockbusters should be, only Milburn’s is a singular vision. He exploits clichés by embracing them, and he busily captures hyperspace…

"The book is an absolute essential for any hip hop head to read and any comic book fan to gander over." – Mass Appeal "…Presents the facts in a nostalgic, faded-ink and rubbery realism of ’70s Marvel Comics style, turning raps early innovators into larger than life heroes of history." – Spin Magazine "These Stories are carefully researched and detailed along with great comic book style art…" – TheSource.com "…Captures the personalities, imagery and milestones with a hilarity and efficiency that no other medium could." – Billboard Magazine Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 2: 1981-1983by Ed Piskor 112-page full color…

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." – Linus Van Pelt "Novelty Peanuts books are the best kind of novelty book.” – The Comics Reporter Waiting for the Great Pumpkinby Charles M. Schulz 64-page black & white/spot color 5.75” x 5.75” hardcover • $9.99 Due to arrive in about 2-4 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here: http://www.fantagraphics.com/greatpumpkin

The dastardly Super-Enigmatix revels in creating chaos and catastrophe across the globe, and no one knows why. Former Detective Natalie Charms and Former Inspector Jory—along with his grandson, George—are hot on the trail of the the shadowy menace, but the closer they get to him, the greater the destruction Super-Enigmatix sows. This 19-page excerpt (10.2 MB) sets the stage for Richard Sala's latest book, In a Glass Grotesquely, with Natalie and Inspector Jory piecing together a web of seemingly-unrelated crimes that point to a single mastermind: Super-Enigmatix!

Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 [Softcover Ed.] by Michael Kupperman 160-page color 7" x 9.75" softcover • $22.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-764-2 Ships in: August 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Fans and comedy cognoscenti alike, basking devotedly in the glow of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, have made it the smash hit humor comic of the decade. And now the first four issues of Michael Kupperman’s revered series are finally collected into one deluxe hardcover. Even better, Kupperman has taken the original two-color printing and made the entire book full color! These tales are more thrizzling than ever! What are…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Jimby Jim Woodring 224-page black & white/color 7.75" x 11" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-752-9 See Previews / Order Now Frank is, as everyone knows, Jim Woodring's bestselling cartoon character. Jim, on the other hand, is Woodring's cartoon alter ego, the fictional doppelganger who has for 30 years inhabited Woodring's alternate universe where shifting, phantasmagoric landscapes, abrupt, hallucinatory visual revelations, and unexpected eruptions of uninhibited verbal self-flagellation are common- place. Jim is a mind-bending collection of all of Woodring's best non-Frank creative work — comics stories, prose stories, drawings, and paintings, with…