Since opening in December 2006, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery has become a treasured civic asset. In addition to feeding Northwest residents' insatiable appetite for challenging contemporary culture, the space has attracted visitors from across the country and around the world. Saturday, December 11 marks the bookstore's 4th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion we're once again hosting the season's most festive party featuring amazing music, comix, art, and more!

The evening includes solo music sets by Zak Sally and Mark Pickerel. Zak was a founding member of alternative music legends Low and continues solo music endeavors while publishing great comics with Fantagraphics as well as producing exquisitely crafted small press projects on his own La Mano 21 imprint. This event will mark the debut of his ambitious Kim Deitch File portfolio project, among other recent La Mano offerings. Zak will be joined by Fantagraphics friend Mark Pickerel, who began his musical career with the highly acclaimed Screaming Trees and now fronts Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, in addition to being the proprietor of Seattle pop culture emporium Damaged Goods.

An exhibition of comix art curated by Jason T. Miles and Max Clotfelter, in association with Friends of the Nib, features promising emerging cartoonists. together with masters of the medium. "Medieval Thinkers" includes original works by Peter Bagge, Bruce Bickford, D. J. Bryant, Chris Cilla, Max Clotfelter, Eleanor Davis, Kim Deitch, Heidi Estey, Kelly Froh, Justin Green, Gerald Jablonski, Megan Kelso, Jason T. Miles, Nate Neal, Bob Rini, Zak Sally, Dash Shaw, Matt Tamaru, Drew Weing, Jim Woodring, Mary Woodring, Max Woodring, Martine Workman, and Chris Wright. According to Friends of the Nib co-curator Miles, "Many of these artists work with antiquated materials most commonly associated with 19th and 20th century cartooning, specifically the metal dip pen or crowquill pen nibs, although use of these tools was not a requisite for inclusion. What brings these artists together is an imagist approach to picture-making and a willful ignorance of the aesthetics, fashion, and politics of the fine art industry. Medieval thinkers organize their experience by executing lessons in perspective, balance, humor and alchemy."

All this plus screaming deals on comix, celebrity guests, holiday libations, demented Christmas platters spun by DJ Russ Fallout, and a few surprises makes Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery's 4th anniversary party the place to be on Saturday, December 11. This event coincides with the colorful holiday version of the Georgetown Art Attack with amazing visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic arts community.

Listing Information:

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery's 4th Anniversary Celebration
Music, Comix, Art and More!

Saturday, December 11, 6:00 to 9:00 PM

Music by
ZAK SALLY and MARK PICKEREL

Medieval Thinkers original comix exhibition featuring
Peter Bagge, Bruce Bickford, D. J. Bryant, Chris Cilla, Max Clotfelter, Eleanor Davis, Kim Deitch, Heidi Estey, Kelly Froh, Justin Green, Gerald Jablonski, Megan Kelso, Jason T. Miles, Nate Neal, Bob Rini, Zak Sally, Dash Shaw, Matt Tamaru, Drew Weing, Jim Woodring, Mary Woodring, Max Woodring, Martine Workman, and Chris Wright.
Curated for Friends of the Nib by Jason T. Miles and Max Clotfelter.

Exhibition continues through February 8, 2011.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street, Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 - 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO 2010 from chris anthony diaz on Vimeo.

Chris Diaz is back with another adorable video from the floor of APE 2010. See me and Janice acting goofy, Tony Millionaire, Dan Clowes and a bunch of other happy comics people. Ah, nostalgia. Thanks Chris!

From the May 1, 1992 edition of the LA Times, in regard to a story about reactions to the Rodney King verdict. The doofus in the Eightball t-shirt is yours truly. My outrage is palpable, right? This was taken about 14 months before I moved to Seattle to intern at Fantagraphics. My fate was already sealed...

(Click to enlarge)

This "Handy Fantagraphics Map/Staff Field Guide" was created by Chi-Wen Lee and Andrew Davis to help future interns: it dates roughly back to the third week of October, where it originated over a bubble tea-fueled discussion about Lucky in Love, how awesome the Fantagraphics people are, the awesomeness of Seattle, the mysterious stairway that leads to the upstairs apartment, how hard it is to remember everyone's names, and Pinocchio with a gun. Yes, in that order. 

Our warehouse manager and poet-in-residence Nico Vassilakis would like to share this recent blog post by Matt Madden examining seemingly (or actually) incongruous juxtapositions of text and image in comics, using the work of Chris Ware, Ben Katchor, and, of primary interest to Nico, practitioner/progenitor of the Flarf school of poetry Gary Sullivan (seen above) as examples. Thought-provoking stuff!

