The Bumbershoot Music & Arts festival is upon us again, and if you can navigate through the drum circles and shishkaberry lines, here's where you can find some Fantagraphics:

Bumber By Number: local culture vultures Marlow Harris and Jo David are featuring a fully-immersive and interactive paint-by-numbers art exhibit, which will also feature vintage paint-by-numbers kits altered by our own Jim Blanchard and Jim Woodring.

[ That's a shot of Blanchard's piece above, which will be for sale! ]

If you wanna check out Bumber By Number and the rest of this year's visual art offerings, head to Seattle Center on Thursday, September 1st for a FREE open-to-the-public preview from 3:00 to 9:00 pm!

And, just an aside, but this year's Bumbershoot graphics were designed by noneother than Fanta-friend Jesse LeDoux. 

We've uploaded over 100 photos from the 2010 Bumbershoot festival to our Flickr page, including views of the entire Counterculture Comix exhibit, Jim Woodring's appearance in the "MeTube" program, and Tony Millionaire's unforgettable talk. You can view the photos a few different ways, including a slideshow; even though it's a bit of a pain to navigate I recommend browsing the photos manually, choosing "view all sizes" for each and selecting to view the exhibit photos at original size for the greatest detail. Below, just a few highlights:

Local TV celeb John Keister poses with his 1984 portrait by Lynda Barry.

Jim queues up a mind-bending video.

Tony demonstrates how to get arrested.

We have an update to our schedule of Fantagraphics-related events at this year's Bumbershoot festival: our own Nico Vassilakis will be participating in the Pecha Kucha multidisciplinary arts showcase tomorrow at noon. Looks fascinating!

Visitors to the "Counterculture Comix" exhibition at Bumbershoot in Seattle this weekend will get a preview of the latest installment of Hooked on Comix. Director David P. Moore will attend all three days of the festival and screen clips from the new volume, featuring Fantagraphics favorites Dame Darcy and Tony Millionaire [seen below together at Comic-Con - Ed.], who will be at Bumbershoot on Monday.

The show features continuous screenings of classic early volumes of Hooked on Comix. The exhibition celebrates Seattle's legacy of alternative comix awesomeness. It's free on Friday, and the holiday weekend includes giants of pop music (Bob Dylan, Courtney Love, Neko Case, Mary J. Blige, Weezer, etc.), as well as contemporary film, lit, visual arts, and more.

After whetting your comix appetite at the Bumbershoot exhibition, drop by our store to stock up on reading material and the last viewing of Dame Darcy's delightful show of original artwork. Open Friday and Saturday until 8:00 PM, Sunday 11:30 to 5:00 PM. The store will be closed on Monday for Labor Day. Mark your calendars for the Carol Tyler event the following Saturday, September 11.

[Artwork by Jim Woodring — click for larger version and see below for more photos]

Comics connoisseurs can view "Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists" for free this Friday, September 3 from 11:00 [correction:] noon to 7:00 PM in the Olympic Room on the Northwest corner of the Seattle Center grounds near Key Arena.)

The exhibition features 3 generations of cartoonists from the city that gave birth and momentum to the alternative comix movement. More than 250 artworks and artifacts are on display, with a comix reading lounge, a continuous screening of David Moore's seminal Hooked on Comix documentary, and cartooning demonstrations by Friends of the Nib and Bureau of Drawers. All Bumbershoot visual art shows are free on Friday, and hizzoner the mayor will tour the exhibitions in the afternoon.

Bumbershoot, Seattle's annual Labor Day weekend arts festival, looks promising this year. In addition to the comix exhibition, there's the daily Flatstock poster show, a special preview of the anxiously-awaited Jesse Bernstein documentary I Am Secretly an Important Man on Saturday, a concert by Hole, featuring the lovely and talented Courtney Love on Sunday, and the equally lovely and talented Tony Millionaire on Monday. Hope to see you there.

[Artwork & artifacts by Lynda Barry]

[Artwork & artifacts by Peter Bagge]

[Jason T. Miles assembles the Profanity Hill installation]

This weekend is Seattle's BUMBERSHOOT festival ("bumbershoot" is old-timey for "umbrella" -- get it? it rains a lot here!), one of the biggest cultural events of the year in the great Pacific Northwest, and Fantagraphics will have a presence at the show in a few different ways, most notably a massive art exhibit curated by our own Larry Reid. Here's the skinny on all FBI goings-on: 

NORTHWEST COMIX: A 30-YEAR SURVEY OF SEATTLE ALTERNATIVE CARTOONISTS
Curated by Larry Reid in Association with Fantagraphics Books

Venue: Northwest Rooms

Open free to the public September 4-6 with admission to Bumbershoot 2010

This retrospective examines the Northwest's legacy as the birthplace of alternative comics (aka comix). Beginning with the work of Lynda Barry circa 1980, and running through today, the emphasis is on the role of comix in Seattle's youth movement of the '90s that went on to influence global popular culture. Curated by Larry Reid in conjunction with Fantagraphics Books, this exhibit features original artwork on display together with demonstrations by Friends of the Nib and Bureau of Drawers, as well as screenings of Hooked on Comix. Artists include Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, Patrick Moriarity, Mark Zingarelli, Roberta Gregory, Megan Kelso, Jim Blanchard, David Lasky, Justin Hampton, Ted Jouflas, and others.

AN EVENING WITH TONY MILLIONAIRE

Venue: Leo K. Theatre

Monday, September 6, 2010 • 5:30 pm- 6:30 pm

Tony Millionaire is the multiple award-winning creator of the self-syndicated comic strip, Maakies, which appears in weekly newspapers across the country. Maakies has been adapted to the small screen in 1998 for Saturday Night Live and in 2008 as The Drinky Crow Show for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Moderated by Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics Books.

LISTEN WHITEY: A HISTORY OF BLACK POWER RECORDINGS
Hosted by Pat Thomas

Venue: Words & Ideas Stage

Saturday September 4, 2010 • 3:45PM - 4:45PM

Pat Thomas' forthcoming Fantagraphics book, Listen Whitey: The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, chronicles his huge collection of rare and out-of-print Black Power poetry, speeches, interviews, jazz, soul, rock, and pop recordings. He will be speaking about this exhaustive collection and providing unique insight into the historical movement, while playing tons of music and recordings.

Also, if you live in Seattle, you might want to get in on this contest asap to win a few thousand dollars worth of killer swag, including a bunch of Fantagraphics books!

Our own Larry Reid will be appearing on The Marty Riemer Show webcast/podcast (hosted by the former KMTT morning show host) tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM to talk about the big Bumbershoot comic art exhibit he's curating. Tune in! The other guest on the program: Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire. Larry moves in influential circles, y'all.