Fantagraphics Blog

Our own multifarious Jason T. Miles appeared on the Inkstuds radio programme today to discuss his comics, his new Seattle-centric zine distro venture Profanity Hill (Seattle-area zine makers: Jason wants you! Everyone else: go buy some stuff already), and toiling in the Fantagraphics salt mines — listen here.

Is this it for Online Commentary & Diversions today? I guess so: • Review: "Jacques Boyreau’s book [Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box] pays tribute to… imperfection. Not only is its cover — well, the cover of the book’s slipcase, at least, designed to look like a videocassette — but the photos inside showcase boxes in far from mint condition… All of this helped take me back to my VHS days, but it’s mostly the garish art that did it — lurid snatches of visual salesmanship, many of which have been burned in the back of my…

Paul Hornschemeier spills the beans on the first volume of the new book-format iteration of his one-man anthology series Forlorn Funnies, comprising serialized and standalone comics and prose stories. Head to Paul's blog for details on what's in the first volume, coming out from Fantagraphics this fall, as well as a look at the original art for the cover (the final version of which is seen above). He also posted a separate teaser showing a test panel from one of the stories. Exciting!

This is the original art for a 1985 J.R. Williams comic reprinted in Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s; J.R. seized the opportunity to offer it for sale on Comic Art Collective — it's already sold, but still worth a look! This is the sort of thing you can expect to see at our yet-to-be-officially-announced Newave art show opening Jan. 30 at Fantagraphics Bookstore…

Peter Bagge sent us a link to this song inspired by his immortal Hate character, by Adam Green (perhaps best known by oldsters like me as half of The Moldy Peaches with Kimya Dawson), from his new album Minor Love.

I attended Joe Sacco's Town Hall event last night in Seattle, and it was, as expected, a great talk. Is there a more charming, erudite, and intelligent soul in this racket? I tend to think not. Anyway, I'm not even going to begin to write a recap — too many foreign sects, races and historical events to keep track of — except to say that the talk focused on the social and political events from about 1949 to 1956 that led to the massacre investigated and reported on in his new new book, FOOTNOTES IN GAZA, followed by an excellent Q&A session….

The Luc Besson adaptation of Jacques Tardi's ADELE BLANC-SEC movie, due this Spring, now has a teaser trailer which can be seen here: No shots of Adele herself yet, but the bearded fellow in the final scene is Armand Fallières, whose name Jeopardy! champions (paging Ken Jennings!) will shout out, preceded with "Who is…?" — if the clue is "President of France from 1906-1913." Encouragingly, the scene is taken straight from the book. Will this be a movie adaptation of a classic comic that remains totally faithful to the original, without COUGH*Watchmen*COUGH embalming it? I'm sure everyone is now thinking,…

Pretty much every page of Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit: Book 1 is amazing, so you really can't go wrong with any of the 15 that he's just put up for sale at Comic Art Collective, now can you?

Now arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship: The Troublemakers By Gilbert Hernandez Dig this scene! Low-life drug dealer Dewey Booth has $200,000 that even-lower-lifes want. BLING! Wes is a rock and roll loser that only wants to buy a club where nobody can tell him he can't sing or perform. WAILIN'! He's known Dewey for years, but that isn't enough to get his dough. Wes needs help. Nala is an über-stacked bombshell whose pleasure in life is to seduce and then humiliate men dumb enough to fall for her. HUSH HUSH! For half the dough, she agrees to…