FLOG! Entries

Daily OCD 5/24/13

TheJenVaughn

The coldest Dip'n'Dots of Online Commentaries & Marketing:

• Interview: Comic Book Resources and Alex Dueben interview Peter Bagge about Other Stuff and his favorite collaborations in the book, "The earliest one in the book, "Life in These United States," didn't come out looking at all like I had envisioned it…what Clowes did with it was truly remarkable. Also, Gilbert [Hernandez] radically changed the faces, ages and even genders of almost everyone in the "Me" strip. That threw me for a loop! Though it didn't negatively impact the story in the slightest."

• Review: The A.V. Club looks at Peter Bagge's Other Stuff. "Other Stuff also brings together strips Bagge has written about rock icons, along with a few cartoon essays, and strips featuring his characters Lovey and The Leeways, who respectively represent hipster adventurism and dogged domesticity. It’s a full picture of who Bagge has been as an artist and humorist over the past 20 years, and as such is as valuable for newcomers as fans…" writes Noel Murray.

• Interview: Peter Bagge is interviewed on Societe Perrier by Christian J Petersen on comics, Seattle and growing up clever. "Did your parents encourage your creativity? No, though they didn't discourage it. They were drunk."

• Review: The Quietus looks at The Adventures of Jodelle by Guy Peellaert and Pierre Bartier. Aug Stone writes, "Jodelle is fantastic in every sense of the word, filled with in-jokes and time-defying references, nudity and sex (not always coinciding), exaggerated violence, but most importantly a sense of pushing the edges of possibility…The original Pop Art comic and one of the first ‘adult comics’ (released a year after Barbarella by same publisher Eric Losfeld), Jodelle is an artistic tour de force."

• Review: Bookgasm looks at The Adventures of Jodelle by Guy Peellaert. "…let the fleshy neon visuals explode into your eyeballs.…It won’t have the same impact today, as many of its visual ideas have been appropriated and subverted into the mainstream culture, but as both a time capsule of its era and as a visually stunning romp, it remains a unique experience that should certainly be at least sampled by any adventurous modern reader of comics. Playfully provocative, funny and smart, THE ADVENTURES OF JODELLE pops with a soft-lined splash of lurid color," writes JT Lindroos.

• Review: It's Nice That and look at The Adventures of Jodelle. "Peellaert was every bit the master of his craft and with enviable vision and flair managed to transform a previously safe medium into something exciting and dangerous…It’s intoxicating stuff!" exclaims James Cartwright.

• Plug: Russ Meyer and Juxtapoz plug The Adventures of Jodelle.

• Interview: Robin McConnell of Inkstuds interviews THE Ulli Lust, cartoonist of Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life.

• Review: Mr. Media looks at Sexytime and interviews editor Jacques Boyreau.

• Interview: HeroesOnline and Seth Peagler interview Ed Piskor about comics, music and Hip Hop Family Tree. Piskor states, "There were some interesting things to look at while writing the book. It’s necessary to know the political/economic climate at the time. The fine art scene plays an integral role in the development of early Hip Hop as well, which many people might not know. If it wasn’t for the downtown scene gravitating toward graffiti culture it could have all died out in the early 80s."

• Review: I Reads You reads Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. Leroy Douresseaux writes, "This publishing format is designed to appeal to the people who decide what will make the shelves of bookstores.…this is another volume of New Stories which proves that Love and Rockets is as strong as ever and is ready for 30 more great years."

• Review: Kotaku's roundtable discuss what they did and didn't like about Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez. Evan Narcisse posits "I did like how the family lived on the fringes of the 20th Century. It reminded me A LOT of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. The weird almost-incest, characters with the same names and weird proclivities, home-as-a-black-hole-you-can't-escape, the outside world as an exotic dangerous place, nature as this karmic equalizer …"

• Interview: Nicole Rudick of The Comics Journal interviews James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook about 7 Miles A Second and their creative life together. James mentions, "…it is about empathy, the only thing we have that allows us to touch each other. So if there’s anything positive to be taken out of the book, it’s that we should be working toward a more empathetic experience while we’re on the planet."

