Julio's Day
by Gilbert Hernandez

104-page black & white 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-606-5

Ships in: March 2013 (subject to chage) — Pre-Order Now  

It begins in the year 1900, with the scream of a newborn. It ends, 100 pages later, in the year 2000, with the death rattle of a 100-year-old man. The infant and the old man are both Julio, and Gilbert Hernandez’s Julio’s Day (originally serialized in Love and Rockets Vol. II but never completed until now) is his latest graphic novel, a masterpiece of elliptical, emotional storytelling that traces one life — indeed, one century in a human life — through a series of carefully crafted, consistently surprising and enthralling vignettes.

There is hope and joy, there is bullying and grief, there is war (so much war — this is after all the 20th century), there is love, there is heartbreak. While Julio’s Day has some settings and elements in common with Hernandez’s Palomar cycle (the Central American protagonists and milieu, the vivid characters, the strong familial and social ties), this is a very much a singular, standalone story that will help cement his position as one of the strongest and most original cartoonists of this, or any other, century.

"Julio's Day is a story of one man's life, but it's a great deal more than that as well. It's the story of the life of a century, also told as if a day. Beginning with Julio's birth in 1900 and ending with his death in 2000, the graphic novel touches on most of the major events that shaped the 20th century." – Brian Evenson, from his introduction

"A haunting performance and about as perfect a literary work as I've read in years. Hernandez accomplishes in 100 pages what most novelists only dream of — rendering the closeted phlegmatic Julio in all his confounding complexity and in the process creating an unflinching biography of a community, a country and a century. A masterpiece." – Junot Díaz

9-page excerpt (download 700 KB PDF):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

We love our last-minute tinkering! We switched out one of the panels on the cover artwork of Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret by Carl Barks, to give us that extra spookitude we were looking for, so it looks a little different from the first version we showed you. There's some creepy doings a(webbed)foot at the ancestral Clan McDuck castle of Dismal Downs! This new, improved version got the thumbs-up from our pals at Disney and it's off at the printer for release in June. We should have some previews put together for you in the near future; you can get an early jump on pre-order right now.

Based on a rather amazing idea from libraries, we decided to let some of our books go through the liberating process of not being judged by their covers or names. Some books were even happy enough to be photographed with their descriptions. Click on each description to see what book you should take home tonight. The ones up top describe themselves as quiet, a little gloomy, likes the beauty of little things and Looking for something longterm, family is important, likes punk rock.

This book listed itself as a book that likes the outdoors, clothing optional, plays guitar, has a 'green' thumb.

• Recovering from a bad break up, doesn't want kids, likes to travel

• Mischievous, doesn't like hippies, tells a lot of jokes

These books are great to read at home in bed, on the train, and even at a coffeeshop with a drink like this book that describes itself as rather powerful, into birds/birch, has 2 daughters.

Some of the books were too shy to be photographed, felt they had bad handwriting but we don't discriminate! Here are their descriptions:

• Likes sociology (especially into the downfalls of civilizations), collaborates often, in a complicated relationship

• Has a lot of friends from all over, currently homeless unless you count a ship, goal-oriented

• Likes to play and talk to guitar, from a small town

• Kinda famous, likes to write and draw, into the grotesque (or the plain and simple truth)

• History buff, believes in fighting for what's right, has a strong stomach

• Already has a special someone...did my nephews put me up to this?

Find a book you like today!

• Loves Metal and power violence, into self-defense, likes it rough

This month's Diamond Previews catalog is out now and in it you'll find our usual 2-page spread (download the PDF) with our releases scheduled to arrive in your local comic shop in April 2013 (give or take — release dates are likely to have changed since the issue went to press). We're pleased to offer additional and updated information about these upcoming releases here on our website, to help shops and customers alike make more informed ordering decisions.

(Retailers! These updates are also available in a new monthly email newsletter especially for you. If you're not already getting it and would like to sign up, contact us and we'll add you to the mailing list! And don't forget, we have a ton of digital resources which are at your disposal for your website and social networks, which you can learn more about here.)

Hit the links below for complete info on each title, and see the whole lineup here.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Vol. 1: "Call of the Wild" By Floyd Gottfredson $29.99 / HC / 280 pgs / FC / 10.5 x 8.5 Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse series makes the jump from black and white to vibrant color. Many of these classic Sunday strips from 1932-1935 have never before been reprinted and have been restored from Disney’s archives and enhanced with a meticulous recreation of the strips’ original color. Call of the Wild also brings you more than 30 pages of supplementary features such as rare behind-the-scenes art, vintage publicity material, and fascinating commentary by a prismatic pack of Disney scholars. This is a collection that fans have been seeking for a lifetime! More Details

