7 Miles a Second
by David Wojnarowicz, James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook

68-page full-color 9" x 12" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-614-0

Ships in: January 2013 (subject to change) – Pre-Order Now

7 Miles a Second is the story of legendary artist David Wojnarowicz, written during the last years before his AIDS-related death in 1992. Artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook unsentimentally depict Wojnarowicz's childhood of hustling on the streets of Manhattan, through his adulthood living with AIDS, and his anger at the indifference of government and health agencies. A primal scream of a graphic novel, 7 Miles a Second blends the stark reality of Lower East Side street life with a psychedelic delirium that artfully conveys Wojnarowicz's sense of rage, urgency, mortality and a refusal to be silent.

Originally published as a comic book in 1996 by DC's Vertigo Comics, 7 Miles a Second was an instant critical success and has become a cult classic amongst fans of literary and art comics, just as Wojnarowicz's influence and reputation have widened in the larger art world. This new edition finally presents the artwork as it was intended: oversized, and with Van Cook's elegant watercolors restored. It also includes several new pages created for this edition.

"Revolutionary.... a runaway, over-the-top circus... An excursion into areas few, if any, comics creators have tread." – Jim Steranko

"Seven Miles a Second veers between an almost unbearably gritty naturalism and the incendiary heat of surrealist hallucination." – The New Yorker

"A revelatory work of art." – Art in America

"A cult classic... both a celebration of the unlimited potential of the comic book form, and a perfect melding of inspiring, iconoclastic imaginations." – Jim Jarmusch

7-page excerpt (download 4.8 MB PDF):

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

There's been some great Prison Pit fan art since the series started but if I were Johnny Ryan I'd be putting my feet up and basking in this one for a while: Guy Davis renders the unnamed hulking oafspawn from Book 4. Dig it bigger here.

Turkey smurkey. It's a holiday weekend -- put down that comic book, get off the couch, and come buy more comic books!

Thursday, November 22nd

• Salvador, Brazil: Max launched his retrospective exhibition, Panóptica, at the Instituto Cervantes de Salvador! Check out the FLOG for pics and reports from previous stops on this exhibit's tour! (more info) 

Friday, November 23rd

• Seattle, WA: The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery has extended our exhibit for Noah Van Sciver's The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln and Frank M. Young & David Lasky's The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song to today! Beat the stampedes this Black Friday, and support independent shops! (more info) 

• Vancouver, BC: It's a Horror Hangover thanks to Robin McConnell of Inkstuds with this group show featuring Fantagraphics' staffers Jason T. Miles and Jen Vaughn, Mome veterans Malachi Ward and Jim Rugg! Plus, check out that poster illustration from Al Columbia! (more info)   

Saturday, November 24th

• Seattle, WA: Join us at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery for the book release party for The Last Vispo Anthology, edited by Northwest literary artists Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill.  Their work will be feted with an exhibition, readings, and a musical performance from Lori Goldston (former Nirvana and Earth cellist, and recent Stranger “Genius Award” recipient) performing with former Black Cat Orchestra bandmate Kyle Hanson. (more info) 

• St. Petersburg, FL: Meanwhile, the Eve N Odd Gallery will be hosting a launch party for The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008, as well, with prints from the book on display! (more info)

• Vancouver, BC: You'll be horrified if you miss the last day of Horror Hangover, hangin' at the Hot Art Wet City's Pop-Up Gallery! (more info)

Sunday, November 25th

• Vancouver, BC: And the celebration continues for The Last Vispo Anthology at the STAG (Strathcona Art Gallery) Library with unscheduled pop-up readings and performances by: Jim Andrews (Vancouver), Judith Copithorne (Vancouver), Crag Hill (Idaho), Donato Mancini (Vancouver), Gustave Morin (Windsor), Michael V. Smith (Kelowna), Nico Vassilakis (Seattle) and possibly more! (more info)

Get ready — it's almost time for our fourth annual Cyber Monday sale! All day Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, all of our regularly-priced, currently-available and pre-orderable 2012 releases are marked down 30%! That's a fantastic deal on over 90 items, including but not limited to:

• Beautiful collections of classic comics material starring beloved characters like Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Mickey Mouse and Pogo Possum, plus the perfect Charlie Brown gift book

• More gorgeous volumes of classic newspaper strips Buz Sawyer, Captain Easy, Krazy Kat, Mr. Twee Deedle, Nancy, Peanuts (two volumes and box set), Popeye, and Prince Valiant (and top it off with some Naked Cartoonists)

• You like European flavor to your comics? With names like Mahler, Sæteroy (Jason to you), Ott, Giandelli, Swarte, Tardi, Trondheim, and Mattotti, not to mention all the umlauts in our Nordic comics anthology, we've got you couveured

• Not to mention Weissman, Kaczynski, Rickheit, Carré, Kupperman, Regé, Van Sciver... ha, fooled ya, they're all 'Merican! They all have new graphic novels and story collections, along with Wright, Daly (South African!), and Simmons

• From the other side of the other ocean, beautiful manga by Moto Hagio and Shimura Takako

