Fantagraphics Blog

(Click for larger image) The first image is from Nostalgia Press's 1978 re-colored version.The second image is from Fantagraphics Books' 1991 re-colored version.The third image is from the original Syndicate proof sheets which will eventually be used in Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant Volume 6 later this year. While I think the Danish colorists behind the 1991 version made a (heh) valiant effort at capturing the glory of Foster (the less said about the Nostalgia Press version the better), it's pretty obvious which one is the keeper here. (Also, Foster didn't make the native Americans the color of boiled lobsters.)

Now that you've seen the previews of our collection of Joost Swarte's comics Is That All There Is?, perhaps you would like to know more about the artist and his other work. Here's a nice brief English-language video profile commissioned by DutchDFA that spotlights not only Swarte's comics but some of his work in illustration, design and architecture, with a glimpse inside his drool-inducing studio space.

Our pals at the Elysian Brewing Company sent along these photos of the first batch of Nibiru, the first of the Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse produced in association with Fantagraphics and featuring the art of Charles Burns on the labels, being bottled and packaged up. Stay tuned for updates on the beer's debut, which will take place January 21. They tell us "We are working on making a giant piñata of Planet Nibiru to smash at the party — hopefully it works out!"

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Publishers Weekly announces the results of their 2011 Comics World Critics Poll, with these titles garnering 2 votes each… "Love and Rockets: New Stories Vol. 4, Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez: Jaime Hernandez tops his 30 years of peerless storytelling with the conclusion to 'The Love Bunglers' in which two characters we’ve watched stumble through life make a final lurch — that may bring happiness or doom. Heartbreaking yet without a trace of manipulation." – Heidi MacDonald "The Man Who Grew His Beard, Olivier Schrauwen: This graphic novel is exceptionally inventive, with each…

Above, a recent illustration by Tim Lane for the New York Times Book Review; below, a new page from the story "Meat" for his upcoming short story collection Folktales. [Follow our Tumblr blog for lots more Things to See every day.]

  We were privileged to host another delightful evening with our friend Tony Millionaire at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday. A wonderful cast of characters assembled to celebrate the publication of his exquisite new book 500 Portraits. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a visit by the legendary Charles Burns, whose portrait is among those featured in the exhibition. It was also nice to see comix scholar Hillary Chute, who interviews cartoonists in The Believer, where many of Tony's portraits first appeared. (Hillary also notably edited Art Spiegelman's new book  Meta Maus.) Our colleagues from the University of Mississippi Press were on hand, as…

Thanks to all the Northwest Tony Millionaire fans who kicked off the new year with us last week by getting your copies of 500 Portraits signed! Here's what's going on this week: Wednesday, January 11th • Brooklyn, NY: Join the mighty Mr. Michael Kupperman for a visual presentation on the jacket art he designed for NY-based publisher Solid Objects! He'll be joined by the respective authors of those attractive tomes, Jake Bohstedt Morrill and Jim Shepard, starting at 7:30 PM at Greenlight Books.  Not only will those guys be reading from their books, but Michael will be doing a reading…

Is That All There Is? by Joost Swarte 144-page full-color 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-510-5 Ships in: February 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Order this book and receive this FBI•MINI comic shown at left as a FREE bonus! Click here for details. Limit one per customer while supplies last. By appropriating and subverting Tintin creator Hergé’s classic “clear line” style, Joost Swarte revitalized European alternative comics in the 1970s with a series of satirical, musically elegant, supremely beautifully drawn short stories — often featuring his innocent, magnificently-quiffed Jopo de Pojo, or his orotund scientist character, Anton…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics isn’t just a book of some minor historical interest; it’s a genuinely entertaining and artful set of comics, and in some ways more readable than Simon and Kirby’s adventure stories…. Simon’s plots deal with jealousy, class conflict, mistaken identity, selfishness, and selflessness — the romance staples — while Kirby’s art makes these tales of passion and deceit especially dynamic, with deep shadows and a mix of the glamorous and the lumpen. …Simon and Kirby… depict[ed] a world of darkness and heavy emotion, inhabited…

Our weekly strips from Kupperman, Mahler & Weissman (with something new!), plus links to other strips from around the web: — Black Classroom by Steven Weissman (view at original size): Up All Night by Michael Kupperman (view at original size): Angelman by Nicolas Mahler (view at original size): And elsewhere: The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE: Amazing Facts… and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga: Humblug by Arnold Roth (6 updates this week, continuing serialization of his unpublished 1979 strip Downtown, including the Sunday strip excerpted here): Lucky by Gabrielle Bell : Maakies by…