Fantagraphics Blog

The advance copies of the King Special Edition came into the office recently. They look SO killer. Eric put them on our shelf, and now everybody who walks by stops to gawk at the awesomeness. I consider this a true WIN for designer Adam Grano. And, people say that the book is dying. Well, take that eBook readers. This is not only an amazing piece of nonfiction comics, but also a beautiful art object. I dare anyone to pick out King Special Edition and not marvel at its beauty. Just try it. I triple dog dare you. Yeah, that's right….

Today, I'd like for you to join me in wishing musician (Lubricated Goat, Bloodloss, Monkeywrench) and Fantagraphics staffer MARTIN BLAND a happy birthday (pictured all the way to the right). I've learned much from Martin's fine example and he deserves all the cosmic happiness headed his way because he's a fucking nice guy.  Martin also blogs HERE . photo courtesy sub pop.

Take a couple of minutes to read Gary Panter 's short prose  story for the Significant Objects project — you won't regret it. Here's a taste: "I needed two masks in order to navigate downstream and surprise a canoe-load of moonlit necking teens. The rubber Mole Man mask I ordered from the back of Famous Monsters was my major expense, $39.95, so I had to skimp on the scuba gear. I traded my hand-cranked tin helicopter and Flintstone Village to my goofy uncle for a rubber diving mask. It was a good one, by Dacor, makers of fine snorkeling gear…

Don't miss an opportunity to get a sneak peek at some of the great books you'll be reading later this year at the FANTAGRAPHICS 2010 PREVIEW event this Saturday, January 9 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle. On display will be work from Fantagraphics favorites like Peter Bagge (HATE ANNUAL #8), Tony Millionaire (BILLY HAZELNUTS AND THE CRAZY BIRD), Jim Woodring (WEATHERCRAFT), Jason (WEREWOLVES OF MONTPELLIER), Michael Kupperman (TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #6), Richard Sala (THE HIDDEN), and Gilbert Hernandez (LOVE & ROCKETS NEW STORIES #3), as well as new offerings from masters like Jacques Tardi and Carol Tyler…

By the way, multiple belated hat tips to Robot 6, whose roundups of end-of-year links have been invaluable to the last few installments of Online Commentary & Diversions. On with the links: • List: Publishers Weekly announced the results of their 2009 Comics Week Critic's Poll; among the top vote-getters are You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("I love this autobiographical family story as much for the way Tyler weaves between her own life and her father's, as for its painterly, illustrative panoramas of suburban neighborhoods and army scenes." – Sasha Watson) and…

I'm a secret life-long video game junkie* and found this feature at the Cracked website very entertaining. The twisted naïveté of the drawings is a perfect fit for the subject matter. I wish this is what I AM 8-BIT had been. How Five 8-Bit Characters Would Really Look *If anyone wants to get wrecked by my akimbo .44 magnums in MW2, post your 360 gamertag in the comments and I'll add you, hooah.   EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS:  I drew Q-bert on my big board way back in 2008 when I was working on Bill Schelly's excellent Joe Kubert bio Man of…

  Tuesday, January 12 Portland, OR POWELL'S7:30 – 8:30pm 1005 W. BurnsideREADING/SIGNING Portland, OR 97209Phone: 503-228-4651 Wednesday, January 13 Seattle, WA 7:00 – 8:00pm TOWN HALL SEATTLEREADING/SIGNING 1119 8th AvenueGreat HallSeattle, WA 98101Phone: 206-652-4255 Thursday, January 14 Berkeley, CA BOOKS INC.7:00 – 8:00pm 1760 4th St.READING/SIGNING Berkeley, CA 94710Phone: 510-525-7777 Tuesday, January 19 Los Angeles, CA SKYLIGHT BOOKS7:30 – 8:30pm 1818 North Vermont AvenueREADING/SIGNING Los Angeles, CA 90027Phone: 323-660-1175 Wednesday, January 20 New York, NY MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS7:00 – 8:00pm 52 Prince StreetREADING/BOOK SIGNING New York, NY Phone: 212- 274-1160 Thursday, January 21 Brooklyn, NY BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY7:00 – 8:00pm…

The latest limited-edition fine art print offering from Drew Friedman is this handsome portrait of groundbreaking radio comedians Bob Elliott (right) and Ray Goulding. Click here to order and to learn more about the duo. There's also a link to download an MP3 of one of their shows — highly recommended! (Note that this will also be included in Drew's forthcoming book of celebrity portraits, Too Soon? And Drew read my mind and confirms that Bob's son Chris owns one of these prints already.)

Go look: New Ray Fenwick paintings! Also, go HERE for a sneak peak at Ray's next book, MASCOTS, coming later this year from Fantagraphics. I bet you didn't know about that. You did? Well, did you also know that Ray's in a band? I'll stump you yet.