Fantagraphics Blog

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department: 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 See Previews / Order Now SPECIAL OFFER: Order this volume and get Vol. 1 and/or Vol. 2 for $29.99 each; that's 25% off! Make your selection when ordering. “Crane’s work is sheer energy. It’s somewhere between Crane and E.C. Segar that (Carl Barks’ beloved) Donald Duck got forged; the kind of ruddy-cheeked adventurousness that underlies the content is certainly the same work that moves Donald and…

The Fantagraphics family is saddened by the loss of Australian musician Eric "Ren" Reynolds. Former bandmate of current Fantagraphics sales manager Martin Bland (Lubricated Goat) and former warehouse worker Mark Arm (Bloodloss), Reynolds was a longtime Seattle resident. Known affectionately as "Ren," [and commonly as Renestair E.J., Martin informs us – Ed.] we trust people won't be alarmed by his sharing the name of our very-much-alive associate publisher Eric Reynolds. "Ren" was a funny dude and talented musician. We'll miss him. 

It's no coincidence that those Friedman Brothers are funny, funny fellas! (Their Dad happens to be the legendary Oscar-nominated Bruce Jay Friedman!) Find out for yourself how fantastic Josh Alan Friedman is on Friday, September 8th, as he signs copies of the newly-reissued Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental, a collection that had been out-of-print for twenty years! Not only that, but Josh will be performing a solo, acoustic Blues concert on this occasion! Damn, those Friedmans have some talented genetics. The festivities will be held at The Mason Bar (i.e. Hi-Lo Cabaret), located at 2701…

My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read. — Abraham Lincoln Be the kind of friend Abe Lincoln would want to have! Join Noah Van Sciver for the release party for The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln! He'll be signing on Tuesday, August 28th at Kilgore Books in Denver, starting at 6:30 PM. Be one of the first to get your hands on the debut graphic novel from this excellent 2012 Ignatz-nominated artist!  Kilgore Books is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, CO at 624 E. 13th Ave (between Washington and Pearl),…

I should've photographed them together to give the proper sense of scale, but here are your first glimpses of companion volumes The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here: Images from the Graphic Novel and Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook, and Me, both by Malcolm McNeill. In the former, see the stunning artwork McNeill created for his great "lost" unpublished collaboration with William S. Burroughs; and in the latter, read all about their collaboration in McNeill's own words — a story so great it had to be contained in its own book. Both books will debut at SPX…

The final book in Carol Tyler's Eisner and Ignatz-nominated, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-finalist You'll Never Know trilogy, Soldier's Heart, will be debuting at SPX next month and arriving in stores in October. We received our advance copies here at Fantagraphics HQ late last week and let me tell you, even just at first glance, Carol's artwork is even more breathtaking than the first two volumes, which, if you've seen them, is saying something. Stay tuned for more previews and pre-order your copy today.

* Other People's Publications** Yeah, You Know Me. Hark! It's Kate Beaton calendars! And, you can get them now, only at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, fresh from their debut at the Drawn & Quarterly booth at San Diego Comic-Con! Before you scoff and say, "No one uses calendars anymore," I want to point out that at my day job, my officemate and I each have paper calendars at our desks, (his, a boring Office Max one; mine, an excellent Apak Little Otsu one) and we work in the same room!!! Everyone needs a calendar! There are two different designs…

Naked Cartoonists: Drawers Drawing Themselves Without Drawers by various artists; edited by Gary Groth 156-page full-color 6.25" x 8.25" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-538-9 Ships in: September 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now At last! Cartoonists — Naked! In an irreverent twist to the fine art tradition of The Nude, this unique and original collection presents a “stripped” down version of the infamous “Gallery of Rogues” exhibit of cartoonist self-portraits at Ohio State University. Here you’ll find a cornucopia of cartoonists’ nude self-portraits from the collection of Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel. The cartoonists inside aren’t afraid to…

Gary Groth shares a recent personal accomplishment: I made this shot at about 40 yards, so not exactly Olympics-level marksmanship. Still, I was pretty elated. My Errol Flynn moment. Now, you might say that it was pure luck or happenstance, like making a hole in one -the law of averages insists that if I shoot enough, I'm eventually going to nail it- and I wouldn't argue. But I would say, in my favor, which is that if the grouping weren't as tight as it was, and it was mighty tight lemme tell you, it would've been less likely to occur….

The list of nominees for the 2012 Ignatz Awards was announced today and we are pleased to report that our artists and publications received a total of 6 nominations in 4 categories: Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 by the Hernandez Brothers:• Outstanding Artist — Jaime Hernandez • Outstanding Story — "Return for Me" by Jaime Hernandez• Outstanding Series Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga:• Outstanding Series The Man Who Grew His Beard by Olivier Schrauwen:• Outstanding Anthology or Collection "Keith or Steve," Mome Vol. 22, by Nick Drnaso:• Outstanding Story In addition to these nominees with our logo on them,…