The Starstruck spin-off series Galactic Girl Guides is one of the most legendary of the "lost" comics orphaned by the collapse of Tundra/Kitchen Sink in the 1990s. When the plug was pulled, artist Linda (Castle Waiting) Medley was about halfway through the projected four-issue series, written by Starstruck co-creator Elaine Lee. There are few cartoonists who could go toe-to-toe with Starstruck artist and co-creator Michael Kaluta for sheer illustrative gorgeousness and maintain the exquisite graphic quality of that world, but as the pages below show, Medley was one of them. Why are we showing you these (aside from the fact…
Power Up This Weekend at the Fantagraphics Bookstore
This is one powerful event, indeed. This coming Saturday, September 24th, two crazy forces of talent will collide in one evening at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Editor Warren Bernard (you may know him as the Executive Director of SPX) will present a slideshow and discussion for his brand-new Fantagraphics title Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising. The exhibit of vintage advertising material looks tremendous, and Warren's slideshows are not to be missed! And the evening only intensifies in power with the addition of special guest, L.A.-based artist Tom Neely, who is currently on a west coast tour for…
For the Benefit of Robots
Even robots need love, too, especially the giant ones. And on Saturday, September 24th, Giant Robot 2 kicks off the exhibit "Robots," a benefit for their esteemed gallery space in Los Angeles. Since opening their doors in 2003, GR2 has hosted exhibitions featuring many Fantagraphics artists on their walls, and this upcoming exhibit is no exception, featuring work by Andrice Arp, Eleanor Davis, John Pham, Mark Todd (whose artwork is shown above), and Esther Pearl Watson, among dozens of other incredibly talented folks. GR2 shows don't push their artists into contracts, and attendance is always free. If you've ever enjoyed…
Taking Punk to the Masses Tour: Tacoma
The Taking Punk to the Masses Northwest tour wraps up this Thursday, September 22nd at the University Book Store in Tacoma… a city where apparently this happened: From the pages of Taking Punk to the Masses Holy crap, do they mean shoegazer band Lush? With Nirvana? For $5? Less if you brought canned foods? This is the kind-of amazing paraphernalia of the grunge-era that you can only find in Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind! Join EMP Senior Curator/editor Jacob McMurray at 5:30 PM for a reading and discussion. The University Bookstore is located at 1754 Pacific…
Shut Up, Little Man
I can't remember when I first heard the "Shut Up, Little Man" tapes, but it was almost certainly a cartoonist who introduced me to them, specifically either J.R. Williams, Jim Blanchard or Peter Bagge, all of whom were connoisseurs of the "prank call" genre and sated my growing appetite for same in the early 1990s by making me mix tapes (including the also-essential "Tube Bar" recordings that catapulted "Red the Bartender" into infamy as the inspiration for The Simpsons' Moe Szyslak). The "Shut Up Little Man" tapes weren't phone pranks, per se; they were better! Two hateful drunks chewing each other…
Win a signed copy of Bill Griffith’s Lost and Found megacollection!
(click to enlarge) We are in the final stages of assembling this mammoth collection of Bill Griffith's non-syndicated-Zippy work (i.e. from undergrounds and alternative comics), and we cannot for the life of us figure out where the story "Toadette Dignity" might have appeared (see above for the first of two pages). Bill finished it in 1975 with the intent of publishing it in Arcade but it did not in fact appear in Arcade. Bill is sure it got published somewhere eventually but has no idea where that might be. First person to correctly identify where it was published gets a…
Things to See: Ian Burns’s Animal sketchbook
Our own Ian Burns has joined me in the exclusive "Theme Sketchbook of Frank Oz Puppet Characters Club" with his own super-impressive book of Animal from The Muppet Show (my personal second-favorite member of The Electric Mayhem, after Zoot), which is giving my Yoda collection a serious run for its money. Here are some Fantagraphics-relevant entries as posted by Ian on the Versus the Moon blog (where he posts 2 new ones a week, so keep checking back): Gahan Wilson Gilbert Hernandez Jim Rugg Johnny Ryan Peter Bagge Jim Woodring Megan Kelso
More YALSA 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominations revealed
The list of nominees continues to grow for American Library Association/Young Adult Library Services Association "2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list. Joining the already-announced Wandering Son Vol. 1 among the nominees are: 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago Yeah! by Peter Bagge & Gilbert Hernandez Isle of 100,000 Graves by Jason & Fabien Vehlmann Nominees will continue to accumulate throughout the year, and will be winnowed down to the final list to be announced by the ALA in January.
Here comes Barnaby – details revealed
Philip Nel, co-editor of our forthcoming collections of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby, has revealed details about the first volume of the series (coming in June 2012) by posting the relevant pages from our Spring-Summer 2012 catalog on his blog. (Note that the cover design shown is not Daniel Clowes's actual design for the book.) We're still planning on revealing more info about our complete Spring/Summer 2012 lineup in the near future — stay tuned!
M. Tillieux exhibit in Brussels
Some original Gil Jordan (Gil Jourdan) pages by Maurice Tillieux are currently on exhibit at the Maison de la Bande Dessinée in Brussels — Wim Lockefeer has a report and more photos at the Forbidden Planet International Blog Log. These originals are impeccable and Tillieux's artwork is beautiful in black & white.
