Fantagraphics Blog

As the Seattle Mariners embark on another season of despair and sordid revelations of players on performance enhancing drugs continue to grab headlines, cartoonist Wilfred Santiago reminds us why we love the game of baseball. 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente documents the unlikely career of the Pittsburgh Pirates legend. Clemente's inspirational rise from the barrios of Puerto Rico to the highest levels of our national pastime was heroic enough. Not content with the fame and fortune brought by his baseball abilities, Clemente became a tireless advocate for social justice and the plight of the underclass throughout Latin America. Over…

An egg-cellent* fundraiser is happening this Easter weekend at the KGB Bar in NYC! [* Yeah, I went there.] It's the very first benefit for The Sequential Artists Workshop, a potential new school for cartooning in Gainesville, Florida, founded by Tom Hart and Leela Corman and others. Leslie Stein will be reading a brand new story titled “Brown Heart” at the event. (That's a page from it, below.) And John Kerschbaum will also be participating! A $5.00 suggested donation this Sunday will help them raise funds for the 2012 opening of the Sequential Artists Workshop. The benefit is this Sunday,…

It's been a while, so let's catch up: • New diary strips & sketches by Lewis Trondheim • Artwork from Kurt Wolfgang's work in progress Pinokio plus some Mome meta-commentary and other sketches and characters at New Bodega • Laura Park designed this placemat for fellow Chicago Mome-ster Jeremy Tinder's impending nuptials, and also this cool t-shirt design for The Mountain Goats & Jon Vanderslice • At her Screened-in Porch blog, Carol Tyler presents “Will Work for Food” from The Job Thing — page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 • "Crabby," a 3-pager by Tony Millionaire,…

I'm hoping to get a chance to do a post on my whole Stumptown Comics Fest haul, but one of the things we picked up was the Living Things series of lovely little pamphlet mini-art books from Little Otsu, including this one by Lilli Carré and other volumes by Hannah Waldron, Jo Dery, and Lizzy Stewart. You can order Lilli's here and find the others easily from there.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. (We're also seeing reports that Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #9 may be showing up in some comic shops in the East & Midwest, though it's not on this week's list.) See more about each book at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. Safe Area Gorazde: The Special Edition by Joe Sacco 272-page black & white 7.75" x 10.25" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-396-5 "Joe Sacco's acclaimed and award-winning comic journalism about the Bosnian war gets Fantagraphics' gorgeous, special edition treatment." – Benn Ray (Atomic…

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview: At Torontoist, Courtney Clinton talks to Lorenzo Mattotti about The Raven and other topics in advance of his visit to the city for TCAF: "For me, it comes naturally to portray solitary characters. In the end we are all alone and at a certain point we have to confront this idea. Solitude can also be an inability to communicate with others. It’s probably something I as an artist feel more than most, even if I try to fight these feelings. On a positive note, in a moment of concentration solitude can help us…

The Batgirl, Heck Yeah! blog strikes again with this 2002 sketch of "the original Bat-Girl" by Gilbert Hernandez. These are all from the personal collection of Rico Renzi, who saw our post of Jaime's sketch earlier today and rushed to add Gilbert's this evening. Thanks Rico!

Maggie Chascarillo (somewhat embarrassedly, it seems) dons (or doffs?) the Batgirl costume in this 2006 convention sketch by Jaime Hernandez recently posted on the Batgirl, Heck Yeah! Tumblr. UPDATED: Hey, there's one by Steven Weissman too!

St. Louis! Are you ready for a calvacade of whimsy and wonder?! Tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 20th, The Magic Dwindler, Esq. (aka Tim Lane!) kicks off a monthly series at Subterranean Books entitled The Whirling Gypsy Comicarouselesque Revue & Burlesque. As he explains on his blog, it's "loosely based on traditional carousel comic performances, but are also meant to facilitate explorations and experimentation in inventive ways of bringing comics – or I should say pictures and words – into the realm of performance." The Whirling Gypsy… will whirl every third Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at Subterranean [6275…