Fantagraphics Blog

Recently Fantagraphics stopped by Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in Columbus. This structural testament to housing and preserving original cartoon strips makes it a one-of-a-kind-place. Curator Jenny Robb said hello but my after-hours and behind the scene tour guide was librarian Caitlin McGurk! Students of OSU and traveling scholars (like me!) can request to see original art and read books in the main reference room. The room itself is lined with popular comics reference material, less Marvel's Anatomy and more History of Chinese Comics that was written by a scholar rather than a draw-er.  Caitlin pulled…

Just a harmless joker… ignore him and he'll get tired! Let's hang up the laundry and forget— GASP

Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture – A Career Retrospective (2nd Printing)by Jack Davis 208-page full-color 10.25" x 13.25" hardcover • $49.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-447-4 Ships in: June 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Jack Davis arrived on the illustration scene in the euphoric post-war America of the late 1940s when consumer society was booming and the work force identified with commercial images that reflected this underlying sense of confidence and American bravado. Advertising agencies were looking for new ways to tap a rich and expanding market, and there was a vast array of media that needed illustrations. Davis’ animated and…

The freshest Online Commentary & Diversions: •Review: Today on the Comics Alliance, writer Matt D. Wilson covers the unique career of Michael Kupperman. The king of one-man anthologies cannot be classified, "There's no need to elaborate on how or why [Mark Twain and Albert Einstein] know each other; Kupperman wants to get straight into the laboratory ghosts and ant colony visits. Kupperman's humor doesn't rest in relationships; it's invested in concepts." •Plug: Fantagraphics creator Michael Kupperman will be performing his own blend of comedy with geek rapper, Adam WarRock, on July 10th (for those of you not going to the…

Wandering Son Vol. 3 by Shimura Takako 224-page black & white/color 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-533-4 Ships in: June 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now SPECIAL OFFER: Order this volume and get Vol. 1 and/or Vol. 2 for $14.99 each; that’s 25% off! Use the option menu when ordering. As shown in the first two volumes of this acclaimed series, Shuichi and his friend Yoshino have a secret: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. But one day, abruptly, their secret is exposed,…

The public launch of SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS: THE BOOK is coming up at the Strand on Tuesday, July 10! Join contributors LUC SANTE, MATTHEW SHARPE, MIMI LIPSON, BEN GREENMAN, ANNIE NOCENTI, SHELLEY JACKSON, JASON GROTE and Editors JOSHUA GLENN and ROB WALKER as they read their stories from and celebrate the release of SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS: 100 EXTRAORDINARY STORIES ABOUT ORDINARY THINGS. Can a great story transform a worthless trinket into a significant object? The Significant Objects project set out to answer that question once and for all, by recruiting a highly impressive crew of creative writers to invent stories about an…

Richard Sala is up to the 26th installment (or a pair of thirteens, if you prefer) of his delightful "Skeleton Key" series of character portraits and bios, on his Tumblr and blog.

Todd Klein posted this great photo by José Luis Garcia-López of Fantagraphics co-founder and current editor Mike Catron freelancing in the DC Comics offices in 1979. Mike is currently in the process of making his arduous cross country move back to Seattle. We miss ya Mike! (Hat tip to Robot 6.)