Co-editor Crag Hill brings his magnificent collection The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 home to Moscow, Idaho for a signing on Wednesday, February 6th!

Join Crag at Bookpeople of Moscow [ 521 S Main Street ] at 7:00 PM for this launch celebration! There will be a no-host bar, and copies of the anthology will be available for sale and signing. 

It was a problem-free evening at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery as Jim Woodring presented his brand-new book Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012 earlier this month!

One of the first people in line was this awesome little girl! Jim's wife Mary tells us: "That cute little girl, now 8, has been a fan since the age of 4. Her favorite book for a long time was Seeing Things." Smart girl!

Large-scale reprints of Jim's sketchbook drawings adorn our gallery wall...

... while the original Moleskines are in a case below, some featuring his amazing 3-D pop-outs!

Admittedly, I didn't take a ton of pictures that night since I was DJing before and after our Yo La Tengo debut, but as I was segueing into "This Here Giraffe" by the Flaming Lips, this woman walked in, dressed as a giraffe! Uncanny!

Jim's exhibit will continue to be on display at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery through Thursday, February 7th. Drop by to see it in person 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.

If you live outside of the area, check out more photos on the Fantagraphics Flickr page, and get yourself a copy of Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012!

Thursday, January 24th

• Minneapolis, MN: Join Tom Kaczynski for the launch of Beta Testing the Apocalypse, with special guests Zak Sally and Derek Van Gieson, as well as Vincent Stall, Dan Wieken, and Peter Wartman! (more info)  

Friday, January 25th

• Paris, France: An exhibition of original artwork from Fuzz and Pluck makes its debut at the Librairie Les Super Héros, including a reception with Ted Stearn himself! (more info)  

• New York City, NY: And an exhibit of paintings by Gary Panter launches at the Fredericks & Freiser gallery in Chelsea. (more info)   

Saturday, January 26th

• Seattle, WA: The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery proudly hosts the after-party for the Graphic Novel Panel 2013, featuring special guests Ellen Forney, Michel Gagné, and Jim Woodring, along with many more artists! (more info) 

THIS IS NOT A TEST: Tom Kaczynski presents the launch of his brave and brilliant collection Beta Testing the Apocalypse on Thursday, January 24th at Big Brain Comics in Minneapolis.

He will be joined by fellow Fantagraphics alumni Zak Sally and Derek Van Gieson, as well as Vincent Stall, Dan Wieken, and Peter Wartman.

Join them from 5:00 to 7:00 PM for this special celebration! Tom says a commemorative red ink will be used in authorizing your books. 

Big Brain Comics is located at 1027 Washington Avenue South. After the event, there will be mandatory fun at the Downtown Grumpy's.

Get ready for a truly Super Sunday as we welcome Portland artist Aron Nels Steinke to the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Sunday, February 3rd!

From 1:00 to 3:00 PM, he'll be signing copies of his brand-new collection Big Plans, a collection of his awesome autobiographical mini-comics series, now compiled in a fine 360-page volume by Portland's Bridge City Comics!

Laugh-out-loud funny, chilling, and meditative, Big Plans collects Aron Nels Steinke's most intimate and relatable stories. With a unique sense of timing, these are incredibly readable comics that are hard to put down.

So, start making your big plans to join us for this fun signing and presentation, before the big game starts! The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located: 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM.

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. 

The great Gary Panter returns to the Fredericks & Freiser gallery in Chelsea for an exhibit of his paintings on Friday, January 25th!

As Gary tells us, "The gallery flooded and has had a lot of repairs and toil to get back in business. My work luckily was on a high shelf and so was not destroyed in the flood and so you can still see it rather than blobs of flotsam."

Support the arts and hurricane recovery, and take a trip to Chelsea for the opening reception from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.  Fredericks & Freiser is located at 536 West 24th Street in NYC.

Friday, January 18th

• Rochester, NY: The Nazareth College Department of Art launches their exhibit "Good Work," featuring our own Steve Brodner, Debbie Drechsler, Drew Friedman, and Richard Sala! (more info)  

Sunday, January 20th

• Buffalo, NY: It's your last chance to catch the exhibit, Spain: Rock, Roll, Rumbles, Rebels, & Revolution, an in-depth career retrospective on the late, great Manuel “Spain” Rodriguez at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. (more info)  

As we reported last fall, the mighty Ron Regé, Jr. will be leading a week-long intensive workshop at SAW, the Sequential Artists Workshop, from March 4th through 8th, in Gainesville, Florida!

Ron says, "If you are curious about, say, Jodorowsky's Psychomagic, surrealist revolution, alchemical archetypes, or other aspects of pulling spirits through the chaos of the ether (in relation to comics?) then come on over and we'll see what happens!" And who isn't curious about all those things?

Friend Ron on Facebook, and you'll get a sneak peek at his upcoming curriculum! He's been sharing PDF's and YouTube clips related to what he'll be throwin' down. It'll be the most magical Spring Break in Florida ever! And there's still time to sign up -- you can also get the "package deal" and take John Porcellino's class the week before. 

This is sure to be a very special and poignant event: C. Tyler will be making a rare West Coast appearance to discuss her work at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Thursday, January 31st!

Titled Scrapbooks, Army Surplus, Comics and Other Stuff: A Conversation with Graphic Storyteller C. Tyler, she will discuss her stunningly rendered and intensely personal series You'll Never Know: A Graphic Memoir, and will delve into comics, family memories, gender, and generations.

This event is FREE and open to the public. The discussion starts at 7:00 PM in the Annenberg Auditorium [ 3502 Watt Way ] of the University Park Campus. Reservations are recommended, so click here to RSVP!