APE: Alternative Press Expo is only a week-and-a-half away, on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco, CA! Start making plans now to check out panels featuring these Fantagraphics artists:
Saturday, October 1st
3:00 PM // A Discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine Critically acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling cartoonists -- and APE special guests -- Daniel Clowes (The Death-Ray, Ghost World, Wilson) and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Shortcomings) are both professional peers and friends, having met over a decade ago when both lived in the East Bay. TheComicsJournal.com editor and PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel talks to the two artists about their work, their friendship, and the comics medium.
4:00 PM // Spotlight on Shannon Wheeler From stapling 21,000 minicomics, to shooting comic books with a .22, to creating operas, to publishing cartoons with The New Yorker, APE special guest Shannon Wheeler must be drinking too much coffee, man. Recently, his collection of rejected cartoons I Thought You Would Be Funnier won the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication. Wheeler and his trusty sidekick BOOM! Studios marketing director Chip Mosher talk about the best ammunition to use on a comic, Japanese bootleg shirts, and drawing dead granddads in fishnet stockings with swastika panties. Shannon Wheeler once also created Too Much Coffee Man, so they'll probably talk about that, too.
6:00 PM // Drawing Inspiration: The Secrets of Comics Creativity Ever wonder where your favorite author or artist gets his or her inspiration? Now you can find out as moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director, CBLDF) joins APE special guests Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Craig Thompson (Habibi), Matthew Thurber (1-800 MICE), and Shannon Wheeler (Oil and Water), plus Tom Neely (The Wolf) for an in-depth discussion of what gets their creative juices flowing and the secrets of what inspires them.
Sunday, October 2nd
12:00 PM // Indie Cartoonist Survival Guide: Part 3 Cartoonist Keith Knight moderates this panel (in its third appearance at APE), featuring a lineup of successful independent creators who share their stories, methods, techniques, trials, and tribulations concerning making a living as a so-called Indie Cartoonist. Shannon Wheeler (I Thought You Would Be Funnier), Dan Cooney (Dan Cooney Art), Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), and Rebecca Sugar (Pug Davis) all chime in.
Looks like you can find us at our usual spot at APE, tables 112-115! (And yes, as usual, our good friends Jim Blanchard and J.R. Williams will be at table 116!)
[ Please note: this is a severely truncated map, just to give you an idea where you can find us! The Concourse Exhibition Center is too wide to fit on the FLOG, so check out a PDF map here. ]
So, get ready for another exciting APE and stay tuned to the FLOG for more details, including our signing schedule and list of debuts!
This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.
112-page two-color 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-462-7
"The French artist David B. is one of my favorite living cartoonists--he bridges the visual realms of the real and the unreal like nobody else--and the two of these fabulistic stories that appeared in MOME were both extraordinary. Can't wait to see the whole thing." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"Collected several short pieces from David B., author of Epileptic and Babel. Excellent!" – Chris Butcher, The Beguiling
"I’m torn between two books from Fantagraphics. On the one hand there’s The Armed Garden by David B. ($19.99) which collects all the short stories that previously ran in early issues of the Mome anthology. I have all of those issues, however, so... [to be continued]" – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"From the creator of the acclaimed Epileptic comes a collection of historical-based stories — it's history, legend, magic, and gods. Oh yeah, and battles! Epic battles." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
"Two beautiful and challenging books from Fantagraphics. The first features David B. retelling difficult fables in a way that every single panel is a stop and stare event. The second [see below — Ed.] features Olivier Schrauwen and a suite of stories where deriving even basic meaning doesn't come easy. I'm enamored of both, and have read each one more than once since they arrived." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
232-page full-color 9.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $39.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-487-0
"Great read...a fine example of the Kubert's work and contributions to the art of sequential story telling. Plus, a great customer of mine, Steve, contributed a bunch of scans of covers and original artwork for this book!" – Joey Belden, Atomik Pop
112-page full-color 8.5" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-446-7
"Also in this week's department of Fantagraphics-published, MOME-alumni, ordinarily Francophone artists releasing English-language books: Belgian artist Olivier Schrauwen's The Man Who Grew His Beard, about which I know nothing except that his stuff is beautiful and often plays with variations on the look and pacing of very early 20th-century comic strips." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
[Continued from above] "...I’ll likely instead go with The Man Who Grew His Beard ($19.99), a collection of short stories by Olivier Schrauwen, most of which also appeared in Mome. Schrauwen’s work has appeared in English before, but in some ways this is his big American debut. His stuff is really sharp and witty and daring and deserves to be seen by a wider audience." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"A week with new books by Johnny Ryan, David B, ...Michael Kupperman... but [The Man Who Grew His Beard] is the one" – Floating World Comics
"This collection of stories marks famed Belgian cartoonist Schrauwen's first American graphic novel. Surreal, absurd, he's been justifiably called a post-modern genius. Men on safari encounter an obnoxious hunter, how hair can help us classify personality and more." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
"New Michael Kupperman!!!!" – Chris Butcher, The Beguiling
