This Saturday, November 24th, the Eve N Odd Gallery hosts a launch party for The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008!

The event runs from 6:00 - 9:00 PM, and there will be prints on display, at the Eve N Odd Gallery, located at 645 Central Avenue #11, St. Petersburg, FL.

This Wednesday, November 21st, preserve yourself internally with some fine Elysian beer, and then get mummified! It's time for the next event in the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series, our collaboration with Elysian Brewing Company!

This week, they'll debut "Mortis," a Sour Persimmon Ale, available on draft, and in exclusive 22 oz. bottles with labels featuring the artwork of the great Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series.

The official tapping begins at 4:00 PM, followed by a survival demo by Bryan & co. at 5:30 PM, and then from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, you have the opportunity to "get mummified."  

Come by and collect the next stamp in your Apocalypse Beer Survival Guide. Fill your book with survival item stamps at our Apocalypse events throughout the year for an outstanding experience at our final End of the World Celebration on 12.20.12! 

The Elysian Brewing Company is located at 1221 E. Pike Street in Seattle. Can you believe the end is almost here? And the end is BEER!

 The first bit of frost of Online Commentaries & Diversions:

• Review (video): Last Gasp's John Longhi reviews The Lost Art of Ah Pook by Malcom McNeill, a story originally created with William Burroughs. Longhi says, "I can see why Burroughs wanted to work with McNeill because he's one of the few guys who could capture the crazy wacked out details of his story writing. . . [It contains] all the wonderful social discord that made his writing fantastic."

• Review: Blacklung by Chris Wright gets high marks on Paste Magazine. Sean Edgar says, "Blacklung is a weird, compelling creation, telling a harrowing story of redemption and savagery through art that could initially pass as adorable before you get to the tongue necklaces. Highly recommended for those with strong stomachs." 

• Review: School Library Journal announces their BEST BOOKS OF 2012 and in the graphics novels section, Noah Van Sciver's The Hypo is listed. "Van Sciver makes Lincoln real by picturing one of the hardest times in his younger life. . . Dickens-style squalor and melodrama plus Austen-style romance, all done in gritty cross-hatching."

• Plug: The NY Times listed Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons at the top of the Best Bathroom Reads of 2012. Dwight Garner believes "the prints collected here are droll and strange." Two of our favorite words to describe Fantagraphics-style creators such as Flannery O'Connor.

• Plug: Ken Plume mentions some of our books on his 2012 shopping guide: "Alongside the Peanuts collection, [Walt Disney's Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown and Mickey Mouse Vol. 4 "House of the Seven Haunts"] reinforce the assessment that no one is doing archival comic collections as well as Fantagraphics."

• Plug: Drew Friedman is Boing-Boing-ed thanks to his amazing drawings, this time of John Severin from MAD/EC/Cracked comics. 

• Plug: Black and White adores Raymond Macherot's Gil Jordan, Private Detective: Murder By High Tide and Sibyl-Anne Vs. Ratticus . Miguel saw the English and French versions, "And I fell in love. . . [Macherot's] worlds are (usually) full of deceptively cute anthropomorphic animals, and in his best work, under that kids-friendly surface of pretty little animals there is real threat."

• Review: Roughly translated from Ediciones La Cupula, Jaime Hernandez's God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls is reviewed. "The excitement that overwhelms us after reading each of the installments of the saga of  [Ti-Girls] is directly proportional to its artistic excellence, his talent as a storyteller and human greatness that lives in his cartoons."

• Review: Lanacion reviews the writings and works of Alexander Theroux (Laura Warholic, Estonia and The Strange Case of Edward Gorey) and translated, barely, Matias Serra Bradford states, "If left as an untreated rarity, Alexander Theroux seems mysterious to the fantastic and impossible point of determining the trajectory of a particle and its position."

• Review: The Snipe News looks at Joe Sacco's Journalism collection. "the decade’s worth of stories. . . are most notable not from any kind of torn-from-the-headlines sensationalism but for the empathy the author brings to his subjects. . . . Sacco has a feel for displaced persons in general."

The wait is over. Jordan Crane's long sold-out Uptight issues #1 and 2 (plus 3 and 4) are now available via comiXology for your eyes' delight. Adult melancholia and delightful all-ages adventures go side-by-side in this versatile, masterful one-man anthology in stunning black and white detail. Each volume has its own jewels like the tragic ghost story "Take Me Home" in Issue #2. A fan of The Clouds Above? Be sure to check out Simon and Jack's continueing adventures in #4. For the low price of $2.99, you can enjoy solid storytelling and exquisitely drawn comics.

