In celebration of the arrival of the inaugural class of MFA in Comics graduate students, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco will host a summer guest speaker series featuring some of comics' most talented creators.
On Friday, July 5th, CCA kicks off the series with a bang, with special guest Cathy Malkasian! Cathy will be discussing her work in the animation industry, as well as her most recent book, Wake Up, Percy Gloom!
This lecture will take place on CCA's San Francisco campus in the Graduate Writers Studio at 195 De Haro Street.
And then on Friday, July 26th, CCA closes out the month-long series with Dash Shaw! Dash's discussions on his work and his latest book, New School, are not to be missed.
Dash's discussion will take place on CCA's San Francisco campus in the Timken Lecture Hall on 1111 Eighth Street.
Both lectures begin at 6:00 PM! More information about the MFA in Comics program available at cca.edu/mfacomics.
Today is a two-fer digital comics day at Fantagraphics and comiXology! Cathy Malkasian's beautiful Candidesque tales of Percy Gloom and just released Wake Up, Percy Gloom are now available to download. The perfect fable for someone on a journey, Percy Gloom unique gem of a story, humorous and bewitching at the same time. Its diminutive hero is as complex and unique as the fantastical world he inhabits. Only $12.99 at comiXology for an 180-page adventure.
Meanwhile, in Wake Up, Percy Gloom we find our bulb-headed hero awaken from (what he thinks is) a 200-year nap and finds himself in a strange new land, embarking on a wide-ranging quest to find his mother. This new 116-page book from Malkasian is available both now both in stores and at comiXology to read digitally for $24.99.
"More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." -Diamond Scoop
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.
The End by Anders Nilsen
80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25" x 10.5" hardcover • $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-635-5
"these pages come from such a raw emotional place that they'll reverberate like an echo from a well.…It's a message we've heard before, but its majestic delivery and the difficult path that led to this revelation make The End all the more exceptional." –About.com
192-page two-color 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6 - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&category=Cathy+Malkasian&Itemid=113#sthash.ppFUnjvP.dpuf
192-page two-color 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6
"Malkasian fills the story with multiple levels, never once making any of them obvious. Her experience as an animator shines through as her pencil and panel construction holds an incredible sense of movement inside a graphic novel format.…More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&category=Cathy+Malkasian&Itemid=113#sthash.HrwSRbVp.dpuf
"Malkasian fills the story with multiple levels, never once making any of them obvious. Her experience as an animator shines through as her pencil and panel construction holds an incredible sense of movement inside a graphic novel format.…More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&category=Cathy+Malkasian&Itemid=113#sthash.HrwSRbVp.dpuf
"More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence." –Diamond Scoop
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. - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=New-Comics-Day-5.29.13.html&Itemid=113#sthash.WaF2Tfkt.dpuf
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. - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=New-Comics-Day-5.29.13.html&Itemid=113#sthash.WaF2Tfkt.dpuf
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. - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=New-Comics-Day-5.29.13.html&Itemid=113#sthash.WaF2Tfkt.dpuf
Cartoonist of Percy Gloom and Wake Up, Percy Gloom, Cathy Malkasian is one busy woman. After working on such animations like Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys film (for which she received a British Academy Award nomination), and most recently, creating 20 episodes of Curious George for PBS since 2008, she still has time to make a new graphic novel AND create her own small series. Hiding in Happytown is available to watch on YouTube and is the "adult animatic series featuring the travails of a tortoise in a city full of rabbits." Excitable, nervous and depressed, Scampers the tortoise is one of us, the person who isn't swept up in a musical moment every damn minute of the day and knows that darkness creeps around every corner.
With titles like "Froth and Debt" or "Sex Education," the series will be sure to impress you. Watch the rest of Malkasian's Hiding in Happytown on YouTube and preorder Wake Up, Percy Gloom today!
Cathy Malkasian's second Percy Gloom graphic novel is another fable that the author brings to vivid life through her lush and detailed pencil renderings, surreal humor, absurdist characters, breathtaking landscapes, and luminous storytelling.
