There are a lot of great prints in the current Fantagraphics BEASTS! print show but I have to give a special nod to the craftsmanship of S.britt's Gocco print of the troll. I haven't used Gocco but I know that this kind of registration is hell to achieve. ...And, of course, it's just charming as all get out.

Meanwhile Aya Kakeda created a nice effect by using charcoal over the top of her screenprint. Tom Neely watercolored his letterpress print. Keith Warren Greiman was awesome to do a small 2-color screenprint that sells for 5 bucks, making it affordable for most anyone. Just a lot of cool work going on. More on the Beasts blog.

• Inside baseball: in a must-read slice of industry history from the mid-1980s, former Fantagraphics staffer Dave Olbrich comes clean about the debacle of the Jack Kirby Awards. Be sure to check the comments for official reaction from Kim Thompson

• Cartoon Brew recommends Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn

• Comics - History & Price Guides takes note of Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1932 by George Herriman

• Stella Matutina says Castle Waiting by Linda Medley would "make a great present for the fairy tale-loving feminist in your life"

• Rob Clough reviews Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham

• Jim Hanley's Universe recommends Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian as a Staff Pick

• The Seattle Times includes Beasts! Book 1 and Book 2 in their listing of new local book offerings

An explosion of end-of-year lists:

• USA TODAY Pop Candy places Lilli Carré at #58 on the list of "Top 100 People of 2008" 

• Book By Its Cover includes Beasts! Book 2 in their Top 10 of 2008

• Jeff Smith says Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!" by E.C. Segar was a favorite of 2008

• Robert Boyd names Jules Feiffer's Explainers and the Hernandez Brothers' Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 two of "The Best Comics of 2008"

• Brian Nicholson places Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw at the top of his list of Best Comics for the year, with Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga not far behind

• Dustin Harbin's top 10 "Best Comics of 2008" has Bottomless Belly Button at #2, Popeye Vol. 3 at #4, and Ganges #2 at #7

• Johnny Bacardi puts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 on his "2008 Personal 10 Best in Comics" list (previously noted, but I forgot the link)

• Mindless Ones names I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks a "Top Comic of 2008" (yes, it came out in 2007 but I think they're UK)

• At comiXology, Tucker Stone unveils #30-11 of his "Best Comics of 2008," with Mome Vol. 12, Jessica Farm Vol. 1 by Josh Simmons, Angry Youth Comix Vol. II #14 by Johnny Ryan, and Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 making the list

• GraphicNovelReporter names Bottomless Belly Button one of their "Best Graphic Novels of 2008"

• On the Forbidden Planet International blog, Mike Carey names Things Just Get Away from You by Walt Holcombe ("a strange little masterpiece") and Jessica Farm Vol. 1 ("willfully perverse") as two of his three favorite comics of the year

(Hat tip to Largehearted Boy's diligent compilation of "Best of 2008" Book Lists for a few of these links.)

Yes you can! Yours truly recorded videos of every song played by Peter Bagge's new band Can You Imagine? at our gala Beasts! print show opening and 2nd Anniversary party at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery last Saturday and plunked 'em on our YouTube page, where you can enjoy the strains of their original (correction) the Herman's Hermits hit "A Must to Avoid," embedded above, and a dozen more swingin' numbers!

Of course we have photos of the exhibit and the party crowd, too, including our special guests (not to mention Peter Bagge & Steve Fisk's erotic birthday cake). Check them out in this slideshow; to see all the annotations and credits, browse through manually. (By the way, if you missed the opening, don't despair, good prints are still available — hustle on down to Georgetown on your little Bobby Orr legs.)

• The Boston Globe "Out of Line" blog thinks that Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin belongs on more end-of-year Best-of lists

• Sean T. Collins on the unhinged beauty of I Shall Destroy All the Civlized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks

• Johnny Bacardi puts Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 on his Top 10 of 2008 list

• Little Nemo's Kat examines The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger (en Español; Google translation)

• Spurious writes an ode to Ivan Brunetti

• Austin English puts 20 questions to Zak Sally

• Those Fabuleous 50's presents a run of Sunday strips omitted from our collection of Jack Cole's Betsy and Me

• "They'd make great Christmas presents," says The Stranger of the Beasts! books

• ...nurgh... looks back at the Golden Age with the help of Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes

• The Philadelphia Inquirer recommends The Complete Peanuts 1967-1970 box set for holiday gift giving

• Seattlest suggests hitting the adults-only section of our Georgetown store for your holiday shopping

• CuatroTipos looks at the reality-based comics of Joe Sacco (en Español; Google translation)

• Post-It pugilism by Steven Weissman, animated by Chris Diaz

Speaking of the Beasts! print show opening tomorrow, Jacob Covey has been previewing some of the prints that will be on display and for sale there on the Beasts! blog (including Tom Neely's "Skinwalker," above).

This show is going to be incredible.

Here’s a little preview of some of the wonderful artworks you’ll find at the phenomenal BEASTS exhibition opening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday, December 13 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Cryptozoology at its finest.

Behold the seductive “Deer Woman” by Thomas Allen (in a rare group show appearance). According to The New Yorker, “Pop up art ascends to sublime heights” in Allen’s work. You have to experience this sensational piece up close to fully appreciate its alluring beauty.

