Our Eisner-winning series goes chromatic! The first of two volumes collecting the great Floyd Gottfredson's 1932-1938 run on the Sunday Mickey Mouse comic strip, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Vol. 1: Call of the Wild is truly a spectacular package. The linework is so crisp, the authentically-recreated color so dazzling (and surprising... yellow Donald Duck??), you'd be forgiven for thinking these strips are from 80 days ago, not 80 years! And of course you also get all the informative supplemental features these volumes are known for. Get more details, read a 21-page excerpt, and pre-order this volume right here.

And have we got a sweet offer for collectors who want the eventual 2-volume box set but are eager to start reading the first volume: pre-order the box set now and we'll send you this volume as soon as it's released, with the second volume and slipcase when they're available in the Fall — all for the regular box set price, which is cheaper than buying the volumes separately! Keen-o!

We're excited to show off this advance copy of our handsome hardcover presentation of Bread & Wine by Samuel R. Delany and Mia Wolff, coming in about 2 months. Here's what some people had to say about the original, long out of print 1999 edition:

"Samuel R. Delany is one of the finest living American writers. In this revealing autobiographical love story, told in collaboration with fine artist Mia Wolff, Delany's brilliance shines." – Neil Gaiman

"Wildly eccentric artwork, a storyline that'd make Capote blush... Bread & Wine is smoking-gun proof that comics can go anywhere - and do anything." – Frank Miller

"Told simply and methodically like Delany's 1996 memoir, The Motion of Light in Water, the story is subdued yet acutely emotional. It reaches across the boundaries of race and class — as well as across hilariously opposed standards of personal hygiene — to capture two people in the process of building a life together." – Publishers Weekly

More previews are forthcoming, including a look at the spectacular surprise under the dust jacket. Preview a 6-page excerpt and pre-order a copy right here.

Hot on the heels of Gene Deitch's The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove comes another collection of jazzy midcentury music illustrations, The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora. Lovingly compiled and authored by Flora doyens Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, and designed by Laura Lindgren, this softcover coffee-table book will be swingin' and be-boppin' its way to you this Summer. Take it away, Irwin:

"It features all of Flora's known album and EP covers (including back cover illustrations) from 1947 to 1961 for Columbia, RCA Victor, and their affiliated labels, along with music-themed fine art works, illustrations, and sketches. The book was completed last week and will head shortly to the printer. (Despite what it says at Amazon, the publication date will be sometime in August, not June 30. We dawdled a bit.)"

One of the world's great cartoonists, Jacques Tardi, revisits the subject which drives some of his most passionate work in Goddamn This War!, a chronological, infantry-eye view of the first World War.

Our edition of Goddamn's predecessor, It Was the War of the Trenches, was one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of 2010, earning two Eisner awards and a spot on numerous "best of the year" lists. Here's just a sampling of the praise, which could just as well apply to Goddamn: 

"The potency of the soldiers' tragic stories is enhanced by the elegance of Tardi's lucid drawing and keen compositions... This masterful condemnation of the cruelty and stupidity of war... is a cri de coeur that stands out even amid Tardi's impressive body of work." - Gordon Flagg, Booklist (Starred Review)

"This is war as hourly apocalypse, Expressionist and agonizing." – Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman

"Originally inspired by his grandfather's first-person stories, Tardi has created not a formal history but a masterful graphic and visceral tone poem about war." – Library Journal

"Few people alive today are old enough to remember World War I, and as it recedes into the past, the 'war to end all wars' becomes more abstract. But French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's graphic novel, It Was The War of the Trenches..., brings the Great War to life in all its mud- and blood-soaked misery. Without a trace of sentimentality, Tardi's richly detailed and grimly rendered vignettes depict the horror, illness, cruel manipulations, and stupidity of this giant black spot in human history." - Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

Stand by for more previews; read a 16-page excerpt and pre-order your copy right here. 

Wandering Son fans will be happy to know that we're catching up on our release schedule and Volume 5 is off to the printer now for release in August (barring any calamities), just 3 months after Volume 4, which is due later this month after a slight delay.

Which gender-specific uniform is a gender-questioning teen to wear to the junior-high entrance ceremony? Can new and old friendships survive romantic jealousy? These and other questions are addressed with uncommon insight in this volume of Shimura Takako's delightful, acclaimed dramedy.