 "Luscious... elegant... I fairly swooned." – The Comics Reporter

"There's something very friendly and reassuring about his drawing style. Jordan Crane is without a doubt one of the best guys in the alt comix game right now and my only criticism of him is that I wish he turned out more work. Jordan's making the comics that everyone else is trying to make but unlike them, he's succeeding at it." - Nick Gazin, Vice 

"It speaks to Crane’s versatility that he can pull off a slice-of-life relationship story and a fable in the same comic book." – Rob Clough, The Comics Journal

Nobody can ever accuse Johnny Ryan of slacking. Prison Pit Book 4 is still warm on the shelves and already Johnny has turned in the cover art for Book 5, which won't be out until Fall of next year. What is that floating death head tank thing? Who are those guys? What kind of crazy shit is gonna happen in this one? WHAT KIND???

Uncle Jim takes you on a narrated tour through his upcoming book Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012 (due next month) and shows off a few of the original Moleskine notebooks from which the drawings in the book were taken, describing it all in his inimitable style. Hey, this means I don't have to shoot the usual preview video of the book — although in a bit of a switcheroo, Jim has loaned us 4 of his sketchbooks for us to shoot and upload video of those (they're just sitting around in my living room right now, no big deal, PLOTZ), so stay tuned for that!

Jaxon - drawn to the task from Telebob on Vimeo.

If you'd like to know more about Jack Jackson before digging in to our forthcoming volume Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause, this short video documentary created by Bob Simmons is an excellent primer. (Hat tip to Patrick Rosenkranz for pointing it out to us a ways back.)

November 18th - Waxahachie, TX.  HIDDEN BEHIND THE STARS featuring the artwork of Esther Pearl Watson opens up this Sunday on the plains of Texas at Webb Gallery. From 3-7pm on Sunday November 18th, you can rock out with music by Quintron and Miss Pussycat while gazing at amazing paintings by Ester. At 7pm, see a premiere screening of Quintron and Miss Pussycat's new movie "The Mystery in Old Bathbath."

Esther Pearl Watson is one of Webb Galleries favorites. Her work is fantastical, beautiful, witty, colorful, dark and autobiographical all at the same time. Many of the works depict her childhood, of growing up with a father obsessed with the idea he could build a flying saucer and sell it to NASA or Ross Perot. Her newest body of work addresses perception and legibility of painting with the addition of surface texture and sculptural elements such as starry fabrics and sculpted meteorites. She grew up in the DFW metro-plex, but currently resides outside of Los Angeles.

Esther Pearl Watson earned her MFA at California Institute of the Arts in 2012 and a BFA at Art Center College of Design. Her work has been exhibited at Nancy Margolis Gallery, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Lesher Center for the Arts and Oakland Museum of California. This is her first exhibit following her Masters Graduation from CalArts.

In addition to paintings, Esther will also have copies of her two Fantagraphics graphic novels, Unlovable, loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom. Tammy Pierce is one of the most unfortunate teens and unabashed malcontents on the other side of the 80s. Serialized in the back of Bust Magazine, Watson has an incredible talent for humor in frantic, scrawled drawings. Adding paint and gouache to the mix just make everything cuter. Hope ya'll can come out! (my apologies to other non-ya'lling Texans).

Webb Gallery - downtown Waxahachie, Texas
209 W. Franklin
972.938.8085
www.webbartgallery.com 

Hot pixels! Paul Hornschemeier just revealed the cover art for Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1, the first volume of his new one-man anthology series which we have the pleasure of bringing to you in September of next year. (You may remember it was originally announced for Fall 2010, but then Paul got busy with little things like getting married, moving, becoming a dad, doing artwork and animation for an IFC show amongst other projects... stuff like that.) For several months now Paul has been revealing work-in-progress glimpses (along with sketchbook artwork) on his Tumblr blog, so head over there for a taste of things to come.

It's our great privilege to be bringing you a "lost" comics masterpiece of the 1990s in a new, definitive, remastered, expanded hardcover edition. 7 Miles a Second is the memoir of renowned artist, writer, filmmaker and activist David Wojnarowicz, from his youth husling on the streets of Manhattan to his battle with AIDS in adulthood, drawn by James Romberger and colored by Marguerite Van Cook. Alternately lyrical and harrowing, blending gritty realism with elements of surrealism and psychedelia, it's been called "revelatory," "revolutionary" and "a cult classic"... and now it can finally be seen the way it was always intended. This book should be available in January, and it looks like we'll be able to offer an exclusive signed bookplate, possibly with brand new art, to our mail-order customers. Stay tuned for details and more extensive previews; read a 7-page excerpt and pre-order your copy right here.