Fantagraphics Blog

Blurbs, "Babe" and big bucks in this episode of Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book features two full-length stories, 'The Leaking Cello Case' and 'John Wesley Harding.' Both stories start off in the every day then morph into oddball mysteries that never go quite where you expect them to. As odd as some of the capers and misadventures get they are always conveyed with a kind of casual, deadpan poker face that manages to make them all the more believable. … The art is a curious mix of cartoonish realism, and the city of…

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates Al Columbia's astonishing new graphic novel PIM & FRANCIE on Saturday, November 7. October 27, 2009 – SEATTLE, WA. Al Columbia is widely regarded among his peers as one of the most accomplished and influential artists working in comics today. On the occasion of the publication of PIM & FRANCIE, his most ambitious work to date, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is hosting a rare public appearance by the cartoonist on Saturday, November 7 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. PIM & FRANCIE represents a breathtaking vision of contemporary American art. Collecting over a decade's worth of…

This has been a bit under the radar for American fans (I don't remember seeing a peep about it on such sites as aint-it-cool) but Luc Besson is well underway filming his adaptation of what looks like the first two or three Adèle Blanc-Sec albums by Jacques Tardi , and the movie is supposed to premiere in France next Spring and open throughout Europe during the Spring and Summer. (No American distributor yet, but it's hard to believe a Besson movie wouldn't find a Stateside berth.) It's intended as the first of a trilogy, too, presumably adapting the whole series….

Here after a slight delay is our preview video/photo slideshow preview of Popeye Vol. 4: "Plunder Island". I went slightly overboard with this one but holy smokes is there a lot of great stuff in this book! Click here if the embedded player is not visible above, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended). And don't forget our exclusive 15-page PDF excerpt (6.4 MB) with 5 pages of Sundays and 10 pages of dailies is still available for FREE download!

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

On your way to the Robert Williams exhibit opening at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in NYC this weekend, why not stop and pick up one of 13 pairs of custom, hand-painted Robert Williams Vans sneakers? The above promotional video, passed along by our own Lord of the Lowbrow, Larry Reid, provides all the details (and a fascinating look inside a Chinese sneaker factory)! And if those are a bit out of your range, don't worry, there will be another, less-exclusive Williams Vans release for Fall/Winter, too. (Previously in sneakers/skatewear: Jim Woodring x Chuck Taylor, Gary Panter x The Simpsons x Vans,…

We are pleased to announce that we are now taking online pre-orders for Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons and Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons – Collectors Edition, and that we are offering the regular edition NOT ONLY with an exclusive, limited-edition signed 3-color silkscreen print (pictured below – while supplies last) BUT ALSO at a special discounted price! Attendees at this year's SPX had the opportunity to pre-order the regular edition at a discounted post-paid price of $100 (cover price: $125) and collect the signed silkscreen print; we are extending this offer to all pre-orders direct…

I always love when we get Jason art in the mail and I really love these sheets of translated text he sends for upcoming books. (Bad iPhone photo blurred so as not to create any spoilers.) A long time ago Jason allowed me to give away a small piece of lettering to the first Flog reader to respond to my posting of it. We should really try to do things like that more often, huh? No, not today. But sometime.

Here you go, today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Locas II, by Jaime Hernandez, combines lush artwork with vivid, heart-in-mouth storytelling. …[I]f you haven’t encountered its two heroines before, you might find yourself a little lost in the ongoing magic realist soap opera that is Hernandez’s stock-in-trade. It would be a bit like dropping in on Coronation Street for the first time — albeit a Corrie soundtracked by The Germs and Big Black. … [But] even if you find yourself lost somewhere in the middle of Locas II, the lostness makes a kind of sense. The lives Hernandez chronicles…