Fantagraphics Blog

The Portable Frank By Jim Woodring A Visionary work of comic art for all-ages! Readers who haven’t discovered Jim Woodring’s Frank stories have a colossal treat waiting for them in this all-ages gem collecting the character’s greatest adventures. Frank is a unique, visionary comic, exquisitely drawn and so fully realized that adults and children alike find themselves drawn deeply into Woodring’s hallucinatory mindscape. The stories, almost entirely wordless, are told with brilliant, candy colors that people of all ages find alluring. The stories themselves unravel like a good puzzle, rewarding re-reading, providing an experience as immersive as that first love…

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 By Hernandez Brothers Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 reboots the beloved ongoing "Love and Rockets" comic into a fat, all-new annual graphic novel length package. Jaime launches the new format with a story that's unusual even for him… A full-on, pulse-pounding super-hero yarn! Maggie's longtime friend Penny Century has finally realized her longtime dream of acquiring super-powers, but at a terrible personal cost. Now she rampages through the galaxy, half mad with grief, and a motley group of super-heroes assembles to try to stop her — led by Maggie's girlfriend Angel and her…

Deitch's Pictorama By Kim Deitch, Simon Deitch and Seth Deitch Kim Deitch, creator of the acclaimed Fantagraphics collection Shadowland and the Pantheon graphic novels Alias the Cat and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, has recruited his siblings to produce a unique, all-new "picto-fiction" pocket book. Alternating between heavily illustrated near-comics stories and outright prose pieces, Deitch's Pictorama is a testament to the Deitch family's amazing yarn-spinning abilities! The book leads off with Kim's lengthy picto-story "The Sunshine Girl," a typically Deitchean tall tale involving bottle cap collectors, drug dealers, family secrets, and the innocents who wind up in the middle of…

Sammy the Mouse #2 By Zak Sally In this issue, things ramp up, as Sammy still can't seem to find some peace and quiet in the comfort of his home (because a giant finger is poking him in the skull, among other things), and some new "friend" won't take "No" for an answer. An answer for what? Why, a PICNIC, of course. EVERYBODY loves a PICNIC, right? As if that weren't enough, Feekes keeps shooting off his drunk mouth (with dire consequences), there's more secret scary underwater business from Him, and where the hell is Puppy-boy, anyway? Also in this…

Interiorae #3 By Gabriella Giandelli Things are getting weirder in the apartment house in this, the third (of four) episode of Gabriella Giandelli's surreal tale. Two teens record a rock song, an ugly breakup takes place between a husband and a wife, the old lady resorts to increasingly desperate measures to find her inner peace, more and more people have begun to notice the white rabbit, much to his distress… and The Creature That Lives in the Basement and Feeds on Dreams is becoming frustrated because no one is dreaming. 32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket •…

Baobab #3 By Igort Baobab #3 returns to the structure of the first issue, split between two ongoing and (seemingly) unrelated stories set a century ago. In the first part of the book, young Hiroshi’s ailing grandmother tells him that she will die soon, and that his future will be in his nation’s capital: Tokyo. It’s the beginning of his new life for Hiroshi, and the end of his childhood. Then we return to the continuing story of two young, struggling South American cartoonists. Celestino is still living in his native Parador where, on the eve of World War I,…

WizardUniverse.com has an exclusive excerpt from Blake Bell's book about Steve Ditko. Go, read; come back and buy.

So sez the New York Post! Holy crap, what a story. (Link provided by Eric.)

In the past 3 weeks, 3 Fantagraphics staffers (yours truly included) have had their computers (work or personal) die on them — one of us twice! We strongly encourage you to get preventative maintenance done and back up your data — there's some kind of bad technological mojo out there, and an extra hard drive is way cheaper and less of a bummer than data recovery, as we have been learning the hard way.

For those of you heading to your local comics shop tomorrow, you'll find a whole boatload of new Fantagraphics releases on the shelves: Abandoned Cars by Tim LaneMome Vol. 12 by various artistsWhere Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes Delphine #3 by Richard SalaGrotesque #2 by Sergio PonchioneTales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman Happy shopping (if you haven't already ordered them directly from us)! Speaking of ordering directly from us, we'll be having our own New Comics Day tomorrow with another boatload of brand-new titles in stock and ready to order… stay tuned!