Fantagraphics Blog

To promote their blockbuster show "Michelangelo Public & Private" the Seattle Art Museum dug up this miniature Michelangelo and dropped it off at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery last week. We took him on a little tour of Georgetown on Halloween day, where he enjoyed a spooky threesome with GHOST WORLD beauties Enid and Rebecca. Check out his continuing adventures at "Little David's Travelogue."

Jim Flora Art now has the super-popular, iconic Flora Mambo for Cats LP cover image in a new smaller (7" x 7"), affordable ($25) open edition giclee print. (The 20" x 20" limited edition silkscreen version is almost sold out.) Don't you just love their little mustaches? Makes a great combo gift along with any of our 3 Jim Flora art books.

Kristy Valenti recently purged duplicate copies of coveted back issues from The Comics Journal archive, now available in limited quantities at Fantagraphics Bookstore. Among the many gems on sale at cover price: The endearingly fannish #37 from December 1977 featuring the breathless headline Star Wars: The Movie! The Comic! The Photos! Issue #53's infamous interview with sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, and a revealing interview with mid-career Daniel Clowes in issue #235. This treasure trove of news, reviews, and essential interviews includes everything from Lynda Barry, Berke Breathed, Carl Barks, and the Bros to Crumb, Kirby, Kurtzman, Miller, Moore and more!…

Publishers Weekly names You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler to its list of Best Books of 2009 — Comics… …and the editors of Amazon.com name Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime Hernandez to their Best Books of 2009: Comics & Graphic Novels Top 10, in the #6 position. (Ed. note: As more end-of-year lists come in, we will collect the listed titles in a 2009 Critics' Picks category in our online shop, as we did for the 2008 Critics' Picks, in addition to noting them here on Flog.)

The blogosphere never rests — it's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Boyreau laments how digital phased out analog when it comes to our movie viewing; has the Internet done the same with his book [Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box] commemorating the losing side of that battle? I say no. It's not just because of the tremendous job Boyreau and Covey did with the cover reproductions, or the lovely, solid paper stock, or the cutesy slipcase. It's because Boyreau is right: the aura of the object is irreplaceable. A book collection of VHS box art contains…

  The November issue of JUXTAPOZ is out, and it's pretty much all Robert Williams, all the time, promoting his new show at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, which opened on Halloween night, as well as our art book/catalog of the show, CONCEPTUAL REALISM: IN THE SERVICE OF THE HYPOTHETICAL, which is available exclusively right now at the Shafrazi gallery, but will be available everywhere else in about a month (and also available for preorder on our own website very soon). The issue is a great one for fans of Robert, the highlight being a particularly lively talk between Williams and Don Ed Hardy (who also wrote an…

You might call it the Crossover Event of the year. You might call it "Maakwood." You might call it an unholy alliance. Ladies and gentlemen, the Achewood guest strip by Tony Millionaire.

From Michael Steven Gregory, on YouTube: "Author Monte Schulz discusses the sale of his critically acclaimed first novel, and his decision to write a better book, This Side of Jordan, at the Southern California Writers' Conference."

Flickr user Moonage Daydreamer has a few photos from the Art of Stan Sakai exhibit (from early 2009) that I hadn't seen before. The anecdote posted with this photo is typical Sakai, one of the truly gracious men of comics.

(click image to enlarge) See part 1 for more info about the book.