Fantagraphics Blog

Another two-day Online Commentary & Diversions (running a little off schedule, sorry): • Review: "Hollywood is probably the most likely to misrepresent any culture, but their casting of punks as Neolithic, abusive, drug addicts with candy-colored hair and an inexplicable amount of chains is far too amusing to turn away from. [Destroy All Movies!!!] editors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly seem to have noticed this trend, and their commentary about each of these films borders on hilarious at several points. […] In the end, you get both a compendium of thoughtful ruminations on punk culture and a hilarious collection of…

The previews for Marvel's Strange Tales II #2 are popping up all over the place. The Beat has Jaime Hernandez's lovelorn Space Phantom, while Robot 6 features Paul Hornschemeier's battling doppelgänger Colossi.

Robot 6 shares an exclusive 7-page sneak peek at The Littlest Pirate King, the new all-ages undead-pirates-meet-baby story from David B.!

At top, left to right, Rip M.D. creative team Mike Vosburg (inker), Mitch Schauer (creator) and Justin Yamaguchi and Michael Lessa (color) at the Borders in Glendale CA last Friday. Those eyeball cupcakes look good. See many more photos (including adorable costumed kids) in this Facebook album. The final stop of the Rip M.D. Southern California mini-tour is this Saturday at 3 PM at the Long Beach Comic Con!

Our warehouse manager and poet-in-residence Nico Vassilakis would like to share this recent blog post by Matt Madden examining seemingly (or actually) incongruous juxtapositions of text and image in comics, using the work of Chris Ware, Ben Katchor, and, of primary interest to Nico, practitioner/progenitor of the Flarf school of poetry Gary Sullivan (seen above) as examples. Thought-provoking stuff!

Visitors to the Charles Burns appearance this Saturday evening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery are in for a treat. Eye candy! While supplies last, we'll have free copies of Stéphane Blanquet's fabulous full color TOYS IN THE BASEMENT mini-comic, which includes a 2-page preview of THE LITTLEST PIRATE KING by David B. For indie music buffs we have a limited quantity of the scary 5-song "Haunted Fang Castle" CD by the sensational Spits, including an illustrated booklet by J. J. Rudisill. And our friends from Frontier Records dropped by with a stack of cool full-color vinyl stickers by Jaime Hernandez…

Designed by Jordan. Artwork by (top to bottom) Jordan, Johnny, Jon and Lisa. Signed by the artists and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Available online here and at Secret Headquarters in L.A. starting tomorrow. Info via Johnny's blog.

Elvis Costello's new album National Ransom, featuring cover art by Tony Millionaire, is currently streaming for a limited time on the Colbert Nation website, which means that Tony's artwork appeared on the closing segment of Tuesday's episode of The Colbert Report! (Thanks to Jacob for the screen grab.) Hey Stephen, get Tony on your show — you won't be sorry! Here's a better look at the cover art:

You don't want to miss this: Charles Burns returns to his native Seattle this Saturday, October 30 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for a festive reception commemorating the publication of his amazing new graphic novel X'ed Out. In addition to an exhibition of rare posters and prints spanning Burns' illustrious career, we'll be celebrating the artist's lasting Seattle legacy with a display of his seminal work for Sub Pop records, as well as his early contributions to Art Spiegelman's RAW magazine. Start your Saturday night at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery to welcome Charles Burns back home. The evening features a…

Ivan Brunetti's cover for this year's Halloween issue of The New Yorker, brought to us by The Ephemerist as usual (via Forbidden Planet International). So many great details.