This Friday, August 12th, the fabulous Roq la Rue gallery debuts The Blab! Show, curated by noneother than Monte Beauchamp!  

Beauchamp returns to the theme of "Krampus," which you may remember from back issues of Blab! and the collection of vintage Krampus postcards The Devil in Design, and the show features interpretations by artists like Shag, Andy Kehoe, and Ryan Heshka. If you don't recall, Krampus is a sinister holiday devil, so appropriately enough, Roq la Rue promise they'll be "throwing one hell of an opening party!"

The Blab! Show runs until September 3rd. For anyone outside the Seattle area, an online gallery will be posted here this Friday. Roq la Rue is located at 2312 2nd Ave. in the bustling Belltown neighborhood.

Director Seth Craven has taken the tender, lovely Jordan Crane comic The Last Lonely Saturday and has turned it into a film! I have not seen it yet, but just the still above is getting me choked up, so that's probably for the best.

Like our tiny 4" X 6" book, the film, too, is a tiny eight minutes.

Like the (nearly) wordless panels of Crane's novella, Craven's movie has no dialogue.

And, like Crane's comic creation... this film will probably make me cry!

The Last Lonely Saturday makes its film debut this Friday, August 12th as part of the HollyShorts film festival at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood [8000 Sunset Blvd] at 5:00 PM. Bring tissues.

[ and thanks to our friends at comicsworthreading.com for the tip-off! ]

photo credit: Lynn Christoffers

Check out the Paul Karasik exhibit at the West Tisbury Public Library! [ GET IT?! ]

This Eisner Award-winning artist and scholar debuted an exhibit last Friday at his hometown library, and fortunately for those of you in Massachusetts, it will run until the end of August! Plus, Paul will be donating half of the proceeds from the sale of his work to the library's expansion fund.

The West Tisbury Public Library is located at 1042 State Road in Vineyard Haven, MA. And be sure to check out [ heh, heh... okay, I'll stop ] this lovely profile on Paul in The Martha's Vineyard Times!

Gosh indeed!

It's big enough news that landmark London shop Gosh! Comics is moving into a new location for the first time in 25 years...

But the news gets even bigger because they'll be inaugurating the space with an exhibition and signing with noneother than Dave McKean!

The exhibit will feature paintings, sculptures, and drawings -- some of which have never been shown in public before, and some of which will even be for sale! McKean will be on hand to sign copies of his latest Fantagraphics book, Celluloid.

The opening gala is this Saturday, August 6th, and McKean will be signing from 2:00 - 4:00 PM.  If you're in the Soho area, pop by 1 Berwick Street and check out their new digs!

As Mike already mentioned, the Wizard World Comic-Con is around the corner, and our own Ivan Brunetti will be in Artists Alley table #3704.

We've since learned that more Fantagraphics artists will be in attendance, including Laura Park & Lilli Carré (table #3552) and Mome newcomer Nick Drnaso (sharing Ivan's table #3704).

This show sounds amazing... Ivan Brunetti and LeVar Burton on the same bill? Mome artists alongside Peter Tork of The Monkees? Wait, Billy Corgan's gonna be there? And five of the Willy Wonka kids? And the chick who gave Brandon Walsh "euphoria" at a rave on a very-special-episode of Beverly Hills 90210!?!!!! [passes out from pop culture-overload]

Wizard World Comic-Con runs from Thursday, August 11th to Sunday, August 14th at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Someone, send me pictures.

This summer, Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind is going on tour, right here where it all began!

Join editor and Senior Curator of the EMP museum, Jacob McMurray, as he travels across the Northwest, offering an insider's look at this expansive document of the "Seattle" sound.

A page detail from Taking Punk to the Masses

This Friday, August 5th, McMurray will be reading at the Timberland Library in Olympia, WA. Olympia, as you may already know, has its own unique sound and history, and McMurray will be focusing on that during Friday's presentation! 

Even though it's a library, copies of the book will be available for purchase, so you can get yours signed, if you don't already have a copy.

This free, all-ages event starts at 7:30 PM this Friday. Note: since this is after regular library hours, no other library services will be available, so you'll have to come back another time to pay those overdue fines!

The Timberland Library is located at 313 8th Avenue SE in Olympia, WA. And be sure to check out the Fantagraphics Events page and stay tuned to the FLOG for upcoming dates on the Taking Punk to the Masses tour!

