Fantagraphics Blog

  A flock of rock stars descended on Fantagraphics Bookstore yesterday following a video shoot for the forthcoming Sub Pop Silver Jubilee celebrating 25 years of the storied Seattle record label. From left: producer and musician Jack Endino, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, brother TAD Doyle, and (former Fantagraphics staffer) Mudhoney front man Mark Arm. Mark your calendars – and make hotel reservations – for Saturday, July 13 when Sub Pop presents 15 bands on two stages of free, all-ages entertainment right outside our bookstore. Inside the store, Fantagraphics curator Larry Reid is teaming with Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt for an exhibition…

The coldest shrimp cocktail of Online Commentaries & Diversions: • Interview: Alex Dueben of Comic Book Resources interviews editor Greg Sadowski about Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein and about Basil Wolverton. "When I was putting together the first Krigstein books, Marie [Severin] was still actively working, so it made sense to hire her to do the coloring. Krigstein mentioned that she was his favorite colorist, so it was a decision I felt he would have approved of. I thought it would be a nice tribute to them both to encourage Marie to take her time…

Earlier this month, the great Ron Regé, Jr. taught an amazing week-long class at SAW, the Sequential Artists Workshop, in Gainesville, Florida, followed by an art show at the F.L.A. Gallery. Well, for those of us who don't live in Florida, artwork from Ron's show is now available online!  There's everything from collages, pen-and-paper drawings, and even original artwork from his magnum-opus The Cartoon Utopia!  Everything is one-of-a-kind, so go snap up your favorite before someone else does!

We're coming at you right over the plate around mid-Summer with a collection of baseball cartoons by the 20th century's greatest sports cartoonist (that's what his peers called him), Willard Mullin's Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972. Mullin's cartoons were read by millions of sports fans and earned him a name-drop by Charles M. Schulz in a Peanuts strip, so popular were they. Whether you remember them fondly from their appearances in the papers, you're a new generation of sports fan discovering them for the first time, or you just like masterful, dynamic cartooning and illustration, this is a book…

Fantagraphics is proud to announce Spacehawk, the whole space shebang by Basil Wolverton is available for digital delight on comiXology. Spacehawk had but one mission in life: to protect the innocent throughout the Solar System, and to punish the guilty. Every story from Spacehawk’s intergalactic debut in 1940 to his final, Nazi-crushing adventure in 1942. Basil Wolverton is one of the greatest, most idiosyncratic talents in comic book history. Though he is best known for his humorous grotesqueries in MAD magazine, it is his science-fiction character Spacehawk that Wolverton fans have most often demanded be collected. While Spacehawk is the…

The tallest seedlings of Online Commentaries & Diversions: • Review: ForeWord looks at Dash Shaw's New School. "Like its predecessors, New School is unlike everything else out there.…It’s a startling, yet aptly mundane vision of one man’s future, made all the more believable by Shaw’s expressive, cartoony drawings and generally solid scripting…ultimately, it’s an entertaining and thoughtful graphic novel," writes Bill Baker. • Review: Paraphilia Magazine covers the two Malcolm McNeill books about his collaborations with William S. Burroughs. "Observed While Falling is an invaluable addition to the library of any Burroughs fan…Having shed light on a previously dark corner…

Some views of The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove, collecting Oscar-winning animator Gene Deitch's jazz cartoons and illustrations from The Record Changer magazine from 1945-1951 with the artist's commentary. This new softcover edition will be out in April. Click the images for bigger versions and see more in our Flickr set.

Want to hug a record but afraid you'll scratch it? Raffie and Foppie are for you! Chicago-based label FPE Records asked our own Ron Regé, Jr. to draw some dancing records for an ad, and once they saw the results, they wanted to hug 'em!  So, the idea for stuffed Raffie and Foppie record dolls was born. FPE currently launched a Kickstarter to get these cuties manufactured, so check it out and get yourself some huggable new friends!

What's this? Oh, just a stack of Dash Shaw original artwork from his upcoming release New School! And if you're in Brooklyn, or if you'll be in town for MoCCA, you can see this stunning artwork in person at Desert Island on Friday, April 5th! Join Dash from 7:00 to 9:00 PM for the unveiling of this exhibit of original pages, plus beat the crowds at the Armory to get a copy of New School before it's even in stores! Desert Island is located at 540 Metropolitan in Brooklyn. Dash will also be joining us at the Fantagraphics booth at…

This month's issue of Booklist reviewed a recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below:  Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein edited by Greg Sadowski "…best known for his stories for the legendary EC Comics—8 of which are included here—Krigstein also produced remarkable work…in genres ranging from crime and horror to war and westerns.… Although Krigstein was a masterful illustrator…capable of varying his style to suit the demands of the story, his genius lay in how he broke down the scripts, using multiple, subdivided panels to audaciously manipulate time.…Krigstein’s thoughtful, intelligent approach to telling a story should be…