Fantagraphics Blog

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…

Gary at APE 2007 // photo credit: Chris Diaz Students at The Center for Cartoon Studies will have a chance to learn from the best, as our own Gary Groth is heading to White River Junction, Vermont for their annual Industry Day! It kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday, April 4th, with a Pizza Party with Gary in the Colodny classroom! The party runs from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and at 7:30 PM, Gary will regale the guests with "an evening of insight and wisdom," so say our friends at CCS. It's Gary and it's pizza — that's a surefire recipe for…

Author Monte Schulz will return to Skylight Books to launch the last book in his Jazz Age trilogy, The Big Town! Join Monte on Wednesday, April 4th for a reading and signing of his exciting new novel, starting at 7:30 PM. The Big Town is the story of a failed businessman whose dreams of prosperity hinge on the secret proposition of a millionaire industrialist and a dangerous relationship he finds with a poor orphan girl chasing love in the great American metropolis. Skylight Books is located at 1818 N Vermont Ave in Los Angeles! 

Beginning Sunday April 1st, the Prince Valiant strip boasts its third ongoing artist (after John Cullen Murphy, 1971-2004, and the just-retired Gary Gianni): Thomas Yeates — perhaps best known to long-time comics fans for his stint on Saga of the Swamp Thing and other DC Comics, but a busy, sought-after illustrator in both comic books and comic strips (including Zorro and Conan). He'd previously followed in Hal Foster's footsteps, drawing Tarzan comics on and off during the last two decades for Dark Horse Comics (including in the issues of Dark Horse Presents that are currently on the stands). Mark Schultz…

(a partial assortment) Last November, we introduced one of our most successful and acclaimed promotions ever: The FBI•MINI project, a series of mini-books exclusively available as premiums via Fantagraphics mail-order. Customers could secure these coveted collectibles either by ordering (or pre-ordering) specific books that went along with the FBI•MINIs, or just placing a general order (for $50 or more). We got in so many orders for FBI•MINIs (close to a thousand!) that we had trouble keeping up with demand! The FBI•MINIs include first-time-in-English comics by Joost Swarte, David B., Raymond Macherot, and Jacques Tardi (the legendary, 21-page, never-completed Manchette collaboration…

Just beginning to catch up on Online Commentary & Diversions: • Profile: With his big new art book out and his museum retrospective on the way, Daniel Clowes gets the New York Times profile treatment from Carol Kino: "Mr. Clowes can create a striking face with a few deftly placed lines or brush strokes, often seizing on some specific characteristic that summons up an indelible personality. Think of Enid Coleslaw, the snarky teenage anti-heroine of Ghost World, and her big, black nerdy-hip glasses; they cover most of her face, but they can’t conceal the tiny shifts in expression that loudly…

Get ready, Beantown! We've got Peter Bagge and Al Jaffee coming your way for the 2012 Boston Comic Con! Join them Saturday, April 21st and Sunday, April 22nd at the Hynes Convention Center [ 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA ]. And on Sunday, see Al in the panel Legends of Mad Magazine! The "Usual Gang of Idiots" reunite to reminisce about the creation of MAD, the most influential humor magazine of the 20th century. Al Feldstein and Paul Coker Jr join Al Jaffee for this rare event at 11:00 AM in Panel Room 102. It'll be wicked awesome!

Join author Monte Schulz for a hometown appearance for The Big Town, on Tuesday, April 3rd! He'll be signing this riveting new novel starting at 7:00 PM!  A novel of the Jazz Age, The Big Town is the story of a failed businessman whose dreams of prosperity hinge on the secret proposition of a millionaire industrialist and a dangerous relationship he finds with a poor orphan girl chasing love in the great American metropolis. Chaucer’s Books is located at 3321 State Street in Santa Barbara.

  Having been preoccupied by this past weekend's Emerald City Con, we're a bit late in offering our warmest wishes and hearty congratulations to two of our favorite gentlemen and their lovely significant others. First up, TheComicsJournal.com co-editor and Picturebox  Founder Dan Nadel and his partner Rachel welcomed their first child, Henry, into the world early Friday morning. (You should do each of you a favor and help keep Henry in fresh diapers by picking up Picturebox's new Rory Hayesand Destroy All Monsters! books).  Meanwhile, on Sunday, our old pal Jacob McMurray , Senior Curator of Seattle's Experience Music Project and author of our book TAKING PUNK TO THE MASSES…