Fantagraphics Blog

Ah, our weekly strip updates are back on Friday evenings where they belong. We'll still call them "Weekend Webcomics" though. And we have another change to announce: This week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson will be the final installment to appear here — the strip has been picked up to run in our hometown alt-weekly, The Stranger, starting this week (where it's on a rotating schedule with Steven Weissman's Barack Hussein Obama among other new strips)! But don't fear, Derek will be back in this spot in the near future with a brand new feature called Claudette….

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • A Snoopy sketch accompanied by a great Sparky anecdote from Greg Hoffman (via The Comics Reporter via Bob Levin) • More of Bob Fingerman's kid stuff • Dash Shaw's storyboards for (presumably) a scene from The Ruined Cast • Hey, there's another Post-it Show coming up at GRNY next month, and here's one from Steven Weissman • Also from Steven, more sketchbook • I'm partial to Debbie Drechsler's birds • Noah Van Sciver keeps working on his book • Steve Brodner's take on Sen. James Inhofe (R,…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Plug: "Wally Gropius, Tim Hensley’s debut 'graphic novel' (still not comfortable enough with that term to remove the quotes) is my favorite book of the year by a wide margin. What looks like a European reprint of a mid-1960s hybrid of Archie and Richie Rich is upon closer inspection a brilliant, hilarious, deeply complex and wholly original work that rewards a fifteenth reading as much as a first. The story—the adventures of a lovesick teenage millionaire (no relation [I think] to the Bauhaus founder)—is told in language both verbal and visual that feels entirely without…

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack welcomes several exciting new participants to our colorful celebration of challenging contemporary art. The June 12 installment promises to maintain the ingenuity and creative diversity that has characterized the Art Attack since its inception.   Newly minted enterprises debuting on June 12 include: The grand opening of the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall – a cluster of vintage Airstream trailers housing galleries eateries, and boutiques – beginning with the Frida Folk Art Trailer exhibiting Tim Fowler’s paintings of childhood obsessions, bugs and cars, together with a “Trunk Show” by Georgetown metal workers of Steel Toe…

Via our pal Donna Barr comes word that Roberta Gregory, beloved creator of Bitchy Bitch, has a new website where you can check out her strips, read her blog, get updates on her current projects and find out how to get her new book, Follow Your Art: Roberta's Comic Trips.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Wired.com presents a new 2-page Usagi Yojimbo story by Stan Sakai (via The Comics Reporter) • Ted Stearn drew Tim Hensley some Wally Gropius fan art • This week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman • Also from Steven, sketchbook pages (including this week's Barack Hussein Obama) • Frank Santoro presents all the process elements of this finished Cold Heat page • Scene shift! It's this week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane • It's Paul Hornschemeier's new weekly t-shirt design for his Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop and…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Interview: In an audio interview originally broadcast on Resonance FM and now archived at Panel Borders for streaming or download, "Alex Fitch talks to Steffen P. Maarup about the collection of Danish comics he’s edited and translated into English: From Wonderland with Love – Danish Comics in the Third Millennium, an anthology that surveys the current comics scene in Denmark and collects creators from outside the world of comics also, including illustrators and fine artists alongside their sequential art peers. Alex and Steffen also talk about the wider world of Danish comics, including Danes who…

“The Ruined Cast” / Dash Shaw – demo teaser from Howard Gertler on Vimeo. Via indieWIRE comes this first look at the demo teaser for Dash Shaw's in-development animated feature film The Ruined Cast. Frank Santoro is helping out and I can totally see his drawing in there. indieWIRE has the full scoop on the film (which is still gathering financing and projected to be finished in Fall 2011) from Dash and producer John Cameron Mitchell.