Every year, we take the guesswork out of gifting by providing you with our Holiday Gift Guide, a list of some of the year’s best and most “present-able” books! Read on for our top ten picks, thoughtfully sorted by their ideal giftee, and an extended list for your browsing enjoyment. We’ve included a wide range of classic comics collections, new graphic novels, beautiful box sets, and gorgeous art books. Looking for some all-ages faves? Skip straight to the bottom of the page for a roundup of our new Disney and Peanuts collections! Whether you’re shopping for Grandpa, or the kiddos,…
The Fantabucks Sale 2020!
Hey folks! Before we get into the details of this year’s sale, we want to take a minute to acknowledge that this is a really weird, hard time in which many of us are looking at an uncertain financial future and we all need to prioritize the important things in life. For us here at Fantagraphics HQ, one of the most important things we feel we can do is to keep connecting comics readers with our artists by printing and publishing their beautiful, important books. To that end, we’re asking that, if you have the financial wherewithal, you help us out with a small injection of…
All and Sundry – Introduction by Paul Hornschemeier
{product_snapshot:id=1586,true,false,true,right} This book began by looking for something. More precisely, it began by sorting through flat file drawers filled with artwork, in an attempt to determine what pieces I should select for my first proper gallery show. I stacked the work in piles: these are probably good candidates, those are good, but don’t seem to fit the general feel of the show. I was looking for only thirty or so pieces of artwork. I was removing hundreds of pieces of Bristol board from the drawers. It slowly dawned on me that the “good but doesn’t fit” pile was quite massive….
Prince Valiant – “A History of Valiants” by Kim Thompson
{product_snapshot:id=1581,true,false,false,left}This Afterword is excerpted in its entirety from Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 from Fantagraphics Books. Terrifically popular from its inception, Prince Valiant is one of the most frequently reprinted comic strips of all time. Like many other classics, it was extensively collected in comic book form early on, but starting in the 1950s, it was also one of the first to graduate to bona fide book editions. Sadly, commercial and technical limitations conspired to undercut the true glory of Foster’s work, as the strips were recolored (inevitably to their detriment, as in the otherwise impressive 1960s Nostalgia Press editions)…
Paul Hornschemeier 2009 Pacific NW Tour
PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER: THE 2009 PACIFIC NORTHWEST TOUR Promoting the release of the new graphic novel, MOTHER, COME HOME from Fantagraphics April 2, 5:30-8:30PM: CHARLES A. HARTMAN FINE ART, Portland "Paul Hornschemeier: Cloistered in Crowds" First Thursday reception and book signing 134 NW 8th Ave. • hartmanfineart.net April 3, 6PM: LUCKY'S COMICS, Vancouver Book signing and author talk 3972 Main St. • luckys.ca April 4, All Day: EMERALD CITY CON, Seattle Appearing at the Fantagraphics Books tables Seattle Convention Center • emeraldcitycomicon.com April 4, 7PM: FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY, Seattle A book signing and Emerald City Con after-party with Stan Sakai…
Sam’s Strip – “My Time with Sam’s Strip” by Mort Walker
{product_snapshot:id=1551,true,false,true,right} There were problems in doing Sam’s Strip. It was a satirical strip using characters from contemporary strips as well as old-time comic characters. Satire requires that readers have previous knowledge of the subject matter to understand what’s going on. With Sam’s Strip, the readers had to be familiar with the various characters we were satirizing before they could get the gag. It’s a tough sell. In show business the saying goes, “Satire dies on Saturday night.” {mosimage} An insurance salesman once asked me what I did for a living. I showed him the comic page for that day and…
Sam’s Strip – “How Sam’s Strip Began” by Jerry Dumas
{product_snapshot:id=1551,true,false,true,right} All through the late 1950s, Mort Walker and I worked together three or four days a week, however long it took, doing the artwork for the daily and Sunday Beetle Bailey strips. The rest of the time I worked in my own home, writing gag ideas for both Beetle and Hi and Lois. At that time and on into the 1960s, we were the only writers for both strips. Each week we wrote ten gags apiece and on Monday mornings we showed each other our gags, graded them and discussed them. We never did rough sketches of ideas unless…
The Wolverton Bible – Foreword: “A Shot in the Liver, A Shot to the Soul” by Grant Geissman
{mosimage}{product_snapshot:id=1552,true,false,true,right} here are legions of fans of the work of Basil Wolverton, stretching across many generations. There are admirers of his earliest work in the comic books, including “Spacehawk” (which began to appear in 1940 in Target Comics) and “Powerhouse Pepper,” the wacky, off-the-wall humor feature Wolverton created in 1942 for Stan Lee’s Timely Comics. {mosimage} There are fans of “Lena the Hyena, the ugliest woman in Lower Slobovia,” the crazily hideous image that was Wolverton’s winning entry in the 1946 contest United Features sponsored on behalf of Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” strip. There are enthusiasts of Wolverton’s numerous 1940s…
The Wolverton Bible – Introduction: “Wolverton and Armstrong” by Monte Wolverton
{mosimage}{product_snapshot:id=1552,true,false,true,right} asil Wolverton, my father (who I will respectfully refer to as Wolverton throughout this book), was a unique cartoonist and illustrator, known for his extreme, otherworldly creatures, spaghetti-like hair, smoothly sculpted faces and figures and insanely detailed pen-and-ink work. Born in Oregon in 1909, Wolverton pitched his first comic strip to a syndicate at the age of 16. But it was 13 years later before he would sell his first comic features to the new media of comic books. “Disk-Eyes the Detective” and “Spacehawks” were published in 1938 in Circus Comics. in 1940, “Spacehawk” (a different and improved feature)…
Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable Exhibit & Book Debut
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents Esther Pearl Watson’s UNLOVABLE art exhibition and book launch on Saturday, February 7. With Valentine’s sentiments in mind, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle is pleased to present UNLOVABLE, an exhibition of original art and book launch celebration by Esther Pearl Watson on Saturday, February 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Watson’s visual interpretations of the diary entries of teenager Tammy Pierce will resonate with everyone once afflicted by the eccentricities of adolescent isolation, unrequited love, and other torments of teen angst. The revealing narrative of the protagonist is perfectly suited to the artist’s endearing…