• Review: Comic Book Resources looks at 50 Girls 50 by Al Williamson. "It’s interesting seeing how different some of the artwork is – Williamson liked science fiction, apparently, and was occasionally bored with the other stories William Gaines or Al Feldstein gave him, but there’s no story here that doesn’t at least offer something sublime…Fantagraphics has done a really nice job bringing a lot of the 1940s/1950s stuff back into print, and if they keep picking such cool stuff like this, I’ll just have to keep buying it!" exclaims Greg Burgas.

• Review: Spectrum Culture looks at 'Tain't the Meat by Jack Davis. "Davis was a phenomenal draftsman whose dynamic line work could imbue even static scenes with restless energy, and whose clean but detailed layouts could bring to life queasiness-inducing tableaux of rotting corpses and piled intestines…Al Feldstein and Carl Wessler wrote the lion’s share of these tales and had a knack for mixing cruel irony and creeping dread.…EC has been gone for decades now, but volumes like this help ensure that its influence won’t be forgotten." writes David Maine.

• Review: The Portland Mercury on Dash Shaw's New School. "The experience of reading New School is like temporarily inhabiting the body and brain of an artist: This is what growing up might feel like for someone who lives and breathes colors and shapes," writes Allison Hallett. "It's heady, hallucinatory, and bizarre, but it's grounded in the simple experience of growing up in the shadow of a beloved older sibling."

• Interview: Societe Perrier by Christian J Petersen interview Johnny Ryan. "You seem to be exploring a darkside in your work but you soften the blow with humor. What would your real darkside look like? Prison Pit. "

• Plug: Buzzfeed tells you what you want to read in the webcomics department: Steven Weissman's Barack Hussein Obama (and co) and Julia Gfrorer's Black is the Color (coming out soon in print)!

• Plug: Duckburg Weekly looks at Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley and Mickey Mouse Volume 2: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson. "With Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Classic Collection Fantagraphics Books published a must-have for everyone who's interested in early works of the Walt Disney Company!…[Vol. 1]offers amazing articles about the 'birth' of Mickey Mouse, bonus panels which were never published and different artists in the spotlight (such as Al Taliaferro and Jack King)…Again [in Vol. 2] there is a chapter with incredible bonus material which informs about the villains, Floyd's colleagues and additional comic strips."

• Interview: It's Nice That and James Cartwright interviewed Anders Nilsen about The End, coming out in print this fall. "…some of it is pretty raw, and that’s how I felt at the time. Some of it is funny, too, I think, which is also part of the experience. It can feel very absurd at times. If it feels like a crazy emotional roller coaster to read, then it’s doing the job."

• Plug: The Daily Rios reviews Chuck Forsman's The End of the Fucking World in its serialized form.

• Review: The Comics Journal reviewed the Kolor Klimax anothology, edited by Matthias Wivel. Robert Kirby writes, "I found myself drawn back to each several times…That, for me, is the common vibe generated by this and other Euro-comics anthologies: the sense of possibility and novelty that comes from having available a whole new frontier of previously hard-to-come-by alt-comics by accomplished artists to explore. Comics speak a universal, intuitive language, but this 'Nordic Hypnotica' opens Americans up to previously unfamiliar dialects that are a pleasure to read, enjoy, and occasionally decode."

• Review: Kitty Sneezes looks at Drew and Josh Alan Friedman's Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental. "Shemp acts both as a beacon of Drew Friedman's amazing artistic skill, but also as a signpost of what you'll find.…strips starring the semi-forgotten figures of old media. Figures like Abbott & Costello, Chet Huntley, Joe Franklin or Tor Johnson come up frequently. I especially love the Tor strips. And usually, though there's a surrealist bent like you'd find in the work of Michael Kupperman, there's usually a sense of love for the work of these people" writes Rev. Syung Myung Me.

• Plug: A JASON mural in Oslo!

• Commentary: Michael Netzer says some nice things and does a beautiful drawing of Kim Thompson.

• Commentary: Casey Burbachy writes about the history of Fantagraphics and our partnership with digital comics publisher/distribution company, comiXology on Publishers Weekly.

• Cool: A lot of our cartoonists have contributed to the Exquisite Corpse comic on Trubble Club!

