The creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Bottomless Belly Button and Bodyworld hits the road in support of his new graphic novel, New School, as well as the one-shot comic book, 3 New Stories. At each location, Dash Shaw will be signing copies of his new books before their wide release, often with a gallery full of original artwork and presentations of his animation works (including the Sigur Rós video, "Seraph"). New School is a full-color, classic coming-of-age story that encapsulates the current generation, both trapped and enthralled by pop culture. Shaw dramatizes the story two brothers, one moving to an exotic country where an ambitious new amusement park recreates historical events and the younger one who goes to find his brother after years of little contact. New School is unlike anything in the history of the comics medium: at once funny and deadly serious, easily readable while wildly artistic, personal and political, familiar and completely new.

Here's a trailer for the book with art and animation by Shaw, killer music by Lily Benson and Doron Sadja.

Dash Shaw lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is currently writing and directing an animated feature film.

"A former student of the genius artist-seer-cartoonist Gary Panter, Dash, it's fair to say, is something of a genius as well." - Chris Ware

Complete Venue Information:

Desert Island
540 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.388.5087

MoCCA Festival, NYC
69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue
between E. 25th & E. 26th Street
New York, NY 10010

Hub Comics
19 Bow St
Somerville, MA 02143
617.718.0987

Atomic Books
3620 Falls Rd.
Baltimore, MD 21211
410.662.4444

Carnegie Library Comics Conference
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Copacetic Comics Company
3138 Dobson St. - 3rd floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
412.251.5421
Event Page

Light Industry
155 Freeman Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Stumptown Comics Fest
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE ML King Blvd.
Portland, OR 97232

Floating World
400 NW Couch St
Portland, OR 97209
503.241.0227

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St.
Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110

TCAF (Toronto Comics Arts Festival)
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4W 2G8

Join us this Saturday, March 23 from 4:00 to 8:00 PM for the 2nd annual Georgetown Music March. Just as the monthly Art Attack draws attention to the visual arts in Georgetown, the Music March features the many musicians that live, work, and play in the historic arts community. Over a dozen eclectic acts will perform all over the neighborhood. All shows are free and most venues are all ages.

Among the many highlights will be Clyde Petersen's Your Heart Breaks at Fantagraphics Bookstore, Blue Star Creeper on the Trailer Park Stage, Earl Brooks at Calamity Jane's, and Jack Endino's Rocket Surgery, featuring former Fantagraphics marketing assistant Allison Maryatt at the MIX. Come early for comix and stay late for another evening of raucous revelry in Georgetown.

Tuesday, March 19th

• New York City, NY:  Join Drew Friedman, Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, and Robert Grossman as they celebrate Harvey Kurtzman in a panel at the Society of Illustrators! And don't forget, you can hear them on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC at 1:30 PM EST! That's 93.9 FM and AM 820 in the New York City area, or streaming around the world online here. (more info)

• Vancouver, BC:  Our awesome Marketing/PR/Outreach Fiend Jen Vaughn will be on an Inkstuds panel at the Vancouver Art Gallery, discussing art and tradition of comics, as well as reflecting on their own work. (As she puts it, "I'm very stoked to be talking about periods/menstruation inside a place called VAG." Haw!) She'll be joined by fellow artists Emily Carroll and Brandon Graham, with your host Robin McConnell.  This event is free for museum members, and for non-members, Tuesday night are "Pay What You Can," so don't miss this! (more info)

Friday, March 22nd

• St Catharines, ONT:  The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 will have its Ontario launch party at the Niagara Artists Centre from 7:00 to 11:00 PM. There will be readings by derek beaulieu, Sharon Harris, Jenny Sampirisi, and Karl Jirgens. It is also the launch party for derek's book, Please, no more poetry: the selected works of derek beaulieu, and his accompanying art show How to Read. (more info)

Saturday, March 23rd

• Seattle, WA:  Pat Thomas returns to Seattle to bring Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 to the Cinema Salon! This event is part of L.A. Rebellion, a special weekend-series of Black Cinema hosted by our friends at the Northwest Film Forum throughout March. Our own Jen will be onsite to sell you books! (more info) 

Sunday, March 24th

An evening celebrating the great cartoonist, writer, and editor Harvey Kurtzman? Awesome. An evening celebrating Kurtzman with fellow amazing cartoonists Drew Friedman, Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, and Robert Grossman? Even more awesome!!!

Join these legendary artists tomorrow Tuesday, March 19th as they  discuss the life and works of Harvey Kurtzman in a panel moderated by Peter Kuper. The discussion runs from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Society of Illustrators [ 128 East 63rd Street ].

It's all part of that extraordinary retrospective exhibit The Art of Harvey Kurtzman, which runs through Saturday, May 11th.

And UPDATE! We've just got word that Al, Arnold, and Drew will be taking their love of Kurtzman to the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC tomorrow at 1:30 PM EST! You can listen at 93.9 FM and AM 820 in the New York City area, or streaming around the world online here.

Ed Piskor: Brain Rot presents original pen and ink drawings by Piskor which comprised many of his latest comics publications. These original drawings will be up at the Columbus Museum of Art from March 15, 2013 until June 2, 2013. The exhibition includes more than thirty original pages from Hip Hop Family Tree due out from Fantagraphics October 2013. Hip Hop Family Tree tracks the evolution of hip hop from its beginnings in the 1970s as a niche local subculture into the global phenomenon it quickly became.

On March 24th, 2013 at 2pm Piskor will speak about his creative process with interviewer, comics writer, and blogger Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at OSU. This talk will be free with museum admission.

