This week's batch of reviews from 'round the web: • Comic Book Galaxy's Alan David Doane on Blake Bell's Stranger and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko • Fantasy writer Icats Nitram discovers Linda Medley's Castle Waiting • Art Blog by Bob looks at Explainers by Jules Feiffer • PopMatters reviews Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button; meahwhile, Laura Hudson takes a close and thoughtful look at the animated trailer Dash made for the book and decodes the book's coded letters (spoiler alert applies to both links) • PrettyFakes on the first two issues of Kevin Huizenga's Ganges • The Austin…
Jordan Crane Talks.
He talks and rants and rails and educates. That's standard fare for even a three minute phone conversation with the always interesting and crazy talented Jordan Crane. This is another of the I Can Has Comix interviews salvaged from the defunct Wizard Universe site but well worth revisiting: READ IT!
Hidden Gems Sale spotlight: Eve Gilbert
Every day in July we're 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! Today's installment features the debut volume from Eve Gilbert, which garnered high praise and an introduction from Robert Crumb: Tits, Ass & Real Estate Populated by junkies, grifters, hustlers, strippers, pimps and various strains of victims and criminals, this is a biting and satirical portrait of America as seen from the lower depths. A collection of autobiographical stories, this volume by Eve…
American Express.
In the U.S. we get hack Superman: In Europe they get Nicolas Mahler:
Members Preview: Where Demented Wented
Hey, haven't done one of these in a while… presenting this week's free preview, a downloadable 19-page excerpt from Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes, a first-ever collection of work from the notorious Underground primitive. These previews are exclusive to registered Fantagraphics.com users, so sign up and/or sign in to view. (As a reminder, 20/20 Club members receive these previews two weeks before we post them on the website, just one of many great reasons to join up…)
Jason Lettering Outtakes.
More "Behind the Scenes": Part of the sheet of Jason lettering for the translations in "Pocket Full of Rain." There wasn't much to translate so Jason just wrote it all out on a single sheet of paper. A fun bit of ephemera that went along with this stray bit of text.
Our Gang of Lawyers
Below this post, Mike Baehr announced the release of Walt Kelly's Our Gang Volume 3. The covers for this series are being drawn by the great Jeff Smith, as tributes to one of his idols. A lot goes on "behind the scenes" when producing these collections. You may note that the purple cap pictured seems just a little bit more detailed than the rest of the kids' clothes. In this case lawyers from Another Publisher had seen an advance copy of the cover and required four variations on the cap before they were satisfied that it didn't infringe on a…
Now in stock: Our Gang Vol. 3
Our Gang Vol. 3 By Walt Kelly Walt Kelly created dozens of Our Gang stories by the end of its 59-issue run in 1949, the year he quit comic books to switch careers a final time — as syndicated artist/writer on the immortal newspaper strip, Pogo. In Our Gang’s third volume, Kelly begins to hit his stride by relying more on original ideas than following trite MGM scripts which had lacked in charm since the departure of producer Hal Roach in 1938. Keeping alive the wit that had been absent from the film series, this volume contains eight adventures of…
Coming in 2009…
Move over MAUS, PERSEPOLIS, JIMMY CORRIGAN, PALESTINE, et. al. — there's a new, epic graphic novel forthcoming in 2009 that is certain to be the toast of the tastemakers. Picture a mash-up of Gary Panter's JIMBO and John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, with a little bit of WWE Wrestling thrown in. It could only come from the pen of one man. No, not John LeCarre! Yes, that's right, can you smell what JOHNNY RYAN is cookin'? Let's just say it's gonna make 300 look like FUN HOME. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing your 2009 National Book Award Winner: UPDATE: Oh, and…
Visit Scenic Georgetown
It seems everyone from the Seattle Times to the NY Times is singing its praises lately, so we will, too: All hail Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. If you are visiting Seattle, schedule time to visit. And I'm not just talkin' about the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Great beer, great food, great coffee, great comics, great music, great art, great buildings and more. Pictured above: a vintage Hat & Boots shot, one of Georgetown's most peculiar attractions. Below pics of the iconic Georgetown Pharmacy and of Rhea Patton in the Fanta gallery by my pal Kurt Schlosser.
