FLOG! Entries tagged 'new releases'

Photoset: Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

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Fantagraphics is proud to present the follow-up to Jacques Tardi's double Eisner Award-winning masterpiece It Was the War of the Trenches, which was hailed by critics as "harrowing and ruthlessly affecting" (NPR), "a masterful and visceral tone poem about war" (Library Journal), and "a cri de coeur that stands out even from Tardi's impressive body of work" (Booklist).

Goddamn This War!
by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

140-page full-color 8.25” x 10.75” hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-582-2

Due to arrive in about 6-8 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/goddamnthiswar

Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney - Video/Photo Slideshow

mike

Goddamn This War!
by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Pierre Verney

140-page full-color 8.25" x 10.75" hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-582-2

Ships in: July 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Created 15 years after the completion of his Eisner Award-winning World War I masterwork It Was the War of the Trenches, Tardi's Goddamn This War! is no mere sequel or extension, but a brand new, wholly individual graphic novel that serves as a companion piece to Trenches but can be read entirely on its own.

Vastly different sequentially (eschewing Trenches' splintered narrative, Goddamn is split into six chronological chapters, one for each year of the war), graphically (Tardi deploys his more recent pen-ink-and-watercolor technique, with the bold colors of the early chapters fading into a grimy near-monochrome in the later ones as the war drags on), and narratively (all of Goddamn is told, with insight, dark wit and despair, as a first-person reminiscence/narration by an unnamed soldier), Goddamn This War! shares with Trenches its sustained sense of outrage, pitch-black gallows humor, and impeccably scrupulous historical exactitude.

In fact, Goddamn This War! includes an extensive year-by-year historical text section written by Tardi's frequent World War I research helpmate, the historian and collector Jean-Pierre Verney, including dozens of stunning rare photographs and visual documents from his personal collection.

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Good Dog by Graham Chaffee - Now in Stock

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Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Good Dog
by Graham Chaffee

96-page black & white 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $16.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9

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Order this book and receive this FBI•MINI comic shown here as a FREE bonus! Click here for details. Limit one per customer while supplies last.

Good Dog marks the welcome return of alternative cartoonist Graham Chaffee, who, after his successful 2003 collection of short stories, The Most Important Thing and Other Stories, took a detour to devote himself to the art of tattooing, before charging back with his new, beautifully conceived graphic novel.

Ivan, who is plagued by terrible nightmares about chickens and rabbits, is a good dog — if only someone would notice. Readers accompany the stray as he navigates dog society, weathers pack politics, and surveys canine-human interactions.

Good Dog's story and pen-and-ink art are deceptively simple, but Chaffee uses the approachability of the subject matter as a device to explore topics such as independence, security, assimilation, loyalty, and violence. Preteen-and-up dog fanciers, especially, will warm to the well-meaning Ivan and his exploits with a motley assortment of Scotties, Bulldogs, and mutts. Chaffee combines illustrative gravitas with cartooning verve and creates a richly textured, dog’s-eye view of the world. The story is a rousing Jack London-esque adventure as well as a moral parable.

Advance Praise:

"Graham Chaffee has been one of my favorite cartoonists since I fell in love with his 1997 debut graphic novel, Big Wheels. Combining tremendous empathy towards his characters, concise storytelling and exquisite detail, Chaffee's comics are sublime. I am eagerly awaiting Good Dog. I'll plan my week around reading it." – James Sturm (Market Day)

"Good Dog is a book as seemingly lost in time as its canine hero Ivan. Graham Chaffee has a real talent for charming anthropomorphic cartooning and his clean, appealing storytelling and expressive brushwork evoke the work of an alternative golden age of comics; an age perhaps in which superheroes never existed and the medium told more straightforward, poignant stories." – James Romberger

"Getting into the mind of a dog — that's a real trick. I know, I've tried. Getting into the whole heart and soul of a dog is another whole feat. Graham Chaffee not only does it with aplomb (he draws GREAT dogs), he gets into the whole dog's life — and so should you." – Nick Abadzis (Laika)

