Fantagraphics Blog

"Yes, there are cannibals, racially insensitive caricatures, cripples (let’s not dress it up with the politically correct terminology), bodily functions, etc. But the glue are the almost Beckettian scripts. or at least Ionescoesque. Rodrigues played with form often….  These are conceptual, writerly, formalist masterpieces. "I refuse to analyze why, because nothing sucks the joy of out humor more than analyzing it. It’s like explaining a joke, and humor, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. That said, Charles Rodrigues created a whole lotta unbeautiful beauty and for that i am eternally grateful." – Bob Fingerman, from his…

Spend the weekend in the warehouse with Hans Rickheit! Harvard Book Store is opening up their 6500 sq. ft. warehouse in Somerville to the public this weekend, and are inviting dozens of local businesses to join them, including our friends at Million Year Picnic. On Sunday, October 6th, Hans will be signing at their table from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. Bring your copies of Folly and The Squirrel Machine to the Harvard Book Store Warehouse, located at 14 Park Street in Somerville, MA. 

Ray and Joe: The Story of a Man and His Dead Friend and Other Classic Comics by Charles Rodrigues edited by Bob Fingerman 184-page black & white (with some color) 8.25"x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-668-3 In Stock! See More Previews / Order Now Fantagraphics is proud to announce the release of the first volume of another great, under-appreciated, quintessentially American cartoonist. "Black as sin and decay and perversion" is how National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra described the work of Charles Rodrigues. By all accounts, this small, politically conservative, devout Catholic, was a good-natured dumpling of a man. But inside lurked an untapped…

Jesse Reklaw, whose long-running strip Slow Wave has been an alternative comics mainstay for many years, emerges with his longest work to date, Couch Tag, a years-in-the-making memoir composed of themed vignettes which together form a revelatory self-portrait. Like life, the book is both harrowing and humorous, dealing with uncomfortable subject matter (death, sexual trauma, drugs, mental illness) in an accessible way. My cameraphone snaps didn't come out so hot, but fear not, better-looking sneak peeks are on their way, and the book is available for pre-order now for estimated delivery in late November or early December. 

If you like smart, creative people, Paul Hornschemeier's portrait collection Artists Authors Thinkers Directors is for you — it's chock full of 'em (and by one of ’em). Paul's been filling up his Daily Forlorn sketch blog with their portraits in a variety of styles (pointillist, cubist, blind continuous line, tiny, etc.), and now we're bringing them to you in a collectable little hardcover. Our downloadable excerpt gives you a few samples from each of the 4 sections (guess what they are), plus Paul's intro and a page of his end notes for the full flavor of the book. It should be available 3-4…

How excited are you for the debut of Comic Arts Brooklyn, on Saturday, November 9th, presented by our pals at Desert Island Comics? Well, you can get even more excited, 'cause the night before, they're presenting an evening of animation with noneother than Dash Shaw! Friday, November 9th, he'll present a screening of Limited Animation shorts, including the "very best episode" of Robotech! (I hope he means the one where Minmei wins the beauty pagaent…) The fun starts at 8:00 PM.  Spectacle is located at 124 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street.

Coming in November, a new volume in our in-depth TCJ Library series, The Comics Journal Library Vol. 8: The EC Artists (Part 1)! In these pages you'll get the inside scoop on one of the most revered and influential comics publishers of all time, EC Comics, straight from the horses' mouths, plus insight on their careers before and after. In these 22 downloadable pages you'll see the Table of Contents (spoiler alert: feature-length interviews with Will Elder, Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman, George Evans, Al Jaffee, and John Severin) and read Ted White's introduction and the first third or so of the Will Elder interview,…

Easy & Tubbs are back for one last collection of colorful Sunday strips by Roy Crane in our series of oversized hardcovers cleverly designed to resemble a giant travel journal. Adventure and slapstick, fisticuffs and foolishness, cute women and ugly men, exotic settings and funny sound effects, and yes, there's tigers — Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune Vol. 4 has it all and it's all pure fun. Our advance copies are still fresh off the delivery truck, and the main shipment should be arriving around Black Friday, so get ready to bludgeon the other shoppers to get your copy — lickety-whop! —…

  Two Fantagraphics' cartoonists have been give the green light to make a full season of animated cartoons for Nickelodeon. Dave Cooper and Johnny Ryan are in the full she-bang, a full 26 episodes of PIGGOATBANANACRICKET and we are oh-so excited! Cooper told the Ottawa Citizen, "This is pretty big. I'm pretty excited about it. My life is going to be very different from now on." And Johnny Ryan stated, "The plan is to create a cartoon that is hilarious and incredibly weird. I want it to be something that kids not only talk about at school the next day…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 6: On the Crest of a Wave (New Printing) by Robert Crumb 156-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99978-1-60699-683-6 See Previews / Order Now Robert Crumb enters the '70s with this, the sixth volume in Fantagraphics Books' all-inclusive reprint series. This includes a couple of genuine rarities (some of them so obscure they didn't even make the Crumb Checklist), as well as all of Crumb's work from Big Ass #1, Zap #4 (including the legendary, much-busted, X-rated "Joe Blow" teen incest strip), the remarkably…