Fantagraphics Blog

Interns Ian Burns and Jenna Allen en route to Stumptown Comics Fest:

Temperance by Cathy Malkasian 240-page two-color 8" x 10" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-323-1 Ships in: June 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Do ideas of war and enemies hold a people together? Is a culture of conflict too seductive not to be irresistible? These are the questions Cathy Malkasian explores in her second graphic novel, Temperance. Malkasian creates, as she did in the critically acclaimed Percy Gloom, a fully realized, multi-layered world, inhabited by vividly realized characters. After a brutal injury in battle, Lester has no memory of his prior life. For the next thirty years his wife does…

Signe Parkins, Peter Kielland, Thomas Thorhauge, Johan F. Krarup, Ib Kjeldsmark, Christoffer Zieler (who were all featured in From Wonderland with Love) and twelve other Danish cartoonists battle it out tournament-style in cartoonland until only one is left standing. Our good friends and colleagues at our From Wonderland co-publisher Aben Maler are posting a new duel from the first round each Friday on this page and collecting them all next month in a book titled Tegn eller dø. Five battles have already been waged — keep checking back for subsequent bouts.

Tom Spurgeon is reporting this morning that Kees Kousemaker, founder of the great Galerie Lambiek comic book store, passed away yesterday in the Netherlands at the age of 68. The staff of Fantagraphics Books would like to extend its sympathy to his family and to the entire Lambiek staff. Lambiek is not only the world's oldest comic book shop, it is arguably the very best, a true treasure trove of great cartooning spanning centuries. I've had the good fortune of visiting several times, and Kees was always gracious and generous, even putting me up in the legendary apartment above the store for several days…

We've got three softcover collections hitting comic shops this week. Read on for more info and for comics-bloggers' comments on the week's releases: Abandoned Cars (Softcover Edition) by Tim Lane 168-page black & white 7.5" x 9" softcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-341-5 Pick your favorite of the two alternate covers in person! At Comics Comics, Joe McCulloch calls it a "fascinating 2008 story study of the great American mythological drama." The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon praises this new edition of "the debut book from the muscular cartoonist Tim Lane." Blazing Combat (Softcover Edition) by Archie Goodwin & various artists 208-page black…

Steven Weissman and Marc Johns are having a two-man art show at GR2 in LA opening Saturday, May 8, 2010. More info here; RSVP on Facebook here. Steven's artwork looks so awesome in person.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • It's a brand new installment installments of The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum at ACT-I-VATE • Swedish Slouchers is a new lithograph from John Hankiewicz • Click to see the latest animated drawing by Lilli Carré in action • "Lisa in a Pink Blouse" is a circa-1990s portrait by Mark Kalesniko • Renee French gets buggy • Eric Reynolds was searching YouTube for Butthole Surfers videos and came across this one which is full of Robert Williams artwork

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Redressing a sad literary situation — the prior unavailability of this full masterpiece in English — Fantagraphics finally brings Tardi's wrenching tales of trench warfare during WWI [It Was the War of the Trenches] to American audiences. … From the living hell of combat to the ghostlike calm of bombed-out villages, each panel radiates with the fear and hopelessness of hapless conscripts who strive only to retain their limbs and their sanity. Calling the war 'a gigantic, anonymous scream of agony,' Tardi skewers the concept of nationalism and drives home the banality of death….

"To celebrate the release of the new art book, The Art of Jaime Hernandez — The Secrets of Life and Death, Family is pleased to be hosting a signing and conversation with the books principal creators Jaime Hernanadez, Todd Hignite, and Jordan Crane on Tuesday, May 4th at 7pm." More info on the Family blog.

    Above is the cover to the ARC version of A DRUNKEN DREAM. See it larger here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamgrano/4557576366/  I implore everyone, regardless of your feelings about manga (attn: JACOB), to look through A DRUNKEN DREAM when it's released. Moto Hagio's line is confident and graceful. The material is gorgeous and I'm trying to do it justice (but even if I botch the design, it's going to be a great book). And we should all applaud Matt Thorn and Dirk Deppey for first exposing us (or me anyway, if I missed the bus earlier) to Moto Hagio's work way back in TCJ…