Fantagraphics Blog

Snuggle up, 'cause here comes part two in our new column Under the Covers, where we chat with the great Gilbert Hernandez of Love & Rockets about his experience working with musician Kristin Hersh on the cover to the 1996 Throwing Muses album Limbo, and most recently, the cover to Kristin's memoir Rat Girl, out now from Penguin. [Ed. note: part one of this interview can be found here.] Inside folded-out CD art for Limbo Janice: Can you remember all the way back to the first time Kristin approached you to do the album cover for Throwing Muses' Limbo? Gilbert: I…

[Artwork by Jim Woodring — click for larger version and see below for more photos] Comics connoisseurs can view "Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" for free this Friday, September 3 from 11:00 [correction:] noon to 7:00 PM in the Olympic Room on the Northwest corner of the Seattle Center grounds near Key Arena.) The exhibition features 3 generations of cartoonists from the city that gave birth and momentum to the alternative comix movement. More than 250 artworks and artifacts are on display, with a comix reading lounge, a continuous screening of David Moore's seminal Hooked on…

One of our most anticipated books of the year is scheduled to hit comic shops this week. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, click the book links for more info and previews, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio 288-page black & white/color 7.25" x 9.75" hardcover • $24.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-377-4 "…[T]his much-anticipated 288-page hardcover Fantagraphics collection of assorted short comics by Japanese girls’ comics pioneer Moto Hagio is functionally (if not intentionally) a corrective of sorts. […] This… is a new gold-hued…

Zowie, it's a tattoo inspired by Hans Rickheit's The Squirrel Machine by tattoo artist Tim Kern of Tribulation Tattoo in St. Louis. See it in more detail on Flickr. Via Hans's blog.

Jim Blanchard brings his Icon Soup art show to fancy-pants pizza joint Snoose Junction Part Dieu here in Seattle. Jim says "I'll have 18 recent paintings on their walls from September 10 through October 7 — Opening night is Friday, Sept 10 at 7 PM, and it should be a cool scene!" More info at Jim's Info Barn blog.

Johnny Ryan announces on his blog: "I will be signing copies of my new book PRISON PIT BOOK 2 at MISHKA in Brooklyn on Friday, Sept. 10th at 7 PM. There will also be original art for sale (CHEAP), dolls, prints and this new shirt that I designed with MISHKA:" And coming in October: We've just confirmed the triumphant return of our own Ajax Wood as C.F.! More details on this one are To Be Announced.

Due to an inventory error we have 20 copies of the thought-to-be-sold-out Acme Novelty Library #12 by Chris Ware available to order at the cover price of $4.50! It's a 32-page full color 7.25" x 6" comic book. [UPDATE: Whoa there, they went fast! All gone now, sorry!] Who wrote this promo copy? It is magnificent: Loyal Acme readers who were disgruntled at the previous two issues, in which THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPENED (time shifts, sex, dream sequences, super-heroes, death, maiming, architecture — my God, it was like Bob Dylan going electric all over again) will be delighted to discover that…

Zippy: Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg by Bill Griffith 216-page black & white/color 8.5" x 8.5" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-389-7 Ships in: September 2010 (subject to change) – Pre-Order Now In Zippy’s latest collection of daily and color strips (with additional pages!), the tour of “Dingburg” continues; we drop in on dozens of Dingburgers and observe them in their natural habitat. The city “inhabited entirely by pinheads” can be seen as a metaphor for the world we live in today — or not. In any event, we watch as Zippy the Pinhead and his fellow Dingburg residents hunt and bag…

The funding drive for Jim Woodring's Giant Steel Dip Pen project via United States Artists ends tomorrow and there's still a ways to go to meet the goal. If you have the cash to spare and you believe in supporting bona fide geniuses and helping make the world more interesting and good, please help out! You can get original Jim artwork as a pledge gift for Pete's sake.

Periodic clips & strips, just under the wire (for the Pacific time zone anyway) — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • From Wilfred Santiago, a cartoon drawn for our 30th anniversary back in 2006 • A glimpse of Ben Catmull's current work in progress • From Jason: A 1981 cartoon; a couple of cover illustrations; a Mjau Mjau back cover painting; and I think "T.W." is Tom Waits • Steven Weissman's Truman Capote strip re-redux • Richard Sala presents selections from his Comic Art Collective offerings, including Peculia pinups and this 1991 illustration • The last page of…