Fantagraphics Blog

We are sorry to announce that several experts have confirmed that what we thought was a sketchbook of early versions of several years' worth of Krazy Kat strips created by George Herriman — and had planned to publish as such — is almost certainly the work of a very intense (perhaps contemporary with Herriman?) fan who diligently, even maniacally, copied each new strip into his sketchbook over a period of three years. The telltale signs of this became apparent only when we had a chance to take a closer look at high-resolution scans made as part of the pre-press process,…

Thank you, Chris Ware. This, the penultimate KRAZY + IGNATZ Sundays volume (covering 1919-1921), will be available in February 2011. We should be able to wrap up the series with the 1922-1924 volume by the end of that year, leaving us free to focus on… the dailies!

In all the APE excitement we nearly overlooked PIX: The Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo, also happening this weekend and featuring special guests Kevin Huizenga and Frank Santoro, among others. Looks like a good time — there's been a welcome proliferation of these regional shows lately, it seems.

Eeeeuuughh! Jim Blanchard, who along with J.R. Williams will be our table-neighbors at the Alternative Press Expo this weekend in San Francisco (as usual), put together his own version of the show poster.

Eyeworks Festival 2010 trailer from Lilli Carré on Vimeo. Lilli Carré writes: "I'm organizing a new experimental animation festival called Eyeworks with Alexander Stewart, and we're very excited to announce the details! It will be a mix of abstract animation and unconventional character animation, shown on 16mm film and video. It's taking place November 6th in Chicago, at 247 S. State Street at the DePaul CDM Theatre." To paraphrase Tom Spurgeon, if I were in Chicago, I would totally go to that. Trailer above; more info and programming details here.

Howard Stern can't shut up about Drew Friedman! From yesterday's show. Starts after about 1:30 of setup. Nice mention of Al Jaffee too. (YouTube link.)

Charles Burns was among a trio of gifted cartoonists to emerge from The Evergreen State College in the mid-1970s. Together, Burns and fellow Evergreen alumni Matt Groening and Lynda Barry altered the course of contemporary comix and left an indelible mark on regional culture. Burns makes a rare return visit to his native Seattle on Saturday, October 30 to celebrate the publication of his amazing new graphic novel X'ED OUT with a slide talk, art exhibition, and book signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. His idiosyncratic horror-story sensibility is perfect for the Halloween-eve occasion. Burns began his career as a…

Thanks to The Daily Cartoonist for reporting this: CBS recently re-presented the 1999 60 Minutes segment on Sparky and Peanuts in commemoration of the strip's 60th anniversary, available to view online embedded above or in higher-def here.