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid will appear with musician and producer Steve Fisk on Seattle's KEXP-FM this Saturday evening at 7:30 [90.3 FM in Seattle and streaming worldwide at KEXP.org – Ed.]. The segment will focus on the recent documentary I Am Secretly an Important Man by NY filmmaker Peter Sillen. The movie chronicles the life of esoteric poet Jesse Bernstein, often cited as "the Godfather of grunge." The movie runs at the Northwest Film Forum October 22 - 29. In the film Reid is interviewed during his stint as a curator at Seattle's Experience Music Project museum, where he organized a Bernstein exhibition. He's standing in front of Charles Burns' original cover art for Sub Pop 200, on which Bernstein appears. Fisk produced Bernstein's posthumous Sub Pop release Prison.

While on the subject, we should congratulate Fisk for his production work on Soundgarden's Telephantasm album, which went Platinum last week and is featured on the new "Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock" video game. Kudos also to Fantagraphics friends Ben, Matt, Chris and Kim. Hey, don't you fellas need some new comic books?

ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO 2009 from chris anthony diaz on Vimeo.

From über-fan Chris Diaz comes this all-star montage of clips filmed at last year's Alternative Press Expo, just in time for this year's show! Among others you'll see Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro & Jon Vermilyea showing off Mome Vol. 16 at our table, Esther Pearl Watson & Mark Todd at their Funchicken setup, and our very own expo expert extraordinaire Janice Headley rocking her Jad Fair glasses.

We'll see you in San Francisco in a couple of days! Get all our APE info here.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review/Roundtable: TIME/Techland's "Comic Book Club" roundtable of critics (Douglas Wolk, Graeme McMillan, Evan Narcisse and Mike Williams) discusses You'll Never Know Book 2: Collateral Damage by C. Tyler. Wolk leads off: "The first volume of You'll Never Know, Carol Tyler's projected three-volume series about her father's experiences in World War II — and all the family history connected to it — was my favorite graphic novel of last year. The new volume, Collateral Damage, is even stronger in a lot of ways."

• Photo of the Week: That's a funny one of Stuart Immonen at Robot 6

• Breaking News/Quote of the Week: "I think I was more opposed to the show moving to Los Angeles/Anaheim than I was in favor of it staying in SD or going anywhere else. I'm not even sure why I was opposed to it, because I love visiting L.A. But it would just feel like we let the terrorists win at that point." – our own Eric Reynolds, quoted at The Comics Reporter

Sent to me by Flog! tipper Jaime Hernandez of Pasadena, CA:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "The real reason to read Lucky in Love, of course, is DeStefano's art, which is intensely expressive and cartoony, among his best work, with fabulous panel designs, wonderful grotesque characters, and amazing energy throughout." – Andrew Wheeler, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

• Review: "The Book of Mr. Natural by the legendary and infamous... R. Crumb is a gorgeous mini-coffee table comic book published by Fantagraphic Books. [...] This book is for Mr. Natural’s legions of cult followers, 60’s believers, as well as new and younger readers who can hack the raunchy non-PC wisdom the guru ejaculates." – Phil Semler, San Francisco Book Review

• Review: "Culled from the output of postcard self-publisher and Wisconsin native Norman Pettingill, this triumphant collection of outsider art offers an insider view of a world that most viewers of the work probably won’t enter. Pettingill’s concern was with the insular existence of backwoods hunters, from their lodges to their excursions, pulling humor from the grotesque and bawdy elements in a style that mixes the works of cartoonists like Basil Wolverton and Harvey Kurtzman, and the sweeping tapestries of Hieronymous Bosch. Satire abounds, but no matter how ugly it gets, it’s never vicious — this weirdness is all part of the landscape of Pettingill’s life." – John E. Mitchell, North Adams Transcript

• Interview: Comic Book Resources' Shaun Manning has a thought-provoking chat with our own Kim Thompson about his translation projects, including our recent Jacques Tardi books and the upcoming Milo Manara collections for Dark Horse: "Generally, my core belief is that you have to betray the source material to remain faithful. The Italians have the phrase, 'Traduttori, Traditori,' meaning, 'translators, traitors,' which most would read as an insult but I read as sound advice."

• Interview in the Future: Drew Friedman will be the guest on Bob Andelman's Mr. Media show on BlogTalkRadio on October 4 at 11 AM (not sure what time zone) — start prepping your questions for the call-in session!