"I got choked up a couple of times which is the one of the best things a comic can do to me. Compliments to Mr. Graham Chaffee. Really solid storytelling and excellent art. Reminiscent the best way of Jack London's The Call of the Wild." – Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War)

The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove by Gene Deitch - Now in Stock

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Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove (Softcover Ed.)
by Gene Deitch

168-page full-color 11.75" x 9.25" softcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-617-1

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On the long road to becoming an Oscar-winning animation director, Gene Deitch became an intense jazz fan. At the age of 21, he discovered The Record Changer magazine, a jazz collector's magazine filled with fanatical, scholarly, and purist essays about jazz as well as listings of hard-to-find jazz albums. Every jazz swinger in the '40s was called a cat (as in "cool cat"), so Gene Deitch created a cartoon feature for Record Changer titled "The Cat," which quickly became a fixture of the magazine. He also started drawing the covers, which graced almost every issue from 1945 to 1951 along with "The Cat." Deitch's stylistically virtuoso images exquisitely embodied the essence of jazz and became a visual paean to the joy of collecting and appreciating jazz.

Fantagraphics Books is proud to collect all of Deitch's Record Changer covers and "Cat" cartoons in one coffee-table, landscape-format art book, reproducing his covers in the same gorgeous colors in which they first appeared as well as the black-and-white Cat cartoons, with commentary and reminiscences by Deitch himself. Originally published in 2003 in hardcover and out of print for years, this redesigned, first-ever paperback edition will delight a new generation of fans.

Photoset: Green Eggs and Maakies by Tony Millionaire

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"Graphically elegant, done in a style reminiscent of early comics masters like Winsor McCay and Johnny Gruelle (who drew Raggedy Ann); the content, on the other hand, comes bubbling up from a part of the imagination that polite cartoonists lock away." – Charles McGrath, The New York Times

"So glad you and your family like Father Ted. You've already thanked me with the entertainment you've given me over the years. In fact, the show might not have been quite the same if I hadn't discovered Maakies all those years ago." – Graham Linehan

Green Eggs and Maakies
by Tony Millionaire

120-page black & white 12.25” x 4.75” hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-618-8

Due to arrive in about 6-8 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/greeneggsandmaakies

Green Eggs and Maakies by Tony Millionaire - Video/Photo Slideshow

mike

Green Eggs and Maakies
by Tony Millionaire

120-page black & white 12.25" x 4.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-618-8

Ships in: June 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

We do like Tony Millionaire's Maakies, yes we do.

For almost two decades, Tony Millionaire's Maakies has been one of the best and most popular weekly comic strips in America, running in over a dozen of the largest U.S. weekly newspapers including The Village Voice, L.A Weekly, Chicago Reader, and Seattle's The Stranger. (It was also a short-lived Adult Swim animated series, The Drinky Crow Show, in 2008.)

As written and drawn by renaissance lush-cum-degenerate Millionaire, Maakies features the comical adventures of a drunken crow on the high seas, blending vaudeville-style humor (with plenty of bodily fluids and grievous bodily harm) and a breathtakingly beautiful line that harkens back to the glory days of the American comic strip. Green Eggs and Maakies is our eighth collection and features yet another two years' worth of Maakies in a beautiful, deluxe, landscape hardcover format that complements the strip’s elegant and classical style.

"In his surrealist impulse and draftsman’s brio, Millionaire is the closest thing we have to George Herriman of Krazy Kat." — John Hodgman, The New York Times

"Tricking brains and blowing minds has been Millionaire's modus operandi for years, which is why his existential antihero Drinky Crow spends a good amount of time trying to destroy his own." – Wired

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Photoset: Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries by Bill Griffith

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“Bill Griffith has helped to redefine the [comics] medium for an entire generation. Zippy has traditionally held a strong appeal for free thinkers and life’s improvisers, and attracts discerning readers of all stripes.” – Sequential Highway

Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries
by Bill Griffith

232-page black & white/color 8” x 10” softcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-641-6

Due to arrive in about 4-6 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/dingburgdiaries

Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries by Bill Griffith - Video/Photo Slideshow

mike

Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries
by Bill Griffith

232-page black & white/color 8" x 10" softcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-641-6

Ships in: June 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Comprising a full two and a half years' worth of dailies and full-color Sundays, The Dingburg Diaries is the third Zippy book featuring tales of "Dingburg, the City Inhabited Entirely by Pinheads" — Zippy’s home town. There’s even a long series of "Historical Dingburg" strips, chronicling the pinhead population through the years, from 1840, when Dingburg’s "Town Fool" accidentally invented disco, to 1958 when Dingburg Beatniks flourished in the town’s Bohemian neighborhood. Like, Yowl, man.

God also has his own chapter (and verse). In the guise of a clip art "authority figure," he dispenses unwanted advice and conditional love upon the citizens of Dingburg. His tendency to cross-dress reaches new heights when he appears in a performance of "Swine Lake," wearing a tutu. Sacrilegious, yet sensitive.

There are large chunks of Mr. The Toad, Zerbina, Little Zippy and the rest of Griffith's cast of characters throughout this expanded collection. Published in a larger 8" by 10" format, The Dingburg Diaries also features a big color section, showcasing Griffith's inventive palette. There are parodies of the paintings of Edward Hopper and Film Noir, and "Griffy’s Top Ten List On Comics and Their Creation," a semi-serious mini-tutorial on everything (well, ten things) he’s learned in over forty years at the drawing board.

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Praise for recent volumes:

"Contemporary readers of Bill Griffith’s comic strip, Zippy the Pinhead, know with certainty that the illustrator is one of the most accomplished draftsmen working in comics today, his talents on a par with those of Robert Crumb. His art — nuanced shading; economical linework; evocative textures; fidelity to dress, gesture, expression, architecture, automotive design, and the thousand and one other accoutrements of modern life — is an unfailing daily marvel, especially considering the speed and regularity at which the strip is produced.” – Paul Di Filippo, Barnes & Noble Review

"If you're already a fan, you'll love this new collection. If you're not afraid to dip into Zippy's unique style of humor, philosophy and social critique, this book may make you a fan." – S.C. Ringgenberg, Heavy Metal

"I am so thankful for these collections... they're so good I wonder if Griffith isn't in the middle of one of those late-period renaissances that sometimes grip strip cartoonists, where everything kind of comes together in a considered fashion that's somehow more vital than the dozen or so years of comics that precede it." – The Comics Reporter

Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko) Vol. 4 by Shimura Takako - Now in Stock

mike

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Wandering Son (放浪息子 / Hourou Musuko) Vol. 4
by Shimura Takako; edited and translated by Matt Thorn

224-page black & white 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-605-8

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Wandering Son Vols. 4 - 6 Subscription Price: $65.97 $52.78 POSTPAID

Wandering Son has garnered extensive praise (from the GLBT community, from manga fans, and from comics fans in general) for its uniquely funny, warm, and sensitive treatment of the travails of two Japanese tweens who find themselves coping with the knotty issue of gender identification as they slowly realize that maybe they aren't who they were meant to be.

In this latest volume, love is in the air. It's in the trees and on the streets. It's hanging on the walls and piled in great heaps on the floor. Or is it really love? These sixth and seventh graders don't really know. But something is definitely amiss. They can't sleep, and when they do sleep they have strange dreams. They get angry and cry for no reason. They blush and grin like idiots for no reason. And it isn't even spring. But the standard rules apply: If A is in love with B, B is certain to be in love with C, and C is likely to be in love with D, or possibly A.

