Fantagraphics Blog

The wonderful Cathy Malkasian visited the California College of the Arts yesterday to discuss comics, animation, and the artist's life with students in the Spring Graphic Novel Workshop taught by instructors Matt Silady and Justin Hall, pictured above with Cathy. Matt sent us these photos and reports "It was a great talk and Cathy was kind enough to stay after class to sketch and sign for all the students." Lucky kids! Thanks Matt!

The final cover art for our forthcoming second (or third, depending on how you count the initial 2-volume box set) volume of Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe, fresh from Art Director Jacob Covey. It'll be a clothbound, unjacketed hardcover to match the hardcover edition of the previous collection Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, which is being reissued in a new single-volume softcover edition simultaneous with this new volume this July.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Even though Peanuts's peak was sometime back in the sixties these books are still coming out and you know what? They're still good. I keep waiting for a sharp decline in quality to hit but I'm still enjoying seeing Snoopy blissfully living out his fantasies, Charlie Brown being unable to ever be happy, Lucy being a jerk, etc. […] This book suddenly made me want to go back in time very, very hard. I want to live in Peanuts so bad. Fuck my life. Someone help get me out of this life." –…

Life with Mr. Dangerous from Paul Hornschemeier on Vimeo. Paul Hornschemeier's Mome serial "Life with Mr. Dangerous" comes to simulated life in this spiffy animated trailer made for the collected edition coming next month from Random House/Villard. Paul has some brief notes about it on his Forlorn Funnies blog. Mark your calendars: Paul's coast-to-coast book tour brings him to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on June 18!

… And by that, I mean, I had three Burgerville Northwest Cherry Chocolate Milkshakes in the two days we were in Portland, Oregon for the 8th Annual Stumptown Comics Fest. They even put espresso shots in my milkshakes. God bless Burgerville. The calm before the Stumptown storm! So, WOW! Thank you so much to everyone who came by our booth at Stumptown this year! Mike and I had a blast! Hate Annual #9 flew off the racks, with Jason's latest Isle of 100,000 Graves also selling out quickly. We were thrilled to be joined by editor Patrick Rosenkranz. While we…

Last weekend, local museum The Experience Music Project kicked off their brand new exhibit "Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses," and oh, hey, Fantagraphics just happened to publish the companion book Taking Punk to the Masses, in association with the EMP.  As such, several Fantagraphics staffers and artists were on the scene at the opening reception last Friday, and while Mike and I were unable to attend, local culture blog Seattle Twist were in the pit, and posted tons of great pics on their website.  Here's just a few: All photos credit to Marlow Harris and Jo David See that…

Love and Rockets über-collector Thomas Rehhoff wanted to get in on the fun of sharing superhero sketches by Xaime & Beto and sent along a link to this fantastic vintage collaborative piece from his collection, with Luba as the Bat and Maggie as Robin. Check out Thomas's whole collection of L&R originals and feel the jealousy!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Erotic, harrowing, graphically violent, and astonishingly grim, Love from the Shadows sees Hernandez plunging ever further into his own heart of darkness. […] Every line is heavy with sadness, with the desire of the character, and the character within the character, and the artist, and the audience, to escape. But if there’s one message you can draw from Gilbert Hernandez’s comics, it’s that once you enter that cave, there’s no going back. Christ, what a fucking book." – Sean T. Collins, The Comics Journal • Review: "Clearly Taking Punk to the Masses will…

Via Ryan at Same Hat: "Our buddy Johnny Ryan is finishing up PRISON PIT 3 as we speak :)" He's right on schedule — it's due out in October.