More "Behind the Scenes": Part of the sheet of Jason lettering for the translations in "Pocket Full of Rain." There wasn't much to translate so Jason just wrote it all out on a single sheet of paper. A fun bit of ephemera that went along with this stray bit of text. 

Below this post, Mike Baehr announced the release of Walt Kelly's Our Gang Volume 3. The covers for this series are being drawn by the great Jeff Smith, as tributes to one of his idols.

A lot goes on "behind the scenes" when producing these collections. You may note that the purple cap pictured seems just a little bit more detailed than the rest of the kids' clothes. In this case lawyers from Another Publisher had seen an advance copy of the cover and required four variations on the cap before they were satisfied that it didn't infringe on a character they represented-- let's call him Bucketface. A popular look in the 30s/40s, the hat is created by cutting a zig-zag out of the brim of a fedora. It is also a hat that this kid wears throughout the Our Gang stories. So while my uneducated opinion is that any infringement on Bucketface is meritless, what do I know?

Anyway, here's the evolution of the cap, minus the second stage which I lost documentation of. And yes, we had to add "more buttons" to the hat between the third and fourth change. And yes, this all cost a lot of money in lawyer fees on both sides.

I found an ironic twist to this story, via Wikipedia. At some point in the 1960s, Bucketface's friends got curious what his real name was: "[His friends] decided to go to City Hall and check his birth certificate; the stuffy clerk there demands a large fee, which they scrape up with difficulty. The clerk responds by reading them a very ordinary name, to their great disappointment. In the last frame, [Bucketface] crawls out from under the clerk's desk and hands him a cigar, saying 'Gee, thanks, Uncle George!' (a reference to a comedic short from the 30s show Our Gang)."

Oyvey. Thank you Jeff Smith for enduring these headaches (and so many others now) for your love of Walt Kelly!

Our Gang Vol. 3
By Walt Kelly

Walt Kelly created dozens of Our Gang stories by the end of its 59-issue run in 1949, the year he quit comic books to switch careers a final time — as syndicated artist/writer on the immortal newspaper strip, Pogo.

In Our Gang’s third volume, Kelly begins to hit his stride by relying more on original ideas than following trite MGM scripts which had lacked in charm since the departure of producer Hal Roach in 1938. Keeping alive the wit that had been absent from the film series, this volume contains eight adventures of the mainstay offbeat personas as well as other whimsical characters, from mad scientists to eccentric animals. Suitable for adults and children alike, the work has been lovingly restored from the original comic books, giving Kelly’s art a renewed four-color splendor. With an all-new cover by Jeff Smith (Bone).

96-page full-color 7" x 10" softcover • $14.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

It seems everyone from the Seattle Times to the NY Times is singing its praises lately, so we will, too: All hail Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. If you are visiting Seattle, schedule time to visit. And I'm not just talkin' about the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Great beer, great food, great coffee, great comics, great music, great art, great buildings and more.

Pictured above: a vintage Hat & Boots shot, one of Georgetown's most peculiar attractions. Below pics of the iconic Georgetown Pharmacy and of Rhea Patton in the Fanta gallery by my pal Kurt Schlosser.

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Today's installment features Francesca Ghermandi, who is justly lauded in her native Italy but remains underappreciated here in North America. Hopefully that will change with her new graphic novel Grenuord, coming soon from Fantagraphics.

The Wipeout

One of the brightest lights in the modern Italian comics firmament, Ghermandi infuses her work with a gorgeous full-color palette of stylized graphics and a decidedly hard-boiled (but very funny) story sensibility. Set in her crazy, surreal universe, The Wipeout is half Double Indemnity, half Mulholland Drive — a violent, dream-laden fantasia with enough twists and turns to delight any adventurous comics reader. Jo Tartaglia, who works for a global cleaning-products company, is putting the finishing touches on a revolutionary new fluid that would clean everything at once — the only drawback being that, when mixed with milk, it becomes a deadly poison. Nagged nearly to death by his hair-transplant-obsessed wife Belle, he falls in with the lovely Virgin Prune, a lady with a shady past who enlists him to get her out from under a villainous loan shark (who happens to be an exact double for Jo). In typical film-noir style, there are plots within plots, not everyone ends up alive at the end of the story, and those who are dead aren't necessarily dead for good.

80-page full-color 9" x 12.5" softcover
regularly $19.95 • ON SALE $14.96
Order Now

I enjoyed this interview with my old pal Jim Blanchard; it was one of the more nuts and bolts interviews with Jim that I've read. And plus you get to look at shit like this: 

There's even scans of original art that Jim owns, from Clowes to Altergott. Oh, and that's a Billy Joe Shaver portrait by Jim, above.

Tim Lane has a blog, and is posting a new weekly strip on it. Not familiar with Tim Lane? You will be soon. 

Join us at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday, July 12 for the lively Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack. This is a good opportunity to view our spectacular new exhibition "Now Serving Cheesecake: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-Up." A real crowd pleaser. Lots going on in Georgetown at what has become one of our region's most colorful cultural outings.

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Today's installment features Mary Fleener, a true grande dame of the underground/alternative comix movement!

Life of the Party

The ultimate collection of Mary Fleener's groundbreaking Drawn & Quarterly series Slutburger in book form! Mary recounts tales of rock n' roll, southern California life, strange phantasms, and more in the pages of Life of the Party. Fleener's trademark neo-cubist cartooning ("cubismo") and her unique perspective on life in Southern California, from hippie art student, to gigging musician on the lesbian bar circuit, to surfer, make Life of the Party a striking and singular comic experience. Included here are such stories as "Turn Off That Jungle Music," "The Jelly," "Hush Yuppies," "Ashes of Passion," "Tales from the Pink Coffin," and many others. With Slutburger, hordes of fans joined the Fleener conga line — Life of the Party is the perfect place to get on the good foot!

152-page black & white softcover
regularly $14.95 • ON SALE $11.21
Order Now