Recent Fantagraphics Releases and Upcoming Arrivals as of April 1, 2008.
UPCOMING ARRIVALS COMING SOON
Jessica Farm Volume 1 by Josh Simmons
96-page black & white 7" x 8.75" softcover • $14.99 USD
Hot on the heels of his first graphic novel, House, Josh Simmons' Jessica Farm fuses serialized adventure, fantasy and psychological horror and stamps it with his signature macabre sensibility in his atmospheric new graphic novel. Like a Lynchian take on Alice in Wonderland, Jessica Farm opens with an exterior of what could be any Midwestern farmhouse: once inside, we track our titular heroine as she bounds out of bed on Christmas and goes about her morning routine, eventually breakfasting with her grandparents. The banality of the situation is subverted by a ratcheting sense of dread, however, as we discover that Jessica's increasingly nightmarish house is filled with creatures around every corner: some whimsical, some sexual, some despairing and some malevolent. Jessica Farm is an ambitious experiment in world-building: as conceived by Simmons, this book is the first volume of a life-spanning comics project in which he drew one page every month for the past seven years, starting in January 2000 — and will continue this project for 50 years in total, making up the story as he goes and releasing 96-page increments every 8 years until he amasses a 600-page body of work.
Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester by Bob Levin
200-page 6" x 9" softcover with B&W illustrations • $19.99 USD
In May 1989, Dwaine Tinsley stood at the summit of an unlikely career. The product of a broken, trailer-trash marriage, he was a high school dropout who had decided to become a professional cartoonist while serving a six-year sentence in a Maryland prison for burglary. As cartoon editor for Larry Flynt’s notorious Hustler magazine, he had assembled a staff of pen-and-Wite-Out-wielding Lenny Bruces whose unprecedentedly offensive socio-sexual cartoons had spearheaded that publication's fight against the forces of censorship and repression that sought to overthrow the political and cultural gains of the 1960s. His primary personal contribution — spawned amidst a national hysteria that saw a plague of child sexual abuse arising everywhere from pre-school staffs to satanic sects — was "Chester the Molester," a hulking middle-aged man who craved pre-pubescent girls.
And then Tinsley's teenage daughter accused him of sexually violating her over the course of five years. And the prosecution in his ensuing criminal trial cast several storage boxes full of his cartoons against him. Most Outrageous is the story of the trial of Dwaine Tinsley as well as the story of Tinsley's family life.
Bob Levin's writings have established him as one of the most thought-provoking chroniclers of cartoonists today. While focusing upon the work and lives of the most offbeat creators in the field in order to champion the pursuit of individual vision, no matter how unorthodox or inflammatory, he has explored issues common to artists of every medium. Most Outrageous carries his search onto new, unsettling ground.
The Comics Journal #289
200-page 7.5" x 9.5" b&w/color squarebound softcover magazine • $11.95 USD
Bring out your dead! They won't want to miss our interview with Robert (Marvel Zombies) Kirkman, whose career has encompassed Battle Pope and Invincible. Plus an essay on Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Also: Shaun Tan on the international award-winning The Arrival; Jessica Abel and Matt Madden on how to draw comics; and the seedy dawn of the Hustler cartoon. Also unearthed, in this issue's comics gallery: Ed Whelan's rarely seen Minute Movies, serial strips of the 1920s based on popular movie genres of the day.
Castle Waiting Vol. II #11
By Linda Medley
24-page 6.75" x 10.25" black & white comic book • $3.95 USD
A fable for modern times, Castle Waiting is a fairy tale that's not about rescuing the princess, saving the kingdom, or fighting the ultimate war between Good and Evil — but about being a hero in your own home. In this issue: with nary a strip-mall in sight, the castle folk enjoy an evening of bowling and clothes shopping; and Jain learns some interesting details concerning lovable Doctor Fell's puzzling condition.
The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott
104-page 6.25" x 10" black & white hardcover • $19.95 USD
Swiss horror master Thomas Ott returns with the first full-length graphic novel of his career. When clearing up the cell of a prisoner who has been sentenced to death and subsequently executed, a prison guard finds a small piece of paper with a combination of numbers on it.
On the spur of the moment, he puts it into his pocket.