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 5: "Happy Hippy Comix" – New Reprint By Robert Crumb $19.99/ SC / 144 pgs / PC / 8.5 x 11 The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 8: "The Death of Fritz the Cat" – New Reprint By Robert Crumb $19.99/ SC / 144 pgs / PC / 8.5 x 11 Continuing our ongoing commitment to keep the canonic Complete Crumb Comics series available, we reprint two of most often- demanded volumes. Vol. 5: “Happy Hippy Comix” spotlights the period from late-1967 through 1969, including the second issue of ZAP Comix, the introduction of Angelfood McSpade, Mr. Natural, a long Fritz story, an alternate version of the Cheap Thrills album cover, and more! Vol. 8: “Starring Fritz the Cat” covers the years 1971-1972 and features one of Crumb’s most notorious comics, “The Death of Fritz the Cat,” as well as “Whiteman Meets Bigfoot,” the complete Big Ass #2 and Mr. Natural #2, wild jams and loads of photos! Vol. 5 Details • Vol. 8 Details

Love and Rockets: The Covers By Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez $35.00 / SC / 144 pgs / FC / 10 x 13 Fantagraphics proudly presents 20 years of Love And Rockets covers collated in full-color, virtually all of them without logos or cover text for maximum visual impact so the viewer can better appreciate these iconic images created by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. With over 150 classic covers, this will be a gorgeous, oversized art book and the perfect gift for fans of the series that virtually defines alternative comics. More Details

New School By Dash Shaw $35.00 / HC / 340 pgs / FC / 8.5 x 11 From the author of Bottomless Belly Button comes a stunning new graphic novel set in a fantastical amusement park. New School follows a teenage boy’s search for his brother, which leads at first to wonderment and delight but ultimately to alienation and disillusionment. Unlike anything in the history of the comics medium, New School is at once funny and deadly serious, easily readable while wildly artistic, personal and political, familiar and completely new. More Details & 18-Page Excerpt 3 New Stories By Dash Shaw $3.99 / Comic / 32 pgs / FC / 6.5 x 10 This one-shot comic book will feature three all-new, full-color short stories that explore var- ied dystopian societies. From a Sherlock Holmes-style investiga- tor who must complete his high school degree to filmed ‘volun- tary’ nudity to prison camps full of jaded children, Shaw pens each story with his signature style and unique spin, all in 32 pages. More Details & Preview Images

His Wife Leaves Him By Stephen Dixon $29.99 / HC / 600 pgs / Prose / 6 x 9 Stephen Dixon’s first novel in five years is an intimate exploration of the interior life of a husband who has lost his wife. His Wife Leaves Him is Dixon’s most important and ambitious novel, featuring his tenderest and funniest writing to date, and represents the stylistic and thematic summation of his writing life. (Updated release: June 2013) More Details

Heroic Tales: The Bill Everett Archives Vol. 2 By Bill Everett; Edited by Blake Bell $39.99 / HC / 240 pgs / FC / 7.25 x 10.5 Over 200 pages of never- before-reprinted work from Golden-Age-Of-Comics legend Bill Everett. Spanning the years 1938- 1940 and culled from such magazines as Amazing Mystery Funnies and Amazing-Man Comics, Heroic Tales features vintage characters such as Amazing-Man, Hydroman, Skyrocket Steele, The Chameleon plus many more. This is a stunning companion to Fantagraphics’ critically acclaimed 2010 Everett retrospective, Fire and Water, and features beautifully restored, full-color stories plus an introduction about the man, his art, the history of the era, and his relationship with Marvel Comics. (Updated release: June 2013) More Details

The End By Anders Nilsen $19.99 / HC / 80 pgs / PC / 8.5 x 11 Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen’s sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fiancée, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting and transformation. Originally released in magazine form, The End has been updated and expanded to more than twice its origi-nal length, including a 16-page full-color section. More Details & 11-Page Excerpt

The Squirrel Machine – Now in Paperback By Hans Rickheit $19.99 / SC / 192 pgs / BW / 7 x 10 An anachronistic parable for the convulsive elite — now in paperback. Meticulous, strange, and hauntingly beautiful, this evocative and enigmatic book will ensure the inquisitive reader a spleenful of cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel. Order this item from the Previews Adult catalog! More Details & 15-Page Excerpt

When Dorothy first finds herself in Oz, the whole world refocuses and shifts from black and white to full color. The time has come for Peanuts to turn a page into the same spectrum! Coming in the Fall of 2013, Fantagraphics will be releasing Peanuts Every Sunday: 1952-1955 in resplendent remastered colors. Each volume will contain four years of Sunday comics just the way Charles M. Schulz intended, in crisp full color released annually. You don't have to be a white witch to see the beauty in these comics.

Publisher Gary Groth stated, "We always felt that the best format for The Complete Peanuts was a black and white reprinting of every Peanuts strip ever drawn and that reprinting the Sunday strips in color would be too distracting. But, we always wanted to reprint just the Sunday Peanuts in full color at a size closer to what they were originally printed in in the newspapers — and so we are, gloriously re-colored using Charles Schulz's original palette." Created by Charles Schulz in 1950, Peanuts ran for 50 years until he retired on February 12th, 2000. He passed away that day with one final strip ready to print.