• Commentary (photos): Inkstuds host Robin McConnell took some loverly photos of Larry Reid, Jacq Cohen and me at Emerald City Comic Con.

• Interview: Jacq Cohen describes why TCAF rocks and our new books there on Forbidden Planet International and soon to be in a store near you.

Barnaby Vol. 1 by Crockett Johnson - Now in Stock

mike

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Barnaby Vol. 1
by Crockett Johnson

Edited by Eric Reynolds & Philip Nel; Introduction by Chris Ware; art direction by Daniel Clowes

320-page black & white (with some color) 11" x 6.75" hardcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-522-8

See Previews / Order Now

Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time — Harold and the Purple Crayon — cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby for over ten years (1942 to 1952). Its subtle ironies and playful allusions never won a broad following, but the adventures of 5-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley was and is a critical favorite.

Fantagraphics introduces the wonders of Barnaby to a new generation of children and parents alike. Co-edited by Johnson biographer Philip Nel (Dr. Seuss: American Icon) and Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, with art direction by graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), this five-volume Barnaby series will collect the entirety of the original newspaper strips from 1942-1952. The first volume collects all the strips from 1942 and 1943.

Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairly godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley. Yet O’Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist and fast-talker, was not your typical protector. His grasp of magic was usually specious at best, limited to occasional flashes, often aided and abetted by his fellow members in The Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men’s Chowder & Marching Society.

Barnaby’s deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit, and elegantly spare images expanded our sense of what comic strips can do. With subtlety and economy, Barnaby proved that comics need not condescend to readers. Its small but influential readership took that message to heart.

Georgetown Carnival: Art, Music, Power Tool Races!

LarryR

The colorful Georgetown Carnival arts festival enters its 7th year with an eclectic array of entertainment reflecting the sensibilities of one of Seattle's liveliest neighborhoods. This free, family friendly event features diverse music, interactive art, acrobats, circus acts, carnival games and confections, as well as Hazardfactory's world famous Power Tool Races. The fun is from noon to 8:00 PM on Saturday, June 8 in the heart of the historic Georgetown industrial arts corridor.

Don't miss stiltwalkers, aerialists, tall bikes, brass bands, and rock ‘n' roll. Young performers from Georgetown's School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts will be joined by youthful musicians from the Seattle Drum School on the Carnival Stage. Artists from Georgetown's Equinox Studios present intriguing art activities. Sandbox Sports hosts a children's beach party. Students from nearby Cleveland High School screen short films. "Minions" from Despicable Me 2 wander the Carnival grounds. Kids win wonderful prizes at creative carnival games.

Thrill to the spectacle of customized power tools drag racing side-by-side in Hazardfactory's infamous Power Tool Races, concluding with a cacophonous demolition derby. This year's Fantagraphics entry will be unveiled at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, June 1. Sweet!

More than 15 bands perform on 3 stages, including Tom Price Desert Classic (featuring Fantagraphics own Martin Bland), Cute Lepers, The Billy Joe Show, Rocket Surgery, The Gum, Dead Man, and more, along with the grand opening of the Sub Pop Mega Mart in advance of their Silver Jubilee celebration in Georgetown on July 13. The Stables Midway Sideshow and Georgetown Brewing Beer Garden features mature entertainment including burlesque dancers, drag queens, and lounge acts. An additional beer garden is located at the Georgetown Trailer Park Market of Curiosities and music stage.

Plan to spend your whole summer in the enchanting Georgetown district!

Important Memorial Day Sale Update

mike

YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.

Our Memorial Day Mega-Blowout Sale is exceeding our wildest expectations! Unfortunately, what this means is that many sale items are already backordered — our current supply is depleted — and some are gone completely. We will be restocking and filling backorders just as soon as we figure out how many of each title we need, but please note that your order may be delayed in shipping up to 4 weeks. With that in mind, we advise you to NOT choose rush shipping when placing your order!

Meanwhile the sale marches on with our biggest discount ever — 75% OFF! — on a huge assortment of almost 250 items through the end of the day on Monday, May 27, 2013.

(Reminder: coupons and other discounts do not apply to these sale items. Due to the expected high volume of orders please allow 1-2 extra days for processing and shipping of in-stock items.)

