Hey, you're a busy person. We get that. Or maybe you and your sweetie boo said you weren't doing anything but then you found a six pack of that craft brew you love so much or the full Battlestar Galactica series on DVD waiting for you. Well, we've got some cards for you to print out fast at work, while everyone is reading the cards their moms mailed to the office. They aren't going to save you but its better than handing someone a Slim Jim you bent in the shape of a heart while filling up your car at the gas station. Or is it? (Valentine above uses panels from Prison Pit 4 by Johnny Ryan)

The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio

Castle Waiting Vol. 1 by Linda Medley

Meat Cake by Dame Darcy

more Meat Cake by Dame Darcy

Dal Tokyo by Gary Panter

Unlovable Vol. 1 by Esther Pearl Watson

Unlovable Vol. 2 by Esther Pearl Watson

Sanctuary by Nate Neal

Athos in America by Jason

You'll Never Know Book 3: A Soldier's Heart by Carol Tyler

Dungeon Quest 3 by Joe Daly. Click here and here to download this print-worthy PDFs and hand a Valentine to someone. Anyone, man.

Friday, February 15th

•  Seattle, WA:  Comics collective Intruder will be launching the fifth volume of their quarterly newspaper at Cairo, featuring a cover by our very own Tony Ong, with comics inside by staffer Jason T. Miles, freelancer David Lasky, and former staffer Alexa Koenings! (more info)

Saturday, February 16th

•  Los Angeles, CA:  Catch a comics reading with Esther Pearl Watson at the L.A. Zine Fest Reading and Rock Spectacular at Footsies! (more info)

•  Nelsonville, OH:  It's your last chance to view prints from The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 at the Nelsonville Public Library! Pay your fines while you're there! (more info)

Sunday, February 17th

•  Portland, OR:  It's your last day to view the touring exhibit Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women at the Oregon Jewish Museum! This exhibition of original drawings, full comic books, and graphic novels will present the powerful work of eighteen artists whose intimate, confessional work has influenced the world of comics over the last four decades -- including our own Miss Lasko-Gross, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Trina Robbins, and Diane Noomin! (more info)

•  Los Angeles, CA:  Jordan Crane, Esther Pearl Watson, and Mome veterans Jon Vermilyea and Malachi Ward will be exhibiting at the L.A. Zine Fest at the Ukrainian Cultural Center! (more info)

Lotsa Fantagraphics luminaries will be at the upcoming L.A. Zine Fest on Sunday, February 17th!

From 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, stop by tables manned by Jordan Crane, Esther Pearl Watson, and Mome veterans Jon Vermilyea and Malachi Ward.

The L.A. Zine Fest will be held at the Ukrainian Cultural Center at 4315 Melrose Avenue. 

And the night before, Saturday, February 16th, catch Esther Pearl Watson doing a comics reading at the L.A. Zine Fest Reading and Rock Spectacular at Footsies [ 2640 N Figueroa Street ]!

H/T to Kelly Froh of Short Run Seattle for bringing this to my attention!

Thursday, January 31st

•  Los Angeles, CA:  Do not miss Scrapbooks, Army Surplus, Comics and Other Stuff: A Conversation with Graphic Storyteller C. Tyler at the University of Southern California as C. Tyler makes a rare West Coast appearance to discuss You'll Never Know: A Graphic Memoir! Reservations are recommended, so click here to RSVP! (more info)

•  Los Angeles, CA: And you lucky Californians can also visit Esther Pearl Watson at the L.A. Art Book Fair, opening Thursday night and running through Sunday, February 3rd. (more info)

 • Seattle, WA:  The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery presents a truly Super Sunday with Portland cartoonist Aron Nels Steinke, who will be signing and discussing his autobiographical mini-comics collection, Big Plans! (more info)

The amazing Esther Pearl Watson will be among the hundreds of artists exhibiting at the L.A. Art Book Fair, opening Thursday, January 31st at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA!

Non-profit organization Printed Matter presents this unique event for artists' books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines. There will be art installations, and even a "Zine World," a super-sized subsection of the L.A. Art Book Fair, featuring zinesters from home and abroad, together with three zine exhibitions.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the zines that Esther will be bringing:

(That Garbage zine is a collaboration with her also-awesome husband, artist Mark Todd!)

This event is free and open to the public, and runs through Sunday, February 3rd. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA is located at 152 North Central Avenue. 

While trampsing around the suburbs and backwaters of Texas, I happened to find the majestic Webb Gallery in Waxahachie for there lay a treasure trove of Esther Pearl Watson paintings. With fading painted trim in still vibrant oranges and teals matched with iron statues and odd toys from people long since dead, it reminds you of an open range and that mix of culture which is a side-step from Southwestern.

Watson's paintings, unlike her Unlovable comics Fantagraphis printed, are deeply personal and autographical. As the daughter of the local color, Watson watched her father build several large-scale UFOs. Out on the lawn. 

