Fantagraphics Blog

Recently arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (Softcover Ed.)by various artists; edited by Justin Hall 328-page black & white/color 7.5" x 10" softcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-718-5 See Previews / Order Now For the first time, the entire spectrum of four-plus decades of queer cartooning is collected under one cover. Featuring groundbreaking crossover successes like Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Ellen Forney, Dan Savage and David Wojnarowicz, as well as international superstars like Ralf König and Nazario and dozens of others cartoonists who have rarely been read outside the greater queer community….

Join us at Fantagraphics Bookstore this Saturday, August 10 as we welcome two extraordinary young cartoonists to Seattle. Josh Simmons and Ben Catmull will appear from 6:00 to 9:00 PM to sign copies of recent publications from Fantagraphics Books. This'll be great fun! Ghosts and Ruins is Ben Catmull's follow-up to his wildly popular debut Monster Parade. Josh Simmons’ recent collection of short stories, The Furry Trap, similarly explores a sinister world of undiluted horror. Simmons will also sign copies of earlier graphic novels House and Jessica Farm as well as his equally compelling minicomics. This event coincides with the festive Georgetown Art Attack….

Naughty, the new novel by Monte Schulz, is a fictionalization of a sordid and sensational true crime story. Combining the best aspects of pulp noir and literary fiction, Schulz weaves a vivid and compelling tale of sociopathy, seduction, deceit and murder, and the ensuing courtroom drama, all dressed in authentic Eisenhower-era detail. The lurid jacket paintings are by artist Debbie Faas. The book is due on shelves in October; see here for more info and stay tuned for more previews between now and then!

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.   No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (Softcover Ed.) by various artists; edited by Justin Hall 328-page black & white/color 7.5" x 10" softcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-718-5  "From Stonewall and the AIDS crisis to the terrifying specter of domesticity, this clear-eyed, unsentimental collection demonstrates the extent to which, for LGBT…

  We're mixing things up today and giving you the Joe Daly experience is issued form! Previously only available in graphic novel longform, in this first issue of Daly's popular 'Dungeon Quest' Millennium Boy decided to grab his hobo stick, his bandanna, and his Swiss Army knife, bid his mom goodbye, and head off on a quest. Joined by his best friend Steve (weapon: baseball bat; clothing: wife beater, cargo pants and sandals), the two sort out a few of the details their adventure.   Not for the faint of heart, this story is action-packed like the Dungeons and Dragons…

Prince Valiant Vol. 7: 1949-1950 by Hal Foster 120-page full color 10.25" x 14" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-645-4 Ships in: August 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now You might think that birth of Prince Valiant's son Arn at the end of the previous volume would have slowed down Val's adventuring, but you would be wrong. After the baby has been christened, Valiant and Gawain are dispatched to investigate reports of black magic in Wales, ending up in pitched battle at the aptly-named Castle Illwynde. Then it's off to Scotland to battle the Picts, and then home yet again for Val to…

Our other EC Comics Library volume due out later this month, Fall Guy for Murder and Other Stories, is another auteur turn, featuring Johnny Craig's writing and artwork (for the most part; Al Feldstein scripted a couple). Crime, suspense and horror were Craig's forté, as these 23 delightfully fiendish tales attest, and Craig was responsible for some of EC's most shocking and notorious images. This is the first of four projected volumes to showcase, for the first time, the full chronological run of Craig's EC stories from Crime SuspenStories, Vault of Horror, and elsewhere, with our trademark bonus features and…

One of two new volumes in our New York Times best-selling EC Comics Library series coming later this month, Child of Tomorrow and Other Stories finds prolific EC scripter (and longtime MAD editor) Al Feldstein behind both the typewriter and the drawing board for 16 tales of spine-tingling sci-fi suspense, plus 7 more stories drawn by other EC short-timers and stalwarts. The influence of Feldstein's writing and brushwork can be seen in the work of contemporary cartoonists like Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, and Gilbert Hernandez, who provides an intro ot this volume. Our usual historical features are joined by a new interview with Feldstein. Another indispensible entry in…

One of 2009's most visionary graphic novels, The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit, is coming back into print in paperback in just a few weeks. Hailed by critics and adored by fans, it's a surreal, visually sumptuous collision of body horror, steampunk fantasy and dream logic that would make Sigmund Freud's head spin. If you like gorgeously discomfiting comics, this is the book for you. Read most of the first chapter (also downloadable), and pre-order your copy right here.

While I was working on The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting) I noticed this contribution to the Love and Rockets #11 (April 1985) letters page signed “Christy Marx.” Dear Bros. Hernandez, Hmmm . . . how to tell you how great this comic is without sounding like a raving fan. Fuck it! You guys deserve raves. “Mechanics” is the best, closely followed by “Heartbreak Soup” in all its incarnations. “Errata Stigmata” I can do without, frankly. I read the first seven issues all at once, having come in late, drawn by growing word-of-mouth, plus the look of them began…