FLOG! Entries tagged 'previews'

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

mike

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

Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics - 16-Page Excerpt

mike

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.

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.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

First Look & Excerpt: Lost Cat by Jason

mike

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.

Photoset: Green Eggs and Maakies by Tony Millionaire

mike

"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

First Look: Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2 by Leslie Stein

mike

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.

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

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Photoset: Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries by Bill Griffith

mike

“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.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

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

3 New Stories by Dash Shaw - Now in Stock

mike

3 New Stories
by Dash Shaw

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

Order Now!

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

mike

“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

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.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Photoset: Barnaby Vol. 1 by Crockett Johnson

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

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):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Photoset: Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust

mike

Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
by Ulli Lust (translated by Kim Thompson)

464-page two-color 6.75" x 9" softcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-557-0

A long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece recalling the summer of 1984, when the artist, a rebellious, punked-out 17-year-old, hitchhiked her way across Italy. 2011 Angoulême prize winner.

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/todayisthelastday

Cover & Excerpt: TEOTFW by Charles Forsman

mike

It's the end of the fucking week — and what a fucking week it's been, especially in Chuck Forsman's home state of Massachusetts. We swear it's only coincidence that on our schedule for today is this sneak peek at the final cover art and an excerpt of an upcoming graphic novel about a pair of lawless young people walking a violent path together.

Our collection of Chuck's acclaimed minicomic The End of the Fucking World (a.k.a. the more bookstore-friendly TEOTFW) is due out in July. In its serialized form, TEOTFW was named to multiple Best of 2012 lists and earned praise like this:

"The most beautiful piece of Americana made in years. Every page Forsman draws is a minimalist masterpiece. Huge and heartbreaking. A modern triumph disguised as an episode of Peanuts." – Matt Seneca

"The awkwardness, the urgency, the sense of discovery, the sense of revulsion - it's all true, even if you've never stuck your own hand in a garbage disposal." – Sean T. Collins

"Great stuff." – Frank Santoro

"[TEOTFW] exemplifies what exactly it is I love about comics. It's lo-fi yet stylistic, subtle yet visceral — a version of Bonnie and Clyde bled through the lens of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park." – Spandexless

"This is a crime comic disguised as a slacker-road-trip comic, and Forsman delivers its methodical hum eight pages at a time with an astounding precision." – Comic Book Resources

"[TEOTFW] pulls you in like no other comic this year. Stunning in its simplicity and brave in its subject matter." – MTV.com

Our 19-page excerpt comprises the first two issues of the series; read it here.

Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust - Previews, Pre-Order

mike

Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
by Ulli Lust (translated by Kim Thompson)

464-page two-color 6.75" x 9" softcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-557-0

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

Back in 1984, a rebellious, 17-year-old, punked-out Ulli Lust set out for a wild hitchhiking trip across Italy, from Naples through Verona and Rome and ending up in Sicily. Twenty-five years later, this talented Austrian cartoonist has looked back at that tumultuous summer and delivered a long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece.

Miraculously combining a perfect memory for both emotional and physical detail with the sometimes painful lucidity two and half decades’ distance have brought to her understanding of the events, Lust meticulously shows the who, where, when, and how (specifically, how an often penniless young girl can survive for months on the road) of a sometimes dangerous and sometimes exhilarating journey. Particularly haunting is her portrait of her fellow traveler, the gangly, promiscuous devil-may-care Edi who veers from being her spunky, funny best friend in the world to an out-of-control lunatic with no consideration for anything but her own whims and desires.

Universally considered one of the very finest examples of the new breed of graphic novels coming from Europe, Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life won the 2011 Angoulême “Revelation” prize, and Fantagraphics is proud to bring it to English speaking readers.

30-page excerpt (download 5.5 MB PDF):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Cover & Excerpt: The Daniel Clowes Reader

mike

At the printer now for release in July, The Daniel Clowes Reader: A Critical Edition of Ghost World and Other Stories, with Essays, Interviews, and Annotations shines a whole new light on one of the greatest, most beloved graphic novels of all time along with several other classic Eightball stories and Clowes rarities. Editor Ken Parille has brought together a stable of great minds, including Clowes himself, for a plethora of fascinating and highly readable essays and other material, with topics like "Enid's Bookshelf," "Enid's Record Player," "The Rise of the Zine," "Against Groovy," and "Urban Romanticism, Mad Magazine, and the Aesthetics of Ugly."

Browse the Table of Contents and read the Introduction, 12 pages of Ghost World and more in our generous 31-page excerpt, and pre-order your copy right here.