Vancouver residents are surely "lucky," because this weekend, Lucky's Comics presents a Rand Holmes Retrospective featuring original artwork by Rand Holmes, curated by Martha Holmes and Patrick Rosenkranz, author of The Artist Himself: A Rand Holmes Retrospective.

Author Patrick Rosenkranz will be in attendance, and will be giving a presentation on one of Canada’s most revolutionary artists! Don't miss it!

The event kicks off at 7:00 PM. Lucky's is located at 3972 Main Street in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada. 

We just had Anders Nilsen signing with us at the San Diego Comic-Con, and the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery was thrilled to welcome him back this past weekend, away from the costumes and video game noise of the 'Con! We've got a bunch of pictures from his signing with us up on the Fantagraphics Flickr.

Anders gave a lovely slideshow presentation on the history of his comic Big Questions, in promotion of the 600-page collection just released by our pals at Drawn & Quarterly. I was kinda surprised to learn he used to be the frontman for a band (!), and one of his first self-published zines was a lyric booklet they would hand-out at shows (as seen above!).

And on that "note" (heh), here, upon request, is the setlist to the "Big Questions Mega-Mix" that I DJ'ed at Anders's signing. In honor of his new collection, all the songs I played were questions, natch:

1. "What In It For?" - Avi Buffalo
2. "Who Is Moving?" - Lilys
3. "Don't Ask Me to Explain" - Of Montreal
4. "Where Do You Run To?" - Vivian Girls
5. "Why Is It Always This Way?" - The Ramones
6. "What'cha Gonna Do About It?" - Condo Fucks
7. "What Else Is New?" - Dinosaur Jr.
8. "What Is" - Wipers
9. "Why?" - T. Lance & the Coctails
10. "What More Can I Do?" - The Zombies
11. "Who Loves the Sun?" - Teenage Fanclub, covering The Velvet Underground
12. "Ask" - The Go-Betweens
13. "What Do You Say?" - Pulp (for Steph H.)
14. "Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?" - Tame Impala (for Eric B.)
15. "What Was That Thing?" - Able Tasmans (for Martin I.)
16. "Where Do You Wanna Go?" - Super Furry Animals
17. "Where Did My Spring Go? - The Kinks
18. "What Am I Supposed to Do?" - Papas Fritas
19. "What Am I Going to Do?" - Pop Art Toasters
20. "Ask" - The Smiths
21. "Hideous Towns" - The Sundays
22. "What's Happening?!?!" - The Byrds
23. "Who Do You Think I Am?" - Woods
24. "What Do We Do With Love?" - Chris Knox
25. "How Loft I Am?" - Guided By Voices
26. "To Where" - Grass Widow

(Oh, believe me, there were other songs I just didn't get to...)

You can find out about all our in-store signings and events by "liking" the Fantagraphics Bookstore Facebook page!

Big Questions is currently in-stock at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, alongside many other excellent Nilsen titles! And we've still got a few of his self-published mini-comics, so hurry over before they sell out.

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

Last month, the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery opened our latest exhibit, The Quiet Rrriot: Visual Artists from the Riot Grrrl movement by Megan Kelso, Nikki McClure, Stella Marrs, and the response has been really amazing!

For those of us who live in Seattle, the exhibit will be up for one more month, ending on August 31st.  But for those of you not in the area, here are some pics from our opening night, with artists Megan Kelso and Nikki McClure in attendance!

Here's Megan signing copies of her latest release Queen of the Black Black, a collection of work from her influential self-published comix zine, Girlhero. I know I won't shut up about how great this book is, but seriously, it rules. It may have been borne from the 90's Riot Grrrl scene, but the stories inside are timeless.

And at the register, you may recognize Russ Battaglia from the legendary-but-now-defunct Fallout Records!  When I was going through Megan's zine collection, I'd keep seeing Fallout ads in the backs of zines, usually illustrated by Peter Bagge!

And here's a display of Megan's aforementioned zine collection!  We've got detail shots over at the Fantgraphics Flickr page, and if you've got any interest in the history of Riot Grrl zines, you'll definitely want to check it out.

We were honored to be joined by artist Nikki McClure, who made the trip from Olympia for the day. (That's her, center, in the white shirt, talking with friends and fans.)

She and Megan sat down for an inspiring and educational discussion of the DIY scene in Olympia, and how the Riot Grrrl scene helped propel their own creative projects. You can now watch the entire discussion below (or on YouTube here)! (Apologies in advance for the sound quality.)

Check out more photos of the exhibit and opening night at the Fantagraphics Flickr, and come by the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery before August 31st to see the original artwork, zines, and comix in person!

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