Visitors to the Charles Burns appearance this Saturday evening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery are in for a treat. Eye candy! While supplies last, we'll have free copies of Stéphane Blanquet's fabulous full color TOYS IN THE BASEMENT mini-comic, which includes a 2-page preview of THE LITTLEST PIRATE KING by David B. For indie music buffs we have a limited quantity of the scary 5-song "Haunted Fang Castle" CD by the sensational Spits, including an illustrated booklet by J. J. Rudisill. And our friends from Frontier Records dropped by with a stack of cool full-color vinyl stickers by Jaime Hernandez commemorating 30 years of pleasurable punk rock. [Hit the Frontier link above for a better look at Jaime's illustration – Ed.]

If that's not enough, with each purchase we'll be giving away free copies of Richard Sala's EVIL EYE comic book. All this and Charles Burns! A Halloween to remember.

Toys in the Basement
by Stéphane Blanquet

32-page full-color 8.5" x 11.25" hardcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-402-3

Ships in: November 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
http://www.fantagraphics.com/toysinthebasement

With appearances in such anthologies as Zero Zero, Blab! and Kramer's Ergot, Stéphane Blanquet has been delighting and terrifying American readers with his superslick, ultradetailed creepiness.

So it makes perfect sense that his first graphic novel to be published in the U.S. would be... a children's book? Yes indeed.

Our hero, attending a Halloween party in an embarrassing pink bunny costume (he wanted to be a pirate) stumbles across a secret underground society of damaged, forgotten, and pissed-off toys in the basement of his friend's house — including the terrifying Amelia, a towering sentient assemblage of broken toy parts out for revenge!

Imagine Toy Story as reimagined by David Lynch and Charles Burns and you'll have a good idea of what this story is like. And yes, it is for kids!

Click here to see 3 preview pages!

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Bonus Savings: Order Toys in the Basement together with The Littlest Pirate King by David B. and save 20%! That's two new all-ages graphic albums by modern-day French masters at a great discounted price.

Currently available only at participating comic book shops while supplies last: a FREE promotional Halloween mini-comic containing a special 10-page "Spook Preview" of our upcoming all-ages graphic album by Stéphane Blanquet, Toys in the Basement, plus a two-page sneak peek at David B.'s The Littlest Pirate King! Some stores may have them available now; some may be saving them for trick-or-treaters — check with your local shop for terms and availability.

We're on our way to the Alternative Press Expo this weekend in San Francisco and we decided at the last minute to bring display-only copies of a few of our upcoming releases with us for lucky fans to peruse:

Unfortunately they won't be for sale at the show (and they're not available for pre-order here on our site just yet) but at least they'll be there for the looking!