FLOG! Entries - December 2007

New year, new books: more 2008 titles for pre-order

mike

Welcome the new year by looking forward to some great 2008 releases, which have just been added to the website and made available for pre-order on our Upcoming Releases page. Pictured above: new editions of Jordan Crane's all-ages hit The Clouds Above and Debbie Drechsler's groundbreaking Daddy's Girl; the newest collection of Jaime Hernandez's Love and Rockets stories, The Education of Hopey Glass; the unique scratchboard storybook Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes; and The Comics Journal #288, with our Best of 2007 coverage and sporting a brand-new design and format!

Call 1-800-657-1100 (or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) or click the covers above to see full details on each title and add it to your shopping cart. Most of our books go out to our pre-order customers before they arrive in bookstores and comic shops, so this is the fastest way to get them in your hot and eager hands. Order today!

Al Columbia.com

Eric

Have you looked at Al Columbia's website lately? There's some killer new images up, there, like the faux-poster for the Dario Argento film, SUSPIRA, that the above detail is from.

Hair of the Dog...

covey

Brodner does Popeye

mike

...among others. There's more to it.

(More Brodner; more Popeye)

Friday night videos

mike

Here at last are 5 more songs from the Tom Price Desert Classic, captured at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery 1st Anniversary party on 12/8/07 by our New Sales Guy and videographer at large Jason T. Miles. We won't choke your browser with all 5 embedded videos; instead, simply click through to our YouTube page to watch.

Be our fan on Facebook

mike

Now that Facebook lets companies (or "brands" or whatever) have profiles, we've got our very own and you can be our "fan."

On that page, you can follow Flog in a mini-feed, see photos and events, write on our "wall," and even leave us some "graffiti" like Renee French did:

Thanks Renee and everyone else who's "fanned" us already, with extra-special thanks if you're posing with Fantagraphics comics in your profile photo:

Earlier in 2007 we had a special sale just for our social-networking "friends" — chances are we'll do it again in 2008. Hint hint!

Leah Hayes covers McSweeney's

Eric

McSweeney's #25 features a gorgeous cover by Leah Hayes that the accompanying jpg hardly does justice of. Leah's first graphic novel, FUNERAL OF THE HEART, will be out in a couple of months from Fantagraphics (and don't miss her first solo comic, HOLY MOLY, also published by Fanta a couple of years ago - it's still available).

Sacco for President

Eric

Happy holidays, everyone.

Eric

A Johnny Ryan X-Mas

mike

Jog does Percy

Eric

One of my favorite books we published this year was PERCY GLOOM by Cathy Malkasian. Jog writes a very nice review of the book here, and if you haven't seen PERCY yet, check it out.

Sacco interview

Eric

"I also think a comic, because of repeated images, can create an atmosphere of a place. There are certain things going on in the background that you don't have to mention over and over again. If you're writing about how much graffiti was on the wall in prose, you write it once, you don't write it every paragraph. Whereas in comics, it can be in the background on every panel so it sort of sinks into the reader's consciousness."

Here's a short but sweet interview with Joe Sacco conducted by Chris Mautner.

Mister Wonderful, Part 14

Eric

Merry Xmas, Mister Wonderful.

We interrupt this publishing company...

Eric

Hey Fanta True Believers,

Starting Monday (Dec. 24th) we will be conducting our end of the year inventory. You will still be able to place orders with us through our website or over the phone, but we will be be unable to ship out any orders until the inventory is complete, which should be sometime during the first week of Jan. '08.

Please keep this in mind when selecting any of our Rush shipping methods. We apologize for any inconvenience, and look forward to serving you in 2008!

Holiday Bowl-a-rama

mike

As per annual tradition, our company holiday party was held at the glamorous Sunset Bowl in beautiful downtown Ballard last weekend. Click here for a mess of photos by me and Eric Reynolds; below are a few highlights:

Kim Thompson takes on high-score leader Paul Baresh in a sudden-death winner-take-all showdown...

...from which Baresh emerges victorious! (That's the trophy.)

Mistress of ceremonies Rhea Patton.

New Release: The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2

mike

The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2
Edited by Alex Chun; designed by Jacob Covey

For more than 40 years, Dan DeCarlo was best known for his definitive rendition of Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, two of comics' most beloved icons. But before joining Archie in the late 1950s and unbeknownst to many, DeCarlo was already honing his skills as a good girl artist for the Humorama line of digest magazines. This second volume once again displays DeCarlo's sexiest Humorama pin-up cartoons, and continues Fanatagraphics' dedication to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up cartoonists.

216-page two-color 5.75" x 7.75" softcover $18.95
Order Now!

New Release: Laura Warholic or, The Sexual Intellectual

mike

Laura Warholic or, the Sexual Intellectual
By Alexander Theroux

In his first novel in nearly twenty years, Alexander Theroux, National Book Award Nominee, returns with a compendious satire, a bold and inquisitorial circuit-breaking examination of love and hate, of rejection and forgiveness, of trust and romantic disappointment, of the terrors of contemporary life. Eugene Eyestones, an erudite sex columnist for a Boston cultural magazine, becomes enmeshed in the messy life of a would-be artist named Laura Warholic, who, repulsing and fascinating him at the same time, becomes a mirror in which he not only sees himself but through which he is forced to face his own demons. Not only does she inadvertently supply him with material for his columns, but she exemplifies all that Eugene considers wrong with contemporary America (of which the publishing profession and its recognizable denizens serves as a microcosm) — a garish and dunce-filled Babylon that Theroux scorches with inventive and relentless satire. Nostalgic for the old days and old manners, a way of life lost to grace, loving from afar a mysterious beauty named Rapunzel Wisht, Eugene fights against the rising tide of stupidity, focusing on Laura in the hope that by saving her he can validate his ethical beliefs. But feckless Laura and the colorful but bizarre cast of characters surrounding Eugene — brilliant bigots, nihilists, Generation-X slackers and zanies of all sexual persuasions — threaten to pull him under, leading to the novel's unforgettable conclusion, a climax of betrayal and redemption of Dostoevskyan power. As in all of Theroux's works, his maximalist and pyrotechnic prose style and searching intellect are the chief attractions, capable of outrageous comedy, nuanced philosophical discussions, winsome love scenes, flame-throwing tirades, subtle theological musings, and an unflinching genius for a profound if merciless look at the human condition. Horrifying and hilarious, damning and demanding, Laura Warholic in its uncompromising power will surely be one of the most talked-about novels of the season, and for years to come.

824-page 6" x 9" hardcover novel $29.95
Order Now!

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery holiday hours

mike

Seattlites: Still looking for those last-minute holiday gifts? The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is open and ready to serve you 11:30 - 8:00 daily (11:30 - 5:00 Sundays) with the following exceptions:

Monday 12/24/07 (Christmas Eve): 11:30 - 4
Tuesday 12/25/07 (Christmas Day): CLOSED

Monday 12/31/07 (New Year's Eve): 11:30 - 4
Tuesday 1/1/08 (New Year's Day): CLOSED

We've got everything from stocking stuffers to books so impressively ginormous they won't fit under the tree. Come on down:

1201 South Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
(Google map)
206-658-0110

Must Read

Eric

Jeannie Schulz on her husband's biography.

Welcome to the world, Aldara Madden!

Eric

On behalf of everyone at Fantagraphics I'd like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to our good pals Jessica Abel and Matt Madden on the birth of their daughter, Aldara Abel Madden. Wahoo!