Fall 09 – Winter 10 Preview Part 5

All this week and next week we're bringing you a sneak peek at our Fall 2009 – Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog includes Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box Vol. 1; a re-release of Willie & Joe: The WWII Years; The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion by Brian M. Kane; and Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!

“Rocky” by Martin Kellerman – #492

{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…

Humbug at the Strand – audio, video & more

Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch has complete, must-see coverage of Tuesday's Humbug event with (L to R above) Arnold Roth, moderator Gary Groth and Al Jaffee at the Strand Bookstore in NYC, including full audio of the talk, video clips, and more photos. Thanks Brian, and great job!

Daily links: 4/16/09

Lots of review love from The Stranger this week: • Review: "Blazing Combat… [is] packed with gloriously miserable… war stories covering everything from the battle of Thermopylae to Vietnam… all beautifully captured by comics legends like Archie Goodwin, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, and Gene Colan in appropriately murky grays… Fantagraphics has slapped together a nice, hefty… hardbound collection that's worth a read, whether you're a comic nerd, war buff, one-legged veteran, or one of those snooty I-only-read-graphic-novels types. Bombs away." – Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, The Stranger • Review: "Miss Lasko-Gross's autobiographical comics are the best in the field since [Lynda] Barry…

Junot Diaz hearts Gilbert Hernandez

"Poison River, a graphic novel by Gilbert Hernandez, gave me a master lesson in real writing. It was beautiful beyond words and violent and tender and heartbreaking. From that moment on, I knew what kind of writer I wanted to be. It's the great unknown novel of the 20th Century." – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), "Life-Changing Art," Baltimore Magazine We're very grateful to Diaz for his public love of Love and Rockets, and Oscar Wao is definitely recommended for L&R fans. (Crass commercialism: Poison River is available in its own volume as…

Four-Color Heroes in Seattle

Friend of Fantagraphics and local jazz composer Andrew Boscardin has a new CD inspired by his favorite comic book artists, Four-Color Heroes. He has a gig this Friday (UPDATE: SATURDAY NIGHT!) night in Georgetown, neighborhood home of the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery. As Andrew points out to Seattlest, stop by the gallery before the show and catch our current Jaime Hernandez / Stan Sakai exhibit and then go catch Andrew's Nickel and Brass Septet at the Mix.