Fantagraphics Blog

  Mike Baehr, Janice Headley and I are headed down Friday for this weekend's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, and we will be bringing along about 150 comics and books for you to browse and get signed all weekend long by our amazing line-up of attending authors: Saturday: 11AM Johnny Ryan 12PM Kevin Huizenga & Bob Levin1PM John Pham & Johnny Ryan2PM Daniel Clowes & Ted Stearn3PM Jaime Hernandez & Megan Kelso4PM Jaime Hernandez & Dame Darcy5PM From MOME: Jonathan Bennett & Tim Hensley Sunday:  11AM Megan Kelso & Kevin Huizenga12PM Jaime Hernandez & John Pham1PM Daniel Clowes & Ted…

• The Deconstructing Comics podcast talks about I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks • Publishers Weekly's "Comics Week" newsletter reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham • The Daily Cross Hatch posts the third and final part of their interview with Dash Shaw • Roger Langridge presents some Spongebob Squarepants strips he drew for Nickelodeon magazine in the styles of Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Milton Caniff, Charles M. Schulz and others

The Weretiger of Asia is one of many shape-shifters known to the world. (It seems there are nearly as many shape-shifting forms reported as there are known varieties of animals.) Like the Werewolf, there are many cultural explanations for why humans transform into these feline man-beasts, but most commonly it is supposed to be due to a curse or as a consequence of mixing genetic material. This mixing of material may be the unavoidable result of an animal's violent attack on a victim or, avoidably, through a person's unnatural indescretions with an animal.  A.J. Fosik is a unique artist rooted…

Today we're presenting a preview look at the haunting debut graphic novel The Lagoon by Lilli Carré. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

This quote from a childhood friend of Barack Obama's jumped out at me in this great Guardian profile of people who knew Barack Obama growing up: "Grandpa bought me all the DC Comics books, and I was the only one who had them, so [Obama] and Yanto would borrow the books and copy pictures of Batman and Spider-Man out and ask me to judge which was better. [Obama] was always better than Yanto. Even Yanto always agreed with that. [Obama] had a great eye."  Yes, we are gaining a president, but we have lost a cartoonist. 

Here's an advance look at John Kerschbaum's brutally funny graphic novel debut Petey & Pussy, starring a pair of kvetching, balding, foul-mouthed anthropomorphic misanthropes. Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window.

Hey, Wait… By Jason This superbly evocative graphic novella by the award-winning Norwegian cartoonist Jason (his first appearance in the English language) starts off as a melancholy childhood memoir and then, with a shocking twist midway through, becomes the summary of lives lived, wasted, and lost. (Imagine a version of Stand by Me in which not all of the kids outrace the train.) Like Art Spiegelman did with Maus, Jason utilizes anthropomorphic stylizations to reach deeper, more general truths, and to create elegantly minimalist panels whose emotional depth charge comes as an even greater shock. His sparse dialogue, dark wit,…

YOW! Legendary Cartoonist Bill Griffith Book Signing and Zippy Art Exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle on November 8. “Are we having fun yet?” We will be on Saturday, November 8 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, when Bill Griffith creator of the iconic Zippy the Pinhead comic strip character, makes a rare public appearance in the Northwest. Griffith will be on hand to sign his new Zippy collection Welcome to Dingburg, present an exhibition of original Zippy artwork, and give a brief slide talk. The public of all ages is invited to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle’s…