As the guard lives a solitary, monotonous life, the numbers on the paper awake his curiosity. To find out their hidden meaning could add a new meaning to his life as well, so the guard stumbles into situations in which the number or part of it seem to achieve a certain importance and offer him hints and possible solutions. And the numbers signal a radical change in his luck. He gets to know a woman, falls in love with her, and one night, in a casino, he wins a huge amount of money when gambling on these numbers.
But the next morning, the woman and money have disappeared.
The man goes in search of the woman and the money. But from that day on, his luck changes and the numbers bring him only bad luck, sending him inexorably into an abyss that he might not recover from. Thomas Ott's O. Henry-esque plot twists will delight fans of classic horror like The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt, or modern masters like filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan; his hallucinatory, hyper-detailed scratchboard illustrations will haunt you long after you've put the book down.
RECENT FANTAGRAPHICS RELEASES
The Clouds Above by Jordan Crane
224-page full-color 6" x 6" softcover • $16.99 USD
Jordan Crane's all-ages classic is in paperback for the first time! This gorgeously packaged (yet affordable) children's fantasy has become an instant classic since its original hardcover release in 2005, becoming a perennial bestseller for Fantagraphics in three hardcover printings. This paperback edition — a first — includes five new pages not included previously!
On their way through the city to school, Simon and his cat Jack keep taking shortcuts that lead them through fantasy worlds of wooden monsters and insatiable appetites, just for starters. Will they make back home safely? This is undoubtedly one of the more handsome and unique packages in recent memory, with a brilliant graphic novel inside that justifies its elegant format. The Clouds Above calls to mind everything from Where the Wild Things Are to The Wizard of Oz to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with its depiction of a fantastic world that lurks just around the corner from reality and that only children believe exists.
Daddy's Girl by Debbie Drechsler
88-page b&w/color 8" x 7.55" hardcover • $14.95 USD
Fantagraphics Books is proud to re-release one of the most powerful and moving books in its distinguished publishing history: Debbie Drechsler's first collection of short comic stories, Daddy's Girl. Originally published in 1995 and distributed only to comic book specialty stores, Daddy's Girl was ahead of its time: Drechsler's account of her abuse at the hands of her father, told from the point of view of an adolescent, is one of the most searingly honest, empathetic, and profoundly disturbing uses of the comics medium in its history. Drechsler's meticulous brush lines gather into heavy textures that suggest the claustrophobic tension of the environment that threatens her pre-teen and adolescent female protagonists. Characters such as Lily, who can't escape her father's abuse, and Franny, a girl whose desire to be accepted leads her into dangerous territory, struggle not to be visually and emotionally overwhelmed. Central to this quasi-memoir is Lily's relationship to her father — a confused jumble of fear, trepidation, and love.
The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez
144-page black & white 7" x 10" hardcover • $19.99 USD
A stand-alone graphic novel from the "Locas" universe. It starts with a barely-glimpsed slaying ("Life Through Whispers") and ends with a funeral ("Male Torso Found in L.A. River"). Even though (or perhaps because) he's still carrying the torch for Maggie, Ray diligently pursues the dangerous and annoying "Frogmouth," aspiring actress and full-time train wreck, from seedy bars and back alleys through comic book conventions... all the way to the ultimate, and unexpected, consummation. Meanwhile, Hopey spends an eventful week during which she undergoes a couple of major life changes, both personal and professional... and for that matter cosmetic. New characters include Hopey's long-suffering on-the-side squeeze Grace; Maggie's new roommate, the sweet-natured jockette "Angel of Tarzana;" and the live-wire would-be gangsta Elmer — while such classic Love and Rockets characters as the hard-living Doyle, the aging but still-rocking Terry, and the mysterious super-heroine Alarma pop up in the margins... As does Maggie, well off stage but visible as Ray's resentful ex, Angel's roommate, and (forever and still) Hopey's best friend.
Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes
120-page black & white 8" x 10" softcover • $14.95 USD
Funeral of the Heart is Leah Hayes' stylistic tour-de-force and graphic novel debut, featuring a series of short stories by Hayes and illustrated entirely using the otherworldly medium of scratchboard. Hayes creates a world of unease and ambiguity populated by obsessive characters, forlorn animals, and mysterious, inanimate objects; odd occurrences, unnerving deaths and unconventional but genuine love bind these characters and their stories together. In "The Bathroom," a middle-aged couple discover a mysterious tunnel in their poolhouse after a neighbor's child accidentally drowns in their pool — leading to an immaculate bathroom and another drowning. In "The Needle," two sisters suffer the death of their grandmother as well as her possible resurrection at the hands of the woman with the needle.