Daily OCD Extra: Booklist's June Reviews

TheJenVaughn

This month's issue of Booklist reviewed three recent releases by Fantagraphics creators, excerpted below:

Peter Bagge's Other Stuff by Peter Bagge et al.

"The pleasing hodgepodge includes multipart sequences featuring Bagge creations like hipster wannabe Lovey and clueless suburbanites Chet and Bunny Leeway (resurrected from Bagge’s 1980s series, Neat Stuff); Bagge-scripted stories drawn by other alt-comics titans, including R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez as well as a story scripted by Alan Moore…While his rubbery, exaggerated visual style may be one-note (as effective and appealing as that single note might be), this diverse assortment of work, nearly all of it top-notch, shows that Bagge has plenty of arrows in his artistic quiver." –Gordon Flagg

Good Dog by Graham Chaffee

"Chaffee’s artwork is bold and straightforward, and he imbues each dog with its own personality while avoiding excessive anthropomorphizing. The natural audience for this work is, of course, dog lovers, but you don’t have to be a caninophile to appreciate Chaffee’s remarkable ability to get inside the mind of man’s best friend." –Gordon Flagg

'Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity! and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)
by Jack Davis & Al Feldstein

"…while other EC artists were moodier or spookier, Jack Davis’ stories stood out for their distinctly cartoony tinge, leavening the terror with a mocking humor…they remain entertaining six decades later, or as the Crypt-Keeper would put it, “There’s no ghoul like an old ghoul.” –Gordon Flagg

EC Comics and Peanuts: NY Times Best Sellers

TheJenVaughn

We've had three books hit the NY Times Best Sellers list for two weeks this past month! Dig into yer wallets and read what's on everyone's mind: some quality EC Comics and books from the comic strip master himself, Charles Schulz.

50 Girls 50 and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)
illustrated by Al Williamson et al.; written by Al Feldstein et al.

"…here we’re dazzled by romanticized sci-fi heroics and delicate line-work of the ilk of FLASH GORDON’S original artist Alex Raymond, Williamson’s main inspiration. Dinosaurs, spaceships, and outlandish otherworldly creatures populate the flora of faraway worlds, accompanied by buxom, exotically garbed beauties." –Rick Trembles, Fangoria

'Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity! and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)
by Jack Davis & Al Feldstein

Of course, around the office everyone is guffawing that we got the word 'taint' on the list. Close up shop, everyone, our job is done here.

"Even though he wasn't a perfectionist, Jack Davis's laziness is better than most people's best work. When Davis does invest himself in a drawing it's just a mind bender. This is a must have for anyone who loves horror, EC, Jack Davis, any of that stuff." –Nick Gazin, VICE

The Complete Peanuts: 1987-88 (Volume 19)
by Charles Schulz

Flirting and a hockey mishap send Charlie Brown and Snoopy (respectively) to the doctor. Plus Spike, Sally, Rerun and the whole gang, and the epochal change from 4 uniform panels to a variable format. Introduction by Garry Trudeau.

Memorial Day Mega-Blowout SALE! 75% Off Over 250 Items!

mike

Land sakes we have a lot of books coming out this summer and we need to clear out space in our warehouse. Hence we are offering our biggest discount ever — 75% OFF! — on a huge assortment of over 250 items.

Treat yourself to our first Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse box set for just $12.50! Get our big fancy Love and Rockets hardcovers Locas II and Luba for 10 bucks each! Recent collections of classic material by Roy Crane, Mort Meskin, Alex Toth, Bill Mauldin, Simon & Kirby and more are $10 and under! Pick up super-cheap books by a globe-spanning roster of artists including Dave McKean, Moto Hagio, Joost Swarte, Bill Griffith, Joe Sacco, Jim Woodring, Megan Kelso, Jason, Charles Burns, Lorenzo Mattotti, Johnny Ryan, Drew Friedman, Esther Pearl Watson, Carol Tyler and many more favorites! Take a chance on something you haven't heard of before! Graphic novels for the price of comic books! Comic books for around a buck! And don't forget the gifts for your friends & family! Click here to see the whole lineup.

