Fantagraphics Blog

Eleanor Davis won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer award at the 2009 Eisners, and her illustration work won her a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators last year, further cementing her status as a major young creator. Now, we present How to Be Happy, the eagerly awaited collection of Davis's comics going back to 2007, coming this Summer. Our downloadable preview includes portions of the stunning painted stories "In Our Eden" and Best American Comics selection "Nita Goes Home," plus a couple of Davis's looser but no less impactful sketchbook strips. Everyone will be talking about How to…

Linework NW was this weekend and yes, yes, yes fantastic. And if you're wondering where photos are of the two dudes in charge, François Vigneault and Zack Soto, they just never stopped moving long enough to photograph! (Photo above by official Linework NW photographer, Caroline Smith) At the Opening Party (at Reading Frenzy) Ed Luce tells Edie Fake a secret.The back gallery held a lot of gorgeous Jim Woodring and Michael DeForge art.Shannon O'Leary (of Publisher's Weekly and the Big Feminist But) finally meets cartoonist Annie Murphy, who is also in No Straight Lines.Sam Alden sees his first comic 'with…

It's nearly time to raise a glass and tie one on with our classy-looking, fun-sized hardcover gift book Cork High and Bottle Deep by Virgil Partch. Vip's booze cartoons are hilarious even if you're not three sheets to the wind. Our research department has not yet read the book while in their cups — we need to beef up our safety equipment first — but we now have our advance copies ready for the lab. OK, before I pull a muscle on this metaphor, check out our excerpt and pre-order your copy of the book (for delivery in a bit…

Author at large, Kipp Friedman will be appearing at TWO of our favorite literary hotspots in New York next month. Whether 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, Kipp Friedman led a colorful childhood. The youngest son of celebrated writer and satirist Bruce Jay Friedman, Kipp looks back fondly on the amusing and sometimes confusing events and encounters that helped shape his early life in this moving tribute to growing up…

There's so much incredible stuff to show you in our two-volume complete hardcover collection of witzend, our downloadable preview runs to a ridiculous 87 pages (and 45 MB), with a smattering of pages and the cover art from each issue, the Tables of Contents, and a bit more. In rough order of appearance: Wallace Wood, Al Williamson, Jack Gaughan, Gray Morrow, Harvey Kurtzman, Warren Sattler, Reed Crandall, Don Martin, Steve Ditko, Art Spiegelman, Richard Bassford, Roger Brand, Frank Frazetta, Grass Green, Vaughn Bodé, James Frankfort, Steranko, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, John Benson, Sorrel Garika, Ed Paschke, Bernie Wrightson, Alphonse Mucha, Bill…

Ulli Lust just won the 2014 LA Times Book Award for Graphic Novels & Comics for her excellent Today is the Last Day of the End of Your Life. This prestigious award joins her 2011 Angouleme Prize for the original language printing and her Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel from last fall. Pick up a copy at your local bookstore, our website or the upcoming festivals we're attending: Linework NW, TCAF and CAKE! This graphic novel has had a little Fantagraphics story tacked onto it from Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds first seeing it at a festival in Europe to…

Remember, use your inky powers for good, like Mickey Mouse cartoonist Floyd Gottfredson, not for evil, like the Phantom Blot, the marquee villain in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 5. (Then again, Gottfredson's ink brought the Blot to life, so perhaps there was some wickedness in his well…) After a detour into color Sunday strips, we're back to the black & white dailies in our Eisner Award-winning series. Disney's big-eared silver-screen star graces the silvery cover and tumbles through adventure after adventure in the crisply-reproduced pages. Advance copies in house means the book's about 2 months away from release; more…

You may have seen this image floating around the internet for a little while, but let's make it official: it's the cover art for the second volume of Ed Piskor's New York Times best selling series Hip Hop Family Tree! Afrika Bambaataa… in… spaaaaaaace! Remember how fast the first printing of Vol. 1 sold out? And then how fast the second printing sold out? Yeah, we're bumping up the print run for this volume, but you'll still want to reserve your copy today to ensure you're not left empty-handed when they hit shelves come July.

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: The EC Comics Slipcase Vol. 1by Harvey Kurtzman, Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Al Feldstein et al. 832-page four-volume hardcover 7.5" x 10.5" x 4" slipcased box set • $94.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-728-4 See Previews / Order Now   The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library Volumes 1-4: • EC Comics — the most acclaimed and most vilified publisher of all time.• Superb art by the greatest talents in comics history.• A special collector's set at a special collector's price. 4 Multiple Award-Winning Artists — All 1st Printings — Over 800 Pages — Special Features — Special Price Harvey Kurtzman: The agony of war!Wallace Wood: Shock and…

Mankind's long history of armed conflict has inspired some of the greatest creative work in every art form. Case in point: the inspired and justly revered war stories published by EC Comics. Some of the finest of that material came from the typewriter of Harvey Kurtzman, the pencil of John Severin, and (often) the pen and brush of Will Elder — comics legends all, and a dream team of creators if there ever was one. Bomb Run and Other Stories collects all of this work, gathered in a single volume for the first time, under the cover you see above,…