(not final cover) 

Fantagraphics is proud to announce Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson. Author Kevin Avery spent four years researching and writing this unique anthology-biography. This book compiles Nelson's best works and also provides a vivid account of his life.

In the '60s, Paul Nelson pioneered rock & roll criticism with a first-person style of writing later coined "New Journalism." During a five-year detour at Mercury Records, he signed the New York Dolls to their first recording contract, and then settled back down to music criticism at Rolling Stone. Through his writing, Nelson championed the early careers of artists like Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Warren Zevon, The Sex Pistols, and The Ramones.

But in 1982, he walked away from it all. By the time Nelson died in his New York City apartment in 2006, everything he'd written had been relegated to back issues of old music magazines.

"My original idea for this book was simply to anthologize Paul Nelson's best work so that today's readers could discover, as I had in my youth, his elegant and brilliant writings," explains author Kevin Avery. "But I soon realized that, in doing these pieces, Paul was ultimately telling his own story. And his story was so damn compelling it was impossible for me not to write about it."

American journalist, biographer, and poet Nick Tosches wrote the foreword to this landmark work of cultural revival, which stands as a tribute to and collection of one of the unsung critical champions of popular music.

Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson
By: Kevin Avery • Foreword By: Nick Tosches
$29.99 • Hardcover • Black & White • 584 Pages
Release: November 2011
ISBN: 978-1606994757

Download this press release in PDF format.

The Comics Journal is proud to announce the relaunch of TCJ.com with new editorial oversight.

The editorial team that is taking over are Dan Nadel and Tim Hodler. Together they co-founded the Eisner-nominated magazine and blog Comics Comics with cartoonist Frank Santoro in 2006. They published four print issues and the web edition quickly grew into one of the most vital forums for critical and historical discussion of comics, marked by contributions from some of the leading cartoonists and writers in the field.

The Comics Journal print magazine has chronicled the comics medium since its first publication in 1976. It has been a leading force of journalism exploring both the facets of the comics industry and the artistic value of the books. Releasing over 300 issues, The Journal is changing face as well with an over 600-page tome of criticism and interviews for issue 301.

The new TCJ.com will continue this tradition by offering an online magazine for interviews, criticism, history and ideas in a concise, beautifully designed format. The site will feature multiple book reviews every week, making it a clearinghouse for the latest critical responses to comics and graphic novels from all over the spectrum.

There is a myriad of contributing writers offering a wide a to the new TCJ.com, all bringing together leading voices from literary critics, to pop culture journalists, to comics reviewers. Expect to see writing from Richard Gehr, Nicole Rudick, Jesse Pearson, Andrew Leland, Frank Santoro, Jeet Heer, Ken Parille, R. Fiore, Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Ryan Holmberg, Gary Groth, and many others.

Along with featuring long form articles on all aspects of the medium from leading contemporary writers, TCJ.com will also host a monthly diary feature, in which an artist (or other comics figure) takes us through a week of their life in prose, pictures or cartoons, one day at a time. This column is kicking off with Vanessa Davis, followed by Brandon Graham, then Joyce Farmer, with many more to come.

The new TCJ.com is focused on bringing the magazine's archive to a new online readership. With holdings including hundreds of interviews with the leading cartoonists of the 20th century and serve as a living record of the development of the comics medium. Beginning March 1, and rolling out over several months, each issue of The Comics Journal will be made available in its entirety to subscribers. Non-subscribers will have the opportunity to sample highlights from many of the issues as well.

Dan Nadel is the publisher of the acclaimed PictureBox Inc, which has released graphic novels, art books, and novels by the likes of Gary Panter, Charles Willeford, Yuichi Yokoyama, and Wilco. He has also written two of the most vital recent books on comics history: Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 and Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980. Nadel won a Grammy Award for his art direction of Wilco's A Ghost is Born album package, and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Tim Hodler is a writer and editor who has been published in Bookforum, Details, New York Magazine, and The Ganzfeld, among other places.

March 1, 2011 – Seattle, WA. The work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi was introduced to American audiences more than three decades ago. His work was championed by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, who included him in their prestigious RAW anthology in the early 1980s. For the remainder of the century, several North American publishers endeavored to draw attention to Tardi. Yet with the exception of the alternative comics cognoscenti, his work remained marginalized in the United States. Only with the persistence of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books — who have published no fewer than five Tardi titles in the past 2 years - has this acknowledged genius found a substantial American following.

