Fantagraphics Blog

Friday, June 13th  Oslo, Norway: The land of my ancestors is hosting the Oslo Comics Expo June 12-14th, featuring special guest, Peter Bagge! The FREE event takes place at the Deichmanske Library at Grunerlokka, a gorgeous public library with a bar! (More details) Brooklyn, NY: Original art fans will want to head to the Scott Eder Gallery for their opening reception of the "It's About Comics" exhibit, from 6-9 pm. Marvel at original works by Los Bros Hernandez, Woodring, Sala, Crumb, and many more. Can't say no to something you fall in love with? Pieces will be available to purchase! (More…

  Don't miss Fantagraphics Bookstore's latest creation in Hazardfactory's world famous Power Tool Races. This thrilling side-by-side spectacle is the centerpiece of Saturday's colorful Georgetown Carnival. Extreme Measures is powered by a DeWalt retractable tape. You'll just have to see it race. The bookstore  has entered wicked tools in every race since 2007 and won the top prize in 2011 with the Georgetown Chainsaw Massacre.   The Georgetown Carnival is a festive celebration of the creative diversity of Seattle's oldest neighborhood. Acrobats, aerialists, sideshows, stiltwalkers, interactive arts, carnival games and confections combine to create one of the region's liveliest art fairs. Musical…

Are you being worn out by unnecessary foreplay? If so, you'll be as excited as we are about the advance copies of the softcover edition of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1, by Michael Kupperman, that landed on our desks today! Wait. I'm not sure that came out right. But whether you need robotic assistance for your spouse, want to learn to recognize criminal fingertalk, or have questions about giant giraffe insurance for the old people in your life, Tales Designed to Thrizzle will provide questionable answers, inappropriate advice, and downright improbable offers. Read our 10-page excerpt here, and pre-order your copy…

Last month we found out one of our founders, Gary Groth, was up for a Genius Award in Literature from local and cool-as-hell alt-weekly paper, The Stranger. This week articles about all the nominees  appeared online and in the print version so you can get to know them and their genius.   Gary's acerbic rage-writings of the 80s and 90s are referenced in the article by Paul Constant. Constant asked Gary if he was less angry now but since Fantagraphics started making the comics he wanted to read and are at most bookstores…Constant wrote it best. "that there was always more work…

  Black is the Color of the radio airwaves this week! Julia Gfrörer and Portland's Ellery Harvey are collaborators in bringing the art of comics off the page and into the performance space, and they're the guests tomorrow Thursday morning (June 12th) from 11:30 to noon on Words & Pictures.   From Words & Pictures: The gothic sensibility of Julia's pen and ink artwork and spare archaic dialogue, in such graphic novels as Black is the Color, bring together historical, mythical, and sensual themes. Lambhouse Letterpress founder Ellery, who has toured the Pacific Northwest with Julia, backs up her artwork with musical soundscapes at such events…

Friday, June 13th Brooklyn, NY:  The Jalopy Theatre welcomes the opening reception for their summer long exhibition featuring original art from The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora this Friday the 13th.  For decades, Jim Flora made some of the grooviest album artwork for Columbia and RCA Victor records, and for the first time all of that high energy art was compiled into one complete anthology with the help of co-archivists and authors Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon. These ruckusly exuberant drawings, with eye-popping color, and post-cubist influence, are in constant motion. Original copies of some rare Flora album covers, proof sheets, and music artifiacts will be…

Wow. Jim has arrived in our office, and we can't put it down! Page after page of Jim Woodring's surreal, fantastical drawings await you as you follow the author's eponymous alter-ego through a continually-shifting landscape and delve into his myriad collection of images and prose. Here is a brief glimpse to whet your appetite before this 'notorious autojournal' hits stores in September. Go here for the 21-page preview and to pre-order your copy. Go on. Delight your senses. You deserve it.

The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco has featured artwork by many of our caroonists from Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez to a future M.K. Brown show. Currently on exhibit is Pretty In Ink: The Trina Robbins Collection from now until August 24th, 2014 (postcard pictured above). We pulled Andrew Farago, curator at CAM, aside for a few quick questions about the process of getting a show ready.  What do you look for when choosing works from a singular artist/cartoonist? Is it a plan to arrange them visually by era or area (like if they did paintings, cel animation, comics)? "It depends" is my basic answer…

Casey Stengel had a blunderously beautiful career in baseball. From inconsequential outfielder in the '20s, to worst won-lost record as a mangaer of the Dodgers, to winning five consecutive world championships as Yankees manager. Drew Friedman, hailed as the most prolific portraitist, captured the 1966 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee in his Bronx Bomber blues, and is selling high quality prints in a limited set. The signed and numbered beauties are available from Friedman's fine are website for only $150. A necessitiy for history and baseball buffs.   As a lover of sports and art, you know that we at Fantagraphics love…

Saturday, June 21 Seattle, WA: The multi-sensory live performance art show, Gridlords, will be debuting performance #23 on June 21st, a special presentation by the ever expanding independent comic show, Short Run. What is Gridlords? No two performances are the same, but in essence, this monthly experimental art show based out of Portland combines various artistic mediums built around a narrative. Mediums in the past have included live music, comic readings, animations, and artist lectures. Seattle is honored to host their first show outside of Portland, and Fantagraphics is honored to watch Mome cartoonist, Andrice Arp's presentation of a film that inspirationaly highlights the…