Wednesday, May 30th

• Hanover, NH: Join our very own Jen Vaughn at the The Howe Library for a lecture and discussion on Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier! (more info)

Thursday, May 31st

• Brooklyn, NY:  It's your last chance to see the exhibit Drew Friedman: My Way, his very first New York gallery show of comic strip and illustration art at the Scott Eder Gallery! (more info)

• Seattle, WA:  Join Jeffrey Brown at the SIFF Cinema Uptown for a screening of his new film Save the Date! See if you can spot artwork by  Paul Hornschemeier and Anders Nilsen around the set! (more info)

Friday, June 1st

• Seattle, WA:  It's your last chance to catch the Jeffrey Brown film Save the Date, this time over at the Harvard Exit theater! (more info)

Saturday, June 2nd

• Seattle, WA:  And then join us at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery as we welcome Jeffrey Brown for a book signing and informal reception, plus yours truly will be interviewing him about the new movie, his comics, and knowing me, probably cats. (more info)

Get your summer vacation off to a melancholy start with Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier! 

The Howe Library in Hanover, NH and The Center for Cartoon Studies will be co-sponsoring a discussion series and lecture focusing on the graphic novel this summer, and they'll be kicking it off with this very title!

Join them this Wednesday, May 30th, at 6:15 PM in the Howe Library cafe [ 13 South Street ]. The discussion will be co-led by Heather Backman from Howe Library and our very own Jen Vaughn, also from The Center for Cartoon Studies!

Like Father, like Son? Find out for yourself this Saturday, June 2nd as Howard Richardson presents his son, Scott Richardson, a.k.a. Tony Millionaire, in a presentation of amusing drawings and comics!

It's a benefit for the Gloucester Writers Center in Gloucester, MA, where Tony grew up. The GWC was founded to celebrate, preserve and promote the future of Gloucester's rich literary legacy, which certainly includes our Tony!

Join them starting at 7:30 PM at The Harbor Room [ 8 Norwood Ct, Gloucester ]. Tony’s art will be for sale to support the GWC as well.

After several years under Seattle's soggy skies, author Pat Thomas is making the move to Los Angeles, and what better way to celebrate than with a book signing for Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975!

Welcome Pat to town on Wednesday, June 13th at Skylight Books for a signing and presentation, beginning at 7:30 PM.

Skylight Books is located at 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, just 3 1/2 blocks north of the Sunset/Vermont Metro station, next to the Los Feliz 3 cinema.

* Other People's Publications
** Yeah, You Know Me.

"Down With OPP" is our erratically-scheduled column where we spotlight books by other publishers that we carry at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.  And I'm excited to announce we just got in a batch of Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown, out now from our friends at Chronicle Books!

This is a charming little book that depicts what it might've been like if Darth Vader had raised Luke Skywalker as a kid: bedtime stories about Darth Maul, trips to the zoo to see the banthas, afternoon baseball games with the lightsaber. You don't have to be a parent to appreciate the book, and you don't even have to be a Star Wars fanatic. After all, this kind-of humor is universal, amiright?:

But, y'know, Fathers Day is coming up on Sunday, June 17th, and this nice little embossed hardcover book makes a great gift for any Dad, even if he isn't a dark lord of the Sith. Why, you could even get it personalized this Saturday, June 2nd as Jeffrey will be making an appearance at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery from 6:00 to 8:00 PM! 

Yours truly will be awkwardly interviewing him about comics and his new film (!!!), the romantic comedy Save the Date, which will be screening Thursday, May 31st and Friday, June 1st at the Seattle International Film Festival.  (In fact, I'm told there's artwork by fellow Fantagraphics artists Paul Hornschemeier and Anders Nilsen around the set of the movie!) It's going to be a great night, and we may even have some special guests joining us... Plus, our own Larry Reid will be unveiling his latest power tool racer!

The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.

Monday, May 21st

• Seattle, WA: Our friends at the Elysian Brewing Company will be launching the latest edition in our 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series, a collaboration featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series! (more info)

Friday, May 25th

• DeKalb, IL:  It's your last chance to check out the exhibition “Graphic Novel Realism: Backstage at the Comics” at the Northern Illinois Unversity Art Museum, curated by our own Paul Karasik, and featuring work by Joyce Farmer, Jaime Hernandez, Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash, as well as Jason Lutes, Seth and James Sturm! (more info)

Saturday, May 26th

• Seattle, WA:  And it's your last chance to check out the exhibit "Collecting: Art is a Slippery Slope" at the Wright Exhibition Space, featuring the NASCAR collection of our own Larry Reid, curator and manager of the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Or you can come to our many awesome events at the store in June, and Larry can show you the fancy exhibit catalog instead! (more info)

Author Pat Thomas at Café OTO, London // photo credit: Dave Weller

Our author Pat Thomas is back home in Seattle after a whirlwind book tour through England for Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, but you can still hear the sounds of his presentations and interviews online, thanks to the internets!

UK publication The Wire recorded his presentation at Café OTO, and you can listen to it here! Part one is Pat's incredible lecture, and part two is of Pat in discussion with author Paul Gilroy, filmmaker John Akomfrah, and publisher Margaret Busby.

And if you click here, you can hear an interview Pat did on Resonance 104.4 FM, a London-based non-profit community radio station. And we all know non-profit radio is the very best kind, cough. Listen up!

Editor Pat Thomas at the infamous Rough Trade record store, London // photo credit: Dave Weller

London Calling! Pat Thomas, editor of our acclaimed title Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, spent the first weeks of May bringing those sights and sounds to the UK! 

You can read an excellent report of his presentation at Cafe OTO at whisperinandhollerin.com.

And you can click here to hear an interview Pat did on BBC London! The show is three hours long, but Pat's segment is in the last half-hour, so you can click to fast-forward. Note: this link expires in six days, so... listen, whitey! (or whatever you might be!)

It's no coincidence that the fabulous Drew Friedman will be joined by esteemed film historian Leonard Maltin this Saturday, May 19th in Los Angeles!

Drew states, they'll be in conversation about "all things Shemp, Old Jewish Comedians, Joe Franklin, Wheezer, Al Kilgore, Shemp, Woim, Officer Joe Bolton, Shemp, Darla, Gene Baylos, Gummo Marx, Buckwheat, Jerry Ohlinger, Shemp and so much more" at Book Soup [ 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood ].

And, of course, he'll be signing copies of the long-awaited reprint of Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental, Drew's first anthology, co-written by Josh Alan Friedman.

Don't miss this incredible pairing at 4:00 PM! I hope they talk about Shemp!

Daniel Clowes comes home to Chicago this Thursday, May 17th for a signing of the Abrams ComicArts collection The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist!

He'll be joined by editor Alvin Buenaventura at Quimby's [ 1854 W North Ave, Chicago ] starting at 7:00 PM.  And while supplies last, they'll be giving out Mister Jones pins!