Fantagraphics Blog

Joyce Farmer's acclaimed, award-winning 2010 graphic memoir Special Exits comes to paperback this Summer. Farmer, whose expressive, detailed linework and humane storytelling was a founding staple of feminist underground comix anthologies in the 1970s, spent over a decade crafting this heartbreaking, touching, funny, and unflinching story of caring for elderly parents. In our downloadable excerpt, you'll meet octogenarians Lars and Rachel. Farmer creates a finely observed and fully realized portrait of her parents, introducing you to their day-to-day activities and infirmities: visits from daughter Laura (Farmer's stand-in), headaches, grocery shopping, backaches, home repair, hobbies, reminiscing, and a fall in the…

This weekend, masters of the comic art form, Peter Bagge and Ed Piskor are Special Guests at the Appleseed Comic Con in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Join the comics crowd at The Grand Wayne Center (120 West Jefferson Blvd, Fort Wayne, IN 46802) on Saturday, May 17th from 10am-6pm and again on Sunday, May 18th from 11am-5pm.   On Saturday from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM check out THE HIP HOP/COMICS CONNECTION panel! "Ed Piskor, author of the New York Times best-selling series Hip Hop Family Tree, examines the 40 year relationship between Comics and Hip Hop culture. The journey begins with Vaughn Bode characters painted on…

Our shipment of Conor Stechschulte's debut graphic novella The Amateurs has arrived in our warehouse, but we're not sending out orders quite yet: Conor is sending us this limited-edition 4-color screenprint to include as a free bonus in every order while supplies last! (They went like hotcakes at TCAF!) Conor shown for scale (and intense eye contact) — looks like they're maybe around 10" x 15" but don't hold us to that: So, pre-sale is extended for a few days, until early next week — get in on it!

Here we go! We've overcome some hurdles that knocked it down the schedule a bit, but Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Son of the Sun, the first volume in the Don Rosa Library, is now on track for release in early Fall. We're pleased to unveil the official final cover art for the first time! Rosa's take on the Disney Ducks is jam-packed with action and detail, clever plotting, and laughs for all ages. Demand for this series is high, and we'll do our best to print enough for everybody, but you still might want to get…

Paste Magazine released a list of the 100 Best Comic Book Characters and a few are from Fantagraphics books! Here are our highlights:  88. Buddy Bradley from Hate, Buddy Buys a Dump, etc."For some, though, Bagge's early ‘90s hipster caricature was the closest comics got to depicting the world Gen X'ers knew, or at least the world they thought would make them look cool if they acted like they knew it. Through Buddy, Bagge bitingly dredged up the paranoia at the core of every ‘90s alt doofus." – Garrett Martin   35. Enid Coleslaw from Ghost World "Teenage girls, in particular, get the short shrift…

As more and more people discover the certified Genius of Jim Woodring through his recent Frank graphic novels, a vital and revealing portion of his work has been unavailable for years, until now. Jim presents the "autojournal" material previously collected the now-obsolete The Book of Jim along with new and previously uncollected material in a definitive new hardcover package scheduled to arrive in July. In our downloadable excerpt you'll find a sampling of contents including: Jim comic cover art; the Table of Contents; a couple of fake ads; a handwritten text piece; some unsettling charcoal drawings; a tale of Big…

The 2014 Olympia Comics Festival will take place Saturday, June 7th at our state capitol, with events held at The Capitol Theater, The Olympia Center, and Danger Room Comics. And this year's guests of honor are none other than our own Charles Burns and Jesse Reklaw! It'll be a homecoming for Charles Burns, who went to college at Olympia's Evergreen State College in the mid '70s (along with Lynda Barry and Matt Groening, be still my heart). Stop by his table and have him sign your old copies of Black Hole, inspired by the eerieness of the Pacific Northwest! And…

Now on (and hanging off the edge of) our desks: advance copies of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Vol. 9: 1953-1954! Yet another oversized hardcover to immerse you in Val's colorful, dramatic, funny, cleverly plotted and beautifully illustrated world. It's hard to believe we've reached the halfway point of Foster's solo-billed run on the strip… but it's true! Astute followers of our updates will recall that advance copies mean the book is about 2 months from being available and know that more previews are in store, and savvy consumers know that early pre-orders mean you get the book sooner than it's…

We just sent the files off to the printer for Dash Shaw's new graphic novel Doctors, so now's a good time to show you the elegant all-new cover design by our capable newbie Keeli McCarthy. (If you liked the old version with the can-can line of doctors, don't worry, that artwork is inside the book now.) A heady sci-fi tale that explores the human impact and ethical implications of advanced technology on an intimate level, in the vein of movies like Primer or Moon, Doctors posits a neurological afterlife and a machine that exploits it to revive the dead. The…

From Seattle to Scandinavia — Peter Bagge will be a featured guest at the 2014 Oslo Comics Expo! This June 12th-14th, get ready to say "velkommen" to Pete at the Schous Plass — all the fun goes down in the Deichmanske Library at Grünerløkka. (Not only are there fantastic comics and guests, but there's also a bar on the second floor!) Pete will be signing his latest collection, Buddy Buys a Dump, which contains the last nine issues of Hate Annual and completes the current story arc with a new twenty-page conclusion. You won't want to miss this rare appearance…