The sale is on now and runs all Memorial Day weekend — we start taking it down at the end of the day on Monday, May 27, 2013. Don't miss out — order now!

(Please note: coupons and other discounts do not apply to these sale items. The deals are crazy enough as it is! Due to the expected high volume of orders please allow 1-2 extra days for processing and shipping.)

Guffaw out loud with Peter Bagge's Other Stuff on comiXology

TheJenVaughn

Fantagraphics and comiXology are happy to bring one of the pillars of alternative comics to the digital forefront. Peter Bagge's Other Stuff is perfect for a long-time reader of Hate or a new-comer.

Other Stuff includes a series of Bagge-written stories drawn by other cartoonists, including "Life in these United States" with Daniel Clowes, "Shamrock Squid" with Adrian Tomine, and the one-two parody punch of "Caffy" (with art by R. Crumb) and "Dildobert" (with art by Prison Pit’s Johnny Ryan)... plus a highlight of the book, the hilarious, literate and intricate exposé of "Kool-Aid Man" written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bagge. (Other collaborators include the Hernandez Brothers and Danny Hellman.) Enjoy 146 pages of fun for only $14.99 on comiXology.

"Other Stuff also brings together strips Bagge has written about rock icons, along with a few cartoon essays, and strips featuring his characters Lovey and The Leeways, who respectively represent hipster adventurism and dogged domesticity. It’s a full picture of who Bagge has been as an artist and humorist over the past 20 years, and as such is as valuable for newcomers as fans…" –Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust - Now in Stock

mike

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
by Ulli Lust (translated by Kim Thompson)

464-page two-color 6.75" x 9" softcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-557-0

See Previews / Order Now

Back in 1984, a rebellious, 17-year-old, punked-out Ulli Lust set out for a wild hitchhiking trip across Italy, from Naples through Verona and Rome and ending up in Sicily. Twenty-five years later, this talented Austrian cartoonist has looked back at that tumultuous summer and delivered a long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece.

Miraculously combining a perfect memory for both emotional and physical detail with the sometimes painful lucidity two and half decades’ distance have brought to her understanding of the events, Lust meticulously shows the who, where, when, and how (specifically, how an often penniless young girl can survive for months on the road) of a sometimes dangerous and sometimes exhilarating journey. Particularly haunting is her portrait of her fellow traveler, the gangly, promiscuous devil-may-care Edi who veers from being her spunky, funny best friend in the world to an out-of-control lunatic with no consideration for anything but her own whims and desires.

Universally considered one of the very finest examples of the new breed of graphic novels coming from Europe, Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life won the 2011 Angoulême “Revelation” prize, and Fantagraphics is proud to bring it to English speaking readers.

First Look: The End of the Fucking World (TEOTFW) by Charles Forsman

mike

We seem to have a habit of posting sneak peeks of this book right after deadly disasters. We promise it's not on purpose.

Given the subject matter, calling our upcoming paperback collection of Charles Forsman's The End of the Fucking World "cute" seems a little weird, but it's partly the tension between wanting to put it in your pocket and being gripped by the harrowing story that gives the work its power.

This highly-anticipated book drops in July (after debuting at CAKE in Chicago in mid-June). We have an excerpt of the first two chapters for you to read right here, and stay tuned for details of an exclusive signed Risograph print you'll be able to get as a pre-order bonus!

TCAF in photos

TheJenVaughn

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival was amazing, it was a whole corral of Fantagraphics cartoonists visiting Toronto with publicist Jacq Cohen and me to sell sell sell books to the sweetest Canadians. On Friday we stopped at the coolest comic book store, The Beguiling.

Inkstuds' Robin McConnell in the Beguiling

Dash Shaw's new floppy comic, 3 New Stories! Plus, Maidenheadlock a crazy screen printed comic.

There was an awesome shop called Honest Ed's full of $1 jeggings and $3 babies. BABIES, guys. It was a hell of deal. Luckily they had cool signage everywhere. If Jacq ever uses the internet for dates, here you go.

We were all lucky enough to enjoy a converstation between Gilbert Hernandez, Tom Spurgeon and Jaime Hernandez about Love and Rockets, alternative comics and more in the Reference Library Friday night.