And now it seems a good third of the alphabet is in love with our shy protagonist, Nitori-kun. But the flip-side of love is jealousy, and hate. The simple friendships of childhood develop into the complex, tense relationships of adolescence. Friends become strangers, or worse. But while everyone seems to have caught the bug — even characters whose names you can't remember — Volume 4 revolves solidly around the triangle of Nitori-kun, Takatsuki-san, and Chiba-san. Yet centrifugal force seems to push the three away from each other, and there is a certain grimness as they say goodbye to elementary school, and put on the (highly gendered) uniforms of junior high school…

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 5: Happy Hippy Comix (New Softcover Printing) - Now in Stock

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Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 5: Happy Hippy Comix (New Softcover Ed.)
by Robert Crumb

144-page black & white/color 8.5" x 11" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-0-930193-92-8

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Available with a limited-edition bookplate signed by R. Crumb for an additional $30. The bookplate has been uniquely designed for this book, and each bookplate is printed on acid-free cardstock and hand-signed by the author. Please indicate your preference when adding the item to your shopping cart.

Another year's worth of prize Crumb here, folks — including the second issue of Zap!, the introduction of Angelfood McSpade, lots and lots of Mr. Natural, the long Fritz story "Fritz the No-Good," and plenty of little-seen and rare art, plus all of Crumb's contributions to the legendary Snatch comics, possibly the raunchiest book in the raunchy history of the undergrounds. There's also a jam or two with some of the other Zap! artists, the little-seen alternate version of the famous Janis Joplin Cheap Thrills album cover, the alternate version of the cover to Zap #3... all wrapped up with Crumb's hilarious new cover and an extensive set of photographically illustrated biographical notes from Crumb himself.

"Fantagraphics' Crumb project advances into wilder, woolier, scarier, more fantastic, and lewder and still lewder territory in [Volume 5]... This is definitely X-rated material — make that triple-X! — but it's brilliant, scabrously hilarious, absolutely basic to understanding the 1960s American counterculture, and authentically mind-blowing." – Booklist

1991 Harvey Award Winner, Best Domestic Reprint Project

3 New Stories by Dash Shaw - Now in Stock

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3 New Stories
by Dash Shaw

32-page full-color comic book • $3.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-721-5

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This one-shot comic book features three all-new, full-color short stories that explore varied dystopian societies. From a Sherlock Holmes-style investigator who must complete his high school degree to filmed "voluntary" nudity to prison camps full of jaded children, Shaw pens each story with his signature style and unique spin, all in 32 pages.

"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

"Dash Shaw is an utterly brilliant young cartoonist who has, in a few short years, advanced from the academic experiments of his earlier work... into a formalist genius whose skills encompass both a natural gift for color and a feel for subtle, indirect characterization." – Bill Howard, Only the Cinema

"Kaleidoscopic... Shaw has a deft touch... Like the very best illustrated fiction, Shaw's work moves between pathos and humor, between the fantastic and the familiar." – The Christian Science Monitor

Photoset: Wake Up, Percy Gloom! by Cathy Malkasian

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“I fell madly in love with Cathy Malkasian’s beautiful Percy Gloom graphic novel a few years back, which was as beautiful as it was unexpected, so there is little to no way that I am not eagerly anticipating this follow-up. For those who like gorgeously-illustrated, melancholy and touching books: This is for you.” – Graeme McMillan, Robot 6

Wake Up, Percy Gloom!
by Cathy Malkasian

192-page two-color 8.25” x 10.25” hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6

Due to arrive in about 3-5 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/wakeuppercygloom

Wake Up, Percy Gloom! by Cathy Malkasian - Video/Photo Slideshow

mike

Wake Up, Percy Gloom!
by Cathy Malkasian

192-page two-color 8.25" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-638-6

Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

BARGAIN COMBO: Percy Gloom Gift Set Price: $47.94 $38.35

Cathy Malkasian's second Percy Gloom graphic novel is another fable that the author brings to vivid life through her lush and detailed pencil renderings, surreal humor, absurdist characters, breathtaking landscapes, and luminous storytelling.

Kindhearted, Candide-esque Percy wakes up from a 200 year nap and finds himself in a strange new land. Searching for his mother, lamenting his long-lost love and soul-mate Miss Margaret, Percy meets bizarre, wise, naive, and sometimes dangerous characters, encounters inspired inventions, and forges friendships, discovering a few unexpected verities along the way.

Not to mention the singing goats and furniture parades.

