Fantagraphics Blog

You'll wanna hail down one of these wonderful new tees from Jim Woodring, designed for our friends at the non-profit literary organization, Rain Taxi! I don't even know where to start when it comes to all the great stuff Rain Taxi does for literature. You may already be familiar with their award-winning quarterly-publication Rain Taxi: Review of Books, which is frickin' free all across the nation. But they also power tons of great events, like the annual Twin Cities Book Festival! So, not only are you sportin' some fine Pushpaw action across your chest, but you're also supporting an awesome…

Tim Kreider and Michael Kupperman will be blinding you with science, tomorrow, Wednesday, October 5th in New York City! It's part of the long-running comedy series Carousel, hosted by the great R. Sikoryak since 1997. Tomorrow night, it's The Science Edition, featuring a cartoon slideshow from Tim and Michael, as well as Aaron Diaz, Roxanne Palmer, Doug Skinner, Kriota Willberg, and more! Get ready to get schooled, starting at 7:30 PM at Dixon Place [ 161A Chrystie Street, btwn Rivington & Delancey ]. UPDATE: Kupperman reports, he'll be doing the new Quincy M.E. strip with help from Jackson Publick, creator, director,…

• Frank "caught in the loving tendrils of the sun" by Jim Woodring; also "Hopelessly outclassed" and "The descent into wealth" • A Grotesque "family portrait" and Mr. O'Blique postcards that Sergio Ponchione will be giving away to lucky attendees (I think? the autotranslation's a little iffy) at an upcoming festival in Italy • Ooh, a Jason/Lewis Trondheim exquisite-corpse wraparound cover for a 2004 issue of Belgian comics fanzine Totem; this and film review potpourri at Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog • Sketches and process peeks at Forlorn Funnies #1 at Paul Hornschemeier's The Daily Forlorn • Focus book by…

Two more great pieces of artwork up now in the benefit auctions for the family of Dylan Williams & Sparkplug Comic Books: above, Megan Kelso's one-page story about Nirvana, "My Little Piece of Kurt," from 1994 (as recently seen in the Quiet Rrriot exhibit at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery); below, an original page from Paul Hornschemeier's Life with Mr. Dangerous, as seen in Mome Vol. 17. Click each image to go to the respective eBay auctions, and see additional contributions at The Divine Invasion and Profanity Hill.

When I first spotted a scan of this Enid & Rebecca cover of ARTnews on Tumblr last night I just assumed it was a forgotten bit of '90s or early-'00s nostalgia, but then Peggy Burns went and pointed out that it's the current issue, with an article on comic art in the fine-art world. Well all right! (Though I respectfully disagree with Peggy that comics require the attention of the fine-art world to be said to have "arrived." We're here on our own terms, maaaan.)

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Beautifully bound, this is graphic journalism on a human and environmental disaster with long-term consequences far beyond here-and-gone traditional news coverage. Honestly told, well written, beautifully illustrated  and accessible to a wide audience: Oil and Water should reach readers of all ages and satisfy the most discerning critics. BRAVO!" – Craig Seasholes, JacketFlap • Review: "More a graphic book than straight comic book or straight novel, it plays to the strengths of both mediums. Kupperman’s prose recalls the casual absurdity of early Woody Allen or Douglas Adams, and as there is no real…

[In this installment of our series of Editors Notes, Kim Thompson interviews himself (in a format he's dubbed "AutoChat") about The Cabbie Vol. 1 by Martí, now available to order from us and at a comics shop near you. – Ed.] Okay, then… so, a couple of weeks after an ultraviolent crime thriller by a French cartoonist (Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot), you're releasing an ultraviolent crime thriller by a Spanish cartoonist. Is this a trend?

 More like a coincidence. Of all the foreign books we're releasing this year, they're really the only two who fall into this…

After acclaimed runs in San Francisco and Toronto, the touring exhibit Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is now showing in New York City! The exhibit runs through April 15th at the Yeshiva University Museum in the Center for Jewish History [ 15 West 16th Street ] and features Fantagraphics artists Miss Lasko-Gross, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Trina Robbins, and Diane Noomin, alongside a ton of other amazing female artists, like Vanessa Davis, Bernice Eisenstein, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Katin, Miriam Libicki, Corinne Pearlman, Sarah Lightman, Sarah Lazarovic, Racheli Rottner, Sharon Rudahl, Laurie Sandell, Ariel Schrag, Lauren Weinstein and Ilana Zeffren. And…

Paul at the Emerald City Comic-Con, 2009 [ credit: Fantagraphics Flickr ] Hey Chicago! Guess who's hosting this month's Doodleganza: The Drawing Extravaganza at the Museum of Contemporary Art? GIVE UP? Yes, it's Paul Hornschemeier! Join him tomorrow Tuesday, October 4th from 6:00-8:00 PM as he runs "through the paces of drawing experiments." Will it involve Smurfs? I'm gonna guess, no.  Doodleganza is free with museum admission, and is sure to be a blast! The Museum of Contemporary Art is located at 220 East Chicago Avenue. Will Tony Danza be at Doodleganza?  I'm gonna guess… no.

Your brain won't be the same after the Twain in the Membrane Comedy Party! Join Michael Kupperman and friends tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 4th at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY for the Twain-iest party that ever will be, celebrating the release of the smash-hit Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010! There will be live comedy from (five-time Emmy nominee!) Jon Glaser, Kate Beaton, David Rees, Max Silvestri, Emily Flake, Dyna Moe, and more. There will be live cartoons. There will be a Mark Twain costume contest, so start grooming those mustaches! And, yes, ladies and gentlemen… there will be a frog-humping contest. Littlefield…