Andrew and James (yes?) from The Beguiling working the Bros book booth on Friday night. Thank you for being sweethearts and working hard.

The Death of Speedy, a touchstone story of Jaime's Locas series of Love and Rockets.

Drawn and Quarterly were excellent Canadian printing cousins and invited Jacq and me out to dinner. I sat across from Gilbert, Seth and Jaime (swoon).

Chester Brown showed off some new original pages to Jeet Heer, Julia, Tracey and Chris Oliveros of D&Q. Seth constantly made fun of Chester's hair but its nicely conditioned.

The big day was upon us and the table was S.T.A.C.K.E.D. with books like Ulli Lust's Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life.

Mike Winters, funny comic book man and Kupperman fan, was ready for his first comics show and showed off his cash envelope-bowl. His loonies and toonies smelled faintly of egg salad.

Jaime and Dash Shaw were ready EARLY at 9am to sign books!

Our first cup of coffee was barely over before a Jaime fan bared all to show off his sexy Maggie tattoo. Jaime said "Make sure to get those boxers in the photo" just so you know I'm not objectifying this gentleman.

Then the magical Ulli Lust made her appearance. Leon Avelino of Secret Acres and The Beguiling's Peter Birkmoe showed up but were sadly outdone by the BEST CON FACE EVER. Thank you, Toronto.

Ulli doesn't really spend ANY time on these book signings, right? Man, alive!

Michael Kupperman had fans aplenty ready to buy Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 2 and original artwork.

Lilli Carré and Tom Kaczynski talk shop by stacks of Heads or Tails and Beta Testing the Apocalypse.

Spotted: awarding-winning comics librarian Lucia Cedeira Serantes. She showed off her Where the Wild Things Are shirt for The Comics Journal #302 featuring the last Maurice Sendak interview.

Robin McConnell and Portland's Sam Alden.

Ed Piskor and Jacq talk about Hip Hop Family Tree and something evil given Ed's hands...

Hanging out with Toronto's Zach Worton, The Beguiling's Alex Hoffman, our Chuck Forsman (we can't wait for The End of the Fucking World and Celebrated Summer) and Josh Frankel.

Gilbert pretends to act crotchedy with an enthsiastic Peggy Burns from D&Q. Jade and Tracy in the background!

Jaime and I discuss Little League baseball. Gilbert keeps up the act.

Jacq and our former intern, future super cartoonist Sophie Yanow.

Oh geez, they had someone doing 10 minute henna at the front of TCAF show and while so beautiful, all I could think is what happens when someone accidentally rubs the still drying design on some $40 book. Actually, now I think about it that's a great way to get rid of some backstock.

Ulli and Dash signing books: Dash promises he was listening and not drifting back into his new book, New School.

BUT Dash Shaw and I only have to hear the first half of the word 'VOGUE' before hittin' it, so to speak.

One Toronotian gal loved Dash Shaw's comics so much, Bottomless Belly Button, she got a tattoo based on it.

One of the Beguiling employees was chuffed to meet Michael Kupperman so they had to pose for a photo. You can tell its nice and early here because of all the butt space people have while walking down the aisles.

Michael draws a commissioned illustration for a fan.

Jacq snapped this photo of Michael at his artist spotlight panel. We wish our cartoonists had more confidence.

Alex from The Beguiling picks up The Armed Garden by his favorite cartoonist, David B. NO, DA-vead Beh, say it right.

Ulli stops to say hi to smart person and comics fan, Gil Roth.

Thanks to Oliver East for tabling next to Fantagraphics all weekend, he is a true pleasure!

ALSO, thank you thank you to anyone who stopped by my comics booth. I put my name in for work and myself and never dreamed I'd get into TCAF with my own comics. Thanks to you, new friends, (and my harried and usually alone tablemate, Lucy Bellwood).

How cool is The Beguiling for buying all your comics (or a goodly amount) after the show? Standing in the line was worth it not to carry your comics back over the border! Hopefully you said thank you to Peter Birkemoe and Chris Butcher at some point.

The after party was at Lee's Palace, an old punk venue that was so gorgeous. The town is full of beautiful facades and interesting buildings.

