Fantagraphics goes geeky at the 2nd annual GeekGirlCon in Seattle!

Visit us at Booth 214 on Saturday, August 11th and Sunday, August 12th! We're excited to announce our special guests who will be joining us on Saturday: Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso, Justin Hall, and Roberta Gregory!

Saturday, August 11th:
12:00 - 2:00 PM    Ellen Forney / Megan Kelso

Saturday, August 11th:
3:00 - 5:00 PM    Justin Hall / Roberta Gregory

You can find us at Booth 214:

We're selling tickets for GeekGirlCon at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery -- no service charge, cash only! The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at Airport Way South. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM.

GeekGirlCon ‘12 takes place at The Conference Center, located at 8th and Pike in downtown Seattle, WA, right across the street from the Washington State Convention Center (where Emerald City Comicon is held). Come say hi to our wonderful new marketing wizard Jen Vaughn, as well as myself and Jacq!

Max Clotfelter, Ben Horak, Tim Miller, and a student from their comics class with 826 Seattle. // photo credit: Kelly Froh

While we were at Comic-Con, the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery launched the “The Massive World of Mini-Comix,” an exhibition featuring art created by young students who attended an 826 Seattle workshop! 

I finally had a chance to view the show this past weekend, and it was so inspiring! I loved getting to see artwork by 12-year-olds next to work by people 2-to-3x their age, their teachers, Seattle cartoonists Max Clotfelter, Ben Horak and Tim Miller. 

The show closes on Thursday, August 9th, so if you live in Seattle, you still have a chance to see it! The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at Airport Way South. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM.

Local artists Eroyn Franklin and Max Clotfelter check out the show! // photo credit: John Ohannesian

Or, if you live outside of the Seattle area, you can check out more photos of the show on the Fantagraphics Flickr!

If you can read that flyer, you should go to this! 

Jason is back in North America, and will be signing on Saturday, August 11th at the Planète BD [ 3883 St-Denis ] in Montréal, Quebec! Join him at 2:00 PM for this special event!

Monday, July 30th

• Portland, OR: Northwesterners should not miss the chance to see Tim Kreider while he's on our side of the coast! Tim will be doing a reading at 7:30 PM at the infamous Powell's Books! (more info)

Wednesday, August 1st

• Bothell, WA: And then, Tim Kreider will be doing a reading at 7:00 PM at Third Place Books! (more info)

• Snoqualmie, WA: And our own Jim Blanchard is launching his art show Primitiva at The Black Dog. Ten or so of his acrylic paintings will be adorning their walls through September 15th. Check it out if you're in the area! (more info)

The west coast party for No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics continues to Berkeley! Join our wonderful editor Justin Hall for a signing and reading at Pegasus Books tomorrow, Saturday, July 27th.

He'll be joined by Jon Macy, Paige Braddock, Lee Marrs, Andy Hartzel, and Christine Smith for a series of comic book readings to celebrate the release of this important anthology.

Pegasus Books is located at 2349 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. It's gonna be another awesome event!

It's the launch so sexy, editor Jacques Boyreau took it to a whole 'nother country... Hey London! Get ready for a sexy time with the launch of Sexytime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur!

Join Jacques at The Horse Hospital in London for the official book release party on Friday, August 24th at 7:30 PM. Be one of the first to get your hands on this anthology of over a hundred of the most outrageously over-the-top porn movie posters of the era!

It's also the kick-off for an exhibit of pristinely re-mastered movie posters from the golden age of American porn, a collection of taboo-busting 1970s “porno chic” erotomania.

The exhibition runs through September 1st, and there will be daily matinee screenings of Jacques Boyreau's Candy Von Dewd & the Girls from Latexploitia... I bet that's exactly what it sounds like.

The Horse Hospital is located at Colonnade, Bloomsbury in London. Someone go check in on those horses for me.

Buffalo, NY pays tribute to their proud native son Manuel “Spain” Rodriguez with Spain: Rock, Roll, Rumbles, Rebels, & Revolution, an in-depth career retrospective opening Friday, September 14th.

The exhibition will be hosted by the Burchfield Penney Art Center, and will include both original drawings and reproductions representing all stages of Spain’s comix career (East Village Other, Zodiac Mindwarp, Zap Comix, Subvert, Anarchy, Weirdo, Zero Zero, Blab, American Splendor, et al.), including prints from his poster designs for the San Francisco Mime Troupe (1974–2011), with particular emphasis on his mature work of recent years in which he explores both his personal history of growing up in Buffalo in the 1950s and early ‘60s.

