Fantagraphics Blog

The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb 96-page black & white 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-480-1 Ships in: January 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now “I can express something [with animals] that is different from what I put into my work about humans… I can put more nonsense, more satire and fantasy into the animals…” — R. Crumb Created by an adolescent R. Crumb in the late 1950s, Fritz the Cat rose to fame — along with his creator — during the underground comix revolution of the 1960s, and remains Crumb’s most well-known…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: John Mueller of ComicImpact names The Hidden by Richard Sala one of the Best Comics & Art Books of 2011: "Imagine your unease if all the ghouls and ghosts of the Halloweens of your forgotten youth were suddenly made real, so real that they are about to come crashing through your front door at any moment. Oh, and don’t bother running to the neighbor’s because the monsters have stopped there first. That’s what reading The Hidden is like and that’s also what makes it not only one of the best books of the…

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Flog readers surely know all about Stinckers, the super-fun line of vinyl stickers produced by Steven Weissman & Mats?!. Well, we're happy to announce that they've just launched an Etsy store as a one-stop shop for uncut production sheets of stincky fun, including designs from Daniel Clowes (as seen above, designed for Meltdown Comics in L.A.) to Johnny Ryan to (well, of course) Steven Weissman! They are quite suitable for framing, and shipping is free! This one's Steve's stincker sheet… And heeeerree's Johnny's!

Our wildly entertaining and talented cartoonist friend Tony Millionaire will appear at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, January 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for a book signing and art show. He'll be exhibiting brilliantly sedate work from his new book 500 Portraits, recently released by Fantagraphics Books. 500 Portraits collects over two decades of work by the beloved creator of Drinky Crow's Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts. Tony Millionaire's gorgeous fountain pen illustrations are pretty amazing. Many of these 500 portraits were created for The Believer, the magazine founded by Dave Eggers that Millionaire helped define visually…

Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon; edited by Michel Gagné 208-page full-color 7.75" x 10" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-502-0 Ships in: January 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Together, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created such classic two-fisted comic series as Captain America, Boys' Ranch, The Newsboy Legion, and The Boy Commandos. But few people realize that one of their greatest successes — from 1947, when they singlehandedly created the genre, to the end of the 1950s — was… romance comics! In such best-selling titles as Young Love and…

Need something to listen to while you're perusing your newly-acquired copy of Bill Griffith: Lost and Found – Comics 1969-2003? Download the soundtrack to Zippy the Pinhead: The Musical, which had its debut staging in November 2010 in Baltimore, now available on iTunes. 19 songs, from the Overture to "Don't Goad the Toad" to "Pinhead Love." All songs by Lorraine Whittlesey. YOW!!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship to our mail-order customers: Bill Griffith: Lost and Found – Comics 1969-2003 by Bill Griffith 392-page black & white/color 8" x 10" softcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-482-5 See Previews / 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. Bill Griffith is best known as the creator of the Zippy daily comic strip, currently running in over 300 newspapers nationwide, but Zippy was conceived as an underground comix character before he became embraced…