Tomorrow at 6:30 PM at the Multnomah County Central Library in Portland OR, T. Edward Bak gives a presentation about his in-progress story "Wild Man," about naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, currently being serialized in our quarterly anthology Mome. More info here. If I lived there I would totally go!

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box
By Jacques Boyreau

Harken back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the advent of rental videos astonished the movie-going consumer who could only feed his addiction by going to the theater or watching chopped up movies in between commercials on TV. Like vinyl, here is the revenge of another analog cast-off: the VHS is once again insinuating itself into American culture, and this book celebrates the anarchic design art of those early VHS boxes.

Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box is a feast for exploitation cognoscenti, reprinting some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box, featuring such movies as From Beyond, Penitentiary II, Beast of the Yellow Night, Cop Killers, Bay of Blood, Escape from Death Row, and Cocaine Wars. Readers will be agog at the plethora of supertrash movie titles, and then move on to rediscover the anarchic box designs. Throughout, editor and cultural historian Jacques Boyreau succinctly narrates the household-piercing story of VHS: “On par with the jukebox, disco, and neon, VHS reformatted the world’s product-intake and boosted a libertarian aesthetic that conquered TV in the same way TV conquered comic books in the 1950s, and allowed us to hold movies in our hands. Posters in the lobby could advertise, even fetishize a movie; credit sequences could identify the participants, but somehow, VHS box-art ‘became’ the iconic equivalent of the movie.”

Portable Grindhouse is published in a VHS “format,” slyly packaged inside a facsimile VHS box, and contains almost a hundred reproductions of VHS art with commentary.

Download an EXCLUSIVE PDF excerpt (3.6 MB) featuring seven 2-page spreads from the book.

200-page full-color 5.5" x 9.25" softcover with slipcase • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-969-2
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Paul Hornschemeier and Jay Ryan resume their joint book tour behind their respective new releases All and Sundry and Animals and Objects In and Out of Water with a West Coast leg beginning tonight in L.A. and wrapping up at our blowout Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery 3rd Anniversary party on Saturday. Full list of West Coast dates:

Mon., Dec. 7, 6pm
Giant Robot
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Tues., Dec. 8, 7pm
Foundation Editions@NOMAD
1993 Blake Ave.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Wed., Dec. 9, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
618 Shrader St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Thurs., Dec. 10, 7pm
D. King Gallery
2284 Fulton St.
BERKELEY, CA

Fri., Dec. 11, 6pm
Goodfoot Gallery
2845 SE Stark
PORTLAND, OR

Sat., Dec. 12, 6-9pm
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 South Vale St. @ Airport Way S.
SEATTLE, WA
*Fantagraphics Bookstore's 3rd Anniversary party*

Now available for preview and pre-order: the new 3rd volume of our anything-goes, eyeball-poking, laff-inducing, psyche-jolting comics anthology Hotwire Comics, brought to you by editor (and cover artist) Glenn Head. This edition features contributions from two dozen creators including Michael Kupperman, Mary Fleener, R. Sikoryak (with some brand-new "Masterpiece Comics"), Onsmith, Mats!?, Stephane Blanquet and many more! Download an exclusive 15-page PDF excerpt containing a page each from a sampling of contributors right here (16.5 MB). This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship later this month and in stores shortly thereafter (subject to change).

View a photo & video slideshow preview of the book embedded here. Click here if it is not visible, and/or to view it larger in a new window (recommended).

In today's New York Times Sunday Book Review, Douglas Wolk turns in some short reviews of recommended comics for the holidays, including:

"The blandly didactic sobriety of old educational comics and earnest advertisements... is Michael Kupper­man’s default tone for the deranged, gaspingly funny work collected in Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Volume One. Kupperman has a stiff, deadpan drawing style that suggests the textures of woodcuts, clip-art and old 'Mary Worth' strips; his writing, on the other hand, jumps the rails at every opportunity."