"...[L]ike the best coming-of-age stories — comics or otherwise — Wandering Son is meticulously accurate in its details, but universal in its emotions. Gay or not, readers shouldn't find it too difficult to identify with kids who feel like their bodies and their friends are equally culpable in the worst kind of betrayal, preventing them from realizing the potential they see in themselves." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club 

We'll have more sneak peeks for you in the weeks to come; you can pre-order the volume right now. And it's not too late to get in on our 3-volume subscription, which gets you Vols. 4-6 with a smart discount and free shipping, with each volume sent to you as soon as they are released! 

Some lucky dozens of you have already got your hands on advance copies of Dash Shaw's incredible new graphic novel New School on his ongoing book tour... If you haven't had a chance to fondle a copy, here's a couple of photos to ogle for the time being.

A powerful combination of 1990s nostalgia, family drama, speculative fiction, and experimental visual techniques, flavored with wonder and deadpan humor, New School is unlike anything you've read before. Library Journal and Paste both named it one of their most-anticipated books of the year, with the latter saying "In a few short years, Dash Shaw has proven himself a restless artist, committed to pushing what comics can do and what his own talents can accomplish... it's nice to see him return with two works, no less." (The other one is 3 New Stories.) And it's a big honkin' book.

Portlandians can pick up the book and see Dash this Thursday, May 2, at Floating World Comics; Seattleites, come on down to Dash's signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, May 4; Torontonians, catch Dash at TCAF May 11-12! Everyone else, the book'll be out in June. More previews are forthcoming; read our free 18-page excerpt and pre-order your copy right here.

The lucky seventh volume of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant is off to the printer for release in August and here's our final, fine-tuned cover art. From an investigation of black magic to a quest for Christian missionaries, from epic derring-do to lighthearted domestic comedy, this volume runs the gamut of what readers love Foster's dashingly-told, masterfully-drawn strip for.

This Saturday, May 4, head to your participating local comic shop for a FREE excerpt from this volume in our Prince Valiant: Free Comic Book Day Special Edition comic book! And we'll have more sneak peeks for you right here in the coming weeks. Of course, you don't have to wait until then to put in your pre-order.

Ben Catmull's eerie new book is at the printer a little early for release in July or August (with a debut at Comic-Con in San Diego), bringing you some much-needed chills and goose pimples in the dog days of summer. The author introduces the book thusly:

"Welcome to Ghosts and Ruins, a compendium of old, forgotten haunted houses, their strange histories, and the experiences of those brave enough to visit. It is highly recommended that you read this book alone late at night in the dark far away from civilization, preferably during a power outage."

Get ready to explore "The Buried House," "The Disgusting Garden," "The Secluded House," "The Lighthouse," the "Labyrinth of Junk," and "The Crawling House"; meet "Drowned Shelley" (that's her below), "The Woman Outside the Window," "The Sculptor," and the "Lonely Old Spinster"; and learn the secrets of  "Wandering Smoke," "The Order of the Shadowy Finger" (their HQ is on the cover), and  "Hair and Earwigs."

Stay tuned for more spine-tingling sneak peeks in the coming weeks! 

Jim Woodring posted this on Facebook just a few hours ago and I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share it:

"Almost eighteen months after work was begun on it the completed FRAN is being placed in the loving hands of Fantagraphics tomorrow. Meet me at the intersection; I'll bring the ether."

See you tomorrow, Jim! 

It's a Love and Rockets two-fer! These books are in the can, ready for press, available for pre-order, and coming to you this Summer:

At last, all of Gilbert Hernandez's New Tales of Old Palomar are collected between two covers for your bookshelf, with a new name: The Children of Palomar. These stories flash back to the "Heartbreak Soup" days — and before! — and expand the Palomar mythology in new and surprising ways. When first released in comic form, this material was hailed by critics as some of Gilbert's best work ever, and the stories, while richly rewarding for longtime fans, stand on their own for new readers as well. (We've bundled it up with Gilbert's recent triumph Julio's Day in a nicely discounted set.) Get a sneak peek at 11 pages of story & art here.

Well, the Love and Rockets 30th anniversary books are missing the actual anniversary, but they are so worth the wait! The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting)  is the ultimate guide to everything Palomar, Hoppers, and beyond, with 3 major interviews with the Hernandez brothers, character guides, unpublished artwork, timelines, a checklist, and even letter column highlights from the original series. Oh and by the way, the black title area on the cover is a removable sticker and the jacket folds out into a poster on one side and character family tree on the other! We've put together a 32-page preview with smatterings of pages from the major sections, which you can read and/or download here.

These two covers really show off the versatility of our lead designer Tony Ong, don't they?