Here's the first look at the forthcoming Ghost World Special Edition cover by Daniel Clowes. This jpg won't do the book justice: it's a deluxe hardcover with silver ink and spot varnish and perhaps some slight tweaking still to come by Mr. Clowes. The book is going to be amazing, in the vein of the impeccable Palestine Special Edition, though with even more uncollected material than that book. Weighing in at nearly 300 pages, it includes the original classic graphic novel, the Academy Award-nominated screenplay, and almost 50 pages of supplementary material never before collected, including several new strips created for the book, a new introduction and annotations to the graphic novel by Clowes, as well as a comprehensive retrospective of every piece of GW artwork and merchandise related to the book and film. 

 We'll preview more soon; expect book to be in stores by early summer.

Above: Photo of Drew Friedman, in his studio. © 2008 David Burd.

Drew Friedman is, along with Daniel Clowes and Chester Brown, one of the primary reasons I am working in comics today and didn't abandon my juvenile love for the medium long after most boys have discovered girls and sports. So when we decided to start conducting some exclusive author interviews for Flog!, it didn't take me long to decide I really wanted to spotlight Drew, especially as we are on the cusp of releasing his new book, MORE OLD JEWISH COMEDIANS. It's astounding to me that throughout much of the 1990s and earlier part of this decade, there was a new generation of comics fans who weren't so familiar with Drew's work as those of us who came of age in 1980s and early 1990s, as Drew somewhat slipped out of the comics field to focus on other pursuits. But he was a powerful influence on me in my formative years, between his work for Topps, Raw Magazine and National Lampoon. His two early Fantagraphics collections, WARTS AND ALL and ANY SIMILARITIES TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL were two of the very earliest Fantagraphics collections I ever purchased, and remain two of my favorites. The latter is where I first discovered his strip "The Andy Griffith Show," which was easily the greatest comic strip I'd ever read at the time. I remember getting an argument with my then-girlfriend over whether the strip was brilliant satire or blatantly racist -- it was no surprise we didn't last. In his excellent introduction to THE FUN NEVER STOPS!, Clowes describes this strip as "more 'real' and truthful than any biographical comic or self-revelatory memoir... the connection I felt is like nothing I have experienced since." I couldn't agree more. Same goes for Clowes' statement that "a Friedman caricature looks more like its subject than any photograph possibly could."

Thankfully, you don't have to take our word for it: the last two years have seen the release of not one, or two, but three new Friedman books, introducing his masterful cartooning and riotous satire to a new generation of comics fans, and thankfully Drew was gracious enough to answer some questions for Flog! readers.

[Read more...]

Friday means a new installment of Steven Weissman's "Chocolate Cheeks!" This week's strip emphasizes the importance of grooming... and say, I haven't seen those cyclops twins before! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

We publish some shocking comics but I had no idea that the most offensive strip was nationally syndicated "family fare." People are okay with this being what their kids grow up reading on the comics page, meanwhile they raise hell over a kid reading an issue of Dan Clowes' Eightball. Go figure.

 (*Note: Yes, I know I originally mistyped "Brant Parker" in the headline to this post even though his son, Jeff, took over being the Id's dick cartoonist in 1997. Apologies.)

Daniel Clowes's "Modern Cartoonist" essay caused quite a stir when it originally appeared as a bound-in booklet accompanying Eightball #18 in 1997; now we have archived it for your reading pleasure here on the Fantagraphics.com website.