Re:Read is an occasional column by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid examining backlist books you may have missed or merit another look. This time we’ll focus on Gerald Jablonski’s visionary masterpiece Farmer Ned’s Comics Barn from Fantagraphics adventurous FU Press imprint. I’ve always been drawn to “outsider” art, characterized by deeply obsessive expression. Gerald Jablonski’s work seamlessly combines the naïve sensibilities of folk artists like Reverend Howard Finster with the meticulous sophistication of cartoonists like Daniel Clowes – fluid, yet strangely formal. Farmer Ned’s Comics Barn alternates between dense, intricate narratives and spare, wordless renderings. Amazingly, in an appended…
What’s in Store: Top Comix of 2017
It’s come time for Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid to name my choices for the best comix of the past year. This list is customarily limited to the top 10 publications plus a handful of honorable mentions. This being a banner year for contemporary comix, I’ve expanded my subjective selections to an even dozen, together with an equal number of alternatives – any one of which could be included among the best. 12. Chris Ware: Monograph This comprehensive collection of Ware’s art, comix, and ephemera does justice to the remarkable career of one of the most innovative…
Digital Underground
This week we have two new Fantagraphics Underground releases. That means your tablet is about to get strange and stranger. Let’s get to it! At long last, what you’ve been waiting for — a big collection of Gerald Jablonski’s psychedelically underground, absurdly avant-garde comics: Farmer Ned’s Comics Barn. Jablonski has been comics’ best-kept secret for decades, telling the tales of imposter ants, bear-faced grumps, and stoic farmers with pun-laden word balloons that wildly snake around the page. This book also includes a discussion with Gary Groth and it can all be yours through comiXology today. You…
