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).
In terms of pure fun, Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics is hard to beat. Our wide-format volume, coming late next month, collects the full run of Wilson's little-seen mid-1970s weekly newspaper strip. Each installment contains 5 or so gags in signature Gahanian style — droopy, lumpy and slightly twisted.
Find out what you're in for with our excerpt containing the first 15 strips. View the preview in the embedded reader here (full-screen viewing recommended) or get the PDF directly, and pre-order the book here.
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.
As you can see, Jason's new graphic novel Lost Cat (coming in July) is presented in the same handsome hardcover format as his story collections Low Moon and Athos in America and the reprint volumes What I Did and Almost Silent. His longest, and dare we say one of his best, works to date deserves no less.
A detective story with multiple mysteries, romantic longing, and a head-spinning finale all delivered in trademark understated Jason style, it's a thrilling, heart-tugging, satisfying read. And there's a cute kitty cat. See for yourself with our free 15-page excerpt, and pre-order yours right here.
"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
Behold these glimpses of an early advance copy of the bigger, even better second volume of Leslie Stein's Eye of the Majestic Creature. The continuing story of our hero Larrybear fleshes out her backstory and gives her a potential new love interest. Depth of character and keenness of observation elevate these warm, offbeat stories far above your average slacker comedy and create a world you'll want to hang out in. Imagine if Buddy Bradley were a gentle, artsy, laid-back girl instead of a grouchy, cynical, rage-prone guy. Add a dash of magical realism and psychedelia. Spin around in circles a few times. You're getting the feel.
We expect the book to be available toward the end of next month. You can read a 15-page excerpt and pre-order a copy here; we also have a nice discount offer on Volumes 1 and 2 together so you can get the whole story at once.
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
“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
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.
"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
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
