Prince Valiant chronicler (and fine cartoonist in his own right) Brian Kane presented Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai with this fantastic fan-art mashup of Val and Usagi at the Baltimore Comic Con this past weekend and forwarded it along to us, and now he's given us permission to share it with you! (Click the image for a slightly larger version.)
Inspired by this artwork, we had the idea to offer free standard domestic shipping on orders that include at least one Usagi book and at least one Prince Valiant book for the rest of the week! This offer is not available for online orders, so call 1-800-657-1100 to take advantage. (Offer applies only to in-stock Usagi and Valiant books and expires at 5PM Pacific time on Friday August 26, 2011.)
The nominees for the 2011 Ignatz Awards were announced today and we're happy to share that our artists and publications received 5 nominations in 4 categories! We're celebrating in our usual way, by offering them to you our customers for 25% off for a limited time! Winners will be announced on Saturday, September 10 at SPX. And our nominees are...
Okay, we can't offer you the ninety-minute wait in ninety-degree weather outside the convention center, the greasy ten-dollar pizzas, the terrifying crush of Saturday afternoon attendees here to get an autograph from a Battlestar: Galactica co-star, or the sight of costumed attendees who apparently only chose the Flash costume because their more appropriate pick, Jabba the Hutt, was out. But what we can do is this!
SORRY YOU WON'T GET THE EARLY BOOKS?
The following books will have their world premiere in San Diego. If you order them directly from us we will have them sent to you directly from our main U.S. distributor's warehouse where they land on their journey from overseas in August, which means you will be getting your copy a few days before even the first of our distributors get them. (Note: U.S. orders only. Rush shipping not available — choose Media Mail from the shipping options to avoid being overcharged.) To this list we will even add The Armed Garden, The Cabbie, and Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson Volume 2, three books that for various reasons will miss San Diego and thus you will really be the first customers to get!
You can preview many of those books right now here on our website, and the rest of them shortly after our web guy comes back from San Diego! Just hit those links above and you'll see links to download PDF excerpts, and stay tuned for our usual photo and video previews.
SORRY YOU WON'T GET SKETCHES?
Some of the cartoonists who will be attending the convention — Joyce Farmer, Gilbert Hernandez, Paul Hornschemeier, Mark Kalesniko, Johnny Ryan, Frank Stack and Esther Pearl Watson — have agreed to provide anyone not attending the convention who buys one or more of their books off our website this week with a personalized sketch which will be mailed to him or her! (Note that sketches will be mailed separately from the books and at a later date.)
SORRY YOU CAN'T SHMOOZE WITH THE OWNERS?
Part of everyone's San Diego experience is to ask the Fantagraphics moguls penetrating questions such as "Where the hell is Pogo?" and "Why don't you publish XXXX??" and "Which Jacques Tardi album should I buy first?" For this weekend only, if you have a question for Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, or Eric Reynolds, add your question to your order and whoever you're addressing will personally answer it!
SORRY YOU CAN'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DESPERATION SALES?
On the last day of the convention, as Gary, Kim, and Eric survey the piles of unsold books and "God, do we have to lug all these back home?" panic sets in, suddenly fantastic sales deals begin to materialize faster than you can say "HOW MUCH for that Box Set?" Therefore we are not only offering 20% OFF EVERYTHING on our website — use coupon code FANTACON11 at checkout — but a whopping 50% OFF ALL our biggest and heaviest books (see them all here — note that items are discounted 40%, which works out to 50% when the coupon discount is applied) during the convention and beyond, from Thursday, July 21 (that's today!) through Monday, July 25 — and you won't even have to lug them home or pay all those extra baggage fees! We'll send them to you!
If you're near Seattle on Saturday, stop by the big Sidewalk Sale at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. We'll join with Georgetown Records to offer a huge selection of comix and vintage vinyl at amazing discounts. Hard to find, out of print comic books by Fantagraphics favorites starting at 50 cents each. Love & Rockets collections for as little as 5 bucks. Crumb, Clowes, Bagge, Bros., Millionaire and more at half price or less. Not to mention hundreds of classic punk, ska, exotica, psyche, metal, industrial, goth, and rat pack platters on sale at Georgetown Records. Rain or shine, 11:30 to 8:00 PM. Don't miss out!
It's time for another one of our periodic warehouse-buster sales, with a great big selection of good old fashioned floppy-style comics, our Ignatz Series comics, a bunch of our great anthologies (including Mome), some magazines and other stuff, all marked down at least 30% now through Thursday, June 30, 2011 — that's only 4 days to get in on the savings! Browse the full selection here.
We're trying something new! Every couple of weeks we'll be spotlighting a loosely thematic selection of a few of our recent and older titles just to, you know, remind you that they exist, and to entice you to buy them we're offering them at a whopping 40% off for four days only, Friday through Monday! Selections and themes have been suggested by our warehouse manager, who is chock full of good ideas. This outing: "A Hairy Bestiary"!
