Our final remaining 2007 releases have just been added to the website and made available for pre-order on our Upcoming Releases page. Pictured above: The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2; the 9th volume in our Krazy & Ignatz series, "A Ragout of Raspberries"; and The Comics Journal #287, featuring a cover interview with Jeffrey Brown.
Call 1-800-657-1100 (or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) or click the covers above and below to order online right now. Apart from the Journal, most of our books go out to our pre-order customers before they arrive in bookstores and comic shops, which means you can have bragging rights. Whee!
FANTAGRAPHICS TO PUBLISH "TOWN OF MIRRORS: THE REASSEMBLED IMAGERY OF ROBERT POLLARD"
STUDIO DANTE HOSTS "DO THE COLLAGE" EXHIBITION DEC. 9 & 10 IN NEW YORK CITY
On the eve of his first solo visual art exhibition in New York City, Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the release in June 2008 of TOWN OF MIRRORS: THE REASSEMBLED IMAGERY OF ROBERT POLLARD, a coffee-table collection of artwork and lyrics from the celebrated front man of Dayton, OH's legendary GUIDED BY VOICES.
NEW PRINTING! The second installment of Robert Crumb's latest series centers on an unfortunate everyman named "The Moron" in "Bad Karma," an epic quest for the answer to the question "What's it all mean??" Also starring "Fairy Godmother" and "Mr. Natural," who wants to talk to you about the power of the media, man.
The third and last installment of New Tales of Old Palomar, in which Gilbert Hernandez returns to some of his best-loved characters, focuses on the gorgeous but troubled Tonantzín. Everybody in Palomar seems to take the supernatural with a grain of salt, but young Tonantzín is determined to uncover the mystery of the laughing baby that only appears to her, haunting her daily life. What is the baby's link to the giant stone idols that stand outside the small town...?
32-page black & white 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched softcover with jacket $7.95 (Ignatz Series)
Having mastered comic books and gag cartoons, in 1958, nearly two decades after he unveiled Plastic Man to the world, Jack Cole set his sights on the cartoonist's pot of gold — a syndicated newspaper strip. He hit the bull's-eye with Betsy and Me, a breezy domestic farce focusing on a middle-class urban couple and their smart-aleck genius son. Cole stripped his style down to its bare essentials, creating a strip that sparkles with economy, wit, and charm. What gave the strip its edge, however, was Cole's innovative storytelling, which utilized ironic tension between protagonist Chet Tibbit's words and actions to reveal him as fatuous and delusional. Betsy and Me was an instant success and newspapers were lining up to buy it. Then, with only two-and-a-half months' worth of strips completed, Cole purchased a .22 caliber pistol and ended his life. R.C. Harvey's insightful introduction serves as a biographical sketch and sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Cole's suicide.
Perla begins with the "Wigwam Bam" story, arguably Jaime Hernandez's definitive statement on the post-punk culture. As Maggie, Hopey, and the rest of the Locas prowl Los Angeles, the East Coast, and parts in between trying to recapture the carefree spirit of those early days. "Wigwam Bam" brings us up to date on all the members of Jaime's extensive cast of characters and then drops a narrative bomb on Hopey (and us) in the very last pages. Split up from Hopey yet again, Maggie bounces back and forth between a one-laundromat town in Texas (the "Chester Square" that serves as the title of two of the strongest stories in the book), where she has to contend with both her own inner demons and a murderous hooker, and Camp Vicki, where she has to fend off her aunt Vicki's attempts to make her a professional wrestler and the unwanted advances of the amorous wrestling champ-to-be, Gina. As usual, Jaime spotlights a wide range of headstrong female characters. And what's this about Maggie getting married?
288-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover $16.95
Beyond Palomar collects two of Gilbert's groundbreaking works about the Central American hamlet of Palomar in one affordable book. "Poison River" is a dizzying period piece often hailed as one of Hernandez's masterpieces. It traces the pre-Palomar childhood of Luba, her teenage marriage to gangster Peter Rio, the secrets behind her mysterious mother, all the way up to her subsequent escape and arrival in Palomar. "Love and Rockets X," set in the early 1990s (in the waning years of Bush I's post-Reagan hangover, with Gulf War I in the background), takes us from plush Beverly Hills to the dangerous east side and introduces us to a dizzyingly diverse cast of characters, including a lowlife rock 'n' roll band, a "posse" of black youths, a ditzy Hollywood mom and her spoiled son, a gay activist filmmaker and his rebellious, half-Iraqi daughter, and a group of racist thugs whose violent attack on an older woman sets the plot in motion.
256-page black & white 7.5" x 9.25" softcover $16.95
It's Steve Ditko's 80th birthday today, and we'd like to take the opportunity to make the following announcement:
COMING IN JUNE 2008... STRANGE & STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO
Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the June 2008 release of the first critical retrospective of Steve Ditko, the co-creator and original artist of the Amazing Spider-Man.
In the wake of the astonishing success of Sam Raimi's three Spider-Man movies, Steve Ditko's status as a driving force behind the pop culture icon has been revealed to an audience the world over. But, in the context of Steve Ditko's 50-year career in comics, his creative involvement with Spider-Man is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Our cover this issue spotlights Paul Gravett's extensive and fascinating conversation with one of Britain's national treasures, Gemma Bovary author Posy Simmonds. It's a career-spanning discussion ranging from Simmonds' early days as a compulsive comicker to her career at The Guardian, her children's books, all the way to her forthcoming graphic novel Tamara Drewe. (Click here to read a lengthy series of excerpts from the interview.)
Join Shaenon Garrity for a chat with one of the finest writers currently working in genre comics, Wonder Woman scribe Gail Simone. The two discuss Simone's controversial "Women in Refrigerators" investigation, her unlikely entry into the comics world, her early work for Bongo and Marvel, and her fan-favorite run on such DC Comics titles as Birds of Prey, Action Comics and Welcome to Tranquility. (Excerpts? But of course! Click here to get the inside scoop on the Women in Refrigerators phenomenon!)
Our comics section this issue offers a generous collection of episodes from Otto Soglow's rarely seen, hilariously absurd newspaper strip The Ambassador. (Click here to read part of Jared Gardner's informative introduction to the comics.)
Also: R. Fiore on DC Comics' recent attempts to revitalize such classic characters as Captain Marvel and The Spirit, R.C. Harvey on the impact of legacy strips in the newspaper comics page, and much more. Don't forget to pick up a copy of the best magazine about comics this fine nation has to offer, The Comics Journal!
Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, the definitive, expanded, hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comics journalism. Palestine: The Special Edition is more than a new edition: consider it the "Criterion" Palestine. In addition to the original, 288-page graphic novel and introduction by the late Edward Said, The Special Edition includes a host of unique material never before published, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and much more. The book also includes a new, introductory interview with Sacco about the making of the book as well as a new cover and design. Palestine: The Special Edition will be a cornerstone of any serious comic collection. With the Middle East's role in contemporary world politics, Sacco's Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.
The 2013 Fantagraphics Ultimate Catalog of Comics is available now! Contact us to get your free copy, or download the PDF version (9 MB).
Preview upcoming releases in the Fantagraphics Spring/Summer 2013 Distributors Catalog. Read it here or download the PDF (26.8 MB). Note that all contents are subject to change.
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