Fantagraphics Blog

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Freeway by Mark Kalesniko 420-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover • $28.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-356-9 Previews & Ordering Info Alex Kalienka is in an awful jam. Literally, a traffic jam — but figuratively, his whole life is a mess. A dream job turned nightmare at the biggest animation studio in the world. A love affair that is not what he imagined. And possibly someone with a life-threatening grudge against him… In his first new graphic novel since 2001’s acclaimed Mail Order Bride, Mark Kalesniko compresses an entire life into a single…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: The Last Rose of Summer by Monte Schulz cover illustration by Cathy Malkasian 332-page 6" x 9" hardcover • $29.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-401-6 Previews & Ordering Info With the Great Depression looming and about to define America's next decade, three strong-minded women related by marriage form an uneasy household in the summer of 1929. Forced by her husband Harry to uproot their two small children from Illinois and take up residence in East Texas, Marie Hennessey struggles to find a place not only within her mother-in-law's home but in a Southern town whose…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Krazy & Ignatz 1919-1921: A Kind, Belevolent and Amiable Brick by George Herriman 176-page black & white 9" x 12" softcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-364-4 Previews & Ordering Info As Fantagraphics’ ambitious plan to reprint every single Sunday Krazy Kat page created by George Herriman for close to three decades (this being the penultimate book) careens toward the finish line, this volume features another three years’ worth of Sunday strips — over 150 little masterpieces by the greatest cartoonist of all time, featuring the greatest comic-strip love triangle of all time: “kat,”…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Buz Sawyer Vol. 1: The War in the Pacific by Roy Crane 240-page black & white/color 9.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $35.00ISBN: 978-1-60699-362-0 Previews & Ordering Info Roy Crane created the adventure comic strip with Wash Tubbs, and many a superhero owes a debt to Crane’s square-jawed, hard-hitting adventurer Captain Easy. But during World War II, he left the Captain Easy strip to create a more realistic fighting man, a Navy pilot named John Singer Sawyer, who fought in the Pacific Theater from 1943 until V-J Day in 1945. This book,…

Comica, the London International Comics Festival, announces: "On Saturday March 12th, mesmerising Italian maestro Lorenzo Mattotti makes a rare visit to London to discuss his career in comics and beyond, including his latest graphic novel Stigmata, translated by Fantagraphics, and his collaborations, from his animated terrors in the movie Fear(s) of the Dark to illustrating Lou Reed’s concept album The Raven. Joining Mattotti in conversation will be his friend and fellow artist Dave McKean, famed for his multi-media solo projects, most recently the erotic graphic novel Celluloid, and his works with Neil Gaiman notably on The Sandman. Introduced and hosted…

I'm enjoying the flow of decontextualized absurdity and sight gags at the anonymous Nancy Panels Tumblr page, which is exactly what it says it is.  Perhaps it will tide you over while you patiently (or impatiently) await Nancy Is Happy, our first collection of Ernie Bushmiller Nancy strips, which is now rescheduled for December 2011.

The New Chicago Comics exhibit at MCA Chicago may be over but they still have a Busy Beaver Button vending machine dispensing buttons featuring artwork by the exhibiting artists: Jeffrey Brown, Lilli Carré, Paul Hornschemeier, and Anders Nilsen. Oh, me and my precious laundry quarters would soon be parted. (Via Lilli's Kettle of Fish blog.)

Tim Lane reveals two new forthcoming self-published items: above, the third issue of his comic book series Happy Hour in America (the first two come highly recommended and are still available through Spit and a Half), and below, a second issue of his zine Myth of Jack. Can't wait!

Johnny Ryan's latest strip for Vice; yet another homage to Igloo Tornado's Henry & Glenn Forever and, I'm willing to bet, associated with the Henry & Glenn art show at La Luz de Jesus in L.A.

Jim Blanchard emailed us the scan above (click it for a bigger version), saying: "I bought a 1974 issue of PEOPLE at an antique store in Bellingham for the Telly cover, and within the mag was a small piece on a very young Steve Brodner — Thot you fellas might enjoy……" Indeed! Thanks Jim!