• The Alternative Comics Canon: brand new stories, collections and reprints by all-time greats Drew Friedman, Bill Griffith, Peter Bagge, Linda Medley, Spain Rodriguez, Gary Panter, Richard Sala, Diane Noomin, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime & Gilbert, Jack Jackson, Daniel Clowes, Johnny Ryan, Jim Woodring, Rich Tommaso, R. Crumb, Crumb, and more Crumb, and C. Tyler, plus a historic collection of queer comics

• Explore the intersection of art & literature with art books by Flannery O'Connor & Malcolm McNeill (working with William S. Burroughs), a collection of visual poetry, the Significant Objects book... and plain old literature by Stephen Dixon and Monte Schulz

• Discover aspects of pop-cultural history, from Black Power to vintage skin flicks

• Deluxe collections of vintage comics material by a pantheon of greats: Steve Ditko, Bill Everett, Joe Kubert, Mort Meskin, Simon & Kirby, Basil Wolverton, Jack Davis, Wallace Wood & Harvey Kurzman in the EC Comics Library, MAD-inspired parody comics and the greatest Golden Age covers,  

• And some other stuff too — see the whole selection here!

PLUS: You love our exclusive FBI•MINI comics we give away with qualifying purchases, but maybe there's some you've missed out on. Well during the sale you can get DOUBLE MINIs! That's right, order a book that has an accompanying MINI and get another one of your choice, or get two of your choice instead of one for your purchase of $50 and up. All for FREE! Just indicate your preferences at checkout. And we're announcing FIVE new MINIs just for the occasion:

Angelman Merchandise Catalogue by Nicolas Mahler
Thank You by Ron Regé, Jr.
Sigmund Freud by Hans Rickheit
Ralph Azham Covers by Lewis Trondheim
Even More Problematic by Jim Woodring (available in December)

Whew! 2012 has been our biggest year yet... and here's your best chance to get caught up and spread the love of comics with beautiful gifts for all your friends and family!

The sale runs all day Monday, November 26, and ends at midnight Pacific time. Don't miss out! Order online or by phone (1-800-657-1100; 206-524-1967 outside the U.S., 9AM-6PM Pacific time); this sale does not apply at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.

The Heart of Thomas (トーマの心臓 / Thomas no Shinzō)
by Moto Hagio

528-page black & white (with some color) 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-551-8

Ships in: December 2012 (subject to change) – Pre-Order Now

BARGAIN COMBO:

The Heart of Thomas + A Drunken Dream Gift Set

Price: $64.98 $51.98

The setting: A boys' boarding school in Germany, sometime in the mid-20th Century. One winter day, fourteen year-old Thomas Werner falls from a lonely pedestrian overpass to his death, immediately after sending a single, brief letter to another boy at the school:

To Juli, one last time.
This is my love.
This is the sound of my heart.
Surely you must understand.

Thus begins Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas — one of the most compelling and enigmatic manga graphic novels ever created, and a pioneer in the popular boys'-romance "shounen-ai" genre. Thomas's death (was it an accident? Suicide? Or even murder?) immediately throws the school into turmoil, while his letter sets off a chain of emotional upheaval both for the recipient and an ever-expanding circle of friends, family, and teachers, as secrets are revealed and shared. And then a new boy who looks exactly like Thomas shows up at school…

Unabashedly romantic and emotionally complex, The Heart of Thomas features an unusual, richly imagined setting and a cast of memorable characters. This timeless masterpiece is now finally available to American readers.

23-page excerpt (download 8.2 MB PDF):

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

As Jen mentioned earlier this week on the FLOG, the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery recently launched an exhibit spotlighting two graphic novels that bring history to life: Noah Van Sciver's The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln and David Lasky's The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song! It was originally scheduled to run through today, but Larry now tells me that on Friday, November 23rd, the exhibit will be, well, history, so check it out while you still can!

If you missed our opening reception, then dang it, you missed a truly awesome time. The great Jim Woodring was droppin' some science, although Marketing Director Mike Baehr seems dubious. Local cartoonist Tim Miller pledged his undying love to Noah. (Just kidding about all of that; I have no idea what was going on...)

I also have no idea what's going on in this awesome photo Lasky took of me, Mike, and local cartoonist (and Short Run Small Press Fest organizer) Kelly Froh. But it makes me laugh.

[ Check out more of David's photos at his Flickr page here! ]

David and Noah's exhibit of original artwork will be on display through this Friday, November 23rd, so stop by -- you'll be thankful you did! We even still have a few signed copies left of each title.

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. CLOSED on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, but OPEN AS HELL on Friday, November 23rd. Phone: (206) 658-0110.

The strongest umbrella in the wind of Online Commentaries & Diversions: 

• Review: Paul Constant of The Stranger looks at The Last Vispo: Visual Poetry 1998-2008, edited by Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill. "As an art book, it demands hours of investigation. . . For those linguistic pioneers looking to find the future of fiction, this could be one of the most informative poetry anthologies to be published in the new millennium."

• Review: NPR's My Guilty Pleasure looks at the Jacques Tardi graphics novels of Adèle Blanc-Sec who is "young writer with the brains of Sherlock Holmes, the body of Angelina Jolie and the stoic fortitude of the Marlboro Man." Rosecrans Baldwin states, "The books are part adventure comic, part hardboiled fiction. They're terrific whodunits that conjure up all the precise atmospheric detail of, say, a Georges Simenon novel, but with twice the plot."

