Get a Black Eye This Friday in Chicago

Well, a black eye you'll want, anyway! It's Black Eye 1: Graphic Transmissions to Cause Ocular Hypertension, a new anthology featuring many Fantagraphics artists packed in those pages, including Al Columbia, Robert Goodin, Glenn Head, Michael Kupperman, Mark Newgarden, and Jon Vermilyea. (You may remember Black Eye as the anthology that got confiscated on the way to TCAF…) Ivan Brunetti, Lilli Carré, and Paul Hornschemeier are also featured in this collection, and they'll be signing (along with Paul Nudd and Onsmith) this coming Friday, June 24th at Quimby’s Bookstore [1854 W. North Ave, Chicago]. The metaphorical punches start flying at…

Daily OCD: 6/21/11

Today's singular Online Commentary & Diversion: • Review: "I held off buying the new hardback series collecting Hal Foster's Prince Valiant because I already have complete reprint collections of that groundbreaking comic strip. But I finally broke down and bought Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-38, and I'm glad I did. The reproduction is crisp, and the strips are presented in the size they originally ran, that of a newspaper broadsheet. This is how Foster's gorgeous artwork was meant to be seen, and I have to be careful not to drool on the pages." – Andrew A. Smith, Scripps Howard News…

The CBR interview with Gary Groth: your must-read of the day

Comic Book Resources' Alex Dueben rang up our fearless leader, Gary Groth, for a wide-ranging chat about the state of Fantagraphics and the comics industry in general. It's chock full of ever-so-juicy tidbits and Gary's trademark unvarnished opinions on topics like the comics market, Pogo, digital, The Comics Journal, the DC "renumbering gambit," working with Disney, copyright battles… just go read it already!

Things to See: 6/20/11 Roundup

• Wilfred Santiago is making more progress on his painting of 21 subject Roberto Clemente — see the latest stages at the 21 Facebook page or on Wilfred's Flickr page • An Eleanor Davis illustration for a New York Times op-ed piece this past Saturday • Will Johnny Ryan's new comic for Vice have a happy ending? • Thanks to Steve Brodner for pointing out this cute New Yorker cover by John Cuneo (you may recall the book we did with John a few years back) — and don't miss Steve's own Istanbul sketches And more Things to See from…

Things to See: Tim Lane 3-fer

Working on the weekly Things to See roundup and didn't want to overwhelm it with all this great stuff posted by Tim Lane on his blog last week: Two new pages from the story "Notes of a Second Class Citizen"… …this hard-hitting cover for the Riverfront Times… …and this spot illustration for The Nation.

Daily OCD: 6/20/11

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…Artichoke Tales and The Squirrel Mother have established Kelso as one of the most original talents in comics. The dozen stories in Queen of the Black Black show an emerging talent, but not a fully-formed one; Kelso tries out a variety of styles here, from primitivist to expressionistic, and tries out a variety of genres too, from slice-of-life to historical fantasy. This book isn’t the best introduction to Kelso — that would be The Squirrel Mother — but it’s essential for fans…" – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club • Review: "Now collected and…

Yes, It Is Happening!

(Click to enlarge) Gary Panter's collected Dal Tokyo is on our spring list and production on the book is proceeding apace. Here, courtesy of Raymond Sohn, who is working on the book with Gary P., is a sneak peek at the new, much much improved (from the "horrible protocover" — Gary's words — that we used for our catalogs last time) cover. If we publish the first Pogo book, the Joost Swarte collection, and this one all within about six months of each other, then, dear readers, what will you have left to complain about in terms of superlate books…

Fantagraphics at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference

The Santa Barbara Writers Conference kicked off this past weekend and runs until Thursday, June 23rd. And on Tuesday, June 21st, join Gary Groth at 4:00 pm for a special Graphic Novel Panel! He'll be joined by a powerhouse line-up of Joyce Farmer, Tim Hensley, and Sammy Harkham. The Santa Barbara Writers Conference is held at the Hotel Mar Monte [1111 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara, CA], which is an actual hotel, and not the fancy name for Monte Schulz's house.