Beasts! Book 1 [Softcover Edition]: A classic mythological menagerie, comprised of creatures that were thought at one time to actually exist, depicted by about a hundred acclaimed artists and cartoonists. Now in softcover after 2 sold-out hardcover editions. Regularly $24.99, now $14.99 — Order Now
Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird by Tony Millionaire: The long-awaited sequel to the Eisner-winning graphic novel! The cantankerous little golem's second adventure is a crazy potion of all-ages fun, humor, thrills and chills in the inimitable Millionaire style. Regularly $19.99, now $11.99 — Order Now
Rocky Vol. 1: The Big Payback by Martin Kellerman: This mostly autobiographical daily strip details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his layabout pals and neurotic girlfriends. A smash hit in its native Sweden, now in English for the first time. Regularly $12.95, now $7.77 — Order Now
Werewolves of Montpellier by Jason: A faux werewolf-cum-burglar runs afoul of a real society of werewolves who don't take kindly to the pretender. Lycanthropic thrills, romantic dilemmas, situation comedy, existential drama — in other words, pure Jason. Regular price $12.99, now $7.79 — Order Now
Remember, these savings are only good through Monday, June 27!
Good grief! We just received another shipment of Prince Valiant books and once again some of them got slightly marred in transit. Thus we are continuing to offer them to you at half off the cover price! This includes Vol. 1 (1937-1938), Vol. 2 (1939-1940) and the new Vol. 3 (1941-1942). As before they're perfectly readable — just cosmetically less than perfect. They're so cheap! Please help us get rid of them once and for all! Click the links above to order.
56-page full-color 7.25" x 10.25" softcover • $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-442-9
Ships in: May 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Five years ago, little Gwenny’s father found, inside a bottle, a map with instructions on how to reach the mysterious Isle of 100,000 Graves and its legendary treasures — and then he vanished. Now Gwenny, having stumbled across another bottle-shipped map, enlists the dubious help of a shipful of pirates, sets out to find the island, and her long-lost dad.
Little does she realize that the Isle comes by its ominous name honestly, as the location of a secret school for executioners and torturers, where apple-cheeked youngsters are taught the finer points of extracting information from prisoners… and then putting an end to their lives in a wide variety of gruesome ways. And they’ve reached the point in their studies where theory should ideally give way to practice, so an influx of uninvited visitors comes as a blessing to the faculty.
And yes, this story is a comedy. Albeit a dark one.
For the first time in his career, Jason has enlisted a writer: Fabien Vehlmann. (Vehlmann has written a number of graphic novels for the French and American markets, including an installment of the legendary Spirou series and the three-volume Green Manor continuity, of which two volumes have been released in English.) Vehlmann has managed to interiorize Jason’s deadpan style and wit perfectly, creating a uniquely smooth and successful collaboration.
Exclusive Savings: To celebrate the new book from Jason and give some recognition his undersung regular colorist Hubert, we are pleased to offer 25% off all of Jason's other full-color books for the rest of the month! Browse all Jason books here.
We are victims of our own success! Demand for The Comics Journal #301 is greater than we estimated and advance orders for the issue exceeded what we printed, so we have gone immediately back to press for a second printing. Since we couldn't fill all the orders from the first printing and didn't want to short any one segment of the market — comics stores, bookstores, subscribers — we decided to wait until we receive the second shipment before releasing the book, resulting in a 3-4 week delay, pushing the release to early July. It's been delayed so long already, what's another month? The lucky dozens who have managed to buy advance copies from us at MoCCA and TCAF will tell you, it's worth the wait!
This also gives you some extra time to get on board with a money-saving 3-issue subscription, which also gets you access to the online TCJ back-issue archives at TCJ.com!
And speaking of back issues, to help the wait for the new issue pass a little bit faster, save up to 50% off all TCJ back issues, Special Editions and Library editions through next Wednesday, May 25 2011!
(Note that this sale is not in effect at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, but there is always a great selection of TCJ back issues available there for half off in our legendary back room of damaged books!)
Get free preview of Fantagraphics fabulous collection Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse on Saturday, May 7 as we celebrate Free Comic Book Day at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Our FCBD offering will give readers a glimpse of one of the most anticipated books of the year. Readers will delight in seeing Mickey, Minnie and other familiar characters in their formative stages.
Pick up a copy of this and other goodies including Drawn & Quarterly's Free Comic Book Day offering John Stanley's Summer Fun, featuring the further adventures of Tubby, Nancy, Sluggo and other characters on Saturday from 11:30 to 8:00 PM at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Support local comic book stores everywhere. Buy comix!
![Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird [with FREE Signed Bookplate]](components/com_virtuemart/show_image_in_imgtag.php?filename=7bbd44b0a786eed3b586635394e1a7b3.jpg&newxsize=145&newysize=&fileout= "Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird [with FREE Signed Bookplate]")
![Werewolves of Montpellier [with FREE Signed Bookplate]](components/com_virtuemart/show_image_in_imgtag.php?filename=0474241edfb4a1672e17415e8749ab20.jpg&newxsize=145&newysize=&fileout= "Werewolves of Montpellier [with FREE Signed Bookplate]")
