Despite the present circumstances (and the fact that all of us here at Fantagraphics are all well past graduation), September always brings with it a “Back to School” feeling. We don’t have Trapper Keepers or bouquets of pencils for you, but we do have *tons* of great new books to fill your book bag! But first, the news:
- Forbes reviewed Simon Hanselmann’s magnum opus, Crisis Zone and wrote, “In the deluxe and beautifully designed Fantagraphics edition, Crisis Zone ends up looking like a children’s book produced in an institution for the criminally insane. … Assuming we have a future ahead of us, Crisis Zone will be the keepsake to remind us what we became in that moment.”
- SCREENRANT got the exclusive on the book trailer for the forthcoming Popeye collection, Popeye Vol. 1: Olive Oyl and Her Sweetie.
- Cartoonist Kayfabe released an episode reviewing Queen of the Ring: Wrestling Drawings by Jaime Hernandez—a must-watch for fans of either!
- Speaking of Ed Piskor, AIPT has an exclusive preview of Red Room #4!
- For more Red Room, check out the preview—Daily Dead has the exclusive!
- New York Journal of Books published a rave review of The Butchery and remarked, “Vives is a masterful artist, and this book could be used as a textbook for how visual storytelling works.”
- R. Kikuo Johnson got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly for his forthcoming book, No One Else (out 11/9)—they called it “a beautiful example of a short comic containing multitudes.”
- Love Scrooge McDuck? So do we! And we’re publishing a gorgeous deluxe collection, The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (out 11/16)—D23 has the cover reveal!
September New Releases:
Nod Away 2 by Joshua W. Cotter
Vol. 2 moves away from the deep space transport where Vol. 1 took place and moves to earthly terrain, peeling back layers of Cotter’s world-building to reveal the bigger picture of this graphic novel series in ways that upend expectations. Aveline Moiré is a headstrong but self-destructive young French woman. When she meets and moves in with a young artist, Walter Walker, little do they know that the wheels they set in motion may bring about the end of humankind. Working within the structure of SF, Nod Away moves back and forth between physical and psychological worlds. It utilizes traditional and abstract storytelling styles to explore what consciousness could be, its location, what function or point it might serve, and how a lack of personal responsibility and accountability will always corrupt it. At a projected seven volumes and over 2000 pages in all, Nod Away is poised to be one of the great comics classics of the 21st century.
Now through October 7th, get 20% off of Nod Away 1 when you order Nod Away 2!
Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: Pie in the Sky: Disney Masters Vol. 18 by William Van Horn
Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck battle old foes and ancient curses in wild comics adventures by fan-favorite artist William Van Horn!
Scrooge McDuck is an ace treasure hunter, but is he a flying ace? When Scrooge enters the infamous Flitterwobble Airplane Show as a stunt pilot, he ends up defending his life, his rep — and his priceless antique Sopwith Two-Seater plane from the bombastic Baron Von Strudel!
Canadian Disney Comics writer/artist William Van Horn has been a beloved Donald and Uncle Scrooge talent since 1987 — but only his DuckTales stories have been anthologized in modern times. By popular demand, this volume begins a comprehensive collection of his Uncle Scrooge and Donald adventures!
Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: Pie in the Sky: Disney Masters Vol. 18 is part of the Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge series.
Visual Crime by Jerry Moriarty
This graphic novel is Jerry Moriarty’s tribute to fine artists who make their living in commercial art.
Rotart Sulli is a painter who illustrates crime fiction. In the first of two stories that comprise Visual Crime, Sulli gets a call from the publisher who gives him an assignment for Visual Crime Magazine, which comes with a peculiar requirement: Sulli is to stay at Hotel Ace in room 611 until his assignment is finished. He completes the assignment in the basement of the hotel but not without coming to blows with a janitor with a penchant for chucking toys into the furnace. In the book’s second story, Sulli is once again hired to illustrate a crime story; and once again, it comes with a peculiar demand: he’s told to place the finished work “in your back window — it will be seen.” In between these two stories are a dozen short stories occupying a single page, all illustrated by paintings by Sulli. Painted panel sequences alternate with Moriarty’s rough-hewn, proletarian pen and ink panels amidst the luminous, Hopperesque paintings by Rotart Sulli, creating a portrait of the artist working alone in a mysterious and uncertain world, creating stunning images that transcend the melodramatic stories they illustrate.
Good Night, Hem by Jason
Three interconnecting short stories starring Ernest Hemingway comprise the latest graphic novel by the beloved Norwegian cartoonist, Jason.
Paris, 1925. Our story begins when Hemingway meets Athos, the last Musketeer, who, together with several more friends of Hemingway, travel to Spain’s Pamplona for the fiesta. Festivities and complications ensue.
Paris, 1944. The second story starts the day after the liberation of Paris when Hemingway, now a war correspondent, decides enough is enough, and takes action to end the war for good. With a group of adventurers and resistance fighters, he parachutes into Germany to do just that.
Cuba, late 1950s. Our literary lion is in his twilight years, writing his memoirs, remembering his first and second meeting with the seemingly immortal Athos.
Mixing fact and fiction, Jason has imaginatively recreated one of America’s greatest and most controversial writers of the 20th century.
Three For The Money And Other Stories by Jack Kamen, Al Feldstein, & Ray Bradbury
This volume of the New York Times’ bestselling series of superbly restored, classic crime and horror EC Comics re-presents the work of Jack Kamen, Al Feldstein, and Ray Bradbury.
Grand Master crime novelist Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition) introduces these tales, which include the infamous “The Orphan” — one of the stories that got EC Comics into hot water during the U.S. Senate’s investigation into comic books. “The October Game” is adapted from the chilling classic short story by Ray Bradbury. A gruesome look at a malevolent Halloween party game perpetrated by a man who believes the child of his unfaithful wife is not his. In “Frozen Assets!,” a woman and her lover seal her still-living husband in a chest freezer. “Standing Room Only” — a brother murders his twin sister and her husband, and disguises himself as her so he can inherit their estate. But then the estate lawyer makes a play for the “widow” … “Three for the Money” — A woman finds her husband dead — with a knife in his back and a bullet in his head. The police arrest two suspects — but to get a conviction, they must determine who acted first. Who actually committed the murder, and who stabbed or shot a man who was already dead?
Like every book in The Fantagraphics EC Artists’ Library, Three For The Money And Other Stories also features essays and notes by EC experts on these superbly crafted, classic masterpieces.
September Events:
- Saturday, September 18th-Sunday, September 19th: Shira Spector (Red Rock Baby Candy) is a Special Guest at Virtual SPX, panel details TBD
- Saturday, Sepember 18th, 1 pm ET: Shira Spector, Red Rock Baby Candy, Word on the Street Toronto Book & Magazine Festival, Virtual
- Monday, September 27th, 7:30 pm EDT: R. Kikuo Johnson, Night Fisher and No One Else, Brooklyn Book Festival Carousel, The City Reliquary, Brooklyn, NY
- Sunday, October 3rd, 6 pm EDT: Lee Lai, Stone Fruit,Personal Stories, Universal Resonance Panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Virtual