"Now Kupperman is publishing Mark Twain’s autobiography, covering the years from 1910 - 2010. Of course, Twain’s been dead for a hundred years, but that news may well have been exaggerated. I look forward to seeing how one of our age’s talented satirists handles one of the masters of the form." – James Fulton, Inside Pulse
"Wake up - it's here - Mark Twain's Autobiography, 1910-2010, by @MKupperman from @fantagraphics get the belly sutures ready." – Lucky's Books & Comics
"We'll have this modern masterpiece for sale tomorrow: Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010 by @MKupperman!" – Chapel Hill Comics
"There's also cartoonist (and occasional TV Funhouse contributor) Michael Kupperman's Mark Twain's Autobiography: 1910-2010, which sees the famous author embracing wizard-bestowed immortality and fighting yetis." – Cyriaque Lamar, io9
"Did you know that Mark Twain hunted the yeti? Met the Bionic Man? Was involved with in the x-rated film industry? Using Twain's surprise hit autobiography as inspiration, Kupperman's wit goes to town on on America's beloved humorist." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
"This Michael Kupperman book is mostly prose rather than comics, but it's funny enough not even the biggest comics purist will care. I'd read an entire book of Kupperman listing stupid names of people that Mark Twain ran with in 1970s discos." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
120-page black & white 6.5" x 8.5" softcover • $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-497-9
"...Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit Book 3 brutally meanders into stores. In this third volume of scifi horror, taciturn mutants — whose dialogue is mostly swearing — beat the living snot out of each other in a desolate hell dimension. It's violence and excretion and demonic mutation as unadulterated Dadaism." – Cyriaque Lamar, io9
"Although Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit Book 3 has seen small scale releases here and there since SDCC, it should finally be popping up in your local comic shop today. The Prison Pit books have been some of the most insane/gross/badass/hilarious reading materials that I have ever had the pleasure of consuming, and, from the look of the above previews, Book 3 will not disappoint." – Ben Spencer, Nerd City
"Ryan dumps professional wrestling, video games, grindhouse movies, Gary Panter, and Kentaro Miura into a fetid lava flow and pulls out another disturbingly funny book." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
Couldn't break these up:
"Splurge: I’d probably pick up some of the other Fantagraphics books out this week, including the Mark Twain Autobiography by Michael Kupperman (note: it’s not really Mark Twain’s autobiography), Prison Pit Vol. 3 and the coffee-table-sized Art of Joe Kubert." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Jesus, look at this. Okay. The Man Who Grew His Beard is the first-ever North American release by the awesome, awesome Olivier Schrauwen (a Dutch-language release was published by Bries in 2010), collecting seven wildly funny and disarmingly melancholic stories, some seen in MOME; $19.99. The Armed Garden and Other Stories collects three other MOME stories, excellent allegorical religio-political adventure fantasies by L’Association co-founder David B.; $19.99. Prison Pit Book 3 sees Johnny Ryan’s decadent action series introduce new personalities and some fine new stylistics; $12.99. Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 is a new 160-page comics/prose/illustration mix by Michael Kupperman, starring one of his fondest favorites; $19.99. And The Art of Joe Kubert is a 232-page illustrated overview of the works of the man of the title, edited by biographer Bill Schelly; $39.99. Now I have even less hair. Fuck you, Archie." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
• Review: "Into the '80s and no sign of the much-feared and long-rumored decline in quality in Charles Schulz's life's work that was supposed to come about 10 years earlier. The strips in this volume of Fantagraphics' series are stronger than ever. If there's a different quality to them it's because Peanuts is a mature strip now instead of a precocious, sometimes-astonishing one.... Schulz at this point still puts on frequent display his nearly unequaled ability to return to core character elements for a gag without seeming repetitive or didactic. Part of the richness of the characters is their largely unchanging nature is part of the cross each bears." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
• Review: "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot is an EXCELLENT new hardcover graphic novel written by crime fiction novelist Jean-Patrick Manchette and illustrated by one of the masters of sequential art illustration, Jacques Tardi. The central character of Like a Sniper... is a mercenary turned contract killer, named Martin Terrier, who is forced out of retirement, and the way his return to his line of work unfolds ranks at the top with any hard-boiled crime fiction I've ever read. Anyone who had enjoyed Tardi's adaptation of Manchette's West Coast Blues will definitely love Like a Sniper... and if this is your introduction to Tardi and Manchette, you're in for a treat!" – Ralph Mathieu, Ich Liebe Comics
• Review: "Fantagraphics has chosen to start with books 3 & 4 in the series, skipping the stories where the reader (and the creator) gets to know the title character, Gil Jordan, and going right for the good stuff. And these books are good stuff, the writing as well as the art.... There is something in this story for every reader: mystery, adventure, humor, bad jokes and a real sense of menace.... This is absolutely the kind of book that I would hand to someone who has expressed an interest in comics." – R.M. Rhodes, Forces of Geek
• Review: "Fantagraphics is very nearly finished with their complete reprint of E.C. Segar's run on Popeye, with just one more volume to go after this. It's a breathless, surreal and ridiculous collection of fisticuffs and wonderfully funny violence, and every home should own it.... Highly recommended." – Grant Goggans, The Hipster Dad's Bookshelf
• Review: "I’m using the past tense here because tragically the amazing anthological compendium [Mome] closes with this bonanza-sized final edition after six eye-popping, parameter-expanding years ... [T]he experiment ends but even though gone this superb, bold endeavour mustn’t be forgotten. There are plenty of places to still find back issues and these tomes – especially this double-sized delight – would make captivating Christmas presents." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!
