FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS AND ROSEBUD ARCHIVES ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP, LAUNCHING WEB SALES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL CARTOON ART IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS

SEATTLE WA, / DUMONT NJ, APRIL 8, 2010 --- Fantagraphics Books and Rosebud Archives have announced an agreement to market a wide variety of products related to vintage comics and posters, historical cartoons, advertising images, and illustration. The product lines will include prints, posters, framed art, books, stationery, and a hybrid format called the Rosebud PadFolio. The products are available for sale immediately on Fantagraphics.com:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/rosebud

 “We are proud to be allied with Fantagraphics, whose commitment to quality and the advancement of the graphics arts has been notable for decades,” announced Rosebud Archives founding partners Rick Marschall and Jonathan Barli. “Our own commitment to preservation, restoration, and high historical standards are a perfect match with Fantagraphics.”

Rosebud Archives releases will also include collectors’ editions of artwork created for, and featured in, Fantagraphics publications, including The Comics Journal and Nemo magazine. “The availability of Rosebud’s customized art objects is a perfect complement to the Marschall Books imprint we previously announced,” said Fantagraphics President Gary Groth. “Rick Marschall’s imprint will be a series of substantial volumes by individual cartoonists, thematic anthologies, and cultural collections of cartoon-related imagery. Rosebud will produce customized and short-run cartoons in various popular formats, which we’re very happy to provide on our website.”

Rosebud Archives was established in 2009 and has already released several lines of products that reflect the company’s vision. These early releases feature the work of George Herriman, ZIM, and Charles Dana Gibson; cartoon series by Gluyas Williams; prints of cartoons by Winsor McCay, Harrison Cady, and John T McCutcheon; and special art by Cliff Sterrett, George McManus, and Milt Gross. Specialty items include a “Krazy Kat” triptych and a Limited Edition portfolio of Marlene Dietrich photographic portraits. Boxed editions of works by great black-and-white cartoonists are issued under Rosebud’s “Shwartz and Weiss” imprint. Stationary items include notecards, postcards, and envelopes. Framed, frame-ready, and gallery-wrapped prints are also offered. The Rosebud Padfolio is a bound portfolio with detachable prints, a uniquely devised format.

Movieline has the scoop on Dash Shaw's animated feature film, THE RUINED CAST, going to the Sundance Directors Lab this June. This is huge news! The Director's lab has launched the careers of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson. We're pullin' for ya, Dash!

Following last week's teaser, the new limited-edition Jim Flora print, Ferris Wheel Fireworks, is now available in the Jim Flora Fine Art online shop. The print reproduces a spectacular panoramic two-page spread from Flora's 1957 kids' book The Day the Cow Sneezed.

Charles Burns returns to Seattle this fall with an art exhibition and book signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 30. Trick and treat this Halloween! We’ll keep you all posted.

It's official: I'm moving the weekly webcomics updates to the weekend, for severalfold reasons, not insignificant among which is that now I can call it Weekend Webcomics, because I like alliteration (though I suppose nothing was keeping me from calling it Weekly Webcomics previously, but anyway).

More witchery in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

...whoa, this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan totally ties in to last week's Steven Weissman strip (archived here)....

...and double whoa with this week's Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman.

Giant Robot will be hosting signings by John Pham, Steven Weissman, Esther Pearl Watson, and other art/illustration luminaries at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this Saturday and Sunday! See above for the schedule; here's the Facebook invitation with more info.

Daily clips & strips -- click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• T. Edward Bak presents a new epilogue to his acclaimed comic Service Industry

• Jordan Crane posts a new installment of "Chapter Two - Unraveling" at What Things Do

• The new Jim Flora fine art print, Ferris Wheel Fireworks, is now up for pre-order

• See and buy all 100+ pieces of Johnny Ryan, Matt Furie & Le Merde art from GRSF's The Boys are Back in Town exhibit — I think there's some new characters from Prison Pit Book 2 in there

• On a graph with "vagueness" and "obscenity" on the X and Y axes, this Renee French drawing is in the upper right corner

• Harmonicats with ELO bling and other oddities in Derek Van Gieson's "Abstraction House"

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "If you’re looking for a light-hearted pick-me-up, King of the Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave is not it. If, however, you’re looking for a darkly compelling, twisted, beautifully illustrated account of the broken souls and self-absorbed nihilism, Pirus and Mezzo’s album is about as good as you’ll find in the comics field. It’s a stunning piece of fiction, beautifully crafted in its prose, pacing, artistry and crushing understanding of humanity’s ugliness." – Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama

• Review: "...[Like a Dog] manages to capture the angst and anomie of a then-confused twentysomething who also just happens to be a semi-famous musician. ... His sturm und drang is filtered through a series of self-released strips and compilation projects... sometimes, as in 'You Won’t Let Yourself Be Touched,' from his self-published Recidivist comic, they transmit the otherworldly power of a vivid dream to the reader with lyrical effect. ... 'At the Scaffold'... in particular demonstrates Sally’s knack for chopping up a story into different configurations of panels, choosing points of view, and rendering architecture, shadows, odd characters, etc." – Byron Kerman, PLAYBACK:stl

• Review: "Once again, Hotwire returns to attempt to fill in that edgy alt-comix niche that was so prominent in the 80s and early 90s and has seemingly been eclipsed by the more literary, rarefied indie comics of today (sort of). If for no other reason, this anthology should be lauded for giving folks like Mary Fleener and Mack White the opportunity to showcase their work... [and] the stellar work by folks like Michael Kupperman, R. Sikoryak, Onsmith, Johnny Ryan, Tim Lane and Mats!? make this well worth your time." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Comparison: "...I was of course really excited to hear that Fantagraphics was doing a series of translated Tardi books, including C’était la Guerre des Tranchées — now titled It Was the War of the Trenches.  I’ve had the French Casterman edition for a while, but I got my new Fantagraphics copy last week and just for fun I thought I’d take a look at the two side by side." – Ben Towle

• Profile: Another NBC New York article on Dash Shaw & Frank Santoro, this time from Edward Carr (who also gets photo credit): "Speaking at the McNally Jackson Bookstore on Prince Street in Soho, Santoro, along with critically acclaimed artist Dash Shaw, spoke about their work and the techniques they used to keep them unique."

• Lost in Translation: Kim Thompson spotted this amusing error

Luc Besson's The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, adapting the earlier volumes of Jacques Tardi's graphic novel series, opened last week at a solid #1 at the office in France (handily beating the only other major opening, the Matt Damon Iraq flick Green Zone), to generally positive reviews. There was general praise for the lead performance by Louise Bourgoin (although some reviewers familiar with the original comics lamented the "sweetening" of Tardi's cranky original), the special effects, and the fun-ride aspect of the movie, less enthusiasm for some of the broader farcical aspects, and a general consensus that the Paris-based sequences worked better than the Spielberg-ish Egypt-based ones.

Given the last few Besson movies, the reaction boiled down to "Whew! Better than we expected!"

Not many domestic reviews yet, except for the inevitable Variety. We can't link to it as this review is subscribers-only, but here are some excerpts:

"Take Indiana Jones and replace him with a knockout redhead, a slew of CGI and a somewhat bloated storyline, and you'll get an inkling of what lies behind Luc Besson's costumer/creature feature, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec....most notable for newcomer Louise Bourgoin's captivating perf as a fearless, wisecracking heroine who — this being France — drinks, smokes and plays in the buff."

And, what we were waiting for: "Massive local rollout delivered a strong opening, and should venture beyond Francophone markets." Yes indeed!

They go on: "With handsome production values, polished visual effects and eye-popping locations (shot by Besson regular Thierry Arbogast) that include icons like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, pic smoothly blends state-of-the-art CGI with a story set in pre-WWI France."

Cine-nerd note: Arbogast shot pretty much all of Besson's movies (think the glory days of Leon/The Professional and The Fifth Element), as well as the late-career Brian De Palma masterpiece Femme Fatale, Emir Kusturica's wacky Black Cat, White Cat, the absurd but compellingly watchable Penélope Cruz/Salma Hayek megacleavage western Bandidas (admit it, didn't that description tempt you to add it to your Netflix queue?), and, uh, cough, the Halle Berry Catwoman.

Variety also cites Gilles Lellouche's performance as the hapless Inspector Caponi as "amusing" and notes that Mathieu Almaric (the villain from Quantum of Solace) is "practically unrecognizable with pasty makeup and buck teeth."

And boy, they just can't get enough of Mademoiselle Bourgoin:

"...what frankly saves pic from its convoluted plot and boilerplate villains is Adele herself, thanks in no small part to the all-consuming performance of Bourgoin (who made a noteworthy debut in Anne Fontaine's 2006 The Girl from Monaco). Delivering lines with screwball timing, while sporting an assortment of disguises like a sexed-up Lon Chaney, she dominates practically every scene and makes us regret the ones without her."

No U.S. distributor or release date yet, but I'd be awfully surprised if it hasn't been grabbed by the time Cannes finishes up late next month.

Daily clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing at the sources:

• This week's "I, Anonymous" spot by Steven Weissman

• This week's Maakies by Tony Millionaire

• This week's Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane

• That version of a Jesse Marsh Tarzan cover by our own Eric Reynolds that I believe we've featured here previously has finally shown up on the Covered blog

• Derek Van Gieson claims to be "toning it down" as "Tales from Abstraction House" proceeds — lies