It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! We Told You So, the book celebrating our 40th anniversary is here and ready to read and enjoy on your tablets. In 1976, a fledgling magazine held forth the idea that comics could be art. In 2016, comics can now be enjoyed by an adult readership and are reviewed favorably in the New York Times. We Told You So: Comics as Art is an oral history about Fantagraphics Books’ key role in helping build and shape an art movement around a discredited, ignored, and fading expression of Americana. It includes appearances by Chris…
Coloring Pages from All Time Comics
Ever wanted to color the brilliant work of Herb Trimpe? Or be the next Ben Marra? Then check out these free to download coloring pages torn from the brand new series All Time Comics, hitting stores this March! All Time Comics: Crime Destroyer #1 From Fantagraphics, the publisher of the world’s greatest cartoonists, comes ALL TIME COMICS, a shared superhero universe featuring the world’s most fanta*stic heroes. Atlas! Blind Justice! Bullwhip! Crime Destroyer! Each issue of ALL TIME COMICS features a mash up of new cartoonists and classic comic book creators collaborating with writer Josh Bayer to unleash superhero stories…
Angouleme Official Selection 2017
It might be in French, but pictures tell a thousand words. And if you take a peek at the list for the 2017 Official Selection books from the Angouleme Festival International de la Bande Dessinée, you’ll see three Fantagraphics titles (via their foreign editions) listed as eligible for an award at this year’s festival taking place January 26-29th. Congratulations to all the nominees! Here are your Fantagraphics selections: Patience by Daniel Clowes Patience is an indescribable psychedelic science-fiction love story, veering with uncanny precision from violent destruction to deeply personal tenderness in a way that is both quintessentially “Clowesian,” and…
Re/Read: Buddy Buys a Dump by Peter Bagge
Re/Read is an occasional column by Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid examining backlist books you may have missed or merit another look. This time we’ll focus on Buddy Buys a Dump by Peter Bagge. A generation of comix enthusiasts came of age following the foibles of Buddy Bradley and his crew of lovable losers in Peter Bagge’s Hate. This work came to define the youth movement associated with Seattle’s “grunge” counterculture. Bagge became a central figure in illustrating the attitudes and aesthetics of this global phenomenon. A truly remarkable achievement. Buddy Buys a Dump collects the 9 issues…
New Comic Book Day! Nov. 30th 2016
Pretty proud of this solid roster of books that are coming out today. If you’re not too full from Turkey, we suggest filling up on these great reads. Available in the finest stores, and of course, on our fine website. Wuvable Oaf: Blood & Metal by Ed Luce Hot on the heels of 2015’s wildly popular Wuvable Oaf debut comes this fullcolor sequel! Still the same wuvable Bay Area bear searching for love in the big city, Blood & Metal collects a number of Oaf short stories focusing on his involvement in the local metal and wrestling scenes. Luce celebrates his…
Digital Releases by Hanks, Luce, and Wood
Fletcher Hanks, Ed Luce, and Wally Wood make up our digital dream team this week. They are also accompanied by some rather risqué backlist titles. Here we go . . . Fletcher Hanks was the first great comic book auteur: he wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all his stories between 1939 and 1941. Whether it’s the superhero Stardust dolling out poetic justice or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers limb from limb, pop surrealism and violent mayhem are abundant in all of Hanks’s work. Originally featured in two paperbacks, this deluxe volume collects all of Hanks’s previously published material, plus…
Re/Read: Love and Rockets: The Covers
Re/Read is an occasional column by Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid looking back at books you may have missed or merit more attention. This time we’ll discuss the alluring imagery in Love and Rockets: The Covers by Los Bros Hernandez. The colorful covers of early Love and Rockets comic books by Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez foreshadowed profound changes taking shape in both the comix medium and American society as a whole. The work often reflected the artists’ experiences in their native Oxnard, California. They illustrated issues of cultural diversity, gender roles, sexual identity, and youthful alienation…
What’s in Store: 40 Years of Comics As Art
Fantagraphics Books commemorates its 40th anniversary with a series of talks, exhibitions, book signings, performances, and parties celebrating four decades of publishing the world’s greatest contemporary cartoonists. The impressive record of accomplishment and immeasurable influence of this Seattle-based enterprise are chronicled in the new book, We Told You So: Comics as Art, An Oral History of Fantagraphics Books. The festivities begin with a panel discussion on Fantagraphics’ first 40 years on Friday, December 9, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the elegant Folio library, located at 384 Marion Street in downtown Seattle. Moderated by Fantagraphics publisher and co-founder Gary…
New Comic Book Day – Nov 23, 2016
Happy almost turkey day, you turkeys (which is what my grandma calls us). Hope your family dinners are free of food flying political arguments. But if not, you can bury, calm, and reset yourself with one of these titles, available in stores now The Realist Cartoons – by Ethan Persoff, Paul Krassner The Realist was the legendary satirical magazine published from 1958 to 2001. Founded and edited by the brash provocateur, radical, and prankster Paul Krassner, humor and ridicule were the magazine’s weapons of choice, and Krassner assembled an amazingly eclectic list of contributing writers—including Norman Mailer, Lenny Bruce, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, and Woody…
We’re Thankful for New Digital Comics
A cornucopia of classic comics and more backlist favorites are on the menu for this week’s digital comics releases. All good things (and when we say good, we mean GREAT) must come to an end and today marks the release of the very last collection in the Complete Peanuts. Volume 26 collects all of Charles Schulz’s rare non-strop Peanuts art from gags to storybooks to recipes — all things no true Peanuts library would be complete without. As a fitting end to the series, Jean Schulz provides an emotional introduction. The Complete Peanuts Vol. 26 can now be found on…
