Fantagraphics Blog

Hey Charlie Brown: you had one job! For the new softcover editions, we redesigned The Complete Peanuts inside and out, as you can see in these snapshots of a just-arrived advance copy of the kick-off volume, The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952. Looks pretty snappy, huh? Even if you've been collecting the hardcover volumes, you'll want to have these affordable paperbacks around for the kids and for loaning out or giving as gifts to friends and relatives, and of course the brilliance of Charles M. Schulz's beloved strip endures no matter what the format. Pre-order your copy (it'll be available a couple…

The annual Jack Davis Distinguished Visiting Artist Lecture will be held this week, and noneother than savage editorial cartoonist/illustrator Steve Brodner will present a public lecture for the occasion! Join Steve on Thursday, March 20th at 5:30 PM for Game of Thrones: The Political Art of Steve Brodner, at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia! The UGA explains, "the intent of the Jack Davis Distinguished Visiting Artist program is to honor Jack and his contributions to our popular culture, and to bring outstanding professional illustrators who share in this tradition to the…

"Just as Usagi has learned that swordsmanship is more than fighting, Stan Sakai has obviously learned that art is more than drawing. The entire field would be richer if more artists embraced this lesson." – Robert Asprin, from the introduction "If you haven't seen this ultra-cool series, you must! It involves a rabbit samurai — yes, a rabbit samurai — that young readers will love for the action and sophisticated art. I adore it for those reasons too, but there's more substance to it than you might expect. A good Zen comic is hard to find, and this one is…

Steve Ditko is such a great image-maker, it must be hard for our designers to choose artwork for the covers of our Steve Ditko Archives collections of his early, pre-Marvel work. With Volume 1, Strange Suspense, we got a chance to make a double dip from the deep Ditko inkwell for our new softcover reprint, coming this summer with this newly-designed cover. Behind you, lady!! Stay tuned for more sneak peeks. (Of course, if you don't want to wait to read this book, it's available digitally right now on comiXology.)

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 8)by Carl Barks 224-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-741-3 Ships in: April 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now It’s off to Shangri-Lala for Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, on a perilous expedition to bring back a rare unicorn for Uncle Scrooge! But it’s not as easy as it sounds, with a mysterious stowaway, intrigue, and double-crosses in this land of many secrets. But once you do catch a unicorn, what, exactly, do you do with him? Then, in a trio of…

"Crane expertly mixes high action… with just the right amount of romance, creating a storytelling engine… gorgeous art, with cleanly drawn figures, extensive shading…" — Paste "…Buz Sawyer features the same seamless blend of derring-do and humor, both in its story lines and in Crane’s economical, slightly cartoonish artwork, which had made Wash Tubbs one of the most popular strips of the era and which would keep Buz flying for more than four decades." — Booklist "If I had to pick a favorite [classic comic-strip reprint] right now, I’d say the Fantagraphics reprints of Buz Sawyer by Roy Crane. I just love the energy, humor, adventure and…

If there's anyone out there who's been holding out for a softcover edition of The Complete Peanuts, your patience is soon to pay off! Or if you're late to the Peanuts party and want to start from the beginning, now is the time. Our paperback of The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952, the first volume in our definitive, unexpurgated collection of Charles M. Schulz's decades-spanning masterpiece, is due in a couple of months, and we have a bunch of pages to share with you! We've pulled our downloadable excerpt from the middle of the book at the beginning of 1952, when Schulz…

Celebrated essayist and cartoonist Tim Kreider will discuss his work and career in Gainesville, Florida, on Saturday, March 22nd! Join them starting at 2:00 PM at The Headquarters Library, and hear Kreider talk of his work for The New York Times, and reflect on his long-running cartoon, The Pain–When Will It End?  Kreider's most recent collection, Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009, is even more apocalyptic, deranged, and hilarious! This event is free and open to the public. The Headquarters Library is located at 401 E. University Avenue in Gainesville, FL. 

Launched today, a new webcomic serial by the one and only Richard Sala! Super-Enigmatix introduces the titular masked and caped criminal mastermind. What kind of conspiracy is he weaving, and can former Inspector Jory and former Detective Charms unravel it? Tune in every Thursday for new installments! This pulpy story is your first taste of what's to come in our forthcoming collection of all-new Sala short stories, In a Glass Grotesquely, due this Fall!

Buddy Buys a Dump: The Complete Buddy Bradley Stories from "Hate" Comics Vol. 3by Peter Bagge 144-page full-color 6" x 9" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-745-1 Ships in: April 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now He's back! Now in his 30s and married with child, onetime slacker hero Buddy Bradley gets a "real" job, shaves his head, dons an eyepatch, quits his "real" job and buys the local dump — because what better place to raise a toddler? Peter Bagge's iconic character is to alternative comics what Homer Simpson has been to television animation over the past quarter-century: a generation-defining…