Fantagraphics Blog

In just a few weeks Gene Deitch's Nudnik Revealed! will hit shelves and animation fans will not want to miss it. Deitch, a living legend in the animation field, created a series of theatrical shorts in the mid-1960s starring a prototypical lovable-loser type, Nudnik. The series lasted one "season" of 12 episodes and garnered an Oscar nomination. Now, for the first time, Deitch has delved into his archives and gathered all of the artwork he produced for the cartoons into this oversized coffee-table art book, along with his own entertaining commentary. We were thrilled to have Gene himself on hand to debut the…

The latest, largest kaiju monsters of Online Commentaries and Criticism:       • Review: New School in The A.V. Club. "Like Anders Nilsen, Dash Shaw has spent his career looking for a creatively profitable middle ground between high art and straightforward comics storytelling.…Shaw riffs on the popular culture of the ’90s and the politics of the ’00s, suggesting that the children of one decade grew up too cut off from reality to understand the part they played in fostering the global conflict of the next. The social commentary in New School provides a sharp accent to a formally daring, at times alarming…

The landmark 20th volume of The Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is charging up on us like Snoopy going after Linus's blanket, and we have the advance copies to prove it! You got Chuck there on the cover (designed, as always, by Seth), and who better to introduce the series of unfortunate events that tends to befall the gang than mysterious author Lemony Snicket? Each volume collects a full two years of strips, daily and Sunday, in crisp black & white with a handy and entertaining Index and a brief bio of Schulz in the back. This will also be available in a box…

Lookit this cute li'l guy! Treasury of Mini Comics Volume 1 collects a wild-n-wooly assortment of mini comics from the past 4 decades or so in the Newave tradition, with faves and rarities from the '70s through the '10s from a roster too big to list here. You got your Ron Regé, Jr. there on the cover (and inside) and the spread shows some mid-'90s action by Jim Blanchard & Chris Cilla. It's all lovingly assembled by editor Michael Dowers along with creator interviews spanning the history of the art form. 848 pages! It'll be out around late September or so — keep 'em peeled for more sneak…

photo credit: Jacob Covey We are thrilled to announce that Joe Sacco will make his first-ever appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August! Join Joe on Tuesday, August 13th at 8:30 PM as he demonstrates the power of comic journalism to grasp at the truth.  He'll discuss his groud-breaking work Palestine, and hopefully give some hints to his upcoming Fantagraphics release, BUMF — a collection of all-new short humorous fiction in the vein of his satirical story in The Comics Journal #302. Joe takes the stage again on Wednesday, August 14th at 7:00 PM alongside fellow guest-of-honor Chris…

On Saturday, September 7th, the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery welcomes Drawn & Quarterly cartoonist Brian Ralph to celebrate the launch of the highly-anticipated Reggie-12, a hilarious pop-culture send-up of the infallible boy hero first presented in the seminal Asian culture magazine Giant Robot.  Join us from 6:00 to 8:00 PM as The Cave-In and Daybreak author presents a hilarious slide show with a signing to follow. Reggie-12 is a young robot with endless enthusiasm. He lives with a bumbling sad-sack friend, a wise-cracking cat, and a well-meaning but forgetful inventor. Laughs explode from the page in this work, which reinterprets…

Here it is, a fresh advance copy of Fran, Jim Woodring's new prequel/sequel to the acclaimed Congress of the Animals. Return again to the Unifactor, where the laws of nature diverge from what we know and mysteries and paradoxes abound. Such as: who, and what, is Fran, and what does her introduction in Congress mean for Frank — and the Unifactor? Find out in these pages. And, of course, prepare to have your eyeballs dazzled by Jim's breathtakingly rich, immersive artwork — some of his best ever. Read the start of the story here, where you can also pre-order your copy for delivery…

Wednesday, August 7th • Brooklyn, NY:  Celebrate the release of The End of the Fucking World with artist Charles Forsman at Bergen Street Comics! An exhibit of original artwork from the book will be on display (and for sale)! (more info) • Portland, OR: Don't miss Ben Catmull and Josh Simmons signing at Floating World Comics! It's a creature double-feature of Ghosts and Ruins and The Furry Trap! (more info)  • New York City, NY: Discover the secrets behind The Secret History of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby and the Moonlighting Artists at Martin Goodman's Empire at the Society of Illustrators!…

Congratulations are in order for two Fantagraphics cartoonists, Gene Deitch and Ellen Forney! At San Diego Comic Con they were each awarded the Inkpot Award which are given to "individuals for their contributions to the worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, animation, and fandom services."     At San Diego in July, we released two books for by Gene Deitch. Nudnik Revealed! includes of Deitch's animation artwork for the mid-1960s shorts starring bumbling everyman Nudnik (cross between Candide and Godot), one of his most creatively personal and commercially successful creations in a long career of innovative and successful work are showcased in this process…

Co-editor of The Last Vispo, Nico Vassilakis, addresses the fact the women of visual poetry have been ignored in previous vispo collections on The Volta. "It's true, the genre of visual poetry has primarily been a sausage fest. The concrete poetry anthologies of the 1960s, it seems, ignored women completely even though one of its renowned editors, Mary Solt, was female. Much has changed since then, but clearly not enough to promote the idea that visual poets can be either male or female. For decades, it's been a global boys club in need of being cracked open and invaded by women. Enter…