Fantagraphics Blog

During Jaime Hernandez's recent visit to NYC for the MoCCA festival, The Village Voice's R.C. Baker took him to MOMA (making the unfailingly-punctual artist late for his signing at our table) and then wrote this cover story about it for this week's issue. The Maggie-and-Hopey-in-the-Big-Apple cover illo is the icing on the cake. (Also of note in the issue: "The Band Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb" by Ward Sutton.)

More Wally Wednesday fun! We've posted this Tim Hensley-created animation of Wally Gropius before, but did you know there are more sizes to be had? Show your Wally love by downloading one of these banners and putting it on your website/blog/profile page/etc., linked back to: http://www.fantagraphics.com/wallygropius

We're currently experiencing a technical glitch with our online shop where product listings aren't showing up on their category pages and searches are returning zero results. We're working feverishly on fixing the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience! UPDATE: For the time being, it appears you can browse the shop as long as you are not logged in, so if you are shopping the website, be sure you're logged out, add your selections to your cart, and then log in when you check out. UPDATE UPDATE: We're all fixed! Please resume your normal shopping activities.

Wally Wednesday continues! Give your computer the lucrative look with the official Wally Gropius desktop wallpaper pattern, based on the endpapers of the book. If you're on a PC, right-click the image and select "Set As Background"; if you're on a Mac, control+click and select "Set As Desktop Background." Set your background to tile or repeat and voila, the endpaper pattern on your screen!

The Amazon and the nebbish, a match made in Hollywood heaven. This illustration by Drew Friedman is now available as a limited-edition fine art print. Even if you're not buying the print, it's always worth clicking over to read the descriptions and background info for the prints on the Drew Friedman Fine Art site.

Wally Gropius by Tim Hensley 64-page full-color 10" x 12.5" hardcover • $18.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-355-2 Ships in: May 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now Superficially resembling 1960s teenage humor comics, Tim Hensley’s graphic novel Wally Gropius is actually an acute satire of power, celebrityhood, and modern culture that tells the story of the titular character, who bears a closer resemblance to a teenaged Richie Rich or a classmate of Archie Andrews at Riverdale High than he does the famous Bauhaus architect whose name he shares. Wally is the human Dow Jones, the heir to a vast petrochemical conglomerate. When the…

Shipping to comic shops nationwide (as noted by the comics cognoscenti quoted below): The Culture Corner by Basil Wolverton 160-page full-color 9" x 6.75" hardcover • $22.99ISBN: 978-1-60699-308-8 Joe McCulloch at Comics Comics describes it aptly: "An interesting experiment in Golden Age of Reprints presentational engineering, this new 160-page landscape-format Fantagraphics hardcover collects all of the great Basil Wolverton’s crackpot daily advice strips as seen in the pages of Fawcett’s Whiz Comics, 1945-52, presented in comparison with Wolverton’s original pencil roughs for what looks like every installment." The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon brings the basketball metaphor: "Who doesn't want to…

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources: • Catching up with the last two installments of The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour from John Kerschbaum — curse you, RSS-less ACT-I-VATE! • Say it ain't so: the last New Character Parade strip by Johnny Ryan EVER! • The new Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond is brought to you by the letter F — what is it with Kevin Huizenga and that letter lately? • Our counterparts over at D&Q have the rejected (!!!) cover for the Fortune "500" issue by Chris Ware • Dan…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Commentary: At The Groovy Age of Horror, Richard Sala, Josh Simmons and others answer the question "Can comics be scary?" It's a good read (via Robot 6) • Reviewer: Bob Levin is a guest reviewer at Comic Book Galaxy this month

A late-ish addendum to our launch of Joe Daly's Dungeon Quest, Book 1: we're pleased to now offer that book together with Joe's previous book, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, for a special discounted price of $29.99 (a savings of about 6 bucks)! Two books full of intrigue, action, weird characters and stoner humor delineated in stunning, hyper-detailed clear-line cartooning. Order right here and we'll ship you both books when Dungeon Quest arrives in our warehouse (and if you've already placed an order for both books individually, contact us and we'll adjust your order).