The Burchfield Penney Art Center is located at 1300 Elmwood Avenue, in the heart of Buffalo's Museum District. This exhibit will run through Sunday, January 20th, 2013.

Join our wonderful editor Justin Hall for a celebration of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics!

He'll be hosting an awesome event at Books Inc. in the Castro this Thursday, July 26th at 7:30 PM, and he'll be joined by a cast of contributors, including Trina Robbins, Ed Luce, Rick Worley, and Robert Triptow for a series of comic book readings to celebrate the release of this important anthology!

Books Inc. is located at 2275 Market Street in San Francisco. Don't miss it!

photo credit: our good pal Jonas Seaman

Where do Fantagraphics staffers get all those cool t-shirts and hoodies that you see us wearing at conventions? Why, Americaware!

And they just happen to be having a Summer Sale on t-shirts and hoodies featuring artwork by comics legends Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Basil Wolverton and Jim Woodring. Those Woodring hoodies like the one I was wearing in San Diego are now 50% off! Blanchard tees, like the one I'm wearing in the pic above, are only $9.99! Even the full-color Woodring tees are 50% off!

This sale is for a limited time only, so stock up while you can!

Well, what can I say, but... ╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

No, actually, I have to say it was the BEST SDCC EVER!  And here's a buncha reasons why:

• In honor of Eisner-winner Tom Spurgeon, I'm gonna write this FLOG post in bullet point, Comics Reporter-style.  As our own Steven Weissman said on Twitter, Tom was everyone's Comic-Con crush this year.  Getting to hang out with him was definitely one of my highlights, and I was delighted to hear stories of the olden days of Fantagraphics, sigh.  God, we're so boring and nice now.

• Speaking of Tom, his brother Whit wins for "Best T-Shirt of Comic-Con":  an Ivan Brunetti-illustrated tee for the band... Sex Fist. Yup.

• Although, on the way to dinner Saturday night, someone stopped me to tell me my Eightball tee was the "Best T-Shirt of Comic-Con," and yeah, I kinda love my Eightball tee.  It was an honor to wear some of Dale Yarger's old Fantagraphics t-shirts from the '90s to the convention. 

• It's always a thrill when Matt Groening comes by to visit, but especially this year, 'cause we got to geek out over the new Gary Panter book Dal Tokyo together!  Matt even shared a few secrets from when he and Panter worked at the L.A. Weekly together, oooh!!!

• After five long years of attending Comic-Con, Mike and I finally managed to make it to a Venture Brothers panel!  That has nothing to do with anything, but our own Stephen DeStefano used to do storyboards for them, so there's your "comix tie-in."

• Another highlight of SDCC was the introduction of our new Marketing Mistress Jen Vaughn, who totally kept me cracking up all weekend! Tom was right when he said it seems like she's been with Fantagraphics for ten years.

• I always love getting to visit with all our guest artists, but especially Miss Natalia Hernandez, who shares my love of Giant Robot, nail polish, Chi's Sweet Home, and more. I'm thinkin' next year, I'm organizing a SDCC manicure outing for us.

• Speaking of Giant Robot, somehow I managed to karaoke with Martin & Greg Wong 'til 3:00 AM and not lose my voice. [ Photo by one of my bestest friends, Susie Ghahremani. Comic-Con would not have been as awesome without her. <3 ]

• THANK YOU to the customer who kindly gave me a Snickers bar on the last day of the show! Yes, you were right, I did need it!

• And on that note, at the risk of sounding corny, I have to say, one of my show highlights is always getting to meet you, our customers, our readers, our mutual fans.  Look, I'm just a comic nerd like the rest of you.  If you wanna geek out over Sublife and Thrizzle or whatever, come find me.  You're all so nice, and smart, and fun to talk to, and you make going to shows my favorite part of working at Fantagraphics.

• My one bummer of SDCC was that it was the last one for Drawn & Quarterly's Jessica Campbell, who I will miss terribly!  I thought we were gonna grow old together, side by side in Aisle 1700 of the San Diego Convention Hall, but sadly, she is moving on to saner things.  Good-bye, my dear Jessica.  You and I will make it to Tijuana someday. [ Photo of me, Jessica, and James Kochalka swiped from the D&Q blog; snapped by the lovely Peggy Burns ]

• And finally, a special shout-out to my partner-in-crime, Mike Baehr.  Somehow, you make late nights unpacking, and then later re-packing, books fun. <3

See you next year, San Diego!