Peanuts Every Sunday: 1952-1955

by Charles M Schulz

$49.99 Hardcover • 288 pages
Full color • 12.75" x 10"
ISBN: 978-1-60699-692-8 

Designed as a series of ten massive coffee-table quality books, each one containing a half-decade's worth of Sunday strips, Peanuts Every Sunday is a book to be enjoyed any day, not just Sundays. Recolored by Joanne Bagge, the striking colors of the Red Baron dashing across the sky to the soft blue hue of Linus' blanket to Woodstock's fuzzy yellow head all grace the pages of Peanuts Every Sunday. Enjoy the secret pleasure of seeing Charlie's original zigzag shirt in many colors before becoming its trademark yellow.

Don't be a blockhead – get ready for for the majestic beauty of Charles M. Schulz in full color.

The 1960s ushered in era of sexual liberation that profoundly influenced American pop culture. The social stigma was removed from adult films, which were openly advertised in major publications and attracted throngs of curious patrons. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery examines the aesthetics of erotic movie posters in Sexytime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur opening Saturday, February 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Grindhouse movie aficionado Jacques Boyreau assembled an amazing collection of porn movie posters with lurid titles like Teddy Bare, Hot Lunch, and Milk Lady ("She Delivers!"). The films often parodied blockbuster hits of the day, nakedly mimicking their plots while featuring look-alike stars. The content of the book remarkably reflect the fads, films, and fashions of the decades of the 1960s and 70s. These relics of the golden age of American pornography are at once alluring and ridiculous.

The "Sexytime" exhibition opens on Friday, February 9, which coincides with the Valentine's edition of the Georgetown Art Attack, marking the 5th anniversary of this lively art walk. Editor Jacques Boyreau will be available to sign copies of the oversize, hardbound book. Musical entertainment will be provided by Molly Rainey with her post-apocalyptic pop act Poppet. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) only minutes from downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.

Listing information:

"Sexytime" vintage porn poster exhibition and book signing.
Opens Saturday, February 9, 6:00 to 9:00 PM with music by Poppet.
Exhibition continues through March 6, 2013.
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. Seattle, WA
206.658.0110

The Hollywood adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel The Prone Gunman, from which Jacques Tardi adapted the graphic novel that we named Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot, has lined up Taken director Pierre Morel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. So the producers didn't take Kim Thompson's suggestions, but the film's a big step closer to reality. Mostly this was just an excuse to repost my Photoshop goofery featuring the film's star, Sean Penn.

And now a message from Gene Deitch: 

A new 2013 (cheaper) edition of the 2003 (expensive) book of my 1940s jazztoons is coming out in a more reasonably priced (and neatly printed) edition by Fantagraphics, who are determined to get you to buy it.  

Not only is this new edition cheaper, but is e – x – p – a – n – d – e - d with lots of rediscovered drawings, previously seen only by moldy old souls who played those black, breakable 10 inch 78RPM phonograph records, which required steel needles to follow wiggly shellac grooves, producing a hissing and clicking sound which nearly drowned out the weird music that was gestated in 19th century New Orleans whorehouses! *

Right now, Fantagraphics.com is offering you a chance to pre-order!

Here's your chance to make four people happy:

1. Gary Groth, the publisher of Fantagraphics Books.

2. Me, the aged retro hand-drawer of all the pictures.

3. You, the eager collector of the obscure... and

4. One or More Moochers, who will beg you to lend your copy to them!

(Get it directly from Fantagraphics, at no discernable discount.)

* “The CAT On a Hot Thin Groove” title thought up but my smart-ass son, Kim

We're so excited about the arrival of advance copies of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby Vol. 1, we all busted out our cameraphones for these snapshots! Eric Instagrammed this one: 

This one's by Jen, of Jacq's desk:

Good gravy this book's a beaut! Boasting art direction by the one and only Daniel Clowes and comprehensively collecting the first two years (1942-1943) of Johnson's beloved strip between flexi-bound covers, it's one of the last items to cross off the list of "uncollected great American comic strips." And it's finally almost here! You'll be able to get your hands on a copy in late March or early April; for now you can sample 20 pages, and pre-order your copy, right here.

The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 features 148 contributors from 23 countries on five continents, and six of those contributors happen to be from Ohio: John M. Bennett, C. Mehrl Bennett, John Byrum, endwar, Bill Howe, Joel Lipman, and Reid Wood!

The Nelsonville Public Library recently launched an exhibition of 27 prints from Last Vispo! The exhibit was arranged locally by Athens visual poet endwar (Andrew Russ), who has been writing visual poetry since 1990 and publishing some via his IZEN imprint. The exhibit also includes seven large prints of minimalist visual poems originally created for exhibits at Neopolis Gallery in Cleveland from 2003-2005, some poetry in sculpture form created over the last five years, and a few other items.

The exhibit will be on display through Saturday, February 16th.  The Nelsonville Public Library is located at 95 W Washington Street.