Bitter-sweet nostaglic scenes in dirty brown skies and abandoned women's clinics, Watson paints a darker time in her childhood. But that ever-hovering presence, the idea of 'what-if', the UFO. (They Might Be Giants might have called it her 'hovering sombrero') 

Compared to Watson's Unloveable, which also runs in Bust Magazine, the unapolagetic Tammy Pierce is nearly the opposite of these quiet moments with tension bubbling under the surface. Each canvas, most of them wooden, are akin to a diary page created in paint, dirt and the occasional glitter patch instead of words. Notes are scribbled in the corners of most of the paintings to enhance or detail the scene. Often a new town, a new landscape to explore.

Details of the paintings. They practically vibrate.

So all these gorgeous paintings hang on the high-ceilinged walls of the Webb Gallery amongst their antique carnival posters, including Coney Island originals. The perfect place for the painted recollections of hazy memories. Something almost most too incredible to believe.

The Webb Gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5 or by appointment, (972) 938-8085. A quick 30 minute drive from downtown Dallas or 2 hours up from Austin, be sure to see it! 209 West Franklin Street Waxahachie, TX 75165. The current exhibition by Esther Pearl Watson will be up through January 20th, 2013.

For more pictures of the show or to purchase see Esther Pearl Watson's website.

Thursday, December 6th

• Seattle, WA: It's your last chance to see our exhibit for The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery! Prints are a ridiculously-cheap $25 each! (more info)  

Friday, December 7th

• Seattle, WA: Dutch artist Femke Hiemstra debuts her latest collection "Let the Devil Wear Black" at Roq La Rue, with Blab #18 cover artist Ryan Heshka! (more info)   

Saturday, December 8th

• Seattle, WA: The Love and Rockets 30th Anniversary Celebration comes to the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery with guests of honor Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez! We'll also have a special musical performance from Geneviève Castrée! (more info)   

 • Los Angeles, CA: Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd present the Eighth Annual Giant Robot Post-It Show, with work from Andrice Arp, Gabrielle Bell, Lilli Carre, Martin Cendreda, John Cuneo, Eleanor Davis, Renee French, Johnny Ryan, Malachi Ward, and Steven Weissman! (more info)   

Write yourself a note so you don't forget! It's time for the Eighth Annual Giant Robot Post-It Show, curated by our own Esther Pearl Watson with her equally-awesome husband Mark Todd!

Each one-of-a-kind Post-It masterpiece is merely $20, and this might possibly be the biggest Post-It Show yet with over 2,000 submissions! And there's over 260 artists involved, including our own Andrice Arp, Gabrielle Bell, Lilli Carre, Martin Cendreda, John Cuneo, Eleanor Davis, Renee French, Johnny Ryan, Malachi Ward, and Steven Weissman!

The Giant Robot Post-It Show 8 runs from December 8th through 16th at GR2 [ 2062 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA ] with an opening reception event on Saturday, December 8th from 6:00 - 10:00 PM. Come prepared to "cash-and-carry"!

November 18th - Waxahachie, TX.  HIDDEN BEHIND THE STARS featuring the artwork of Esther Pearl Watson opens up this Sunday on the plains of Texas at Webb Gallery. From 3-7pm on Sunday November 18th, you can rock out with music by Quintron and Miss Pussycat while gazing at amazing paintings by Ester. At 7pm, see a premiere screening of Quintron and Miss Pussycat's new movie "The Mystery in Old Bathbath."

Esther Pearl Watson is one of Webb Galleries favorites. Her work is fantastical, beautiful, witty, colorful, dark and autobiographical all at the same time. Many of the works depict her childhood, of growing up with a father obsessed with the idea he could build a flying saucer and sell it to NASA or Ross Perot. Her newest body of work addresses perception and legibility of painting with the addition of surface texture and sculptural elements such as starry fabrics and sculpted meteorites. She grew up in the DFW metro-plex, but currently resides outside of Los Angeles.

Esther Pearl Watson earned her MFA at California Institute of the Arts in 2012 and a BFA at Art Center College of Design. Her work has been exhibited at Nancy Margolis Gallery, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Lesher Center for the Arts and Oakland Museum of California. This is her first exhibit following her Masters Graduation from CalArts.

In addition to paintings, Esther will also have copies of her two Fantagraphics graphic novels, Unlovable, loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom. Tammy Pierce is one of the most unfortunate teens and unabashed malcontents on the other side of the 80s. Serialized in the back of Bust Magazine, Watson has an incredible talent for humor in frantic, scrawled drawings. Adding paint and gouache to the mix just make everything cuter. Hope ya'll can come out! (my apologies to other non-ya'lling Texans).

Webb Gallery - downtown Waxahachie, Texas
209 W. Franklin
972.938.8085
www.webbartgallery.com 

Esther Pearl Watson's flying saucer paintings are some of my favorite things in the world. Add in a dinosaur and watch me hurt myself racing for my wallet: "The Future Passed Over a Fake Dinosaur," the above-pictured print, is now available from Tiny Showcase.

But wait! You can also own tiny originals — Esther has these mini-paintings for sale, each of which comes in its own hand-decorated box. I bought one of these from Esther at Comic-Con (and one of Mark Todd's too) and I luuuuuve it.