Kindhearted, Candide-esque Percy wakes up from a 200 year nap and finds himself in a strange new land. Searching for his mother, lamenting his long-lost love and soul-mate Miss Margaret, Percy meets bizarre, wise, naive, and sometimes dangerous characters, encounters inspired inventions, and forges friendships, discovering a few unexpected verities along the way.
Not to mention the singing goats and furniture parades.
The fastest hot-to-trot release of online Commentaries & Diversions:
• Review:Good Dog has it this week. Graham Chaffee's return to comics gets a starred review from Publishers Weekly. "Chaffees’s art is both lyrical and dramatic when it needs to be, mixing Craig Thompson and Gilbert Hernandez. As with White Fang and Black Beauty, Chaffee goes inside the psychology of animals without over sentimentalizing and shows why the human/pet relationship is so precious for both sides."
• Review: Diamond Scoop is all over Wake Up, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian. "Malkasian fills the story with multiple levels, never once making any of them obvious. Her experience as an animator shines through as her pencil and panel construction holds an incredible sense of movement inside a graphic novel format.…More than a fable, Percy Gloom is part of story telling myth that can be traced back to campfires around a cave. This is an inspiring work that speaks to all levels of our existence."
• Review: Bob Temuka of the Tearoom of Despair checks out Peter Bagge's Other Stuff. "This book is excellent… the looser Bagge's stuff gets, the better. Other Stuff is funnier than [Everybody Is Stupid Except For Me], even if there is that same sociological satire, because it has Bagge people wigging the fuck out, and nuthin' is funnier than that.."
• Review: Shawn Starr of The Chemical Box reviews 3 New Stories by Dash Shaw. "3 New Stories is a comic which explores the juxtaposition and superimposition of images within the structure of text/drawing based comics (a.k.a. traditional comics) as a means of underlining the thematic nature of it's stories.…Shaw codes the pages of '3 New Stories' with layers of visual subtext that work as an interesting color palette and also through their existence as “images”, create additional layers of meaning to each page and the narrative as a whole."
• Review: Bill Boichel from Copacetic Comics enjoys New School by Dash Shaw. "This purposeful leveling of the high/low, fine/popular distinction in the arts has a specific aim in reinforcing the "message" encoded within the narrative. The basics of the story we are given in New School are about as old school as you can get, centering on two brothers, each sent by their father on a quest to a faraway land. The brothers, Daniel and Luke, are each given names with strong biblical associations. The latter, however, additionally references the modern mythology of Star Wars. This dual reference serves as a key opening the door to New School's narrative strategy."
• Review: IndieWire has a suggestion for you in regards to Micky Mouse Color Sundays by Floyd Gottfredson (edited by Groth and David Gerstein). Jerry Beck writes, "Leave it to Gerstein, with co-editor Gary Groth and the team at Fantagraphics, to reprint these rare strips with the greatest of care. The reproduction of the line art is superb, the coloring is vivid and faithful to the original newspaper printings … stop what you are doing and order this book today. 280 pages of absolute joy."
• Review: KC Carlson of Comics Worth Reading read and weeps (from laughter) in the latest Carl Barks collection, Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret. "I read it as a child. Yet I remember clearly every detail about it. Such is the power of Carl Barks’ work. His storytelling is designed to appeal to youngsters as well as folk who are as old as Scrooge.…I laughed so hard that I had to put the book down for a couple of minutes. Sharp-eyed readers should also pay attention to other jokes hidden in what Donald is reading in other stories throughout the book."
• Interview (audio): Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds and co-editor, Philip Nel, talk Crockett Johnson, Barnaby and Ruth Kruss on Inkstuds with Robin McConnell.
• Review:Comics Grinder makes some new meat with Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kacynski. "Kaczynski’s humor is, at times, acerbic, with an attitude…Read as a whole, the author’s vision comes through as heart-felt, witty, and maybe even, perhaps, genuinely concerned…Architecture is seen as a possible solution to the many ills of one struggling nation," writes Henry Chamberlain.
