Fantagraphics Blog

We are pleased to present this animated video trailer created by artist Dash Shaw for his graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button. He sent it to us last week and our jaws have been on the floor ever since. Watch the streaming video above; you can also download the original, higher-res Quicktime file (68.5 MB). Note that the video is silent, so there is no need to adjust your audio settings. If you wish to link to this video, please direct your link to this permanent archive page.

We let Steven Weissman have a day off from the "Chocolate Cheeks" grind last Friday but he put his nose back to the grindstone and turned it in yesterday. In this week's strip: a quest to the frozen aisle! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

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 another debut from a Xeric Grant winner, Alex Fellows: Canvas During a camping trip one weekend, Canvas, a fourteen-year old girl born to a pig and a frog, suffers the attraction of two young guys, goes on a shocking double date, and gets drunk for the first time. Her parents, despite their odd appearance, have a very typical fear…

Let me tell you something: babies and blogging don't mix. Guess which takes a backseat? But I'll be getting back on track here soon. In the meantime, here's a special July 4th weekend treat for you, an original, unpublished comic strip by Chris Ware. I am not worthy. 

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 a recent book from South African cartoonist Joe Daly which didn't quite escape notice, having garnered a 2007 Eisner Award nomination for "Best Graphic Album – New," but we're turning the spotlight on it again anyway: Scrublands This debut collection is the first book Fantagraphics has published by a South African cartoonist. Daly's earlier work has been described as…

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 Xeric Grant-winning debut from artist and animator Santiago Cohen: The Fifth Name Based on a 1920s Austrian novella by Stefan Zweig, this story is a reaction to the politics of the time. A personal story of a man searching for a sense of justice and responsibility towards the others, it takes place in India before Buddha when people…

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 accomplished 1997 debut by Brian Biggs: Frederick & Eloise: A Love Story Brian Biggs is a talented illustrator whose first comic is a strange and hypnotic love story that maneuvers around Paris and Frederick's dreams with a light touch that belies its grisly subject matter. Told in a strict format of two panels per page, it features Biggs's…

Have a great holiday weekend, America. Remember: light fuse, get away. • The blogger known as Polinees on Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason • Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine says Jason's The Last Musketeer is "great fun" • The North Adams Transcript on Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco • Kevin Church posts his favorite page from The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez • Writer Reading looks at R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz's Kafka • Cool Aggregator recommends Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button, and Panels and Pixels includes it in a graphic-novel roundup post •…

From me, to Irwin Chusid, back to me, to you… I had the luck to find this great, seldom-seen Jim Flora illustration in a copy of the June, 1964 issue of Venture: The Travelers World that I stumbled upon at a thrift store last weekend. Our Paul Baresh scanned it up real pretty and I sent it to Irwin, who posted it on the Jim Flora art blog, where you can see a larger version.