Fantagraphics Blog

With Halloween looming, allow me to suggest thirteen frightening favorites from Fantagraphics Books. Spooky fun for everyone, in no particular order.    Daniel Clowes' modern masterpiece Ghost World eerily conveys the otherworldly cool of 1990s counterculture. Peculia, by Clowes colleague Richard Sala, collects the misadventures of the precocious protagonist of his Evil Eye comic book serial. Northwest native Charles Burns' essential Big Baby anthology of contemporary horror comix includes classics like "Blood Club," "Teen Plague," and "Curse of the Molemen."   Mysterious Traveler collects proto-psychedelic horror from Steve Ditko's Charlton era. Similarly, Weird Horrors displays the late, great Joe Kubert's pre-Code…

Hee, hee! Here comes the Old Witch with a foul feast of fetid features cooked up in her cruddy cauldron! Over two dozen terrifying tales from the putrescent pen of the gourmand of gore, "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, are collected in the tomb — er, tome — we call Sucker Bait and Other Stories! It's the next vile volume in our EC Comics Library series and it's due just as the end of the year plunges you into the pit of despair. In our execrable excerpt you'll learn what atrocities await you in the Table of Contents and read a torturous trio of nauseating…

photo credit: Jacob Peter Fennell Have a creative itch you just can't scratch? Let Ellen Forney help you, tonight, Sunday, October 20th, at Town Hall in Seattle! As Town Hall's fall season Artist in Residence, Ellen is joining forces with Cornish College theater professor Kathleen Collins to present "Scratch Night" — "scratch" is as in "scratch paper," like an experiment, Ellen explains, not like a scratchy wool sweater!   Together, Ellen and Kathleen will lead this dynamic, interactive workshop exploring the analogous skills and concepts that fuel their apparently disparate artistic mediums. “There’s so much acting in comics!” Forney says….

For those of you wondering what's up with the next volume of Dungeon Quest, well, Joe Daly has detoured onto another project for a while: a new graphic novel, Highbone Theatre, which he's unveiling, chunk by chunk, as a webcomic! And there's some pretty big chunks posted so far. Expect the same blend of neck-spasming action, awkward dude interactions, and flaccid penises you love Dungeon Quest for! There's also a Facebook page for you to like for updates and such.

Impossible Tales: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 4 by Steve Ditko; edited by Blake Bell 240-page full-color 7.25" x 10" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-640-9 See More Previews / Order Now Five years before Steve Ditko began work on his now legendary co-creations for Marvel Comics, the Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, he was pro- ducing some of his best work in near anonymity for Charlton Comics. Like its predecessors, Impossible Tales: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 4 features over 200 meticulously restored full-color pages of Ditko in his early prime — stories that have never seen a proper reprinting until now, thrilling…

Kipp Friedman is bringing the Barracuda to The Book Cellar in Chicago on Wednesday, November 13th! Join Kipp for a conversation at 7:00 PM with fellow author Barry Wightman as they discuss Barracuda in the Attic, Kipp's memoir about growing up and getting into hi-jinx on both coasts with his brothers Drew and Josh Friedman.  Perhaps Kipp will talk about 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… it's sure to be…

“[Virgil Partch] was among a half-dozen or so cartoonists who had an absolutely distinctive style … He was in a class by himself.” — Chuck Jones “I wanted to become a professional cartoonist because of Virgil Partch. Cartoons were all sort of the same [at the time], and suddenly this man came along, drawing both eyes on one side of the face and pointed noses and lines that continued in a roll … he was sensational! Virgil Partch was a big discovery for me.” — Sergio Aragonés “Virgil Partch was one of the most influential cartoonists of his day. And…

I'm going into this hoping that less is more and that a little convention report goes a long way with most folks. I know that's true of myself. I have yet to meet a comic book convention that I want to read more about than, say, WWI, despite how many con reports endeavor to prove me wrong. What I'm really saying is, I didn't take as many pics as I should, especially as the weekend wore on. I flew down Friday afternoon, this time attended by my girls (wifey Rhea and 5YO child unit Clem), which was a rare treat…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Vol. 2: Robin Hood Rides Again by Floyd Gottfredson 280-page full-color 10.5" x 8.75" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-686-7 See Previews / Order Now   He's faster than a speeding arrow… more powerful than the Sheriff of Nottingham… able to leap high taxes in a single bound! He's Mickey Mouse! He's back in color – and traveling back in time: battling evil medievals in our second book of Floyd Gottfredson's Sunday classics. Donald Duck, Goofy, and mischievous Morty and Ferdie are invited along too… if they dare!…

The last month's issue of Booklist reviewed recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below:  Lost Cat by Jason "…maybe the most romantic mystery scenario his lean, animal-headed personae have ever performed…Delicious…heartwarming, too." –Ray Olson  Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Color Sundays, Volume 1: Call of the Wild by Floyd Gottfredson   "The high-spirited, adventure-seeking mouse in these vintage strips-a far cry from today's bland, domesticated version-makes it clear why Mickey captivated Depression-eraAmerica." –Gordon Flagg    The Children of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez "Hernandez's absence from Palomar hasn't dimmed his ability to bring its beloved characters to vivid life, and his visual approach, a skillful blend of cartooning…