Fantagraphics Blog

This month's issue of Booklist reviewed three recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below:   Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 2 by Michael Kupperman Imaginations come no wonkier, no dafter than Kupperman’s. His idea of a crime-fighting, daring, dynamic duo à la Bruce and Dick (Batman and Robin) is Twain and Einstein (Mark and Albert)-that is, when it's not a snake and a strip of bacon. When he thinks Odd Couple, it's Oscar and Felix Dracula…Kupperman draws all this strangeness in a manner that derives about equally from Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), 1950s romance comics, visualpun cartoonist Glen Baxter, and…

Yesterday, Publisher Gary Groth's interview with the team from Tell Me Something I Don't Know went live on Boing Boing. Jason Lex, Jim Rugg, and Ed Piskor asked for some of Gary's Fantagraphics recommendations. Here are the quick descriptions and links to the books Gary mentioned. Good Dog by Graham Chaffee is a beautiful black and white graphic novel that chronicles the tales of stray dog, Ivan, on his search for a home, friends and more. Ivan is a good dog – if only someone would notice. Chaffee combines illustrative gravitas with cartooning verve for a richly textured, dog's-eye view…

Brooklyn, prepare to be thrizzled by the divine Michael Kupperman at the Greenlight Bookstore on Thursday, February 21st! He'll be climbing aboard the "Steamboat," their monthly literary humor event, to present his brand new collection Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 2!  His fellow castaways include Saturday Night Live's Rachel Dratch and Dawn Fraser, and your host will be author and comedian Bob Powers. This free wine-addled event launches at 7:00 PM. Greenlight Bookstore is located at 686 Fulton St (at South Portland) in Brooklyn. 

Held over! We want to make sure no one who's eligible misses out on this special offer, so we are extending it through the end of February 2013. The original announcement (with updated dates) is copied below:  Like you, we recently learned that CBG is no more. We're sure that many of you are unhappy with the substitution of Antique Trader for the remaining balance of your CBG subscription, so we'd like to offer you a one-time-only money-saving alternative. At Fantagraphics, we specialize in high-quality collections of classic comics by the best writers and artists in comics history. Exquisite collections…

Surely we're having fun by now! It's our 11th (!) collection of Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead, The Dingburg Diaries, wrapping up production and going to the printer for release in May or so. With two and a half years' worth of daily and color Sunday strips under chapter headings like "Beatniks, Bowling, Laundry & Food," "Mr. The Toad," "Little Zippy," "Art, Music & Comics," "Zerbina & Other Relationships," and "God," you know it's got the good stuff you want. Plus the back cover is maybe one of the greatest Zippy drawings ever. Pour yourself a tall glass of taco sauce and…

Friday, February 15th •  Seattle, WA:  Comics collective Intruder will be launching the fifth volume of their quarterly newspaper at Cairo, featuring a cover by our very own Tony Ong, with comics inside by staffer Jason T. Miles, freelancer David Lasky, and former staffer Alexa Koenings! (more info) Saturday, February 16th •  Los Angeles, CA:  Catch a comics reading with Esther Pearl Watson at the L.A. Zine Fest Reading and Rock Spectacular at Footsies! (more info) •  Nelsonville, OH:  It's your last chance to view prints from The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 at the Nelsonville Public Library! Pay your…

Set your clocks to Sexytime at this Saturday evening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Enjoy an awesome exhibition of silly and sexy classic porn posters, loopy post apocalyptic pop music by Poppet, free kisses from Georgetown’s Little Black Devil burlesque beauties, and so much more. Sexytime editor and pop culture archeologist Jacques Boyreau will be available to sign copies of his latest masterpiece. This event coincides with the Valentine’s edition of the lively Georgetown Art Attack, featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic neighborhood. Fantagraphics Bookstore is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at the corner of Airport…

So for the next month or so people will tell you all the reasons why you should read The Comics Journal #302. It has the last interview with Maurice Sendak, an amazing How to Draw section with Roy Crane and his ghost artist (it's worth at least one semester of comic book school credit), a tribute to Dylan Williams, an extensive interview with Jacques Tardi, a new Joe Sacco comic, a Percy Crosby examination and so much more. But I'm here to tell you how you could use TCJ 302 to sweat. At 672 pages, this tome is not just…

 The thinly-veiled excuse to come over of Online Commentaries & Diversions:   • Review: The Comics Reporter reviewed Prince Valiant Vol. 6: 1947-1948 by Hal Foster. Tom Spurgeon writes, "The comic in this attractively-packaged and produced edition gives off the handsome sheen of mass entertainment that knows its commercial value. Prince Valiant may be 75, but this material at least still has all its hair and a hell of a tan." Damn, did Tom Spurgeon pick an excellent image or what? • Review: Rain Taxi looks at The Last Vispo edited by Crag Hill and Nico Vassilakis. Chris Funkhouser writes,…

Fantagraphics and comiXology presents the late great Spain Rodriguez and his graphic novel, Cruisin' with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Toote. "They were all there, the pimps, the fags, the whores, the curious, the alcoholic, the weird of the late '50s… blues lovers, Canadian bikers, thrill seekers, junkies, insomniacs, hepcats…" So begins "Down at the Kitty Kat," one of the 20-plus never-before-collected memoirs and yarns by Spain, one of the original gang of Zap Comix provocateurs. Although he's best known for his two-fisted tales of the chopper-riding Trashman, Spain's blunt graphic style and uncompromising gift for caricature,…