The Monday after the show we ran around Toronto with whomever was left in town. Like Rutu Modan! Jacq, me and Rutu accidentally ate opposite Robin, Mark P. Hensel (aka William Cardini) and Murilo.

Theo Ellsworth joined us for a visit to the beautiful Taiyo Matsumoto exhibit at the Japan Foundation and we ran into the Matsumoto himself! I've been a fan since Steve Bissette showed me some of his comics and the Ping Pong movie. PLEASE check it out if you haven't already and prepare to be blown away.

This restaurant could be dangerous for someone like me. We were all confused as to what this kid's mouth is doing, why he's pushing his cheeks in, especially when saying the word 'cheese' pulls your mouth wide. You win this one, Toronto.

Thank you, TCAF and The Beguiling, for all the help and love. We had a great time. Ulli mentioned one time how much she loved 'North American enthusiasm' so you made her week!

Photos by Jen, Jacq and Robin.

Fantagraphics at the International Comic Arts Forum in Portland!

janice

Portland, get ready for a lot of cool accents in the comics community this weekend as the Rose City hosts the 2013 International Comic Arts Forum!

From Thursday, May 23rd through Saturday, May 25th, you are invited to attend this annual academic conference, featuring Fantagraphics special guests Megan Kelso, Tommi Musturi, and T. Edward Bak!

The entire weekend is jam-packed with wonderful panels, discussions, and papers, but here are a few highlights we thought you'd particularly enjoy! (... 'cause they feature our artists!... )

Thursday, May 23rd

7:30 - 9:00 PM // A Celebration of Finnish Comics at Floating World Comics: Comics illustrator Tommi Musturi, whose work is featured in Kolor Klimax: Nordic Comics Now, and editor Ville Hänninen will discuss their work on Finnish comics at Floating World Comics [ 400 NW Couch Street ]. A pre-talk reception begins at 6:30 PM, with a Q&A to follow the talk.

Friday, May 24th

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM // Women & Politics: Alisia Chase will present “Matrixial Graphics: Motherhood and Politics in Megan Kelso’s Watergate Sue" at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].

Saturday, May 25th

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM // Self, Memory, Perception: Josina Robb will present "The Spatiality of Voice: How Joe Sacco’s Palestine Takes Up the Ethos of New Journalism" at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM // Roundtable: Comics and the Pacific Northwest: With comics creators Megan Kelso, Greg Rucka, and T. Edward Bak. Moderated by Ben Saunders at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].

All these wonderful panels and events are totally FREE! All you gotta do is register online here.

Photoset: Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

mike

Fantagraphics is proud to present the follow-up to Jacques Tardi's double Eisner Award-winning masterpiece It Was the War of the Trenches, which was hailed by critics as "harrowing and ruthlessly affecting" (NPR), "a masterful and visceral tone poem about war" (Library Journal), and "a cri de coeur that stands out even from Tardi's impressive body of work" (Booklist).

Goddamn This War!
by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

140-page full-color 8.25” x 10.75” hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-582-2

Due to arrive in about 6-8 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/goddamnthiswar

Max Andersson at the Seattle International Film Festival!

janice

Fantagraphics is thrilled to welcome world-famous cartoonist and filmmaker Max Andersson to town for the Seattle International Film Festival. He'll be screening his first feature-length film Tito on Ice at the SIFF Cinema Uptown on Sunday, May 26th at 8:00 PM, with an encore screening on Tuesday, May 28th at 3:30 PM.

To promote their Fantagraphics book Bosnian Flat Dog, Andersson and fellow Swedish artist Lars Sjunnesson toured the countries of former Yugoslavia with a mummified Marshal Tito in a refrigerator.

Now comes the documentary, Tito on Ice, which takes Super 8 footage of their tour and animates it with cardboard cutouts and garbage and other recycled materials. The result is a surreal trip through the Balkans that is part promotion, part performance art, and part history of Marshal Tito and the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It’s also about the underground arts and music venues that popped up when the country split apart.

Through it all there is a comics creator’s eye at work: live-action interviews suddenly switch to animation, and more than 50 sets were built for the film, all shot and animated on Super 8 film. Tito on Ice is a joyous trip through the war torn subconscious of an underground artist.

