We have obtained the last remaining available copies of the new self-published issue of Sammy Harkham's great comic book series Crickets and are once again offering them for mailorder!
Crickets #3 dedicates the bulk of its oversized pages to the first part of a new story, "Blood of the Virgin," which tracks the upside down world of exploitation movie making in Los Angeles in the early seventies through the eyes of an ambitious young film editor who catches a big break. Rounding at the issue are handful of short strips, letters and gags featuring Franz Kafka, boxing, Yale University, and pregnant wives. Crickets Lives!
• Renee French custom-painted this Dylan Sprouse vinyl figure; plus the usual drawings etc. at her blog; plus we like this photo on Sprouse's website for obvious reasons
• "The Strangest Story You Ever Heard in Your Life" continues at Splog!, the Sergio Ponchione Lost Objects Gallery blog, plus an illustration at Mondobliquo
We're very excited to begin presenting Michael Kupperman's Up All Night, printed weekly in the Washington City Paper and presented online exclusively here at Fantagraphics.com! The strip joins our regular weekly feature by Steven Weissman (G'n'R's back!) and our usual links to other strips from around the web:
L to R: Johnny Ryan, Jaime Hernandez, Ron Regé Jr., Jordan Crane, Sammy Harkham, Frank Santoro. This photo from Frank's impressive recounting of his visit to L.A. at Comics Comics has been making the rounds a bit, for obvious reasons. One of those "good thing a meteor didn't hit at that moment" moments. (Also pretty much a sausage fest, huh?)
We have very quickly sold out of our limited supply of Sammy Harkham's self-published Crickets #3, but there are still copies to be had out there. We're distributing it to comic shops through Diamond, so your local shop may still have it in stock, and if not, they can can order it for you. If you still want to mail-order it, it's available from Family Los Angeles.
We are pleased to be distributing the new self-published issue of Sammy Harkham's great comic book series Crickets to comics specialty shops, scheduled to arrive today!
We have a very limited number of copiesavailable for order through our website for those of you who don't have a shop in your local area. (While we don't necessarily want to discourage you from ordering it from us, we do encorage you to obtain it from your local shop if at all possible.) We will also have a handful of copies available at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery starting tomorrow.
Crickets #3 dedicates the bulk of its oversized pages to the first part of a new story, "Blood of the Virgin," which tracks the upside down world of exploitation movie making in Los Angeles in the early seventies through the eyes of an ambitious young film editor who catches a big break. Rounding at the issue are handful of short strips, letters and gags featuring Franz Kafka, boxing, Yale University, and pregnant wives. Crickets Lives!
Bloggers say:
"Being the latest comic book release by Sammy Harkham, now self-publisher of an oversized 48-page showcase for self-contained material, some of it published online by Vice. The showpiece is 'Blood of the Virgin,' a fascinating stretch of time from the life of a 1970s exploitation movie studio functionary, constantly seeing his desires swapped out like spicy footage cut from one picture for the benefit of another. Smartly detailed, keenly observed lit comics stuff. Note that the serial from issues #1 and #2 does not continue. I reviewed it here..." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics
"As somebody who's been known to call things 'Crickets' myself, I am extra-fond of Sammy Harkham's extra-intermittent anthology for all things Sammy Harkham-related." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"I picked up a copy of this at the Brooklyn show but if you weren’t there, then the third issue of Sammy Harkham’s Crickets is easily the pick of the week, at least as far as I’m concerned. Harkham has seemingly abandoned, at least for now, his tale of wandering golems and invulnerable men for two self-contained pieces, each with a decided literary bent (the first one is rather cheekily titled 'The New Yorker.'). Both tales show a slight movement towards more introspective, character building work, with the second tale 'Blood of the Virgin,' offering a nice homage of sorts to the late 1960s and early ’70s era of Roger Corman-style cheapie b-films, or at least how they were produced. Definitely one of the nicer surprises at the Brooklyn show this month and highly recommended." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
Look, I can't lie: the first time I visited Los Angeles, I psyched myself out with mental images of women with crazy plastic surgery, carrying little chihuahua dogs in purses that cost more than my car. But, normal people who did not O.D. on re-reruns of "Beverly Hills, 90210" know that L.A. actually has an amazing culture of wonderful un-Botox®'d artists.
And acclaimed indie director Lance Bangs captured that scene in his 2009 documentary Family Portrait, a film centered around the great Family Bookstore, and the people behind the counter, like Sammy Harkham and David Kramer.
Sure, you can watch the entire documentary online, or if you're lucky enough to live in Portland, you can head over to the Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum this coming Sunday, September 26th at 7:00 pm, as Bangs himself will screen the film, along with three others that have nothing to do with comic books.
