Fantagraphics Blog

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…[A] slobbery-gorge-mongous new Fantagraphics coffee table crusher and consumer-seducing guide to celluloid anarchy… Edited by VHS junkies, one-time punk record store owner and movie house curator Zack Carlson and Vulcan Video tastemaker Bryan Connolly, Destroy All Movies!!! is a $35 pink-splattered mind-bomb of enthusiastic but not uncritical assessment of high quality films loyal to the cause… and annoying to the cause… The eagle-eyed authors spent thousands of hours assimilating their assessments by staking camp at Seattle’s own utterly awesome Scarecrow Video. It shows in as much knowledge as passion for the material. […]…

In the spirit of Halloween, Jim Blanchard presents a newly-reworked version of "Donner Diner" featuring his inks over 1993 pencils by James Sturm, R. Sikoryak, Jason Lutes and Jim Woodring. Yum!

Ben Catmull has produced a series of beautiful debossed letterpress prints, which are now available for sale on Etsy at very reasonable prices. Ben also told us at APE that he's working away on the eagerly-awaited Monster Parade #2.

Jon Vermilyea doing a M.O.D.O.K. story?? That's the cherry on top of the Strange Tales II #2 sundae. Via Comics Alliance, who have the first page of each story in the issue.

Richard Sala has posted his final "Unmasked" Halloween portrait, so now you can browse the entire spooky set! He's collected them into groups on Flickr — group 1, group 2, group 3, group 4 — and you can also see them individually on his Here Lies Richard Sala blog. Nobody does the creepy monster faces like Richard!

Our weekly strips from the Steves: — Monday's Strip by Stephen DeStefano (view larger) Originally run as an experiment on Stephen's blog starting in 2008, Monday's Strip is re-presented here. — Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

  We're happy to learn from various sources that comics historian Bill Schelly (Man of Rock) and underground legend Frank Stack (The New Adventures of Jesus) are among the first round of Special Guests announced for Comic-Con International 2011. Comic-Con passes go on sale on Monday and you know how they sell out faster every year…

[In this first of what will hopefully be a recurring series of Editors Notes posts, Kim Thompson interviews himself (in a format he's dubbed "AutoChat") on the subject of Fantagraphics' first Franco-Belgian kids' comic release, coming to a comics shop near you later in November. – Ed.] This is your first Blanquet book. Why pick this one? Honestly, it kind of dropped in my lap out of nowhere. I read it, I liked it, and I thought "Why not?" I've long wanted do publish a Blanquet book – we've published short stories of his in Zero Zero and Blab!… This…

Unlovable: The Complete Collection by Esther Pearl Watson two hardcover volumes in custom slipcase, 832 pages, two-color, 5.75" x 5.75" • $39.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-397-2 Ships in: November 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen and brush of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This boxed set collects the complete, acclaimed two-volume saga of Tammy’s sophomore year of high school in 1989. Tammy has built a devoted following over the last several years in the…