The stories are hand lettered and juxtaposed against stark, highly stylized, graphically powerful, black and white images. Stories with titles like "The Bathroom," "The Needle," and "The Hair" sound innocuous, but they aren't fables that should be read to one's children — unless your children enjoy being made uneasy by beautiful things.
Fuzz & Pluck In Splitsville #5 (of 5)
By Ted Stearn
32-page black & white 6.75" x 8.75" comic book • $4.95 USD
The Splitsville series concludes as Fuzz and Pluck struggle to survive after their worlds have been turned upside down! A mad race and a tug of war culminates in a fatal convergence that changes everything!
Ganges #2
By Kevin Huizenga
32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched comic with jacket • $7.95 USD
Everyman Glenn Ganges ruminates on the simple times of the dot-com era when the reality of business was propped up by the unreality of addictive technology and hope. Kevin Huizenga cleverly parallels that unreality with the unreality of addictive networked first-person shooter video games, and the attempts of people around him to genuinely connect with each other. Huizenga’s elegant neo-clear-line style brings a crispness and humor to these low-key slice-of-life stories, and the gray-blue duotone he has picked gives the art a new depth and complexity.
Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin
600-page b&w/color 7" x 9" two-volume slipcased hardcover set • $65.00 USD
"The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During World War II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.
Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from 1940 through the end of the war. This collection of over 600 cartoons, most never before reprinted, is more than the record of a great artist: it is an essential chronicle of America's citizen-soldiers from peace through war to victory.
Bill Mauldin knew war because he was in it. He had created his characters, Willie and Joe, at age 18, before Pearl Harbor, while training with the 45th Infantry Division and cartooning part-time for the camp newspaper. His brilliant send-ups of officers were pure infantry, and the men loved it.
After wading ashore with his division on the first of its four beach invasions in July 1943, Mauldin and his men changed — and Mauldin's cartoons changed accordingly. Months of miserable weather, bad food, and tedium interrupted by the terror of intense bombing and artillery fire took its toll. By the year's end, virtually every man in Mauldin's original rifle company was killed, wounded, or captured.
The wrinkles in Willie and Joe's uniforms deepened, the bristle on their faces grew, and the eyes — "too old for those young bodies," as Mauldin put it — betrayed a weariness that would remain the entire war. With their heavy brush lines, detailed battlescapes, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect, Mauldin's cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world of the American combat soldier. Their dark, often insubordinate humor sparked controversy among army brass and incensed General George S. Patton, Jr.
This is the first of several volumes publishing the best of Bill Mauldin's single panel strips from 1940 to 1991 (when he stopped drawing). His Willie & Joe cartoons are presented in a deluxe, beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 600 pages. The series is edited by Todd DePastino, whose Mauldin scholarship is on full display in a biography of the artist released in February 2008 from W.W. Norton. Willie & Joe contains an introduction and running commentary by DePastino, providing context for the drawings, pertinent biographical details of Mauldin's life, and occasional background on specific cartoons (such as the ones that made Patton howl).
The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968 (Complete Peanuts) by Charles M. Schulz
344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99 USD
JOHN WATERS TALKS CHARLIE BROWN AS THE '60S WIND DOWN.
As we rush toward the end of Peanuts' second full decade, Snoopy finds himself almost completely engrossed in his persona as the World War I Flying Ace — to the point where he goes to camp with Charlie Brown and maintains his persona throughout the entire two-week period (much to Peppermint Patty's bafflement).
Still, Snoopy looms large, so this volume (a particularly Snoopy-heavy one) sees him arm-wrestling Lucy as the "Masked Marvel" and then taking off for Petaluma for the national arm-wrestling championship; impersonating a vulture and a "Cheshire Beagle"; enjoying golf and hockey; attempting a jaunt to France for an ice-skating championship; running for office on the "Paw" ticket; being traded to Peppermint Patty's baseball team, then un-traded and installed as team manager by a guilt-ridden Charlie Brown; as well as dealing with the return of his original owner, Lila. If you're surprised by that last one, imagine how Charlie Brown feels...
Lila makes only a brief appearance (as does José Peterson, a short-lived — and short — star member of Charlie Brown's baseball team), but this volume sees the appearance of what would be Schulz's most controversial major character: Franklin. (Yes, in 1968 the introduction of a Black character caused a stir.)
