Fantagraphics Blog

The latest Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "This thing [The Furry Trap] is a nightmarish monster. It's pretty great. …[W]hat Simmons does so well — without peer, honestly — is smash together sweetness and nightmare. Innocence and the most vile corruption imaginable. The stories are unsettling, but Simmons takes it three steps further than many other creators in this vein and then pushes the events into exceedingly horrific territory and then shows how unsettled even the characters are, when they realize the kind of world they live in…. Yeah, this stuff is really good, in surprisingly different ways from…

It's no coincidence that the fabulous Drew Friedman will be joined by esteemed film historian Leonard Maltin this Saturday, May 19th in Los Angeles! Drew states, they'll be in conversation about "all things Shemp, Old Jewish Comedians, Joe Franklin, Wheezer, Al Kilgore, Shemp, Woim, Officer Joe Bolton, Shemp, Darla, Gene Baylos, Gummo Marx, Buckwheat, Jerry Ohlinger, Shemp and so much more" at Book Soup [ 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood ]. And, of course, he'll be signing copies of the long-awaited reprint of Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental, Drew's first anthology, co-written by Josh Alan…

Daniel Clowes comes home to Chicago this Thursday, May 17th for a signing of the Abrams ComicArts collection The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist! He'll be joined by editor Alvin Buenaventura at Quimby's [ 1854 W North Ave, Chicago ] starting at 7:00 PM.  And while supplies last, they'll be giving out Mister Jones pins!

Last Fall, Megan Kelso gave a presentation at Seattle's Richard Hugo House. As she describes it, "It's about a lot of stuff — reading Moby Dick, my midlife crisis, financial woe and the creative process." If you missed it, or if you loved it so much you want to see it again, you'll have your chance this coming Wednesday, May 16th as part of a local poetry series called "Breadline" hosted at Vermillion Gallery [ 1508 11th Ave, Seattle ]. This free, all-ages event kicks off at 7:00 PM!

Get "ruined" …and on a Monday night, no less! It's time for another launch in our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series, a collaboration with our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company. Join us on Monday, May 21st, and try "Ruin," a Rosemary Agave IPA, available on draft, and in exclusive 22 oz. bottles with labels featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series. The official tapping begins at 6:00 PM, followed by a survival demo by Bryan at 7:30 PM, with "apocalyptic amusements" until 9:00 PM. Come by and collect the next…

In this short video, Jim Woodring reveals the 27-foot mural he painted in Facebook’s Seattle offices a couple of weeks ago (with assistance from his son Max). No, he was not paid in stock.

Harold and Maude FINALLY on Criterion AND with cover art by Jordan Crane? Somebody pinch me! (And then gimme 30 bucks so I can run out and buy it when it's released next month.)

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "In Athos in America , the ideas behind the first three stories are so clever and punchy that they carry the rest of the anthology. Furthermore, the stories are constructed such that, due to their structure alone, any further padding would be impossible. In many ways, Athos In America feels like the artist looking back at his body of work to date… Despite his style, Jason is quite effective in modulating emotion from story to story, going from gags to violence to tragedy, sometimes all in the same story. Jason is in total control…

Congrats to Ellen Forney, shortlisted for The 2012 Stranger Genius Award for Literature! Ellen's worked with us (and The Stranger) for years and even though we're not putting out her next book, the graphic memoir Marbles, we're all looking forward to it eagerly! You may recall Jim Woodring won this prize a couple of years ago — kudos to The Stranger's critics for continuing to recognize comics with their Literature award. (Photo for The Stranger by Kelly O.)

It's a good day! Some 16 to 17 years ago, I formed a vague friendship with a young writer named Joshua Glenn under the most tenuous of possible ways for sincere friendship to incubate: between the professional relationship of writer (him) and publicist (me). I have enjoyed Josh's vision and intellect and from the first issue of his zine, HERMENAUT (one of the unequivocally great periodicals of the 1990s), and thru his more recent endeavors, like the website HILOBROW . Through some minor miracle, we've managed throughout the years to have some reason, however ambiguous at times, to stay in touch. And now! Full circle! It's 2012, and…