Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid joined Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn last Friday at the ribbon cutting ceremony marking the re-opening of the Airport Way Bridge at the north entrance to the Georgetown business district. While Reid had imagined wielding scissors on a Claes Oldenburg scale, the more modest pair did the job. So patrons again have an unobstructed route to the store. Following the snipping exercise, the Mayor dropped by the bookstore for some Christmas shopping. (To avoid tipping off the gift recipients, we won’t disclose his purchases – but he displayed excellent taste in comix.) Store is open until 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, closed for Christmas and New Year’s Day. Seasons greetings.

Ever since her performance at our Love and Rockets Anniversary Party, we've just been entranced by artist and musician Geneviève Castrée!

And for a limited time only, we have some of her comics and music for sale at the store, including this particularly exquisite album, recorded under the alias Woelv for K Records in 2007.

Not only does this record feature Geneviève's beautifully haunting music, but it also comes with a 60-page book of her lovely illustrations that exists to better understand the stories that are melodically expressed in her songs.

This entire record is sung in the French language, so if you're not Kim Thompson, you can read the translations of the lyrics included in the book, which is greatly recommended by Geneviève.

The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.  Open until 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; closed on Christmas and New Year's Day. 

Cate McGehee attended the 30th Anniversary party for Love and Rockets held at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and wrote about it in The Stranger. Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez were in attendance in addition to hundreds of people ready to see the brothers during their auspicious celebration. Flanked by a gorgeous wall of original art, punk show posters (draw by the brothers) and alt-weekly covers, curated by Larry Reid and editor Kristy Valenti, the room held more wonder than of those in The Mask of the Red Death!

Nearly thirty years of work is laid out on prismatic display (more not pictured). Why has Love and Rockets held up so long? The facts as stated in The Stranger: "It was one of the very first comics to include LGBT characters and people of color, to draw from an underground urban demographic, and to have kick-ass female leads." Or as Larry put it the comics "foreshadowed the contemporary multicultural society." With characters who age, die and get revisited via that time machine called comics, Gilbert and Jaime have created some of the most complex and human characters in the industry.

The article goes on to describe some of the more familiar faces to the Hernandez brothers off the bristol board, their returning fans. One man brought his future wife, who became the bigger fan eventually, then their baby who in turn grew up and "she said her mom couldn't make it, and then rolled up her sleeve to show Jaime her Love and Rockets tattoo." But success hasn't slowed the two cartoonists down, they can't imagine a life without comics or a life without Love and Rockets. And neither can we.

Pictures: Gilbert and Jaime pose with fan, the Love and Rockets Library collection and Gilbert signs for a fan in front of the wall.

Meet Ellen Forney and pick up a signed copy of her sensational New York Times bestseller Marbles, this Saturday, December 22 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. The perfect occasion to complete your last minute holiday shopping. Add new meaning to "stocking stuffer" with a signed copy of Ellen's lovely Lust collection (though we're unsure ourselves what that new meaning might be.) We have exquisite gifts for everyone in every price range — many under $20!

While you're at the store, you can view our colorful exhibition celebrating 30 Years of Love & Rockets and check out new offerings from your favorite local alternative cartoonists, as well as international artists and classic comic strip collections.

Fantagraphics Bookstore is located in the historic Georgetown industrial arts colony at 1201 S. Vale Street, minutes south of downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Open until 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, closed on Christmas and New Year's Day. Happy holidays.

End the year in style with a trip to Georgetown on Sunday, December 30 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM as Fantagraphics Bookstore welcomes Brooklyn, NY cartoonist Nathan Bulmer back to his home town of Seattle. Bulmer will sign copies of his new comix collection, Eat More Bikes, from Canada's adventurous Koyama Press.

A recent graduate of New York's storied School of Visual Art, Bulmer made an immediate impact with his daily Eat More Bikes comix art blog. He returns to Seattle with a new anthology of these strips, as well as a handful of hilarious self-published minicomics. The festivities include music by Zachary David Jammin' and complimentary holiday refreshments. This event coincides with the "Only in Seattle Sundays" small business promotion of the City of Seattle Office of Economic Development.

Shop local at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) in the heart of Seattle's lively Georgetown arts community. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Open until 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day. Phone 206.658.0110.

Listing information:

Nathan Bulmer book signing with music by Zachary David Jammin'
Sunday, December 30, 2:00 to 4:00 PM
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St., Georgetown, Seattle
206.658.0110
www.fantagraphics.com

It can be hard being a touring band on the road! When we couldn't manage to schedule a signing at the store with Ron Regé, Jr., we brought the books to him at last week's Lavender Diamond show in Seattle. And while supplies last, you can get one of those autographed copies of The Cartoon Utopia exclusively at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery! It's a joyous holiday gift!

The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.

Santa recently delivered a big bag of barely bent books by our favorite artists to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. They'll be featured at 50% off all day Friday and Saturday, December 14 and 15. Dozens of books by Barks, Bagge, Burns, Clowes, Carre, Crumb, Forney, Friedman, Hernandez, Kurtzman, Millionaire, Panter, Sacco, Swarte, Woodring and more. Classics like Peanuts, Pogo, Popeye, and Prince Valiant, along with some long unavailable titles - all at half off!

While visiting Georgetown, head up the street to see Santa at Masquerade on Friday and Saturday from 2:00 to 6:00 PM, or get your picture taken with Santa's sexy helpers from Little Black Devil Burlesque from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Make a day of it and shop local at the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall and Full Throttle Bottles, then drink and dine at one of Georgetown's lively cafes or nightclubs. 

Fantagraphics Bookstore is open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. We'll be open until 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. (Closed on Christmas and New Years Day.) 

The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is proud to present a homecoming event with artist Nathan Bulmer, former-Seattleite now-Brooklynite, on Sunday, December 30th, signing from 2:00 to 4:00 PM!

Bulmer has had work published in MAD Magazine, Time Out New York, Seattle Magazine, and The Comics Journal, and has a brand-new collection out now titled Eat More Bikes, from our dear friends at Koyama Press! Much like his web-comic of the same name, the all-new cartoons contained inside traffic in the same absurdist humour.

You can buy more comics like Eat More Bikes at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.

To commemorate Fantagraphics Bookstore's 6th anniversary and 30 years of Love & Rockets, we commissioned Clone Press to publish a silkscreen print of the image pictured above. Signed copies of this 18" X 24" edition of 100 will be available at the event for only $25 on Saturday evening at 6:00 PM. Since the Hernandez Brothers appeared in Seattle at Fallout Records on their 10th anniversary tour, we thought it appropriate for the proprietor of that legendary establishment to DJ two decades later. Russ Battaglia will spin vintage punk rock vinyl and demented holiday hits. Don't miss what promises to be the season's most festive party.

The Love and Rockets shirts have been on sale since summer and people are popping up all over the world, looking AWESOME. Friend, cartoonist and puppeteer Andy Warner works on his collaborative puppet show, Frown Town, while rockin' the chocolate and cream dream shirt. What do you do while you wear your Love and Rockets shirt? (We sit behind our desks and read books) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it pictures and we'll share them next week!

Also, Seattlites, the Hernandez Brothers are in town this Saturday for a party, party, party at our Fantagraphics store. Wear your Love and Rockets shirt there for an EPIC group picture or pick one up.