Fantagraphics Blog

Join our hometown hero Peter Bagge for a special evening this Thursday, September 26th, as he discusses his latest graphic novel Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story, released by our Canadian compadres Drawn & Quarterly! How did Pete go from the slacker tales of Buddy Bradley in Hate to a story of a noted nineteenth century birth control activist, educator, a nurse, a mother, and founder of Planned Parenthood?  We'll find out as journalist Cienna Madrid sits down with Pete at Town Hall [ 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle ] at 7:30 PM! So, while you wait for your pre-order of…

Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez 100-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover • $14.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-679-9 Ships in: October 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Love and Rockets enters its fourth decade with this installment of its acclaimed graphic novel-format iteration, featuring both old friends and new faces, and some genuine surprises… The cover shows Gilbert's new star Killer in a pose and milieu that will bring back memories for long-time fans — imitating the hammer-wielding Luba in her adopted Palomar. That’s because Killer has discovered that her great-grandmother Maria (Luba's mother) starred in a late…

Julia Gfrörer's haunting debut graphic novel Black Is the Color started life as an acclaimed webcomic and is coming to print sometime around Thanksgiving. In this downloadable excerpt from the beginning of the book, young sailors Warren and Xavier are literally cast off to their fate in order to ensure the survival of their ship's crew. Later, there are mermaids. And black humor. And doomed romance. And romantic doom. After you've had this salty taste of the story, secure your copy of the book by pre-ordering now.

When Seattle software giant Microsoft purchased Skype in 2011, the company committed to create a contemporary working environment to house the service. Consulting with Fantagraphics curator Larry Reid and others, Jason Thomas Faulkner from the Skype UX Design Team recently completed finishing touches to the Skype complex, located in two buildings on Microsoft's sprawling suburban campus. Last week Faulkner gave Reid and Fantagraphics associate publisher Eric Reynolds a guided tour of the stunning new facility. One building features lyrical graphics related to Seattle's celebrated music history, with rows of oversized Charles Burns portraits from Black Hole defining conference rooms intended…

"With Naughty, Monte Schulz infuses old school noir with the depth and complexity of the best historical fiction — it’s what James M. Cain would’ve done with The Postman Always Rings Twice had he taken himself more seriously. Following his ill-fated lovers Joe and Ida down a rabbit hole teeming with greed, lust and ultimately, murder, readers will find themselves transported in time to late '50s California — where an ambitious looker like Ida could either get rich, or kill a few suckers like Joe trying." – Gar Haywood, author, Hollywood Cemetery Road "Naughty is a book in the fine…

  Embarking on a barnstorming tour of the former Yugoslavia, cartoonists Max Andersson and Lars Sjunneson (Bosnian Flat Dog) cart along a macabre papier-mâché "mummy" of Marshal Josip Broz Tito encased in a refrigerator. At border crossings, intimidating guards are reduced to giddy fans, clambering for photos with the late dictator's effigy. Subsequent stops prove stranger still: artisans incorporate the shells that destroyed their cities into their handicrafts… a makeshift gallery of illustrations is found on the walls of a decimated apartment block… a collector has amassed a menagerie of "mutant" Mickey Mouse figurines originating from former communist countries… Only heightening…

Naughty by Monte Schulz 440-page 6.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-682-9 Ships in: September 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Veteran Joe Krueger is drifting in 1950s California, looking for work wherever he can find it. Tired after a long drive, he stops at a boardinghouse and meets sweet — and sexy — Ida, who rents him a room. That very night, Ida tells him "Mother" and "Father" have run their auto over a cliff, then seduces him in the teary aftermath. Smitten now, Joe starts helping out around the boardinghouse, and the two marry. The honeymoon is over when…

The Complete Peanuts 1989-1990 (Vol. 20) by Charles M. Schulz 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-680-5 Ships in: September 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now   This 20th volume is particularly dense with romantic intrigue, as Marcie and Charlie Brown end up at camp together, sending Peppermint Patty into mad jealousy (especially since Marcie can't resist teasing her)… and an old friend of Charlie Brown's attempts to look him up again but confuses him with Snoopy and goes on a date with him instead. But the most crucial event in romance is Charlie Brown's romance with…

"Charles Schulz was an American treasure — an artist, philosopher, and keen observer of human life." – Bill Clinton "The Complete Peanuts has framed Charles Schulz’s enduring masterpiece about as well any lifelong fan could’ve hoped." – "The Best Comics of the '00s: The Archives," The A.V. Club "The Complete Peanuts confronts us afresh with what a brilliant, truly modern and totally weird idea it was to create a comic strip about a chronically depressed child…" – TIME "Fantagraphics has won numerous awards for this series and they deserve them all for creating such a wonderful archive of this American treasure. This series is…

Trina Robbins wrote the book, literally, on the history of women cartoonists, and now she's back with a completely revised, updated and rewritten version. Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013 is an eye-opening, reader-friendly overview, loaded with illustrations and full comics pages in an oversized softcover format. From the early days of the art form, to the Golden Age, through the Underground, and into the present day, women's often-underappreciated contributions to the medium come under Robbins's spotlight to be given the recognition they deserve. This book will be available in November; we'll have more previews for you in the…