A report released this week by Auburn University shows that the oil unleashed on the Gulf of Mexico by the BP oil spill is not degrading and poses a long-term threat to coastal ecosystems. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is the subject of a new graphic novel by journalist Steve Duin and cartoonist Shannon Wheeler. On Saturday, October 1, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery will host a reception for Duin and editor Michael Rosen where the public will get the first glance at this remarkable new book from Fantagraphics, Oil and Water.

On a trip to examine the aftermath of the BP oil spill, ten friends from Oregon discover that "Oil and Water" is just the first of many insoluble contradictions. Between the tarred sands of Grand Isle and the fouled waters of the Louisiana bayou, they discover that Gulf Coast residents are economically dependent upon the very industry that is wreaking havoc on their environment. In the shadow of the greatest ecological disaster of our time, they are forced to reassess their roles as witness, critic and environmental steward.

In this 120-page graphic novel — written by Steve Duin, a columnist for The Oregonian, and illustrated by award-winning New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler — readers will tour the shark-pocked beach at Grand Isle with the local head of Homeland Security; step aboard the crabbing boat of a 20-year-old Mississippian who works 16-hour days and spends his nights dreaming of M.I.T.; enter the "Hot Zone" where volunteers work desperately to save brown pelicans drenched in British petroleum; and hear residents describe what happens to their livelihood when 200 million gallons of oil flood the scene. The readers' perspective on what hope and what mission remains along a ravaged coastline will be changed as irrevocably as that of these ten Oregonians.

Duin and Rosen will conduct a workshop at the Northwest Conference for Teaching Social Justice in Seattle before the reception at Fantagraphics Bookstore. The public is invited to meet these activists and informally discuss their observations from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. A limited number of advance copies of Oil and Water will be available for sale. Fantagraphics Bookstore is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown arts community. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.

Mark your calendars for these exciting events the first week of October: Wednesday, October 5 at 7:00 PM, we co-present Craig Thompson discussing his much-anticipated new book Habibi in the Microsoft Auditorium at the Seattle Public Library central branch. Thompson's talk will be followed by a book signing with copies of Habibi available for purchase; and don't miss comix legend Trina Robbins at the bookstore on Saturday, October 8 at 6:00 PM presenting The Brinkley Girls with a Nell Brinkley slide talk, art exhibition and book signing, in association with that weekend's Geek Girl Con.

(Click here for a larger image; click here for an alternate version!)

Fantagraphics Books Presents:

MICHAEL KUPPERMAN
THE TWAIN IN THE MEMBRANE TOUR

Celebrating the release of
MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1910-2010

"Here Mister Kupperman," he said, thrusting a manuscript into my hands. "Publish this, and let the world read of my adventures." 

My name is Mark Twain, and I write these words to you in the good old days of August 2010. "What's that," you say? "Didn't you die a hundred years ago, you old coot?... The truth is I never died, but the same old rumors got exaggerated and then a bunch of other stuff happened, so people forgot I was still alive. 

And with that preface, the celebrated man of letters -thought to be dead for a hundred years but actually surviving due to a wizard's spell- returns with a sequel to his best-selling autography, aided and abetted by humorist and cartoonist Michael Kupperman. From WWI to the Great Depression, WWII to Woodstock, and through the present, Twain details his careers as an ad man, astronaut, hypnotist, Yeti hunter, porn star, drifter, grifter and more, rubbing shoulders and having never-before-told adventures with many major figures of the 20th Century. 

Meet Michael Kupperman at the following events in New York and Connecticut this Fall!

Sunday, Sept. 18th, 1PM
Brooklyn Book Festival
180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn
"Comedy in Comics" Panel discussion with Keith Knight, Kate Beaton, Jennifer Hayden and Heidi MacDonald, in the St. Francis Screening Room

Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 7:30PM
Book Court
163 Court St., Brooklyn
Reading and signing with Ben Katchor

Saturday, Oct. 1st, 7:30PM
Mark Twain House
351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT
Reading and signing

Tuesday, Oct. 4th, 8PM
Littlefield
622 Degraw St., Brooklyn
Twain in the Membrane Comedy Party
Live comedy & cartoons! Twain costume and frog-humping contests! General absurdity! Featuring Michael Kupperman, David Rees, Julie Klausner, Jon Glaser, Kate Beaton, Max Silvestri, Emily Flake and others!

