With this volume, "The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library" loops back to Barks's earlier days, collecting the entirety of Barks's (astounding) 1948 output.
The title story, "The Old Castle's Secret," is notable not just for being the first full-length 32-page adventure instigated by Scrooge McDuck (in his second-ever appearance), but for featuring some of Barks's spookiest, lushest settings in old Clan McDuck castle of Dismal Downs. The other long story, "The Sheriff of Bullet Valley," plunks Donald and the nephews in the Wild West, with Donald as an overconfident deputy having to deal with some high-tech rustlers. The book also includes the less-known "In Darkest Africa," originally published in a giveaway and unreleased for decades.
This volume also features an even 10 of Barks's dynamic "Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories" 10-pagers, including "Wintertime Wager" (the first appearance of a not-yet-lucky-but-still-obnoxious Gladstone Gander); "Spoil the Rod" (in which the exquisitely named educational professor Pulpheart Clabberhead is brought in to help tame the nephews); "Rocket Race to the Moon" (a rare full-on adventure — interplanetary, no less — in the short form); "Gladstone Returns" and "Links Highjinks" (two more Gladstone yarns); and five more stories... plus a half-dozen hilarious one-page gags.
Of course, once again all the stories have been shot from crisp originals, then re-colored (and printed) to match, for the first time since their original release over 60 years ago, the colorful yet soft hues of the originals — and of course the book is rounded off with essays about Barks, the Ducks, and these specific stories by Barks experts from all over the world.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Peter Bagge worked mostly on his "Buddy Bradley" stories in Hate and a series of standalone graphic novels (Apocalypse Nerd), but in-between these major projects this ever-energetic cartoonist also cranked out dozens of shorter stories, which are now finally being collected in this riotously anarchic book.
Peter Bagge's Other Stuff includes a few lesser-known Bagge characters, including the wacky modern party girl "Lovey" and the aging bobo "Shut-Ins" — not to mention the self-explanatory "Rock 'N' Roll Dad" starring Murry Wilson and the Beach Boys. But many of the strips are one-off gags or short stories, often with a contemporary satirical slant, including on-site reportage like "So Much Comedy, So Little Time" (from a comedy festival) and more. Also: Dick Cheney, The Matrix, and Alien!
Other Stuff also includes a series of Bagge-written stories drawn by other cartoonists, including "Life in these United States" with Daniel Clowes, "Shamrock Squid" with Adrian Tomine, and the one-two parody punch of "Caffy" (with art by R. Crumb) and "Dildobert" (with art by Prison Pit’s Johnny Ryan)... plus a highlight of the book, the hilarious, literate and intricate exposé of "Kool-Aid Man" written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bagge. (Other collaborators include the Hernandez Brothers and Danny Hellman.)
Bagge is one of the funniest cartoonists of the century (20th or 21st), and this collection shows him at his most free-wheeling and craziest... 50 times over.
With its long-awaited second volume, Linda Medley's witty and sublimely drawn fantasy eases into a relaxed comedy of manners as Lady Jain settles into her new life in Castle Waiting.
Unexpected visitors result in the discovery and exploration of a secret passageway, not to mention an epic bowling tournament. A quest for ladies' underpants, the identity of Pindar's father, the education of Simon, Rackham and Chess arguing about the "manly arts," and an escape-prone goat are just a few of the elements in this delightful new volume.
The book also includes many flashbacks that deepen the stories behind the characters, including Jain's earliest romantic entanglements and conflicts with her bratty older sisters, the horrific past of the enigmatic Dr. Fell, and more.
Originally released in a slightly shorter version when the series ceased publication, this new edition includes over 60 pages' worth of brand new additional story and epilogue, and the entire book has been re-lettered in a livelier, more inviting style for an even more engaging reading experience.
80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25" x 10.5" hardcover • $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-635-5
Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen’s sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fiancée in 2005, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting, and transformation.
It is a concept album in different styles, a meditation on paying attention, an abstracted autobiography and a travelogue, reflecting the progress of his struggle to reconcile the great upheaval of a death, and finding a new life on the other side.
The book blends Nilsen's disparate styles, from the iconic simplicity and collaged drawings of his Monologues for the Coming Plague to the finely rendered Dogs and Water and Big Questions.
Originally released in magazine form in 2007 (which received an Ignatz Award nomination for Outstanding Story), The End has now been expanded to more than twice its original length, including 16 pages of full color.
Edited by Eric Reynolds & Philip Nel; Introduction by Chris Ware; art direction by Daniel Clowes
320-page black & white (with some color) 11" x 6.75" hardcover • $35.00 ISBN: 978-1-60699-522-8
The beloved comic strip is finally given the Fantagraphics treatment. Barnaby’s deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit, and elegantly spare images expanded our sense of what comic strips can do.