Peppermint Patty, working toward her ascendancy as one of the major Peanuts players in the 1970s and 1980s, also has several major turns, including a storyline in which she’s the tent monitor for three little girls (who call her "Sir" — a joke Schulz would pick up later with Peppermint Patty's friend Marcie).
Stories involving other characters include a sequence in which Linus's flippant comment to his Gramma that he'll kick his blanket habit when she kicks her smoking habit backfires; Lucy bullies Linus, pesters Schroeder, and organizes a "crab-in"; plus Charlie Brown copes with Valentine's Day depression, the Little Red-Haired Girl, the increasingly malevolent kite-eating tree, and baseball losses. In other words: Vintage Peanuts!
Hall of Best Knowledge by Ray Fenwickowledge
By Ray Fenwick
168-page black & white 7" x 7" softcover • $19.99 USD
Ray Fenwick has pioneered his own medium of storytelling, one best described as "typographical comics." Hall of Best Knowledge is presented as a handsome, personal journal written by an unnamed voice, referred to only as "The Author." Little is known about him; he makes occasional, derogatory references to a twin brother and younger sibling, but reveals little else. He clearly fashions himself a genius, writing with a faux-aristocratic air, and it is presumably his belief in his own genius that leads him to want to share his knowledge with the world. Each page features information such as "It hardly needs mentioning that riding a pony is no intellectual triumph.... If riding a pony is so fantastic, why have I never read of any renowned pony-riding genius? It is because such a person does not exist, making it a foolish waste of time unworthy of attention." These pearls of wisdom are lettered in an elegant, almost obsessive fashion, entirely hand-crafted and bedecked with Ionic columns and fleurs-de-lis.
It becomes obvious to the reader early on that all is not as it seems; only at the end does the picture become completely clear. The ensuing journey is a riotous tour through the narrator's ego and id, and the humor builds accordingly as he is revealed to be not nearly as smart—or sophisticated—as he thinks.
Hall of Best Knowledge is part graphic novel, part art object, part satire, part puzzle. The slow unfolding of the author and his story builds humor with each page, creating a peculiar examination of the idea of genius and the problems that arise in the search and transmission of knowledge.
HOBK is an elegantly designed and packaged book, presented as a found journal, with a belly band and other production/design touches to further solidify and give form to the concept of the book.
Krazy & Ignatz: The Kat Who Walked in Beauty by George Herriman
114-page black & white 15" x 11" hardcover • $29.95 USD
Presenting a unique, stand-alone companion to our Krazy & Ignatz series. The Kat Who Walked In Beauty collects many rare and unique dailies from the 1910s and 1920s. Though many readers are aware of Herriman's dynamic Sunday pages, few know that during 1920, in what must have been an editorially unrestrictive period for Herriman, he drew some of the most graphic and brilliantly conceived daily strips ever created; they look like "mini-Sunday" strips. This nine-month stretch of dailies, never-before-reprinted, is among the treasures included in this collection. The collection includes many other Herriman gems, including the very first stand-alone Krazy & Ignatz strips from 1911, and the illustrations from Herriman"s Krazy Kat Jazz pantomime/ballet, performed to captivated New York audiences in 1922. This book fills in several gaps in the daily strip history, reproduced at close to their original size.
The new 2nd printing features an orange spine and interior spot color.
Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 by Joe Sacco, Christopher Hitchens
240-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover • $19.95 USD
Praised by The New York Times, Brill's Content and Publisher's Weekly, Safe Area Gorazde is the long-awaited and highly sought after 240-page look at war in the former Yugoslavia. Sacco (the critically-acclaimed author of Palestine) spent five months in Bosnia in 1996, immersing himself in the human side of life during wartime, researching stories that are rarely found in conventional news coverage. The book focuses on the Muslim-held enclave of Gorazde, which was besieged by Bosnian Serbs during the war. Sacco lived for a month in Gorazde, entering before the Muslims trapped inside had access to the outside world, electricity or running water. Safe Area Gorazde is Sacco's magnum opus and with it he is poised too become one of America's most noted journalists. The book features an introduction by Christopher Hitchens, political columnist for The Nation and Vanity Fair.
The new Seventh softcover printing (2008) features an all-new cover design by Adam Grano.