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Photoset: The End by Anders Nilsen

mike

Assembled from work done in the author’s sketchbooks in the year following the death of his partner in 2005, The End is a collection of meditations on loss and a record of his struggle to reconcile her death. The book encompasses a variety of forms, from finely observed depictions of a newly transformed daily life, to mutating abstractions of internal turmoil, and imagined dialogues with the dead. The book carries the reader through a year of grief tinged by turns with humor, anger, absurdity, and grace.

The End
by Anders Nilsen

80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25” x 10.5” hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-635-5

Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret by Carl Barks - Now in Stock

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Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 6)
by Carl Barks

232-page full-color 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9

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With this volume, "The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library" loops back to Barks's earlier days, collecting the entirety of Barks's (astounding) 1948 output.

The title story, "The Old Castle's Secret," is notable not just for being the first full-length 32-page adventure instigated by Scrooge McDuck (in his second-ever appearance), but for featuring some of Barks's spookiest, lushest settings in old Clan McDuck castle of Dismal Downs. The other long story, "The Sheriff of Bullet Valley," plunks Donald and the nephews in the Wild West, with Donald as an overconfident deputy having to deal with some high-tech rustlers. The book also includes the less-known "In Darkest Africa," originally published in a giveaway and unreleased for decades.

This volume also features an even 10 of Barks's dynamic "Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories" 10-pagers, including "Wintertime Wager" (the first appearance of a not-yet-lucky-but-still-obnoxious Gladstone Gander); "Spoil the Rod" (in which the exquisitely named educational professor Pulpheart Clabberhead is brought in to help tame the nephews); "Rocket Race to the Moon" (a rare full-on adventure — interplanetary, no less — in the short form); "Gladstone Returns" and "Links Highjinks" (two more Gladstone yarns); and five more stories... plus a half-dozen hilarious one-page gags.

Of course, once again all the stories have been shot from crisp originals, then re-colored (and printed) to match, for the first time since their original release over 60 years ago, the colorful yet soft hues of the originals — and of course the book is rounded off with essays about Barks, the Ducks, and these specific stories by Barks experts from all over the world.

Peter Bagge's Other Stuff - Now in Stock

mike

Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Peter Bagge's Other Stuff
by Peter Bagge et al.

144-page color/black & white 7.25" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-622-5

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FREE HATE! Order this book and get a FREE copy of Hate Annual #1!

During the 1990s and 2000s, Peter Bagge worked mostly on his "Buddy Bradley" stories in Hate and a series of standalone graphic novels (Apocalypse Nerd), but in-between these major projects this ever-energetic cartoonist also cranked out dozens of shorter stories, which are now finally being collected in this riotously anarchic book.

Peter Bagge's Other Stuff includes a few lesser-known Bagge characters, including the wacky modern party girl "Lovey" and the aging bobo "Shut-Ins" — not to mention the self-explanatory "Rock 'N' Roll Dad" starring Murry Wilson and the Beach Boys. But many of the strips are one-off gags or short stories, often with a contemporary satirical slant, including on-site reportage like "So Much Comedy, So Little Time" (from a comedy festival) and more. Also: Dick Cheney, The Matrix, and Alien!

Other Stuff also includes a series of Bagge-written stories drawn by other cartoonists, including "Life in these United States" with Daniel Clowes, "Shamrock Squid" with Adrian Tomine, and the one-two parody punch of "Caffy" (with art by R. Crumb) and "Dildobert" (with art by Prison Pit’s Johnny Ryan)... plus a highlight of the book, the hilarious, literate and intricate exposé of "Kool-Aid Man" written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bagge. (Other collaborators include the Hernandez Brothers and Danny Hellman.)

Bagge is one of the funniest cartoonists of the century (20th or 21st), and this collection shows him at his most free-wheeling and craziest... 50 times over.

