Fantagraphics Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: The number ten original graphic novel on Greg Burgas's "Best Ten of 'Ten" at Comic Book Resources is Cathy Malkasian's Temperance: "Malkasian’s odd fable is a haunting book about hiding your true self, coming to grips with deceit, and the necessity of striking out from the safety of home to discover new and possibly dangerous things. […] Temperance is an amazing comic, always a bit oblique but never impenetrable… It’s a weird book that feels like a dream, which allows Malkasian to use metaphor to reveal fundamental truths. Malkasian is a superb creator,…

Another wonderful animated short from Steven Weissman and crew! It's a slightly longer one which means the return of the end credits theme song, yay.

[In this installment of our series of Editors Notes, Kim Thompson interviews himself (in a format he's dubbed "AutoChat") about The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi, now available to pre-order from us and coming soon to a comics shop near you. – Ed.] Hey, whoa, another Tardi book? Didn't the last one come out like three months ago? Yeah, sorry. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Volume 1 ran a little late because of designer bottleneck, and then this one was on time. Not that I'm complaining. So, what made you select this one out of the dozens of Tardi…

It's a Daily OCD Celebrity Endorsement Special Edition! Thanks to Leonard Maltin for this great writeup on his Movie Crazy blog: "I'll be honest and say that I wasn't eagerly awaiting an encyclopedic directory of punks on screen, but Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film has come along just the same…and it's pretty impressive. […] In addition to snarky and well-informed write-ups of such titles as Legend of the Roller Blade Seven and Crash ‘n' Burn there are interviews with such filmmakers and performers as Mary Woronov, Alex Cox, Susan Seidelman, Clint Howard, and the folks…

Mitch Schauer, Michael Lessa and Mike Vosburg sat down to discuss the creation of their graphic novel Rip M.D., from influences to art process to interacting with fans, in this short video. Informative!

The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi 64-page black & white 9" x 11.75" hardcover • $16.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-435-1 Ships in: March 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now In our ongoing quest to showcase the wide range of Jacques Tardi’s bibliography, Fantagraphics reaches all the way back to one of his earliest, and most distinctive graphic novels: A satirical, Jules Verne-esque “retro-sci-fi” yarn executed on scratchboard in a stunningly detailed faux-woodcut style perfectly chosen to render the Edwardian-era mechanical marvels on display. Created in 1972, The Arctic Marauder is a downright prescient example of proto-“steampunk” science fiction — or perhaps more…

Now that our woes with Diamond's weekly shipping list are resolved, the titles we expected to be on last week's list have shown up on this week's list. So while these books may have already arrived at comic shops, now we can bring you what comics-blog commentators are saying about them. As always, check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. FUC_ __U, _SS __LE: Blecky Yuckerella Vol. 4 by Johnny Ryan 104-page black & white 5.5" x 7.25" softcover • $11.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-415-3 "The final collection of Johnny Ryan’s four-panel weekly sunshine, and…

Charles Burns fan Kyle McClean sent us this photo of his forearm with what looks like a panel from Black Hole, inked by Dom Collella. That's a lot of needle-time right there, yow. Thanks Kyle!

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: PopMatters names Four Color Fear to their Best Fiction of 2010 list. David Maine writes: "Four Color Fear is a lovingly accumulated and organized collection of… stories starring ghosts, ghouls, zombies, demons, and monsters of all stripes. […] Some of the writers and artists are well known names from the era… Others are not as famous, but overall, the consistency of art and story is impressive. Four Color Fear offers some nice bonus features too, which elevate it from being a simple compilation of reprinted stories." • List: On the Best Non-Fiction of 2010…