Fantagraphics Blog

Let me be clear here: Every word that follows is accurate. I answered the phone at Fantagraphics, and it turned out to be Ernest Borgnine. The main cause for his call was to check on an order, but he also talked a little about comics, and generally about how important it was to follow your dream. I wanted to tell him how much I loved The Wild Bunch, but he waved off any talk of his movies. "What a nice guy," I thought after I hung up, and went to tell Gary Groth. But I found Gary tearfully working on…

Apologies for the long delay since the last roundup. I enjoy bringing you these posts but lately it's been hard to squeeze them in. I may need to figure out a new approach or something. Anyway, on with the show: • "Unemployment" strips by Tim Hensley • Hey, a new comic from Jonathan Bennett! Spin commissioned a 2-page strip from Jonathan as part of their commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind and posted it on Facebook (Via Spurge) • Nate Neal has a new website you should bookmark/subscribe to, with lots & lots of updates, including comics in…

At his  blog Jason shares the first glimpse of Hubert's coloring for Athos in America (shown with the French dialogue). Hubert gets the spotlight with an interview in the upcoming Jason Conquers America, for which Jason has posted the front and back cover illustrations. Also since the last time we checked in with Jason's Cats Without Dogs blog, he's posted a bunch of reviews of '80s films, a moving piece on the Oslo bombing attack, more older illustrations and some new sketches.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "As with Chun's earlier volumes in the series, it is fantastic to see this work brought back. The original digests were pervasive and invasive…they once arrived by the pallet to newsstands all over the country, but because of their risque and sexist slant, they've been Orwelled right out of our world. It is nice to see them presented here as the art they were. Other than their super-busty raunch (and the occasional spanking) the girly gags of Humorama have aged well because they were hidden for some fifty years. They are also harmless,…

We were totally thrilled to have In the Red / Volar Records band Christmas Island stop by the Fantagraphics Bookstore during their West Coast tour this past weekend! Ajax and I actually met their awesome drummer Lucy at the San Diego Comic-Con late last month, and she had mentioned that her band was gonna be playing The Funhouse in Seattle for Pizza Fest 2011! [Full disclosure: Ajax works the door at The Funhouse when not workin' the warehouse at Fantagraphics.] But I totally suck, and I missed the show and the ensuing pizza-eating contest! Dammit. Don't suck like I did:…

Lynn Johnston has generously placed her entire foreword to the new volume of The Complete Peanuts (1981-1982) online for everyone to read at her For Better or For Worse website (online headquarters for her beloved long-running newspaper strip). Read, enjoy, pass along and (of course) order the book here.

This Friday, August 12th, the fabulous Roq la Rue gallery debuts The Blab! Show, curated by noneother than Monte Beauchamp!   Beauchamp returns to the theme of "Krampus," which you may remember from back issues of Blab! and the collection of vintage Krampus postcards The Devil in Design, and the show features interpretations by artists like Shag, Andy Kehoe, and Ryan Heshka. If you don't recall, Krampus is a sinister holiday devil, so appropriately enough, Roq la Rue promise they'll be "throwing one hell of an opening party!" The Blab! Show runs until September 3rd. For anyone outside the Seattle…

Director Seth Craven has taken the tender, lovely Jordan Crane comic The Last Lonely Saturday and has turned it into a film! I have not seen it yet, but just the still above is getting me choked up, so that's probably for the best. Like our tiny 4" X 6" book, the film, too, is a tiny eight minutes. Like the (nearly) wordless panels of Crane's novella, Craven's movie has no dialogue. And, like Crane's comic creation… this film will probably make me cry! The Last Lonely Saturday makes its film debut this Friday, August 12th as part of the…

photo credit: Lynn Christoffers Check out the Paul Karasik exhibit at the West Tisbury Public Library! [ GET IT?! ] This Eisner Award-winning artist and scholar debuted an exhibit last Friday at his hometown library, and fortunately for those of you in Massachusetts, it will run until the end of August! Plus, Paul will be donating half of the proceeds from the sale of his work to the library's expansion fund. The West Tisbury Public Library is located at 1042 State Road in Vineyard Haven, MA. And be sure to check out [ heh, heh… okay, I'll stop ] this…

Even More Old Jewish Comedians by Drew Friedman 36-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-489-4 Ships in: August 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Master caricaturist/portraitist Drew Friedman’s spectacular visual tribute to, well, old Jewish comedians returns with a third and concluding installment that throws its net a bit wider to include a few women (Olive Oyl voice Mae Questel, Ed Sullivan show regular Jean Carroll, and The Rise of the Goldbergs creator Gertrude Goldberg); a handful of more contemporary figures (Richard Belzer, whose Law & Order: SVU gig has eclipsed his stand-up comedy, and Welcome Back,…