Fantagraphics Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions — now up to date! • Review: "The Locas grow up. Collecting material from Love and Rockets‘ second volume (previously found in Ghost of Hoppers and The Education of Hopey Glass), the latest in Fantagraphics’ perfectly executed series of L&R digests [Esperanza] finds Maggie, Hopey, Izzy, and Ray D. coming to terms with no longer being the life of the party and the heart of their scene — at least not without exhausting effort…. But if there’s one thing Jaime’s Locas stories in general, and this volume in particular, tell us, it’s that sometimes you…

Jack Kirby is among the most influential American artists of the last century, but a substantial body of Kirby’s work has been largely overlooked until recently. In the post-war years, with the popularity of superhero comic books fading, Kirby teamed with writer Joe Simon to create the new genre of romance comics. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates these forgotten works with “Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics.” The interpretive exhibition opens on Saturday, April 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM with a discussion by Michel Gagné, author of a recent collection of the same title from…

Oh, this is so delightful I can barely stand it! A young reader of 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago sent this illustrated thank-you note to Wilfred's partner & editor Sanlida Cheng, who shares it via the 21 Facebook page.

At HiLobrow, Significant Objects co-editor Joshua Glenn gives you your first glimpses of the interiors of the book, presenting three two-page spreads as designed by good ol' Jacob Covey and giving a few more details about the book along the way. The excitement is building!

Editor/curator Pat Thomas is on tour with Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, and it could not be more perfect that his next stop is at Hollywood's Amoeba Records!  This enormous store occupies an entire city block, and Pat will be guest DJ'ing! You'll be sure to hear some picks from the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records.  Stop by Amoeba on Thursday, April 5th at 7:00 PM to hear what else he might spin, and to get your copy of Listen, Whitey! signed by Pat! Amoeba Records is…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Every one of Giandelli’s surfaces — walls, windows, bedspreads, books — seems alive. Her colors almost wriggle. The darkness she draws is so black it’s wet. She approaches long corridors like David Lynch does in his films: not something you walk down, but something you’re swallowed by. Interiorae is engulfing…. In restored and essential color, this collected edition gives the mood the necessary space to simmer and boil — just like poetry has the white of the page around it to slow you down and give it weight. Even before you notice the…

Hans Rickheit has launched a new blog — or rather, his associate Christian Berntsen has — which is your new HQ for all things Hans, including notification of updates to his ongoing webcomics Ectopiary, Cochlea & Eustachia, and, now being serialized online, his debut 2001 self-published graphic novel Chloe. And of course there will be updates pertaining to the imminent release of Hans's new collection Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion. Hans fans new and old, lock your computers to these coordinates.

Jaime Hernandez is nominated for Best Cartoonist in the 2012 Stumptown Comic Art Awards for his work in last year's issue of Love and Rockets — go, vote in all categories here! How you gonna beat "The Love Bunglers" and "Return for Me," huh? His competition in the category includes our good pal Stan Sakai, who is also deserving of every award he gets (including Best Letterer, which he's also nominated for). You just can't praise those guys enough. Award winners will be announced at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR on April 28. We also direct your attention…

It's an official announcement: Dave Cooper has entered into a development deal with TELETOON and Radical Sheep Productions for The Bagel and Becky Show, an animated TV program based on Bagel's Lucky Hat, Dave's children's book under his nom de plume Hector Mumbly. Dave says "just keep in mind this is 'development' not 'going into production' yet. Please cross all your fingers and toes for me over the next several months!!" Congrats and good luck Dave! In more Dave news, check out this badass silkscreen poster he did for a 2010 Mastodon gig, which you can now buy from him…