Fantagraphics Blog

Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977 by Robert Crumb; edited by Ilse Thompson 264-page black & white 6" x 9" softcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-560-0 Ships in: September 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now "R. Crumb's writing, a dimension of his comics that usually passes underappreciated, receives a welcome spotlight in these sparsely illustrated letters that exhibit the artist's ear for the American vernacular." — Rain Taxi Review of Books “I feel that my work is but a feeble expression of something that in itself is vague and doubtful… Sometimes when I probe myself I find…

Gary Panter’s Dal Tokyo exhibition and book signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore! August 23, 2012 – Seattle, WA. Cartoonist Gary Panter has indelibly influenced four decades of American popular culture. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates this remarkable artist with an exhibition of original drawings and colorful prints on Saturday, September 8, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Panter will appear to sign copies of his new collection Dal Tokyo, published by Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. Gary Panter’s manic “Jimbo” comix and dense illustrations were emblematic of California’s punk movement in the 1970s and later became fixtures in Art Spiegleman’s avant garde RAW Magazine…

* Other People's Publications** Yeah, You Know Me. I'm super-excited to announce that the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is now carrying work from Koyama Press, one of my absolute favorite small press publishers, run by the lady I've deemed "The Nicest Woman in Comics"™, Ms. Annie Koyama. And one of the titles we now have in stock is Root Rot, the forest-themed anthology edited by Annie and Michael DeForge last year, featuring Mome-vets like T. Edward Bak, Joseph Lambert, and Jon Vermilyea, alongside some other excellent artists like Derek M. Ballard, Dan Zettwoch, Hellen Jo, and many more. Some of…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order warehouse: Dal Tokyo by Gary Panter 220-page black & white 16.25" x 6.25" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-56097-886-2 See Previews / Order Now Gary Panter began imagining Dal Tokyo, a future Mars that is terraformed by Texan and Japanese workers, as far back as 1972, appropriating a friend’s idea about “cultural and temporal collision” (the “Dal” is short for Dallas). Why Texan and Japanese? Panter says, “Because they are trapped in Texas, Texans are self-mythologizing. Because I was trapped in Texas at the time, I needed to believe that the broken tractor out…

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order warehouse: Sexytime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur edited by Jacques Boyreau & Peter Van Horne 96-page full-color 10.75" x 14.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-553-2 See Previews / Order Now Sexytime is the book that pornoisseurs all over the world have anxiously been waiting for. Not that grade drooler, the porn addict, mind you, but the porn aesthete, the porn classicist who knows his stag film history and lives by the credo, Veni ergo sum. An oversized coffee table book celebrating the art of the 1970s porn movie poster, Sexytime collects over…

The fully charged Online Commentaries & Diversions:   • Review: School Library Journal will happily be lending out copies of Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons to library patrons. Francisca Goldsmith says, "O’Connor’s viewpoint as a college student during the early years of World War II at an all-female Southern institution adds another layer of texture, too, for contemporary teen artists and observers of places and situations that fall outside popular media’s scope." • Review: On Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson checks out Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 3: High Noon at Inferno Gulch by Floyd Gottfredson, edited by David Gerstein…

Here at Fantagraphics, we're gearing up for one of our biggest SPX'es ever, taking place on September 15th & 16th in Bethesda, MD! We'll be rolling out our list of debuts and our signing schedule soon, but while you wait, why not memorize this schedule of panels at the 2012 Small Press Expo? Saturday, September 15th  •  12:00 pm // Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby and the American Clear Line School [Brookside Conference Room] In a canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the clean minimalism of Crockett Johnson’s line, Barnaby (1942-1952) expanded our sense of what comics can do. Though…

In the third series of comics to be released digitally after Love and Rockets going digital, Johnny Ryan's favorite thing to draw in a public restroom critically-acclaimed humor series Angry Youth Comix #5-7 are now available to download via comiXology joining the previous issues from last week. Ryan's work is too hot to handle for iTunes so use your comiXology apps on whatever retina-burning device you prefer. $1.99 can't even buy you a proper prophylactic in a restroom anymore but it can purchase you some excellent comics. Join Loady in shaving a monkey, new character Boobs Peters and the best…

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. Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 3 (1938-1940) by Roy Crane 152-page full-color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-529-7 The Complete Peanuts 1985-1986 (Vol. 18) by Charles M. Schulz 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-572-3 The Complete Peanuts 1983-1986…