Thursday, Oct. 13th, 7PM
Desert Island
540 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
Book and Print release party/signing

Nov. 19th & 20th, Details t.b.a.
Miami Book Fair
Miami, FL

Michael Kupperman lives and works in Brooklyn with his wife Muire and son Ulysses, where he creates the ongoing Tales Designed to Thrizzle comic book series. His most recent book is Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010. His cartoons and illustrations have appeared in magazines from the New Yorker to Fortune, newspapers from The New York Times to the Village Voice, and numerous books, including many published by McSweeneys. His first book, Snake'N'Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret, was also adapted by the author as an Adult Swim animated pilot which can be seen online; two strips from that book were also adapted into cartoons for the Comedy Central series TV Funhouse. Other television work including drawing a TV Funhouse cartoon for Saturday Night Live, and writing for The Peter Serafinowicz Show on BBC2 in the UK. He can currently be found on Twitter, where his user name is @MKupperman.

"Kupperman may have one of the best comedy brains on the planet right now." - CONAN O'BRIEN

MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1910-2010
By Michael Kupperman
$19.99 USA
ISBN 978-1-60699-491-7

Published by Fantagraphics Books

DRAWING POWER: Curator Warren Bernard discusses the history of cartoon advertising at Fantagraphics Bookstore on September 24.

Special guest artist Tom Neely presents The Wolf.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery welcomes two diverse professionals in the field of comix for an extraordinary event on Saturday, September 24 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Editor and curator Warren Bernard will discuss cartoons in the service of commerce in connection with his new book and exhibition Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising. He'll be joined by provocative contemporary cartoonist and visual artist Tom Neely presenting his new graphic novel The Wolf.

Drawing Power examines the use of comic strip characters and cartoonists themselves as pitchmen for commercial goods beginning in the late 19th century. The colorful book and accompanying exhibition survey the American institution of cartoon advertising featuring comic strips, commercials, slogans, and merchandise employed to appeal to a broad range of consumers. Comics historian Warren Bernard has an extensive background researching and archiving material for important books, exhibitions, and institutions, including the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Bernard also serves as the Executive Director of the annual Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD.

Los Angeles artist Tom Neely will appear to read from and sign his new graphic novel, The Wolf. The book tells a simple love story, but one woven with surrealist horror, werewolf lore and its own brand of nightmare logic. With The Wolf, Neely progresses from the traditional cartooning style to a form that blends a fine arts approach to imagery. Neely's paintings and illustrations have been featured in galleries, magazines and literary journals, as well as records, posters and CDs for bands like The Melvins, ISIS and Wolves in the Throne Room, among others. Earlier this year, he garnered attention as one of the authors of the cult hit mini-comic Henry & Glenn Forever. Neely's self-published novel, The Blot, won an Ignatz Award in 2007 and made it onto several of the industry's "best of" lists that year, including "Best Comics of the Decade" in The Comics Journal.

Listing information

Drawing Power exhibition reception and slide discussion with Warren Bernard
Special guest Tom Neely presenting The Wolf
Saturday, September 24, 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) Seattle 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

Fantagraphics Books President and Co-Publisher Gary Groth announced today at Comic-Con International that it has entered into a publishing agreement with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. to publish the EC Comics Library, beginning in Summer 2012. The announcement teams two of the most storied comics publishers in history and aims to reintroduce the timeless work of EC to contemporary readers.

Fantagraphics will re-package the EC Comics (with the exception of MAD, which is now owned by DC Comics/Time Warner) in a series of handsome hardcovers devoted to specific artists and writers. While virtually all previous EC collections have been published by comic book title, Fantagraphics will collect the comics by artist, allowing fans to finally own single-volume tomes collecting the work of their favorite creators.

“It pleases me greatly to be in partnership with such an influential company as Fantagraphics,” said Cathy Gaines Mifsud, President of William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. “It’s a pleasure to be working with a company that shares similar values, yet retains unique and distinct creativity. I trust them fully to carry on the iconic EC brand.”

