The Rapture is coming!!!

Don't fear -- it's just the second beer in our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series, a collaboration with our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle. This heather ale will be available on draft, and in exclusive bottles with labels featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns!

Join us on Tuesday, February 21st at 6:00 PM for the official tapping of the Rapture ale, followed by an all-important survival demo, and beer blessings til 9:00 PM, because really now, we could all use a blessing (and a beer!) in these uncertain times.

And don't forget to bring your Apocalypse Beer Survival Guide to this event to collect your second survival stamp. If you missed the first party, don't worry, we will have more guides available at this event. Fill your book with survival item stamps at our Apocalypse events throughout the year for an outstanding experience at our final End of the World Celebration on 12.20.12!

So, come survive the rapture with us at Elysian Brewing Comapny, located at 1221 E. Pike Street in Seattle! Don't forget: the end is BEER!

UPDATE: Please note the updated time for the survival demo!

Hey Hartford, CT! Zip on over to our book signing with underground comix legend Bill Griffith, and help him celebrate the release of the collection Lost and Found: Comics 1969-2003!

Bill Griffith: Lost & Found collects hundreds of Griffith’s early underground comics, most of them long out of print and unavailable. Much of the work will be unfamiliar and a real revelation to those readers who only know Griffith from his long-running Zippy strip.

He'll be signing and reading from this much-anticipated book on Saturday, March 3rd.  The zany fun starts at 3:00 PM, so don't miss your chance to meet this living legend of comics! 

Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street, Hartford, CT. This event is free and open to the public!

It's time to go back to school with Professor DeStefano!

Our award-nominated Lucky In Love artist Stephen DeStefano is heading back to the podium at MoCCA, and this time, he'll be laying down the laws of "Drawing for Animated Cartoons" -- something he knows a thing or two about, as the storyboard and design supervisor on Adult Swim's The Venture Brothers, only one of the best cartoons out there!

Stephen will focus on design and composition for characters, backgrounds and storyboards -- in other words, on the overall drawing process for an animated production. The course will show you how to design characters and backgrounds from a script, and how to compose shots for storyboards from the same script -- all with a focus on drawing. 

Early Bird registration is going on now until March 15th, so don't delay, sign up today! Classes will be held on March 26, and April 2, 16, & 23 at MoCCA [ 594 Broadway, Suite 401 (between Houston and Prince), New York City ].

The Best Show on WFMU gets even better this Tuesday, February 14th, as host Tom Scharpling welcomes our own Michael Kupperman to the airwaves!

WFMU streams their broadcasts online in multiple formats, so anyone can listen, from anywhere in the world -- just tune in at 9:00 PM EST and await the awesome!

And just so y'know, it's the WFMU 2012 Marathon through March 4th, and freeform radio is a good, good thing!

Wednesday, February 15th

• Los Angeles, CA: It's your last chance to see the Year of the Dragon group art exhibit at Giant Robot, featuring work from Fantagraphics artists Andrice Arp, Renee French, and Steven Weissman, among many others!  (more info)

Joe Sacco at the Fantagraphics office, 04/09/07 // photo credit: Jacob Covey

Saturday, February 18th

• Portland, OR: Come hear Joe Sacco speak at the Portland Central Library from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. Tickets for this event are free, and will be available 30 minutes prior to the program. Space at programs is limited, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. (more info)

Our friends at PictureBox report, Gary Panter and longtime collaborator Joshua White are debuting their largest collaborative project to date this Friday, February 10th at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit!

The Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show will occupy nearly all of the Museum’s 22,000 square foot area. Oh my GOD. MoCAD illuminates (heh) the exhibit: "As intended by White and Panter, the exhibition will serve as a platform for performances by guests working in a variety of media and disciplines, including musicians, video artists, comedians and engineers, who are invited to interact with the work and activate the space."

Gary's been sending iPhone pics to Dan over at PictureBox, and apparently, a lot of the paintings in the show use a paint only visible under blacklights. Visit his blog to see more of these pics, but here's one I couldn't resist, of a bunny:

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is located at 4454 Woodward Ave in Detroit. This exhibit will run through April 29, 2012.

Come and get it, indeed! Be one of the very first people to get your hands on a copy of Glitz-2-Go -- the long-awaited first-ever comix collection from the legendary Diane Noomin!

This groundbreaking artist will be making a rare appearance to celebrate the release, on Monday, March 5th at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City.

Starting at 6:00 PM, you can view original panels of “Baby Talk”, one of Noomin’s most controversial cartoons, as part of the Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women exhibit currently running through April. And then at 6:45 PM, join this pioneering cartoonist for a reading and discussion!

The Yeshiva University Museum is located in the Center for Jewish History [ 15 West 16th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave ]. Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is sponsored by the Jewish Daily Forward.

Wednesday, February 8th

• Seattle, WA: It's your last chance to view the Tony Millionaire Portraits show at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, featuring original artwork from his recent collection, 500 Portraits! (more info)

Friday, February 10th

•Detroit, MI: Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit!  Stay tuned to the FLOG for more details about this fantastical event! It runs through April 29, 2012.

Saturday, February 11th

• Seattle, WA: Join us for a free Comic Book Layout Workshop with artist and TCJ Contributor Frank Santoro, at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery starting at 5:00 PM... (more info)

• Seattle, WA: ...and then at 6:00 PM, it's the opening reception for our group exhibition "Funny Valentines: A Tribute to Jack Davis," featuring original artwork from Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Johnny Ryan, Jim Woodring, and many, many more! We'll be conducting a video chat with the man himself at 6:30 PM, so do not be late! (more info)

Joe Sacco at the Fantagraphics office, 04/09/07 // photo credit: Jacob Covey

We're excited to announce a rare hometown appearance by our International Man of Mystery, Joe Sacco!

He will be a guest at the Portland Central Library on Saturday, February 18th, where he will discuss his internationally acclaimed works, like Safe Area Gorazde and Palestine, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

Our friends from Floating World Comics will be on site to sell these titles so you can have them signed by Joe after the discussion!

Tickets for this event are free, and will be available 30 minutes prior to the program. Space at programs is limited, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Portland Central Library is located at 801 S.W. 10th Avenue in lovely downtown Portland, and this event will take place in the U.S. Bank Room. Do not miss it!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this past weekend as we celebrated the release of Listen, Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975.  It was the very first time we were able to present the book to the public, and every copy just blew outta the store!

We were also honored to be joined by local authors Mark Long and Jim Demonakos (also the founder of Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon!), who together with cartoonist Nate Powell, created the graphic novel The Silence of Our Friends. The chilling story was inspired by real-life incidents that Mark experienced growing up in the racially-tense environment of Texas in the mid-60s.

And then editor Pat Thomas stepped up to the projector for his slideshow on Listen, Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975, with our friends at the adjacent store Georgetown Records providing the soundtrack with the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic records.

And his presentation was riveting! It was so cool hearing the stories behind these rare tracks that Pat discovered, many of which are being released on CD for the very first time ever!  I ended up going home and staying up until 2:00 AM reading his book, and supplementing it with internet research on the Black Panthers. My mind is blown.

If you're also intrigued by the musical scene behind the Black Power movement, Pat is going to be giving a 90-minute presentation on Thursday, March 1st at the historic Washington Hall here in Seattle! More details, including ticket information, can be found on the FLOG here.

And Pat promises, if you get there early, you can hear the entire 20 minute radio segment that Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver recorded after he helped Timothy Leary escape from prison... aaaand then put him under  "revolutionary arrest" when he got sick of him! Hilarious!