Michael Kupperman ponders the possibilities of Mark Twain's passing in this positively perfect print for Desert Islandin Brooklyn. (My favorite possibility? Shot in the crotch.)
Get your own copy of this historically accurate print on Thursday, October 13th, at the book release party for Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010. Store owner Gabriel Fowler notes that if there are any prints leftover at the end of the night (unlikely!), they'll be available online.
Join EMP curator/editor Jacob McMurray on Wednesday, September 28th at the Pan Pacific Hotel in downtown Seattle for a reading and discussion of the "grunge" era in a completely non-grunge-y locale!
Your $30 registration includes a copy of the book, and complimentary appetizers. Seating and noshing starts at 5:30 PM, and the presentation starts at 6:00 PM. RSVP to 206.654.5005 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Note: seating is limited, so don't delay!
Wanna find out more reasons why Washington State is a cool place to live? Why not visit Seattle? If you book a room at the Pan Pacific Hotel in the "Nirvana Room Package," you'll get a signed copy of Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind, as well as passes to the EMP exhibit! Note: do not treat your hotel room like a rock star.
We received the first bound advance copies of Pogo - Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder" at the office today, and it is breathtaking! Truly an exciting day as we behold the fruits of this labor of love for the first time. We will, of course, bring you better and more detailed previews in the near future.
The Starstruck spin-off series Galactic Girl Guides is one of the most legendary of the "lost" comics orphaned by the collapse of Tundra/Kitchen Sink in the 1990s. When the plug was pulled, artist Linda (Castle Waiting) Medley was about halfway through the projected four-issue series, written by Starstruck co-creator Elaine Lee.
There are few cartoonists who could go toe-to-toe with Starstruck artist and co-creator Michael Kaluta for sheer illustrative gorgeousness and maintain the exquisite graphic quality of that world, but as the pages below show, Medley was one of them.
Why are we showing you these (aside from the fact that they're pretty)? Well, because after over a decade of having them sit on her shelves, Linda has decided to let them go.
In the wake of IDW's successful reprinting of the original Starstruck series, Lee and Kaluta are adamant that GGG will one day be completed and published, and Medley has kept reproduction-quality scans of these pages for when that happens. But in the meantime... Any page of original art is by definition unique, but there are almost invariably thousands, or tens of thousands (or hundreds, or in the case of syndicated strips, tens of millions), of reproductions out in the world. In the case of these pages, however, lucky buyers will have the ONE AND ONLY copy — at least until that GGG edition happens.
Each image clicks directly through to eBay. Bidding has started. May the best Starstruck fan or Medley fan, or just fan of great-looking comics pages, win!
And the evening only intensifies in power with the addition of special guest, L.A.-based artist Tom Neely, who is currently on a west coast tour for his brand-new "painted novel," The Wolf!
I got my first glimpse of The Wolf at the San Diego Comic Con this past summer. Oh, Tom didn't have a booth, no siree. He was strolling down the aisles, selling the thing straight out of his wheeled suitcase. I'm sorry, but it doesn't get more punk rock than that.
And then we started flipping through it... holy hell. The artwork was so dark and intense and beautiful. I may have caught our warehouse champ Ajax wiping a tear from his eye. (He's gonna kill me for sharing that.) (Okay, in his defense, maybe it was a flake of dried blood.)
The juxtaposition of these two diverse individuals appearing at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on the same night will be a powerful one indeed!
The event starts this Saturday, September 24th at 6:00 PM. Warren Bernard will give a slideshow presentation, followed by a video installation by Tom Neely. Both gentlemen will sign their books throughout the following reception until 8:00 PM.
The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.
Even robots need love, too, especially the giant ones.
And on Saturday, September 24th, Giant Robot 2 kicks off the exhibit "Robots," a benefit for their esteemed gallery space in Los Angeles.
Since opening their doors in 2003, GR2 has hosted exhibitions featuring many Fantagraphics artists on their walls, and this upcoming exhibit is no exception, featuring work by Andrice Arp, Eleanor Davis, John Pham, Mark Todd (whose artwork is shown above), and Esther Pearl Watson, among dozens of other incredibly talented folks.
GR2 shows don't push their artists into contracts, and attendance is always free. If you've ever enjoyed any of their exhibits, we encourage you to support GR2 so they can continue to support independent artists for years to come!
"Robots" runs from September 24th to October 12th at GR2 [ 2062 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles ], with an opening reception this Saturday from 6:30 - 10:00 PM.
The 2013 Fantagraphics Ultimate Catalog of Comics is available now! Contact us to get your free copy, or download the PDF version (9 MB).
Preview upcoming releases in the Fantagraphics Spring/Summer 2013 Distributors Catalog. Read it here or download the PDF (26.8 MB). Note that all contents are subject to change.
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