• Review: The Crackle of the Frost makes NPR's Graphic Novels that Fell Under the Radar of 2012 list. Glen Weldon states, "it's Mattotti's breathtakingly vivid paintings, pulsating with the mysterious poetry of unsettling dreams, that add a welcome and indelible splash of Kafka and Murakami."

• Review: Blacklung by Chris Wright gets reviewed on Nerds of a Feather. Philippe Duhart says, "Wright’s genius is further evident in his ability to use these aberrant cartoonish characterizations to convey human emotion, particularly terror. Wright’s portrayal of violence is stark and chilling – despite or perhaps because of his singular style. . . Black Lung worked on all counts. Plus, pirates."

• Review (video): Kapow Comics down in Australia reviews Chris Wright's Blacklung. Al states "this is a complicated book with musings on philosophy, literature, mortality and especially, religion has a big focus." Sonya says, "Every single character changes in this story, their journey changes them . . . [Blacklung] prayed on my mind. It lingers with you."

• Review: Glen David Gold looks at Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons edited by Kelly Gerald in the LA Review of Books. In an attempt to see how the bread is made, Gold, "Cartooning was O'Connor's first artistic passion. . . . An article in the local paper and a pile of rejection slips from The New Yorker indicate how serious she was. . . not an early blush of Flannery the fiction writer at work. But I'd still recommend it to the curious. Come at it without expecting same genius, but look at it because it's an extreme close up of biography."

• Review: Publishers Weekly looks at Jack Jackson's Los Tejanos and Lost Causes. "Comics’ current vogue for nonfiction was pioneered in these two works from the late underground comix founding father Jackson, who died in 2006. Jackson brought an R. Crumb–style crosshatching and love of facial grotesquery to these two densely researched historical graphic novels."

• Plug: Publishers Weekly and Ada Price show a sneak peak of The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio. Enjoy 14 pages of pure genius but don't forget to read each one right to left! We're talking manga here.

• Review: Rob Clough of The Comics Journal enjoys The Hypo by Noah Van Sciver."he’s made a fairly significant leap as both a draftsman and a storyteller in a relatively short period of time . . . Van Sciver’s greatest achievement in this book is his storytelling restraint. He lets his cross-hatching gets across the grime . . He wants to show the reader a different side of the Lincoln we grew up reading about in the history books, but also wants the reader to connect this younger man to the future president."

• Interview: Antonio Solina of Italian site Lo Spazio Bianco interviews with Jaime Hernandez .

• Commentary: On the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, Coming Books are Burning in Hell talk non-stop about the mystery cartoonist that is Olivier Schrauwen of The Man Who Grew His Beard. BCGF coverge by The Beat (Heidi) describes the Olivier Schrauwen exhibit and Hannah Means-Shannon on the panels. Julia Pohl-Miranda from Drawn and Quarterly snaps a pic of me and former intern Anna hard at work (and pretty hot, you can see our sweat)

• Commentary: OSU Librarian, Caitlin McGurk, visited the Fantagraphics office and wrote up a nice report on us at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum blog!

Hello, loyal mail-order customers! Just a friendly reminder that in order for your shipment to be delivered in time for the Christmas holiday, we must receive your order before 5 PM Pacific time on the following dates (note that these are guidelines and not a guarantee of delivery):

International – Global Mail: Tuesday, November 27
International – Airmail: Monday, December 10
Domestic – Media Rate/UPS Ground: Friday, December 14
Domestic – Priority Mail: Monday, December 17
Domestic – 2nd Day UPS: Thursday, December 20

See our Shipping Charges & Information page for more general information on shipping methods, rates and so on.

(Image from Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking — the perfect stocking stuffer!)

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about it (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Castle Waiting Vol. II #18
by Linda Medley

24-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $3.95

"I do believe Castle Waiting Vol. II #18 wraps up the current storyline for Linda Medley’s long-running fantasy comic..." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal

"If I had $15, I’d keep my purchases solely to Castle Waiting #18, the final issue in Volume 2 of Linda Medley’s slow-moving, but charming fantasy series. I don’t know if Medley is planning on a Vol. 3 or not — I hope so — her cast has grown on me and I want to continue to learn more about them." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

Please join us this Saturday, November 24 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM for the festive release of The Last Vispo Anthology, edited by Northwest literary artists Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill.

The reception will feature short readings by contributors James Yeary, Donato Mancini, Robert Mittenthal, Joseph Keppler and Gustave Morin, as well as editors Hill and Vassilakis. The exhibition will include 14 prints from the anthology. Musical entertainment will be provided by Lori Goldston (former Nirvana and Earth cellist, and recent Stranger "Genius Award" recipient) performing with former Black Cat Orchestra band mate Kyle Hanson. This event marks the departure to New York of editor Nico Vassilakis, a longtime Fantagraphics employee and fixture in Seattle’s cultural community. Admission is always free.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle’s vibrant Georgetown industrial arts corridor. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.