 "The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology Abstract Comics push 'cartooning' to its limits: the selections have few if any words, no characters or plot, and very few clearly identifiable representations — just abstract images in sequence. ... It’s a fascinating book to stare at, and as with other kinds of abstract art, half the fun is observing your own reactions..."

(Edited to add: There's also a very nice review of Lilli Carré's new Little Otsu book Nine Ways to Disappear.)

Meanwhile, over at Entertainment Weekly, Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1 is #9 on this week's "Must List":

"This exhilarating collection of stories by the comic-book artist who co-created Spider-Man captures all the glorious chills and blood spills from the first two years of his career."

A message from Hans Rickheit:

In a desperate effort to raise funds to escape Philadelphia, I am now offering the original pages from my 2001 Xeric-Winning graphic novel, CHLOE for purchase. (I am also using this as an opportunity to try out PayPal.) The pages are listed HERE and are priced accordingly. Each page will be mailed to any area within the U.S.A. in a flat cardboard envelope with no shipping charge. Adorn your home with a unique piece of cartooning perversity, or conceal your newly-obtained treasure in your precious vaults! Frame it or deface it with your own doodles! Give it as a gift to your stranger relatives or discerning friends! Don't delay: they are available only first come - first served basis!

(Note : Those unfamiliar with the book can obtain a copy here.)

And don't forget Rickheit's phenomenal new book The Squirrel Machine, available here.

It's your Friday installments of our three weekly webcomics!

Giant monster attack! in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson...

...inquiring minds want to know in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan....

...and the veep guest-stars in this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip from Steven Weissman!

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Like a Dog compiles several of [Zak Sally's] stories from the last 15 years in one sweet, annotated hardcover. I'm amazed by how the styles vary -- one minute Sally can talk about working in a punk-rock T-shirt shop, the next he's going on about Dostoevsky -- but most stories are quite compelling and, man, the guy is just so cool. Sally is an intensely personal writer, and I appreciate how much he reveals about himself within these pages. His work can get a little messy sometimes, but I say that's just another reason to like it." – Whitney Matheson, USA TODAY Pop Candy

• Review: "...[T]he work contained in [Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1] (and kudos to Fantagraphics on the excellent and handsome production work) constantly reminds you of just how stellar an artist Ditko would prove to be. ... For historians, both amateur and otherwise, who thrill to the prospect of seeing that maturity take place, this is the book for you." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

• Plug: Jason Parker of Benevolent Street says "I will be buying [Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box] soon!"

• Plug: Mike Sterling calls Popeye Vol. 4 "Another collection of the classic strip, and it continues to be great."

• Plugs: Among the blogs taking note of our upcoming collection of Stephen Dixon stories What Is All This?: Condalmo, Thumb Drives and Oven Clocks, Converstaional Reading and Gurldoggie

• Things to see: A new music video from The Francies (a.k.a. Al Columbia — via Floating World)

• Monsters: On Jacob Covey's Beasts! Blog, an update from monster-hunter Ken Gerhard (interviewed in Beasts! Book 2) on the trail of Sasquatch!

• Monsters: Tennessee mayor loses his shit over "our muslim president" [sic] pre-empting A Charlie Brown Christmas (link via Eric Reynolds)

Anders Nilsen provides the cover image for the new issue of Smoke Signal, the free comics newspaper put out by Desert Island, which will debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this weekend. Get a bigger, readable version of this image at Anders's blog.

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 6th volume of our complete reprinting of Hank Ketcham's unparallelled run on Dennis the Menace, featuring a week-long visit from grandpa and panel after panel of Ketcham's exquisitely funny cartooning. Download an exclusive 30-page PDF excerpt containing a full month of strips right here.

Also up for pre-order now: the box set containing the 5th and 6th volumes, and the slipcase by itself for those who have purchased the volumes separately.

These items are scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship later this month and in stores (excluding the slipcase by itself, which is only available directly from us) shortly thereafter (subject to change).

View photo & video slideshow previews of the book and the box set embedded here. Click the preceding links if they are not visible, and/or to view them larger in a new window (recommended).