Fantagraphics Blog

We have a trio of new original graphic novels with coincidentally zoological titles, all now available for pre-order. All of them debuted to a great response at Comic-Con last month; they should be in stock here and ready to ship later this month, and in stores approximately 4 weeks after that. Click the links for each book below for more info and to access downloadable PDF excerpts! Giraffes in My Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life by Bruce Paley & Carol Swain – A comics memoir of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, a life lived in the countercultural margins,…

THE 5th ANNUAL BLAB! SHOWAugust 8th – August 29th, 2009OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, August 8th, 8:00-11:30 pm COPRO GALLERY (at Bergamot Station)2525 Michigan Ave #T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404GALLERY: 310-829-2156 PREVIEW OF ARTWORK: www.blabshow.com Copro Gallery and Monte Beauchamp proudly present the fifth annual "BLAB! SHOW," a kaleidoscope of colors and scenes from the "21st-Century Apocalypse" feature in the next issue of BLAB! Artists include: MARK RYDEN, JOE SORREN, JEFF SOTO, SHAG, FEMKE HIEMSTRA, ALEX GROSS, NATALIA FABIA, RYAN HESHKA, MARTIN WITTFOOTH, OWEN SMITH, GARY BASEMAN, JEAN-PIERRE ROY, KRIS KUKSI, GEORGANNE DEEN, GARY TAXALI, SPAIN, XNO, FRED STONEHOUSE, ANDY KEHOE, MARC BURCKHARDT, MARK…

Your midweek Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Crude but powerful drawings; an eye-shattering color palette; helter-skelter plotting, often with anticlimactic, fall-off-a-cliff endings; unintentionally manifested author obsessions; stupendous indulgence of schadenfreude, terror and glee at the misery of humanity, salted with some token morality. Yes, that's the Fletcher Hanks formula for a unique, unforgettable, Golden Age comics masterpiece, and all these bizarro traits are indeed on glorious display here [in You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!]…" – Paul Di Filippo, Sci Fi Wire • Plug: "I'm very impressed with Fantagraphics's restart of this wonderful series [Prince Valiant]. The…

I believe I'm reading this announcement from Manu Larcenet correctly (the Google translation isn't much help) that Les Rêveurs will be translating and publishing our Krazy & Ignatz collections — the first time Krazy Kat has been published in French! [Oops, not quite — corrected in the comments!] (And Larcenet's photo spread of our editions is quite lovely, no?)

Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray By Jaime Hernandez In this second big omnibus collection of his ongoing tales of the “Locas,” Jaime Hernandez continues telling stories featuring his main characters Maggie, Hopey and Ray. This volume picks up shortly after Maggie and Hopey’s long-awaited reunion at the end of the first Locas. Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthood with a real job (as a teacher), while a demoralized, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabag apartment building where she continues to wrestle with…

Abstract Comics: The Anthology By various artists; edited by Andrei Molotiu Abstract comics? Don’t all comics tell stories? How can a comic be abstract? Well, as it happens, beginning with the experiments of Saul Steinberg, through some of the more psychedelic creations of R. Crumb and Victor Moscoso, and with increasing frequency in recent years, cartoonists and other artists have played with the possibility of comics whose panels contain little to no representational imagery, and which tell no stories other than those that result from the transformation and interaction of shapes across the layout of a comic page. Reduced to…

Another batch of photo previews for you: Mome Vol. 15 – Summer 2009, which just hit stores last week. Watch the preview in the slideshow player embedded below; if it's not visible to you, or to see it full-screen (recommended), click here; if you don't like slideshows, browse here.

  As part of the whole Obama-as-the-Joker poster kerfuffle, Rush Limbaugh criticized Drew Friedman's Bush-as-the-Joker illustration for Vanity Fair (above); David Corn reports at Politics Daily.