Castle Waiting Vol. 2: Definitive Edition by Linda Medley - Now in Stock

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Just arrived and shipping now from our mail-order department:

Castle Waiting Vol. 2: Definitive Edition
by Linda Medley

472-page black & white 5.75" x 8.25" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-633-1

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BARGAIN COMBO: Castle Waiting Vols. 1-2 Definitive Gift Set Price: $59.94 $47.95

With its long-awaited second volume, Linda Medley's witty and sublimely drawn fantasy eases into a relaxed comedy of manners as Lady Jain settles into her new life in Castle Waiting.

Unexpected visitors result in the discovery and exploration of a secret passageway, not to mention an epic bowling tournament. A quest for ladies' underpants, the identity of Pindar's father, the education of Simon, Rackham and Chess arguing about the "manly arts," and an escape-prone goat are just a few of the elements in this delightful new volume.

The book also includes many flashbacks that deepen the stories behind the characters, including Jain's earliest romantic entanglements and conflicts with her bratty older sisters, the horrific past of the enigmatic Dr. Fell, and more.

Originally released in a slightly shorter version when the series ceased publication, this new edition includes over 60 pages' worth of brand new additional story and epilogue, and the entire book has been re-lettered in a livelier, more inviting style for an even more engaging reading experience.

The End by Anders Nilsen - Video & Photo Slideshow

mike

The End
by Anders Nilsen

80-page two-color (with 16pp. full color) 7.25" x 10.5" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-635-5

Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen’s sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fiancée in 2005, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting, and transformation.

It is a concept album in different styles, a meditation on paying attention, an abstracted autobiography and a travelogue, reflecting the progress of his struggle to reconcile the great upheaval of a death, and finding a new life on the other side.

The book blends Nilsen's disparate styles, from the iconic simplicity and collaged drawings of his Monologues for the Coming Plague to the finely rendered Dogs and Water and Big Questions.

Originally released in magazine form in 2007 (which received an Ignatz Award nomination for Outstanding Story), The End has now been expanded to more than twice its original length, including 16 pages of full color.

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Photoset: Barnaby Vol. 1 by Crockett Johnson

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Barnaby Vol. 1
by Crockett Johnson

Edited by Eric Reynolds & Philip Nel; Introduction by Chris Ware; art direction by Daniel Clowes

320-page black & white (with some color) 11" x 6.75" hardcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-522-8

The beloved comic strip is finally given the Fantagraphics treatment. Barnaby’s deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit, and elegantly spare images expanded our sense of what comic strips can do.

Due to arrive in about 4-6 weeks. Click the thumbnails for larger versions; get more info, see more previews and pre-order your copy here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/barnaby1

Barnaby Vol. 1 by Crockett Johnson - Previews, Pre-Order

mike

Barnaby Vol. 1
by Crockett Johnson

Edited by Eric Reynolds & Philip Nel; Introduction by Chris Ware; art direction by Daniel Clowes

320-page black & white (with some color) 11" x 6.75" hardcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-522-8

Ships in: May 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time — Harold and the Purple Crayon — cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby for over ten years (1942 to 1952). Its subtle ironies and playful allusions never won a broad following, but the adventures of 5-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley was and is a critical favorite.

Fantagraphics introduces the wonders of Barnaby to a new generation of children and parents alike. Co-edited by Johnson biographer Philip Nel (Dr. Seuss: American Icon) and Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, with art direction by graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), this five-volume Barnaby series will collect the entirety of the original newspaper strips from 1942-1952. The first volume collects all the strips from 1942 and 1943.

Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairly godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley. Yet O’Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist and fast-talker, was not your typical protector. His grasp of magic was usually specious at best, limited to occasional flashes, often aided and abetted by his fellow members in The Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men’s Chowder & Marching Society.

Barnaby’s deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit, and elegantly spare images expanded our sense of what comic strips can do. With subtlety and economy, Barnaby proved that comics need not condescend to readers. Its small but influential readership took that message to heart.

"I think, and I’m trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in Lord knows how many years." – Dorothy Parker

"One of the best comic strips of the 20th Century and one of the most beloved older strips for a generation of devoted adult comics fans, Barnaby had become in the last decade and a half the great unsigned strip collection." – The Comics Reporter

20-page excerpt (download 496 KB PDF):

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