Fantagraphics Blog

Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole (Softcover Ed.) By Jack Cole; edited by Alex Chun 104-page b&w/color 7.5" x 10.25" softcover • $18.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-284-5 Ships in: March 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now In the rarefied realm of classic cartoon pin-up art, nobody did it better than Jack Cole. With his quirky line drawings and sensual watercolors, Cole, under Hugh Hefner's guiding hand, catapulted to stardom in the 1950s as Playboy's marquee cartoonist, a position he held until his untimely death at the age of 43. Jack Cole has been justly celebrated as the creator of Plastic Man…

Turns out Steven Weissman did his weekly strip in his mind-blowing sketchbook in the car from Portland to Seattle but couldn't get to a scanner, so I photographed it at his signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery tonight. Left turn! (The rest of the photos from the night will follow.)

Updates of two of our three weekly strips this evening: Whitley Strieber never imagined this in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …we celebrate one year of bringing you Johnny Ryan's Blecky Yuckerella with a hearty dose of WTF in this week's strip… …and Barack Hussein Obama has the week off  since Steven Weissman is on his triumphant Northwest book tour!

Feast your eyes — follow links for larger/complete versions: • A portrait of Fantagraphics' own Ambassador of Awesomeness, Janice Headley, drawn by Jaime Hernandez at APE 2008 (on the back of Daniel Clowes's name card), finally scanned • "This is only the first panel. There are literally hundreds more to follow…" Oh Jim Woodring, you had me at "This" (click for full version) • Ben Catmull has constructed a miniature of a stone hut • Two from Dash Shaw: the cover of his new zine Sundance, top (hmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with this), and "Volunteer…

Light Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth examines a sampling of comics by Ariel Bordeaux, including her work in Raisin Pie #1 • Interview: In an interview with The Beat's Michael Fiffe, artist Mark Badger talks about his participation in Abstract Comics: The Anthology: "It came out of nowhere. It was absolutely stunning." • Plug: "New from Fantagraphics Books, Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s. At 888 pages this is a substantial collection of the comix art of the New Wave mini-comix movement. Largely inspired by the Underground Comix movement of the 60s…

We missed this when we first ran our story about Michael Leavitt's fully-articulated hand-carved sculpture of R. Crumb (on exhibit one day only at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Feb. 13), but Comics Alliance caught it when they picked up our post. (YouTube link)

  We recently dumped a bunch of author/artist photos of various vintages from our files onto our Flickr page for the public to peruse. Most of them are at least a couple of years old, so if you're a blogger or member of the press looking for the most current images, please contact our Director of Publicity Jacq Cohen. 

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s By various artists; edited by Michael Dowers 892-page b&w/color 5" x 6.25" hardcover • $24.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-313-2 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews Newave! is a gigantic collection of the best small press cartoonists to emerge in the 1970s after the first generation of underground cartoonists (such as R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Art Spiegelman) paved the way. These cartoonists, inspired by the freewheeling creative energy of the underground comix movement, began drawing and printing their own comix. The most popular…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: King: The Special Edition By Ho Che Anderson 312-page color/b&w 7.5" x 11.25" hardcover • $34.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-310-1 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews (NOTE: For academic/volume discounts on this title, please call toll-free at 1-800-657-1100 or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) Ho Che Anderson’s biography of America’s great civil rights advocate Martin Luther King is both a monumental recreation of his tumultuous public life (and death) and an intimate portrait of the man as politician, friend, lover, husband, and father. With the triumphant ascendancy of Barack Obama to the…

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1959-1962 Box Set By Hank Ketcham two 672-page black & white 5.5" x 6.25" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $39.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-312-5 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews slipcase also available separately, exclusively from Fantagraphics • $4.99 Add to Cart • More Info & Previews A swell custom-designed case containing the fifth and sixth volumes of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace with strips from the years 1959 through 1962. (Sorry, case is not peanut butter or root beer resistant.) (Click the…