Fantagraphics Blog

I'm not usually prone to the doom-y flight of fancy, but my first thought upon seeing the photo above was: thank goodness a flaming meteor didn't hit that spot at that moment. L to R: Crumb, Ware, Clowes, Tomine, Buenaventura. Sauve, France, Jan. 27, 2009. Alvin Buenaventura has uploaded many more incredible photos such as above and below, from Sauve and Angoulême, to Flickr. Look for a guest appearance by our very own Jason T. Miles, who promises to post his own Angoulême pics soon.

Now available for preview and pre-order: The Tijuana Bibles: America's Forgotten Comic Strips Hardcover Vol. 1, a fat little hardcover compiling the original Vols. 1-4 in Eros Comix's reprints of the satirical, XXX-rated sex comics of the 1930s. This book is scheduled to be in stock in mid-February and in stores approximately 4 weeks later. View a brief photo slideshow preview embedded above. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window; there, Flickr users with safety filters set to "moderate" or higher will be able to view additional, R-rated images (including the…

• Blurb: The Comics Reporter says some nice things about Linda Medley's Castle Waiting Vol. II comic series in a roundup of this week's notable comics releases • Blurb: Capree Kimball has some good stuff on her birthday wish list • Things to see: On the Covered blog, Dash Shaw does Green Arrow

Book Expo America, the annual book festival that promotes virtually every major publisher in America, and most smaller ones, announced some changes yesterday: basically, that the show is going to be held in New York City exclusively for the forseeable future, and midweek beginning in 2010. The move was purportedly made to keep costs down for "the major publishers." Which is great if you're a giant corporation based in NYC, but ignores one salient fact: NYC is actually a more expensive place to visit than just about anywhere if you are a publisher or bookseller who doesn't already live in NY….

Due to a computer meltdown, we are currently unable to process orders placed via our Eros Comix website. You can still place your order, but there will be a delay in shipping while we get things fixed. We will update when things are back to normal, but in the meantime you may want to call our toll-free customer service line at 800-657-1100 (206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) to place your Eros Comix order. We apologize for any inconveniences.

We've just received a fresh batch of signed book plates from Ivan Brunetti for the new Second Edition of Misery Loves Comedy; you can obtain one exclusively from Fantagraphics at no extra charge when ordering the book! Some conditions apply; click here for more details and the complete list of books available with this FREE premium!

Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips (1956-66) – 2nd Printing By Jules Feiffer (The first printing of Explainers was a rapid sellout! The second edition is, apart from a few typographical corrections and a new cover price, identical to the first.) In 1956, a relatively unknown cartoonist by the name of Jules Feiffer started contributing a strip to the only alternative weekly published in the US, a small radical newspaper called The Village Voice. His strip tackled just about every issue, private and public, that affected the sentient American: relationships, sexuality, love, family, parents, children, psychoanalysis, neuroses, presidents, politicians, media,…

  Chris Irving has a great profile of the legendary MAD and HUMBUG cartoonist Al Jaffee up at the Graphic NYC site.