Due to arrive in about 4-6 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:
Edited by Eric Reynolds & Philip Nel; Introduction by Chris Ware; art direction by Daniel Clowes
320-page black & white (with some color) 11" x 6.75" hardcover • $35.00 ISBN: 978-1-60699-522-8
Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time — Harold and the Purple Crayon — cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby for over ten years (1942 to 1952). Its subtle ironies and playful allusions never won a broad following, but the adventures of 5-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley was and is a critical favorite.
Fantagraphics introduces the wonders of Barnaby to a new generation of children and parents alike. Co-edited by Johnson biographer Philip Nel (Dr. Seuss: American Icon) and Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, with art direction by graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), this five-volume Barnaby series will collect the entirety of the original newspaper strips from 1942-1952. The first volume collects all the strips from 1942 and 1943.
Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairly godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley. Yet O’Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist and fast-talker, was not your typical protector. His grasp of magic was usually specious at best, limited to occasional flashes, often aided and abetted by his fellow members in The Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men’s Chowder & Marching Society.
Barnaby’s deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit, and elegantly spare images expanded our sense of what comic strips can do. With subtlety and economy, Barnaby proved that comics need not condescend to readers. Its small but influential readership took that message to heart.
"I think, and I’m trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in Lord knows how many years." – Dorothy Parker
"One of the best comic strips of the 20th Century and one of the most beloved older strips for a generation of devoted adult comics fans, Barnaby had become in the last decade and a half the great unsigned strip collection." – The Comics Reporter
464-page two-color 6.75" x 9" softcover • $35.00 ISBN: 978-1-60699-557-0
A long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece recalling the summer of 1984, when the artist, a rebellious, punked-out 17-year-old, hitchhiked her way across Italy. 2011 Angoulême prize winner.
Due to arrive in about 4-6 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:
It's the end of the fucking week — and what a fucking week it's been, especially in Chuck Forsman's home state of Massachusetts. We swear it's only coincidence that on our schedule for today is this sneak peek at the final cover art and an excerpt of an upcoming graphic novel about a pair of lawless young people walking a violent path together.
Our collection of Chuck's acclaimed minicomic The End of the Fucking World (a.k.a. the more bookstore-friendly TEOTFW) is due out in July. In its serialized form, TEOTFW was named to multiple Best of 2012 lists and earned praise like this:
"The most beautiful piece of Americana made in years. Every page Forsman draws is a minimalist masterpiece. Huge and heartbreaking. A modern triumph disguised as an episode of Peanuts." – Matt Seneca
"The awkwardness, the urgency, the sense of discovery, the sense of revulsion - it's all true, even if you've never stuck your own hand in a garbage disposal." – Sean T. Collins
"Great stuff." – Frank Santoro
"[TEOTFW] exemplifies what exactly it is I love about comics. It's lo-fi yet stylistic, subtle yet visceral — a version of Bonnie and Clyde bled through the lens of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park." – Spandexless
"This is a crime comic disguised as a slacker-road-trip comic, and Forsman delivers its methodical hum eight pages at a time with an astounding precision." – Comic Book Resources
"[TEOTFW] pulls you in like no other comic this year. Stunning in its simplicity and brave in its subject matter." – MTV.com
Our 19-page excerpt comprises the first two issues of the series; read it here.
464-page two-color 6.75" x 9" softcover • $35.00 ISBN: 978-1-60699-557-0
Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Back in 1984, a rebellious, 17-year-old, punked-out Ulli Lust set out for a wild hitchhiking trip across Italy, from Naples through Verona and Rome and ending up in Sicily. Twenty-five years later, this talented Austrian cartoonist has looked back at that tumultuous summer and delivered a long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece.
Miraculously combining a perfect memory for both emotional and physical detail with the sometimes painful lucidity two and half decades’ distance have brought to her understanding of the events, Lust meticulously shows the who, where, when, and how (specifically, how an often penniless young girl can survive for months on the road) of a sometimes dangerous and sometimes exhilarating journey. Particularly haunting is her portrait of her fellow traveler, the gangly, promiscuous devil-may-care Edi who veers from being her spunky, funny best friend in the world to an out-of-control lunatic with no consideration for anything but her own whims and desires.
Universally considered one of the very finest examples of the new breed of graphic novels coming from Europe, Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life won the 2011 Angoulême “Revelation” prize, and Fantagraphics is proud to bring it to English speaking readers.
At the printer now for release in July, The Daniel Clowes Reader: A Critical Edition of Ghost World and Other Stories, with Essays, Interviews, and Annotations shines a whole new light on one of the greatest, most beloved graphic novels of all time along with several other classic Eightball stories and Clowes rarities. Editor Ken Parille has brought together a stable of great minds, including Clowes himself, for a plethora of fascinating and highly readable essays and other material, with topics like "Enid's Bookshelf," "Enid's Record Player," "The Rise of the Zine," "Against Groovy," and "Urban Romanticism, Mad Magazine, and the Aesthetics of Ugly."
Browse the Table of Contents and read the Introduction, 12 pages of Ghost World and more in our generous 31-page excerpt, and pre-order your copy right here.
