Oh my word, you have just a few hours left to get in your order and save 25% by using the coupon code 25OFF08, plus get free standard U.S. shipping! End your year right: with an orgy of comics shopping! Click here for more details about the sale.

• The Seattle Times casts a well-deserved spotlight on the often-overlooked writing in Beasts! Book 1 and Book 2

• The Daily Blog's "10 for '08" includes Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Comic Book Resources, counting down the "Best 100 Comics of 2008," slots in Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham at #72 and Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman at #70 (with #60-1 still TBA)

• The Beat presents the Metro's R. Sikoryak's Frank Miller's Archie

• The Stranger points out a recent in-strip visit to Seattle by Zippy the Pinhead

A shorty today:

• The Oregonian presents excerpts from Beasts! Book 2

• Angry Asian Man looks at John Pham's Sublife Vol. 1

• Here's a Lilli Carré illustration in The Chicago Reader (hat tip: Paul Hornschemeier)

Beasts! Book 1 (Softcover Edition)
By various artists; curated by Jacob Covey

After selling out two hardcover editions, Beasts! returns in a beautiful new softcover edition. Beasts! is a classic mythological menagerie, comprised only of creatures that were thought at one time to actually exist, depicted by about a hundred of the most acclaimed artists and cartoonists coming from the most avant-garde ambits of the art world. The Beasts project has fired the imaginations of luminaries such as Tony Millionaire, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Dave Cooper, Tim Biskup, Seonna Hong, Jeremy Fish, James Jean, and Jay Ryan, who will present never-before-seen art completely original to this book, superbly laid out in breathtaking, full-color two-page spreads. Beasts! collects many of the best visual artists from the worlds of comics, skateboarding, rock graphics, science-fiction, children's books, commercial and fine art. The book is conceived and designed by Jacob Covey, lead art director for Fantagraphics (Dennis the Menace, Popeye, Willie & Joe, etc.) and a well-regarded designer and artist in his own right in the Northwest rock and arts community. Other contributors include: Amanda Visell, Anders Nilsen, Andrew Brandou, Art Chantry, Brian Ralph, Bwana Spoons, Dave Cooper, Deth P. Sun, Esther Pearl Watson, Jason, Jesse LeDoux, Johnny Ryan, Jordan Crane, Keith Shore, Little Friends of Printmaking, Marc Bell, Martin Cendreda, Martin Ontiveros, Mat Brinkman, R. Kikuo Johnson, Richard Sala, Sammy Harkham, Seonna Hong, Stan Sakai, S. britt, Stella Im Hultberg, Steven Weissman, Tom Gauld, Tyler Stout and many more.

200-page full-color 8" x 8" softcover • $24.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

Attention customers: Be advised that our warehouse has begun their annual inventory count and therefore we will not be able to ship any orders until next week. Please keep this in mind before you select rush shipping!

To help take the bite out of any potential delays, remember that we are currently offering FREE Standard U.S. shipping (UPS Ground or USPS Media Rate to P.O. Boxes) through the end of the year! And of course, don't forget to use the 25OFF08 coupon code for 25% off your order, also through the end of the year!

Thanks to Steven "Ribs" Weissman for supplying us with a batch of signed book plates for his book Mean, now available for the first time, and to Richard Sala, for replenishing our supply of signed bookplates for The Grave Robber's Daughter. As always, these are available exclusively from Fantagraphics when you order their accompanying books, at no extra charge! Some conditions apply; click here for more details and the complete list of books available with this FREE premium!

Mark Todd
fragments
new works
La Luz De Jesus Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
January 2nd - February 1st, 2009
artist reception Jan. 2nd 8-11 PM
www.laluzdejesus.com
www.marktoddillustration.com

Official announcement:

In this new exhibition Mark Todd shows an ever deepening interest in deconstructing comic art from his childhood. "The main difference between 'Fragments' and my last showing at La Luz de Jesus is that the works seem to be getting more abstracted and there is more collage elements working into the pieces on paper," states Todd who took his first creative cues from comic books and Star Wars. In this collection of works it is apparent that these two worlds of inventive fantasy still inform his art. Todd references the past, waxes nostalgic about it, and simultaneously lends his own post-modern sensibility to it by employing a limited palette, repetition, distortion and mixed media materials including spray paint, cel-vinyl, glossy varnishes and dusty stains. Todd lives in Southern California with his wife and fellow artist, Esther Pearl Watson and their daughter Lili, an avid artist herself. Todd also co-teaches with Esther at Art Center College of Design.

• Entertainment Weekly ranks Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw #5 on their "Best Fiction of 2008" list

• The Oklahoman's Nerdage blog names Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw and The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez two of the top ten of "2008's best graphic novels"

• comiXology's "Top Ten Comics of 2008" includes Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman (#8), Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw (#3) and Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga (#1)

• Newsarama's "Top 5: Best Archival Comics, 2008" includes Jules Feiffer's Explainers (#3) and E.C. Segar's Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" (#2)

• The Synesthetic Fugue Incident looks at Explainers

• The Daily Cross Hatch presents the first of a three-part interview with Bob Fingerman

• Now Read This! loves Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• Mr. Thirsty delves into Blood of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez (also collected in Human Diastrophism)

As part of a series highlighting Seattle poets, The Stranger features the work of Nico Vassilakis, who daylights as Fantagraphics' warehouse manager. (Above, Nico's most recent book, Text Loses Time.)