• Review:The Austin Chronicle weighs The Adventure of Jodelle by Guy Peellaert. Shannon McCormick writes, "Christ, this thing is gorgeous…Like his American Pop Art idols and comrades, Peellaert’s work smashed distinctions between "high" and ‘low’ modes of art, drawing from the visual language of advertising, cinema, fashion, and youth culture, as well as classical and neo-classical sculpture and architecture."
• Review: Bob Temuka of the Tearoom of Despair checks out Four Color Fear edited by John Benson and Greg Sadowksi. "The flashes of genius amongst the gore in these comics can be breathtaking, and there is still plenty of creepy fun with the rest." While sold out in print (currently), you can still read this digitally via comiXology.
• Review: Stuff I Read This Week and the Darling Dork revisit Maggie the Mechanicby Jaime Hernandez. "A large part of the fun of Love and Rockets is seeing how the Herndandezes grew and developed as creators, with experimentation giving way to clarity of vision…You can look at these characters and still recognize them perfectly well, only sans several decades of growth…there’s still plenty of greatness to be found here."
• Interview (audio): Gilbert Hernandez talks about kids' comics, Love and Rockets, plus D&Q's Marble Season on The Dinner Party.
• Plug (video): Staffer Jen Vaughn speaks very briefly on working for Fantagraphics and comics at TCAF on Comics Bulletin (I apologize for speaking in 3rd person)
“I fell madly in love with Cathy Malkasian’s beautiful Percy Gloom graphic novel a few years back, which was as beautiful as it was unexpected, so there is little to no way that I am not eagerly anticipating this follow-up. For those who like gorgeously-illustrated, melancholy and touching books: This is for you.” – Graeme McMillan, Robot 6
Cathy Malkasian's second Percy Gloom graphic novel is another fable that the author brings to vivid life through her lush and detailed pencil renderings, surreal humor, absurdist characters, breathtaking landscapes, and luminous storytelling.
Kindhearted, Candide-esque Percy wakes up from a 200 year nap and finds himself in a strange new land. Searching for his mother, lamenting his long-lost love and soul-mate Miss Margaret, Percy meets bizarre, wise, naive, and sometimes dangerous characters, encounters inspired inventions, and forges friendships, discovering a few unexpected verities along the way.
Not to mention the singing goats and furniture parades.
Cathy Malkasian is back with Wake Up, Percy Gloom!, the sequel to her award-winning 2007 graphic novel Percy Gloom, which charmed and beguiled readers of all stripes (with the equally amazing Temperance in between). Don't just take our word for it; listen to two of comics' greatest world-builders and creators of lovable iconic characters:
"Cathy Malkasian's Percy Gloom shines a light on a hidden world, using language and ideas that are daringly naked and vulnerable, evoking something real, rare, and relevant. Such exquisite drawing, in the service of such rich ideas, sustained for such a long, lovely dance! The world looked differently to me after I'd finished reading it." – Jim Woodring
"I love this book! Cathy Malkasian's Percy Gloom swirls with echoes of cartoon landscapes from the past and present. You can almost hear Percy Gloom's meek, docile little voice. Her writing is so full of wit and charm that we, like the title character, walk dutifully to the edge and fall in. And like Percy, we are rewarded equally with night terrors and secret treasures." – Jeff Smith
This all-new story, due out in the second half of May, expands Percy's world with new sights, new mysteries, new delights, and new dangers. On our pre-order page we have a 17-page excerpt for you to read and a fun animated "commercial" created by the artist, and we have more previews to come. And for the full Percy package you can buy both books together for a nice discount!
Cathy Malkasian's debut graphic novel Percy Gloom netted her the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award at the 2008 Eisner Awards. Now we're pleased to present the sequel, Wake Up, Percy Gloom! In it, our diminutive, bulb-headed hero seemingly pulls a Rip Van Winkle. Awakening in an unfamiliar land, he embarks on a quest to find his mother; fantastical happenings ensue. Whether you were beguiled by the first book or you're meeting Percy for the first time, you'll be sure to find his gorgeously-illustrated new adventure full of delight, wonder, humor and pathos. The book's at the printer for release later in Spring. We have a 17-page teaser for you, and you can pre-order a copy right here.
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