The predatory beast “Chonchonyi” as imagined in this painting by Peter Bagge. Legend has it that this monster produces a melodic cry in flight. Bagge himself will provide the melody at the BEASTS reception with his new band Can You Imagine? The combo includes legendary musician and producer Steve Fisk. We can hardly imagine.

To commemorate this auspicious occasion, curator Jacob Covey created this lovely silkscreen poster image.  The 3-color print is limited to 75 signed copies, available exclusively to patrons of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery for the affordable price of only $20. (And don’t miss screen printer Art Garcia’s new work at neighboring Georgetown Tile Works.)

Also opening on Saturday is “The Story of Belle and Wissell” right around the corner at the venue that hosted the inaugural BEASTS exhibition in 2006. And if that’s not enough, our neighbors at Georgetown Records are displaying the new line of Manik skateboards by illustrious Seattle photographer Charles Peterson.

Join hosts Ellen Forney, Jim Woodring, Jacob Covey, Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard and special guest Ted Stearn for the season’s most festive holiday gala. See you this Saturday.

Holy figs, this daily link post looks like one of my weekly roundups of old:

• PopMatters takes a quick look at Robert Pollard's Town of Mirrors

• PopMatters again, on Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

• Iconoctlán examines The Comics Journal #293 (en Español; Google translation)

• The Austin American-Statesman's lengthy roundup of coffee-table book holiday recommendations includes Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• NuVoid wraps up the 2008 output of Robert Pollard, including Town of Mirrors

• Did you know that if you buy the Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943 (Vol. 3) DVD set you also get an exclusive Popeye mini-comic we produced with a story from our upcoming Popeye Vol. 4 collection? Booksteve noticed

• Chris Barat reviews Popeye Vol. 3: "Let's You and Him Fight!"

• Forward talks to Miss Lasko-Gross for a profile of Jewish women cartoonists

• The North Adams Transcript looks at Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch includes Abandoned Cars, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, and Jules Feiffer's Explainers on its list of "Best Books of 2008: Graphic Literature"

• Beard reviews Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Tropismes (l'Appartement) is yet another French site looking at Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw (Google translation)

• Terri Torres is excited for the new issue of Linda Medley's Castle Waiting

• On the USA TODAY Pop Candy blog, Whitney Matheson declares Lilli Carré's The Lagoon is the "Best book [she] read" last week

• Cartoonist Mark Kaufman is looking forward to our Humbug collection

• Dustin Harbin's top 10 "Best Comics of 2008" includes Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga, Popeye Vol. 3, and Bottomless Belly Button

• Here's video from Pat Moriarity's art opening at 108 Occidental Gallery in Seattle, with music from Pat and his son Jack

• Bill Willingham looks back at Coventry

• Wayno talks about contributing to our forthcoming collection of 1980s "New Wave" minicomics

• On the Comics Comics blog, Mark Newgarden & Paul Karasik need your help in dating an Ernie Bushmiller Nancy strip

• Dan Zettwoch discusses his contribution to Beasts! Book 2

• The Dallas Morning News reports on an exhibit of Bill Mauldin cartoons at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City

• Mark Mattson compares our annual catalog favorably to the Sears Wish Book -- did you get yours?

• The Daily Vanguard gives Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga the #1 spot on its Top 10 Graphic Novels and Comics of 2008, a list which also includes Mome Vol. 12, The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez, and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• The Daily Cross Hatch calls Beasts! Book 2 "downright stunning"

• Ward Six looks at The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring

• USA TODAY Pop Candy is excited about the Brian K. Vaughn interview in The Comics Journal #295

• There's a great illustration by Max in this New York Times article about the future of the publishing industry that we're all reading with great interest

• New Robert Crumb comics (via everywhere)

Beasts! Book 2
By various artists; edited and designed by Jacob Covey

In the spirit of 2007’s acclaimed Beasts!, editor/designer Jacob Covey has assembled an entirely new line-up of over 90 artists who did not appear in the first Beasts! volume. Like the first book, the deluxe collection includes a Who’s Who of the contemporary art world, collectively crafting a menagerie of mythological creatures, monsters, beasts and things that go bump in the night, superbly laid out in breathtaking two-page spreads per beast. Featuring all-new work by over 90 artists including Blex Bolex, Brian Chippendale, Craig Thompson, Dan Zettwoch, Dash Shaw, David B., Eleanor Davis, Ellen Forney, Femke Hiemstra, Gene Deitch, Jaime Hernandez, Travis Louie, Thomas Allen, Jon Vermilyea, Kim Deitch, Lilli Carré, Mark Todd, Olivier Schrauwen, Paul Hornschemeier, Peter Bagge, Ray Fenwick, Stephan Blanquet, Taylor McKimens, Tom Neely, Tomer Hanuka, Yuko Shimizu and dozens more.

216-page full-color 8" x 8" hardcover • $34.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

• The Times' list of recommended graphic novels for Christmas includes Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason, The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott, and Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw

• PLAYBACK:stl looks at Amor Y Cohetes and Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Chris Diaz uploads more photos from APE 2008

• Meathaus has a teaser of a forthcoming animated music video co-created by Dave Cooper

• Sketchbook comics from Tom Kaczynski

• A short Beasts! review

• Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Hensley covered in Post-It notes