Fantagraphics Blog

A double batch of Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Bdzoom reports that l'Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée (ACBD) has placed Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw on their summer reading shortlist (there's Tardi on there too) • Review: "Nell Brinkley was an icon for several generations of women… The art [in The Brinkley Girls] has been beautifully restored, a task that must have been pure torture given the density of Brinkley's drawings and that sophisticated color work. My hat's off to whoever did that fabulous job." – Allan Holtz, Stripper's Guide • Review: "At one point…

Our head honchos and "the best known good cop/bad cop team in comics today" Gary Groth & Kim Thompson appeared on Bob Andelman's "Mr. Media" interview show on Blog Talk Radio Monday night to talk about all things Fantagraphics. Needless to say, if you have any interest in the history and current state of comics and the comics industry, it’s a must-listen. Listen in streaming audio in the embedded player below or, if you don't roll that way, click the link above.

Don't make me say "tunes & 'toons"! Tonight at 8 PM at Union Pool in Brooklyn, Gabrielle Bell, Michael Kupperman & R. Sikoryak appear alongside 3 bands for a night of interdisciplinary fun:

Apologies for the last-minute alert… according to the official shipping list, Jason's new book Low Moon is scheduled to arrive in comics shops today. As always, check out our bounteous previews and info about the book, confirm availability with your local shop (if they didn't order it, they're chumps), and choogle on down there to snap it up.

Let's see what Online Commentary & Diversions are out there: • Review: "[Michael Kupperman's] work is sublime in the truest sense of the word, speaking to me as a reader in ways that can be discussed and broken down but not quite fully communicated in their Rightness… About the only other humorists who have affected me in the same way were the Marx Brothers… Kupperman saturates each page [of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1] with crazed ideas, bizarre connections, and references that aren't really references. Even a reader who may not be familiar with what Kupperman's (often obliquely) mocking…

Mome contributor and all-around wonderful cartoonist Laura Park is currently soliciting commissions. Send some monetary love, get some delightful art. Ah, commerce!

We are pleased to re-offer one of our most lauded books of 2008 at a newly reduced, affordable sticker price of $45.00. Willie & Joe: The WWII Years By Bill Mauldin; edited by Todd DePastino "The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During World War II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army. Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from 1940 through the end of the war. This collection of…

Sweet mercy, I'm finally up to date on Online Commentary & Diversions! • List: Graphic Novel Reporter names You'll Never Know Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("gorgeous… beautifully illustrated") and the Abstract Comics anthology ("a visual experience unlike any other… a magical, wonderful trip") to their list of "The Hottest Graphic Novels of Summer 2009," in the nonfiction category • List/Review: "Shouldn't we build a monument of some kind to John Benson? He is responsible for some of the best research, compiling and editing of comics history. [Confessions, Romances, Secrets & Temptations] is… full of…

Yes, we're late picking this up, but in further "mainstream properties kyping our talent" news: In case you were wondering how the Bongo Comics folks could top last year's The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror contribution from Gilbert Hernandez, this year they asked Sammy Harkham to guest-edit (I guess he and Matt Groening hit it off after Sammy asked Matt to be in Kramer's Ergot #7) and he's put together an unbelievable roster for this year's issue. In the words of Krusty the Clown, "Oscar Homolka!" Robot 6 has the solicitation copy and further details, and I'll echo J.K. Parkin's assessment…

Johnny Ryan is now taking pre-orders for the new issue #3 of New Character Parade, due in July. How could you not want to meet Erotic Art Collecting Squirrel, Berserkenstocks, Metalliban, Sammy Hagar the Horrible, and many more, wrapped up in a three-color letterpress print cover (with different colorways)? Go, buy! By the way, Johnny's all out of his self-published Angry Youth Comix Vol. I #11, but we still have a handful of copies available exclusively at our Seattle storefront, so c'mon down if you need one!