Max will be in town on Sunday night to introduce the film and engage in a Q&A afterwards. Fantagraphics will be on site, selling you copies of Bosnian Flat Dog to get signed. Tito on Ice is screening at the SIFF Cinema Uptown, located at 511 Queen Anne Avenue North. See you there!

Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics - 16-Page Excerpt

mike

In terms of pure fun, Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics is hard to beat. Our wide-format volume, coming late next month, collects the full run of Wilson's little-seen mid-1970s weekly newspaper strip. Each installment contains 5 or so gags in signature Gahanian style — droopy, lumpy and slightly twisted.

Find out what you're in for with our excerpt containing the first 15 strips. View the preview in the embedded reader here (full-screen viewing recommended) or get the PDF directly, and pre-order the book here.

Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney - Video/Photo Slideshow

mike

Goddamn This War!
by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

140-page full-color 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-582-2

Ships in: July 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Created 15 years after the completion of his Eisner Award-winning World War I masterwork It Was the War of the Trenches, Tardi's Goddamn This War! is no mere sequel or extension, but a brand new, wholly individual graphic novel that serves as a companion piece to Trenches but can be read entirely on its own.

Vastly different sequentially (eschewing Trenches' splintered narrative, Goddamn is split into six chronological chapters, one for each year of the war), graphically (Tardi deploys his more recent pen-ink-and-watercolor technique, with the bold colors of the early chapters fading into a grimy near-monochrome in the later ones as the war drags on), and narratively (all of Goddamn is told, with insight, dark wit and despair, as a first-person reminiscence/narration by an unnamed soldier), Goddamn This War! shares with Trenches its sustained sense of outrage, pitch-black gallows humor, and impeccably scrupulous historical exactitude.

In fact, Goddamn This War! includes an extensive year-by-year historical text section written by Tardi's frequent World War I research helpmate, the historian and collector Jean-Pierre Verney, including dozens of stunning rare photographs and visual documents from his personal collection.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Happy Birthday, Linda Medley

TheJenVaughn

Enjoy your birthday and we hope you got everything you wished for! Linda Medley is the cartoonist of the Castle Waiting series with a new softcover edition of Volume 1 and the new Definitive Edition of Volume 2.

First Look & Excerpt: Lost Cat by Jason

mike

As you can see, Jason's new graphic novel Lost Cat (coming in July) is presented in the same handsome hardcover format as his story collections Low Moon and Athos in America and the reprint volumes What I Did and Almost Silent. His longest, and dare we say one of his best, works to date deserves no less.

A detective story with multiple mysteries, romantic longing, and a head-spinning finale all delivered in trademark understated Jason style, it's a thrilling, heart-tugging, satisfying read. And there's a cute kitty cat. See for yourself with our free 15-page excerpt, and pre-order yours right here.

Jaime Hernandez at COMICA: The London International Comics Festival!

janice

As we mentioned yesterday on FLOG, comics legend Jaime Hernandez is returning to London after nearly twenty years, and he'll be the guest-of-honor at a special Comica Conversation, hosted by Comica: The London International Comics Festival, on Thursday, May 30th!

Jaime will discuss the lives and loves of his crazy ‘locas’ -- Maggie and Hopey -- and other much-loved characters from the independent phenomenon Love and Rockets.

Doors open at 6:00 PM, and the event starts at 6:30 PM sharp! The discussion runs through 8:00 PM, followed by a signing.

Tickets are selling FAST, and they've already moved the event to a larger venue to accomodate all you Love and Rockets fans! Do not sleep on this: get your tickets today either online, or by calling the box office at 020 7871 3515.

Don't let the name fool you: the Ciné Lumière Cinema at the Institut Francais is located in London at 17 Queensberry Place. The nearest tube station is at South Kensington on the Piccadilly, Circle & District lines.

Ad�le Blanc-Sec movie coming out on US DVD/Blu-Ray

mike

At last, the announcement we've been waiting for since 2010: Luc Besson's film adaptation of Jacques Tardi's The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is finally getting released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States! It comes out from Shout! Factory on August 13 and you'll be able to watch it dubbed into English or with subtitles. Here's a trailer:

Read the books!

(Hat tip to the Carlsons.)