Fantagraphics Blog

Courtesy Gilbert Hernandez: 

 

Here's the official flyer announcing "La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée – A Week Celebrating the French Graphic Novel," supported by Fantagraphics Books, the 4Culture King County Lodging Tax, the Alliance Française of Seattle and the Cultural Development Fund of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA. Click here for our previous announcement.

Good news for my fellow Angry Youth Comix fans (for full details go HERE):  New Character Parade features 24 one page comics starring all new soon-to-be icons like Half Man Half Shit, Fuckball, Ralph Waldo Schmegma, Baby Stud, Kenny Kloggins, Rasputin On A Dirtbike, Sherlock Homeless, Butt Douglas and many more. I am so there.  

Every day in July we've been spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off! The sale is ending, so now is your last chance to take advantage of these great savings! Today we present our final spotlight, featuring two realistic, character-driven books by Andrew Zaben. Dream Big Dreams A promising 100-page debut novel, Dream Big Dreams is a complex narrative about a local bar owner grappling with the decision of whether to sell out to…

Courtesy Jaime Hernandez:  

From Publishers Weekly's "PW Comics Week." The Hernandez Dynasty: Gilbert, Natalia, and Unca Jaime. As Tom Spurgeon put it this morning, "My friends and I make jokes that everything always comes back to the Hernandez Brothers, but it does." Except now it comes back to the Hernandez Brothers… and Daughters! Update: Photo by Jody Culkin. Thank you! 

Blogger Alan David Doane has run the entire transcript of Barry Windsor-Smith's acceptance speech for the Hall of Fame Award he received last Friday night at the Eisners. The speech turned some heads with lines like "[Work-for-hire is] a legal but unethical instrument designed to rape and plunder young talents," and was read by our own Gary Groth (BWS could not attend the con). Congratulations to BWS' award, and kudos for his candor. 

Steven Weissman continues bringing us in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. The story continues right here! (We'll be back to our regular Friday update schedule this week, so this page will only be up for a few days! Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Since I didn't go to Comic-Con this year, I had to enjoy the show vicariously through the blogosphere. My favorite report so far has been this morning's report from Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter. Tom is funny, trenchant, critical, constructive, and his piece elicits the only appropriate reaction possible from such a piece: it simultaneously makes me sorry I missed it and grateful for the chance to enjoy the gorgeous Seattle summer. This quote in particular, about Gary Groth accepting on behalf of several cartoonists at the Eisner Awards, made me laugh: "Gary also always spoke in terms of the…