Previews: Fantagraphics Releases for August 2009

As seen in the pages of Previews, these are the books and comics slated for release by Fantagraphics Books in August, 2009. Please note that all details, including cover art, prices, specs, contents, and release dates are preliminary and subject to change. THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1973-1974 by Charles M. Schulz Introduction by Billie Jean King 8.5 x 7, HC, 344 pages, BW, $28.99 ISBN 978-1-60699-286-9 Celebrate life with THE COMPLETE PEANUTS! Fantagraphics is proud to present the release of the 12th volume of the most recognized comic strip of all time! Charles M. Schulz’s American masterpiece has defined the way…

Daily OCD: 5/13/09

Your Online Commentary and Diversions for the day: • Review: "It’s great to read comics that are fun, inventive, and delighting in the medium instead of dour, 'relevant,' and procedural. Supermen is a teasing look at a truly Golden Age." – Dave Lartigue, Dave Ex Machina • Review: "Never before reprinted, Fantagraphics recently collected Humbug, complete with new essays, interviews, and annotations, in two handsome hardback volumes. […] Jack Davis and Will Elder… elevated the comic-book parody beyond the standards of Mad and Trump. For Humbug, Davis produced some of the best work of his long career. Al Jaffee… tackled…

“Rocky” by Martin Kellerman – #515

{mosimage} Fritz the Cat meets Jane Austen!?! This mostly autobiographical daily strip details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his layabout pals and neurotic girlfriends. Basically, it’s the pottymouthed animal-headed Seinfeld-esque comic strip we’ve all come to love. A smash hit in its native Sweden, presented in English for the first time. Join us Monday through Friday for a new daily strip, with a rolling archive of a week’s worth of strips. “It’s being acclaimed as the funniest Swedish comic of our time, but it’s more than that. Rocky is the long awaited generation novel that no…

Daily OCD: 5/12/09

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Just finished reading and cannot recommend enough the new Fantagraphics release Blazing Combat" – This Is Why I Hate You • Review: "Something for everyone in this educational, humorous and borderline offensive tome. Communicated in Bagge’s trademarked bugged out style, [Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me] is a must-have for fans of incisive political commentary." – Kevin Mathews, The Power of Pop • Review: "…Supermen! provides a concise glimpse into what the early comic books were like back when the medium was really fresh… Today’s readers will be surprised at how some of…

Buy cheap art, Seattle

Seattle, getcherself some bargain-priced drawrings from the likes of Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, and other Friends of the Nib at "Drift," a flurry of papery goodness opening this Thursday (May 14, 2009) at 7 PM at Cafe Racer on Roosevelt. Click the flyer for bigger info courtesy The Woodring Monitor. Bring your checkbook!

New Comics Day 5/13/09

Expected to arrive in comic book shops this week: Castle Waiting Vol. II #15 by Linda Medley. Due to the intricacies of shipping and distribution, comic shops get new issues of Castle Waiting before we do ourselves, so you Wednesday warriors get the first crack! As always, check with your local shop to confirm availability.

“Rocky” by Martin Kellerman – #514

{mosimage} Fritz the Cat meets Jane Austen!?! This mostly autobiographical daily strip details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his layabout pals and neurotic girlfriends. Basically, it’s the pottymouthed animal-headed Seinfeld-esque comic strip we’ve all come to love. A smash hit in its native Sweden, presented in English for the first time. Join us Monday through Friday for a new daily strip, with a rolling archive of a week’s worth of strips. “It’s being acclaimed as the funniest Swedish comic of our time, but it’s more than that. Rocky is the long awaited generation novel that no…

Prince Valiant – “A History of Valiants” by Kim Thompson

{product_snapshot:id=1581,true,false,false,left}This Afterword is excerpted in its entirety from Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 from Fantagraphics Books. Terrifically popular from its inception, Prince Valiant is one of the most frequently reprinted comic strips of all time. Like many other classics, it was extensively collected in comic book form early on, but starting in the 1950s, it was also one of the first to graduate to bona fide book editions. Sadly, commercial and technical limitations conspired to undercut the true glory of Foster’s work, as the strips were recolored (inevitably to their detriment, as in the otherwise impressive 1960s Nostalgia Press editions)…

Do the Hypnotwist

Just a stack of original Gilbert Hernandez pages for Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 sitting around the office waiting to be scanned, bathing us all in the brilliant radiance of their presence. You know, nothing to get worked up over.