Fantagraphics Blog

  This Tuesday, editor and designer Jonathan Barli will give a talk on cartoonist Virgil Partch, aka VIP.  Barli recently edited and designed the recent collection The Mad World of Virgil Partch. The seventy-second meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on January 28, 2014 at 7:00 PM at Parsons The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public, just make sure not to flask it publically. From the symposium website: Jonathan Barli on The Mad World of Virgil Partch. An in-depth look at the life and art of one…

Young Romance 2: The Early Simon & Kirby Romance Comicsby Joe Simon & Jack Kirby 200-page full-color 7.75" x 10" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-732-1 Ships in: March 2014 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now From tears to soda fountains, from mobsters to pretty ingénues in freshly pressed dresses, the stories of love and betrayal herein will prompt you to grab a tissue box or swoon in delight. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's sensational romance comics continue in this sequel to 2012's acclaimed Young Romance. This volume covers 1947 through 1949 and includes stories about women from all walks of life —…

  As reported by the Oregonian, the 2014 Oregon Book Award short lists have been announced. Oil and Water, a graphic novel about the cleanup of Deepwater Horizon oil spill, by Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler is up for the Pacific Northwest College of Art Graphic Literature Award.   Duin and Wheeler are in line with Barry Deutsch ("Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite"), Natalie Nourigat of Portland ("Between Gears"), Joe Sacco of Portland ("Journalism") and Craig Thompson of Portland ("Habibi"). Good luck to all but mostly Duin and Wheeler!   For those wanting to attend the Oregon Book Awards ceremony is…

We're thrilled to share that the great Kevin Huizenga will be performing a reading on Thursday, February 27th at Bryn Mawr College! Join the acclaimed artist behind the Ignatz-Award-Winning series Ganges in the Quita Woodward Room in Thomas Hall from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.  After his reading, he'll be joined by Shiamin Kwa, the Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies, for a public discussion.  Light refreshments will be served. Thomas Great Hall is located at Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Avenue in Bryn Mawr, PA. 

Get ready for another dose of rocketships, robots, and bug-eyed monsters from the pages of EC Comics, illustrated by the able hand of Joe Orlando (who would go on to become editor in chief of a little outfit called DC Comics). Judgment Day and Other Stories continues our acclaimed EC Comics Library series of artist-focused volumes with more of that Cold War-era sci-fi we all love so much, including more Ray Bradbury adaptations and the "Adam Link" stories that were later adapted for The Outer Limits. In our downloadable preview, peruse the Table of Contents and read 3 complete stories, including the groundbreaking anti-racism…

Coming up FAST next weekend is the LA Art Book Fair is from January 31st through February 2, 2014 in Los Angeles! For those of you who are Paul Hornschemeier fans, this is your lucky weekend-day actually. From Saturday, February 1st from 3-4pm, Paul will be signing at the Secret Headquarters table. Pick up a copy of his new book Artists Authors Thinkers Directors there and have him sign it (maybe he'll even draw a portrait of you!).        Saturday, February 1st from 3-4pm  The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA152 North Central AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90012

"Simon found he had a knack for tangled melodrama set in very specific milieus, while Kirby drew ordinary men and women with the same sweaty fervor that he lent to monsters and costumed do-gooders….All of which means that the Michel Gagné-edited collection Young Romance… isn’t just a book of some minor historical interest; it’s a genuinely entertaining and artful set of comics, and in some ways more readable than Simon and Kirby's adventure stories." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club "Simon and Kirby tried to bring as much excitement to primarily psychological and interpersonal goings-on as to punching and flying.”…

  On Thursday, February 6th don your hat, gloves, boots, outer boots, coat, outer coat and more to see Paul Hornschemeier and Artists Authors Thinkers Directors in New York City! Assembled from late night drawing blocks and inspirational whims, Paul Hornschemeier's newest sketchbook is the coffee table book you've been waiting for with 100 portraits from Werner Heisenberg to Frank Oz. Each turn of the page offers a new take on a familiar face. Called an "ascending star" by the Chicago Tribune, Paul's work also includes the much-lauded Mother, Come Home; Three Paradoxes and Let Us Be Perfectly Clear. Get happy and fun at The Strand Bookstore…

When you think of Valentine's Day, I know you think of Cannibal Fuckface. So, forget the candy and flowers, and get your sweetheart something truly romantic: Prison Pit Book 5! On Friday, February 14th, join Johnny Ryan at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles for a celebration of undying love: In the latest installment, our hero Cannibal Fuckface still isn't dead, so the Prison Boss plays what may be his last card: The Holocaust Brothers. But before CF battles the Ho-Bros he's got to destroy his arch-enemy, the seemingly indestructible Slitt, who happens to be the only one who knows how…

Summer vacation comes in May — at least it does for indefatigable teen loser Tammy Pierce, who's back for more hilarious humiliation and adorkable adventure in Unlovable Vol. 3 by Esther Pearl Watson! In our downloadable preview, it's 1989, school's out, and it's time for movie rentals (Beaches or Terminator?), hanging out with friends (or not), trips to the mall, pining for last year's crush, getting lectured by Mom to get a job, giving makeovers, and busting a move at the old folks' home! Based on an actual teenager's diary found in a gas station rest room, Unlovable brilliantly mines comedy from the…