Entertaining Comics may have been the greatest mainstream publisher in comics history, with an attention to quality and consistency that has never been rivaled. Under the stewardship of William Gaines (who took over the company from his father, Max Gaines, in 1947), EC’s “New Trend” line employed a Murderer’s Row of writers and artists including Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Al Feldstein, Reed Crandall, Will Elder, Frank Frazetta, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, John Severin, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, and many others.

“EC was the most consistently literate and quality-minded publisher in the history of mainstream comics,” said Groth. “Editors Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman were aware that comics was an artistic medium in a way that few editors did, and publisher Bill Gaines was unique in taking a hands-on approach to his comics line, choosing his editors wisely, giving them such editorial freedom and latitude, and taking such personal pride — and responsibility — in his comics. This was simply unheard of in mainstream comics; if more publishers had had Gaines’ integrity, the history of comics would’ve been vastly different.”

Like most of its contemporaries, EC specialized in genre fiction, specifically horror, crime, science-fiction, war, and satire, with several titles that seeped into the public consciousness long after their demise, including Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales, Weird Science, and of course MAD. Unlike most of its contemporaries, Gaines and his staff took great pride in crafting socially aware works that transcended their genres. “At a time when comics were consid- ered sub-literate junk by the reading public, Gaines and the EC creators were impressing people like Ray Bradbury with the aesthetic possibilities of the medium. That was no mean feat,” Groth added.

The first four books in the series will be:

• “Corpse on the Imjin” and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman. This will reprint all the war stories Kurtzman wrote and drew himself in Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, including all 23 of his covers — each a masterpiece in its own right. This volume will also include all the war stories that Kurtzman wrote and laid out but were drawn by artists who weren’t regularly featured in his war books: Gene Colan, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Dave Berg, Ric Estrada, Russ Heath, and others. (The regulars were Jack Davis, John Severin, Wally Wood, and George Evans, each of whom will later be the subject of their own war comics collections). Kurtzman’s war comics are still considered to be the gold standard for the genre, with a devotion not only to historical accuracy but also to resisting any impulse to glamorize wartime; a WWII veteran himself, Kurtzman’s humanistic approach was in stark contrast to the simp- leminded, jingoistic efforts of EC’s rival publishers, and paved the way for other popular media to depict the true face of war.

• “Came the Dawn” and Other Stories by Wally Wood: Though often remembered for his science-fiction work, Wood’s heavy, noirish brushstrokes were perfectly suited for EC’s rough-hewn suspense stories in (the appropriately titled) Shock SuspenStories and this volume will collect them all for the first time.

• Jack Davis’s horror stories (exact title t.b.a.): Jack Davis’s gift for caricature has made him an icon in the advertis- ing world and helped define MAD magazine, but he was also one of the most versatile cartoonists of his generation; after “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, Davis was EC’s most prolific horror artist, appearing in all three of EC’s horror titles — Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror, and Crypt of Terror. This will collect the entirety of Davis’s horror work, all of which was written by Al Feldstein.

• Al Williamson’s science-fiction stories (exact title t.b.a.): EC published two SF comics — Weird Fantasy and Weird Science — and Williamson was one of the stars, with an illustrative style that carried on the tradition of the great adventure comic strips like Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. This volume will compile all 174 pages of Williamson’s SF stories.

“EC featured many of the best artists working at the time — innovators like Kurtzman, Bernie Krigstein, and Johnny Craig, illustrators like Al Williamson and Jack Kamen, and renaissance cartoonists like Wally Wood, Will Elder, and Jack Davis,” said Groth. “Many of these artists did the best work of their careers for EC, and that is directly attributable to the creative environment Gaines created.”

Fantagraphics will be publishing four EC collections a year, beginning in Summer 2012.

“Came the Dawn” and Other Stories
By: Wally Wood, Al Feldstein, et al.
Release Date: July 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60699-546-4
Black & White • Hardcover • 7” x 10”

“Corpse on the Imjin” and Other Stories
By: Harvey Kurtzman et al.
Release Date: July 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60699-545-7
Black & White / Color • Hardcover • 7” x 10”