Summer celebrations continue in Georgetown with the Second Saturday Art Attack on July 10 and the annual Georgetown Garden Walk on Sunday, July 11. These colorful activities accentuate the unique character of Georgetown's historic business corridor and creative residential neighborhood.

Among the highlights of the July 10 Georgetown Art Attack: Seattle Teen Printmakers (STP) display work from recent workshops at Georgetown Arts and Cultural Center together with Amy Pleasant's "Family Album" exhibition and open studios with resident artists; "Meat Cake" book launch party featuring original comic art exhibition, book signing and performance by Portland-based artist Dame Darcy at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery; a collection of handcrafted traditional Caribbean masks from Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Jamaica by Alyssa Johnson at Calamity Jane's; the debut of "Seattle Hop" tee shirt and other works designed by Seattle home brewer and digital artist Laura Fletcher at Full Throttle Bottles; "Just Before the Leap" paintings by Mark LaFalce, "Encaustics: the Wave of Wax" by Deborah Stachowic, and "Clay, Baby" works by Pamela Hathaway at 5626 Airport Way S. studios; an exhibition at Indiro artist studio, 5050 First S., featuring Dave Alton, Nicole Appell, Catherine Bailey, Jolie Bergman, Felice Dunn, Darren Emmens, Becky Fitterer, Meredith Jenkins, Brian Kuntz, Gay Seydlitz, Reecca Thayer and Carrie Whitney. Also included in both the Art Attack and Garden Walk is a "Trailer Park Market of Curiosities" featuring local art, vintage clothing, collectibles and more at the newly minted Georgetown Trailer Park Mall.

For Trailer Park Mall information visit: www.georgetowntrailerpark.com. Maps of the Georgetown Garden Walk can be found at the Bank of America parking lot at 1112 S. Bailey St. on Sunday, July 11.

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack is a monthly promotion of the Georgetown Merchants' Association (GMA). For additional information contact Art Attack coordinator Larry Reid or GMA chair Sara Aruguete at numbers above. For a map of Art Attack participants see: www.georgetownartattack.com

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery welcomes the lovely and talented Esther Pearl Watson and her artist cohort Mark Todd on Monday, July 5 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Watson will sign copies of her amazing UNLOVABLE collections, among our very favorite titles at the bookstore.

Guests will enjoy an urban barbeque with complimentary hot dogs, beans, and cold beverages in addition to an array of Todd and Esther's affordable books and art. Expect a few surprises as well. Don't miss your chance to meet these extraordinary artists and have a meal on us. What better way to spend a lazy day off?

Note that Fantagraphics Bookstore will be closed on Sunday, July 4, but open 11:30 to 8:00 PM as usual on July 5 for this event. And remember to mark your calendars for Dame Darcy's appearance on Saturday, July 10.

Saturday's Artopia extravaganza was the most festive yet. Thousands of adventurous art patrons strolled through Georgetown taking in everything from Megan's Kelso's Artichoke Tales exhibition to the vintage Georgetown Trailer Park Mall, complete with the mobile Elvis museum and wedding chapel. Circus acts, sideshow routines, carnival games, marching bands, and plenty of food and drink kept everyone wildly entertained.

Fantagraphics Bookstore's entry in the Power Tool Races — a chainsaw-powered 1991 Daniel Clowes-designed Santa Cruz skateboard — won the trophy for... well, some absurd category. Comedian and film director Bobcat Goldthwait dropped by the store after the races to admire the winner before presenting his cult classic feature film Shakes the Clown.

Bands performed on a stage outside the store all day including the Tom Price Desert Classic featuring our beloved Martin Bland on drums. The festivities came to a crescendo with an improvised session of neighborhood musicians including Georgetown Records co-owners Grant Eckman and Martin Imbach, and a cameo appearance by Soundgarden's Ben Shepherd. Don't miss it next year.

Multifaceted cartoonist, musician, performance artist, fortune teller and neo-Victorian culture maven Dame Darcy appears at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on July 10 to celebrate the publication of MEAT CAKE, a collection of stories from the first decade of her popular comic book series of the same name. The event features an exhibition of Dame Darcy's original comic art and other creations, an enchanting music recital and a fortune telling session with each book signed.

MEAT CAKE is like a peek into an imaginative, deranged dollhouse filled with fractured fairy tales. An expanded version of the long out-of-print hardcover book, this new paperback assembles the very best of Darcy's work from the first 11 issues of the beloved comic (including "Hungry Is the Heart," the legendary collaboration with Watchmen creator Alan Moore). According to the New York Times, "Darcy's comics are aesthetic manifestos... Darcy is a star. Meat Cake will prevail, as luxury takes over America. And the world beyond." The Los Angeles Times observes, "[Darcy] has created a childlike, otherworldly realm, a land that hovers in the twilight space between the whimsical and the macabre. Ghosts and goblins, foul-tempered stepmothers, lovesick mermaids and charmed forests are all rendered in Darcy's distinctive hand, loose and flowing lines reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey."

Dame Darcy's appearance on Saturday, July 10 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring challenging visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic industrial arts corridor. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport way S.) only minutes south of downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.

Listing Information

Dame Darcy's MEAT CAKE

Art exhibition, book signing and performance

Saturday, July 10, 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Exhibition continues through September 8, 2010

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
Phone 206.658.0110
Open Daily 11:30 - 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

Don’t miss this: The Artopia cultural extravaganza and Georgetown Music Festival take place on Saturday, June 26 from 3:00 to 10:00 PM. It’s all FREE!

Dozens of bands will perform on several stages, including one right outside Fantagraphics Bookstore featuring the Tom Price Desert Classic with our own Martin Bland on traps. Old school carnival games and confections, aerial circus acts, and thrilling Power Tool Races are among the many attractions. You’ll love the demonic chainsaw-powered Daniel Clowes skateboard created by our curator Larry Reid and daughter Bella. Just don’t get too close. 

Make plans for Labor Day weekend in Seattle now! The Bumbershoot art and music festival promises to be the best in recent memory. In addition to performances by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neko Case, Hole, the Decemberists, Weezer and countless other bands, the festival includes a large exhibition of contemporary Seattle cartoonists.

Organized by Fantagraphics resident curator Larry Reid, "Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" begins with Lynda Barry's work circa 1980 and continues through the present. The show reveals Seattle as the ancestral home of the alternative comix genre and examines the role comix played in Seattle's youth movement of the 90s, which penetrated popular culture globally.

Hundreds of original artworks, comix and related ephemera by an impressive roster of influential Seattle artists will be displayed including Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Jim Woodring, Megan Kelso, Jim Blanchard, Roberta Gregory, David Lasky, Ted Jouflas, Justin Hampton, J. R. Williams, Pat Moriarity, Donna Barr, Mark Zingarelli, Michael Dougan, Jeremy Eaton, Jason T. Miles, and more.

See you in September.

Celebrated Seattle cartoonist Megan Kelso unveils her latest masterpiece ARTICHOKE TALES this  Saturday from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Megan burst onto the comics scene in the early 90s with her provocative self-published zine Girlhero. She has since proven herself to be a master storyteller..

The New York Times' recent rave called her new book “…surprising and wonderful” with a “consistently sweet and airy approach [that] provides a likable surface for a story with much darker and stickier depths…” The Stranger says “Artichoke Tales feels like series of expansions. The characters and their world grow to envelop the reader in a singular, charming way.”

Please join us on Saturday to celebrate the work is this remarkable artist. DJ Russ "Fallout" Battaglia will spin platters and complimentary beverages will be provided. The reception coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic industrial arts district.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at Airport Way S. in the heart of Georgetown. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.