Fantagraphics Blog

Hey gang, we just got advance copies of Peter Bagge's Other Stuff! This handy volume collects Pete's collaborations (with Clowes, Crumb, Tomine, the Hernandezes, Alan Moore, etc.) from the back pages of Hate, stories from Hate Annual, and other odds 'n' ends. It's a must-have for Baggeliebers (huh?) and all lovers of hilarious satire. Lucky attendees at Emerald City Comicon this weekend will have first crack at buying copies (and getting 'em signed and personalized by Pete himself) — everybody else will have to wait a couple months before it hits shelves. But you can get a taste with our 20-page excerpt, readable right…

Monday, February 25th • New York City, NY: Tonight! James Romberger gives a slide show presentation on 7 Miles a Second at the NY Comics and Picture-story Symposium! Starting at 7:00 PM! (more info) Tuesday, February 26th •  Brooklyn, NY:  Join the mighty Michael Kupperman at Book Court for the book launch celebration of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Vol. 2, with special guest Ted Travelstead! (more info) Wednesday, February 27th •  Seattle, WA:  The Richard Hugo House presents an evening of original music inspired by Ellen Forney's 2007 collection Lust: Kinky Online Personal Ads from Seattle's The Stranger! Doors and bar…

James Romberger, artist of 7 Miles a Second, will be giving a slide show presentation tonight TONIGHT at the NY Comics and Picture-story Symposium on his collaboration with David Wojnarowicz and Marguerite Van Cook in addition to his new book Post York, out from Uncivilized Books. 7pm, 7 Miles a Second pretty easy to remember. Music accompaniment by Crosby. The thirty-fourth meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Monday, February 25, 2013 at 7:00 pm at Parsons The New School, 2 West 13th Street in The Bark Room (off lobby). See you there!

The half-day of school in Online Commentaries & Diversions: • Review: Nick Gazin of VICE reads God and Science by Jaime Hernandez. "I think it's cool that Jaime will make a comic with no sci-fi or fantasy elements for decades and suddenly remind us that the world his comic is set in is capable of housing superheroes. I own all of Jaime's stuff." • Plug: Bob Temuka tries to make you break down into tears at your desk but DAMMIT you didn't let him, didja? Tearoom of Despair lives up to its name by remembering the 'Death of Speedy' story…

In 2010 it was our distinct privilege to bring you the English edition of Jacques Tardi's World War I tale It Was the War of the Trenches, widely acknowledged by readers, critics, and award committees as a comics masterpiece. In just 3 months or so we'll be following that up with Tardi's second WWI masterwork, Goddamn This War! Tracing the "progress" of the war year by year, from the perspective of an unnamed soldier, Goddamn unflinchingly chronicles the horror, boredom, frustration and despair of war for its ground-level participants as they grind through the gears of history. Providing further historical context is an…

The best cover band made of dogs of Online Commentaries & Diversions:  • Review: Unshelved reads Delphine by Richard Sala. Shivering with delicious fear, Gene Ambaum says "I’m a huge fan of Sala’s graphic novels, like Cat Burglar Black. And the dust jacket-less cover, with its graphics and the inset color image of a girl walking through a dark forest, looked exquisite."  • Review: Rob Clough of High-Low looks at Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski. "His stories address aspects of modern civilization and the ways in which they break down.…Kaczynski really has his finger on the collective neuroses…

Spain Rodriguez is on the list of finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize award in Graphic Novel. A winner will be chosen this April at a public ceremony at the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium. Spain's book Cruisin' with the Hound is listed along with works by Alison Bechdel, Leela Corman, Chris Ware and Sammy Harkham. The press release has more information: "The event is the prelude to the 18th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest public literary festival in the nation, to be held on USC’s campus on April 20th and 21st." Fingers…

(final cover may vary) Via the Jim Flora blog, co-editior Irwin Chusid shares a few words about The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora, coming this Summer:  Our first book, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (2004), featured Flora's known album covers. (No complete discography existed.) Since that book's publication, more vintage covers have been found, as well as the artist's rough drafts and rejected designs. The Mischievous Art… went through two editions, but is now out of print, highly sought and available only at high prices through rare-book sellers. So we decided to compile a complete collection of Flora record covers…

The newest office of Online Commentaries & Diversions:  • Review: Glen Weldon from NPR Books pontificates on the wondrous LGBT-centric graphic novels and reviewed Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas "…whenever the emotions roiling just under her narrative's surface threaten to overtake her characters, Hagio's otherwise exacting and detailed art goes expressively feathery at the edges, like a ghost vanishing softly into the ether." • Review: Fantasy Book Review reviews The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio. "This is not an uplifting tale until at the end, but it is a very well drawn period manga that gives glimpses of…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:  Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein edited by Greg Sadowski 272-page full-color 8" x 10.5" softcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-580-8  See Previews / Order Now  Working in comic books for just over a decade in the 1940s and '50s, Bernard Krigstein applied all the craft, intelligence, and ambition of a burgeoning "serious" artist, achieving results that remain stunning to this day. While his legend rests mostly on his landmark narratives created for EC Comics, dozens of stories for lesser publishers equally showcase his singular draftsmanship and radical reinterpretation of…