Following these events, Ed Piskor will be doing a 3 week residency at the Thurber House in Columbus, OH where he'll be provided the opportunity to develop a work-in-progress. More info here.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out this past weekend for our signing with the wonderful Geneviève Castrée, whose debut graphic novel Susceptible is out now from our friends at Drawn & Quarterly!

She gave a wonderful and spirited slideshow presentation, and at one point she had to don her husband's glasses in order to see the slides herself!  I learned so much from her talk that even though I was halfway through reading the book, when I got home, I started over again with all this new, fascinating information in mind!

And huge kudos to our manager/curator Larry Reid for going the extra mile in making the accompanying exhibition happen... no, literally. He drove many, many miles to Geneviève's home in Anacortes, WA, to pick up these original drawings from the book! Can you believe? These are in scale! Seeing the stunning artwork and the meticulous lettering in person, and at size (and in French!), was truly a special treat!

As she signed copies of the book for attendees, her good friend Ashley Eriksson (of K Records band LAKE) performed music. 

Her opening track, she explained, was about working from home, which she said always made her think of Geneviève!  There was a very sweet vibe watching these two artists at their craft, smiling at each from across the room in equal admiration of each other's talents. Yes, aww! It was a very wonderful evening -- thank you to everyone who came out for it, and thank you especially to Geneviève, Ashley, and all Anacortesians for making the trek!

Our exhibit of original artwork from Susceptible will be on display through Saturday, April 6th 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.  Live far away? You can check out more photos from our opening reception in the Fantagraphics Flickr!

Photos by Janice & Jen!

Thank you to everyone who visited Fantagraphics at the Emerald City ComicCon earlier this month!  It was good times! Our local legend and store empresario Larry Reid manned the booth all weekend long, fueled by coffee and his lifelong love of comics.

Peter Bagge drew this adorable sketch of a cosplayer as Miyazaki's Kiki! Speakin' of Pete, we've still got a few of the exclusive t-shirts he designed for ECCC at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, while they last.

Here's Bill Schelly and Michel Gagné, comparing the printing on Weird Horrors & Daring Adventures: The Joe Kubert Archives Vol. 1 and Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics. If you attended Michel's book launch at the store last Spring, you'll recall, he is meticulous about reprinting! And, good news: Michel turned in his next book to Gary at the show, which will feature an introduction by, whaddaya know? Bill!

And here's the lovely Ellen Forney with our also-lovely booth volunteers Bella and Lilian. We can't keep her memoir Marbles in stock!

Whoops! Gary caught the paparazzi (me) in the act! Moving along... 

We swung by the Prism booth where No Straight Lines-contributor Ed Luce was all smiles!  We were happy to see some signed copies of Life's A Bitch from Roberta Gregory, and the new second edition cover of Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever #1 by Mome-veteran Jim Rugg.

Speaking of Mome-veterans, it's always a good day when T. Edward Bak is in the house. Look how hard he's working at the Floating World booth! Why, this photo is not staged AT ALL!

There were tons of other awesome people we saw, but Mike got distracted by the 25 cent bins, and I got too busy stalking Gillian Anderson. You can check out more photos from ECCC on our Flickr and Instagram accounts.

If you saw a book that you're kicking yourself for not picking up at the con, it's most likely still available 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.

See you next year at Emerald City ComicCon! (Scully...! Call me!)

Bay Area residents will like this week's edition of "This Week in Events"...

Thursday, March 14th

• San Francisco, CA:  Editors Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill will be signing and reading from The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 at the The Poetry Center on the campus of San Francisco State University! (more info)

Friday, March 15th

• San Francisco, CA:  And join Nico and Crag for a signing of The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 at the Meridian Gallery! (more info)

Saturday, March 16th

• San Francisco, CA:  Lilli Carré and Mome-veteran Eleanor Davis are just a couple of the artists whose work will be featured in the exhibit I See What You Say: Visual Stories and Narrative Art, opening at the Cartoon Art Museum! (more info)

Fantagraphics' own Lilli Carré and Mome-veteran Eleanor Davis are just a couple of the artists whose work will be featured in the exhibit I See What You Say: Visual Stories and Narrative Art.

Opening at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, CA, on Saturday, March 16th, I See What You Say explores narrative as expressed through a wide range of illustrative media — in picture books, comics, editorial art, and beyond. The participants are not just artists, but storytellers, joining their artistic practices with their own narrative styles.

Alongside Lilli and Eleanor, there will also be books and artwork on display from Vanessa Davis, Carson Ellis, Jon Klassen, Roman Muradov, Aaron Renier, Christian Robinson, Dasha Tolstikova, Craig Thompson, Sara Varon and Angie Wang.

A public reception will be held on Sunday, April 28th at 5:00 PM, with appearances by guest contributors Jon Klassen, Roman Muradov, and Christian Robinson, among others. Christian will be signing his new book, Rain! by Linda Ashman, and Jon will be joined by local author Lemony Snicket to sign their new picture book, The Dark.  

The show runs through July 7, 2013, at the Cartoon Art Museum [ 655 Mission Street, San Francisco ].

"Efforts" (2011) from Patrick McHale on Vimeo.

Visitors to Geneviève Castrée's Susceptible exhibition and book signing this Saturday evening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery are in for a delightful treat. Following Geneviève's slide talk, we'll present a free concert by Ashley Eriksson. (Many of you will know her band Lake from their song at the end of each episode of Cartoon Network's popular Adventure Time program.) Check out this lovely Lake tune with amazing animation by Patrick McHale.