"Better Tardi Than Never: How France's Greatest Living Cartoonist Took a Mere 32 Years to Break Through to American Audiences" examines the life's work of Jacques Tardi. Organized by Fantagraphics Books co-publisher, editor, and Tardi translator Kim Thompson, the exhibition includes pages from the artist's earliest English translations dating back to 1977. Thompson began translating Tardi in 1983 with an excerpt from It Was the War of the Trenches in RAW #5. He has been a tireless advocate of this extraordinary artist, translating and publishing his work in several anthologies until American readers finally caught on. The exhibition will include examples of each Tardi translation to reach American soil, along with a narrative explaining the context.

The opening reception on Saturday, March 12 will feature a slide lecture by the show's curator Kim Thompson at 6:30 PM. "You Don't Know Jacques. Tardi: 20 Books in 20 Minutes" examines the cartoonist's career in France. The event will also feature the world premiere of Fantagraphics' fifth Tardi book, the epic "icepunk" tale The Arctic Marauder.

The opening on March 12 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic neighborhood. For more information and a map of participants see: www.geogetownartattack.com.

Listing information

BETTER TARDI THAN NEVER
How France's greatest living cartoonist took a mere
32 years to break through to American audiences.

Curated by Kim Thompson
Opening Saturday, March 12, 6:00 - 9:00 PM

YOU DON'T KNOW JACQUES
Tardi: 20 books in 20 minutes
A slide presentation by Fantagraphics co-publisher, editor and translator Kim Thompson at 6:30 PM on March 12.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 - 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

Seattle's own alternative comics pioneers Fantagraphics are bringing their award-winning wares to the 9th Annual Emerald City Comic-Con, March 4th - 6th, 2011 at the Washington State Convention Center. Tickets for the Emerald City Comic-Con are available at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Georgetown.

Visit our table at space #808 and check out new titles, such as Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009, FUC_ __U, _SS __LE: Blecky Yuckerella Vol. 4, The Strange Case of Edward Gorey, King of the Flies Vol. 2: The Origin of the World, Stigmata, Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2, Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition, Special Exits, Little Maakies on the Prairie, Prince Valiant Vol. 3 and Popeye Vol. 5.

Special guests include:

Peter Bagge, the funniest cartoonist of his generation. Bagge is probably best known for the 1990s comic book series Hate, which followed the exploits of the slacker ne'er-do-well Buddy Bradley. Bagge will be signing copies of the latest Hate Annual #8, and additional works, such as Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations, on Saturday, March 5th from 10:00 am to Noon.

Jacques Boyreau, editor and cultural historian of the book Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, a celebration of some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box. Boyreau will be signing, and showing footage from Portable Grindhouse films, at our table on Friday, March 4th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.

Megan Kelso, Ignatz Award-winning artist who has returned to Seattle after a period in New York, where she published a weekly comic strip in The New York Times magazine. Kelso will be signing copies of her acclaimed novel Artichoke Tales, and other titles, on Sunday, March 6th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

Fantagraphics & Top Shelf Presents: Con Artists, the Emerald City Comic-Con After-Party

Fantagraphics Books Inc. teams up with fellow indie-comic publishers Top Shelf Productions for an Emerald City Comic-Con after-party on Saturday, March 5th at the Jewel Box Theater at the Rendezvous.

Performers include:
Can You Imagine?: featuring Peter Bagge, and legendary local producer/musician Steve Fisk
The Rheas: fronted by Eric Reynolds, Associate Publisher at Fantagraphics
Matthew Southworth: frontman for The Capillaries, and co-creator of the comic Stumptown

DJ'ing between sets will be DJ Janice, aka Janice Headley, Events Coordinator/Publicist for Fantagraphics (and Programming Assistant at Seattle radio station KEXP).

Con Artists: Emerald City Comic-Con Afterparty
Sponsored by Fantagraphics Books & Top Shelf Productions
Saturday, March 5th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Jewel Box Theater at The Rendezvous
2322 2nd Avenue in Belltown
Admission $5 (General Public)
FREE with Emerald City Comic-Con badge
21 and over with ID

Emerald City Comic-Con
March 4th - 6th, 2011
Washington State Convention Center
http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/
Friday: 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am - 7:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm

• http://www.fantagraphics.com
• http://www.fantagraphics.com/peterbagge
• http://www.fantagraphics.com/megankelso
• http://www.fantagraphics.com/portablegrindhouse