Here's the latest news on recent and upcoming releases from Fantagraphics Books.
RECENT FANTAGRAPHICS RELEASES
Lust: Kinky Online Personal Ads from Seattle's The Stranger
By Ellen Forney
168-page black & white 6" x 6.5" hardcover • $19.95 USD
Ellen Forney's follow-up to her wildly popular I Love Led Zeppelin is a collection of cartoons celebrating the sometimes stunningly crude, sometimes surprisingly sweet online world of personal classifieds. Forney has for several years been illustrating the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger's "Lustlab" classified ads by interpreting the most interesting, outrageous, or idiosyncratic ad in that week's paper. To cap it off, the collection includes frank, revealing interviews with some of the advertisers conducted by Forney, plus an introduction by the notorious sex advice columnist and novelist (and Stranger editor), Dan Savage.
By Jason
48-page full-color 7" x 10" softcover • $12.95 USD
After his existential thriller (Why Are You Doing This?), his Parisian famous-writers crime caper (The Left Bank Gang), and his time-travel story (I Killed Adolf Hitler), Jason's fourth full-color album may feature his loopiest premise yet. Set in the present time, The Last Musketeer stars the by-now centuries old musketeer Athos, who has been reduced to a suavely dressed but useless near-panhandler trading on his now almost extinct fame. All this changes when one day the Martians attack Earth. Suddenly there is a need for swashes to be buckled, and Athos leaps back into the fray with a vengeance. The Last Musketeer is a vintage sci-fi adventure with a unique twist from an internationally acclaimed cartoonist.
By Matt Broersma
32-page two-color 8.5" x 11" saddle-stitched comic with jacket • $7.95 USD
In the conclusion to Matt Broersma's noir triptych... Miles Anderson lives in a safe, predictable world defined by his job as an L.A. television producer, his affairs with girls from the office and the shopping trips of his beautiful wife, Elena. Then, one evening, Elena disappears. Is she off on another trip? With a man? In mortal danger? As the days pass, and the suspense mounts, Miles Anderson's search for answers leads him instead deeper and deeper into an abyss of mystery, until at last he's forced to confront the unthinkable...
MOME Winter/Spring 2008 (Vol. 10) (Mome)
By various artists; edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds
120-page b&w/color 7" x 9" softcover • $14.95 USD
Critically acclaimed for its compilation of dynamic young cartoonists, this volume of Mome showcases the vibrant newbies and a few of the more established artistes. Mome Vol. 10 features the 20 page conclusion to the Jim Woodring graphic novella, "The Lute String." This story, previously published only in Japan, features Woodring's signature characters — Frank, Pupshaw, and Pushpaw — in a universe-bending saga that finds the trio in a very unexpected world of flying, shrieking demons and bulbous-faced monsters. Also featuring the work of Tom Kaczynski (and an interview with him with Gary Groth), Robert Goodin, Dash Shaw, Ray Fenwick, John Hankiewicz, Sophie Crumb, Tim Hensley, and Jonathan Bennett, plus a surprise Mome debut from Jeremy Eaton. Fan-favorite Al Columbia provides a fluffy, frightening all-original cover.
Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1955-1958 Box Set
By Hank Ketcham
two 672-page black & white 5.5" x 6.25" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $39.95 USD
A swell custom-designed case containing the third and fourth volumes of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace with strips from the years 1955 through 1958. (Sorry, case is not peanut butter or root beer resistant.)
Various artists; edited by Glenn Head
136-page color/b&w 9" x 12" softcover • $19.95 USD
The cartoon anthology that puts the kicks back in comics strikes again. Climb on board the Hotwire express for another electrifying joyride — from the sublime to the ridiculous, and all parts in between.
Hotwire Vol. 2 includes some of the strongest narrative comics around. Tim Lane's epic autobiographical strip, "Spirit," portrays the grittiness, desperation, and terror that accompanied him as he went on the bum, riding the rails. "Niacin" by Mary Fleener is the sordid but hilarious story of a hallucinatory date with a drug dealer. Mack White brilliantly deconstructs the western myth of the OK Corral gunfight in "Showdown at Hustler's Ridge." Series editor Glenn Head's "Oozing Dread!" tells the Twilight Zone-ish tale of Wilhelm Reich, madcap genius-inventor of the orgone box. "Communicable Disease" by Carol Swain shows the descent of a young Scottish lass into impoverished hell. Dutch artist Tobias Tak delivers a fantastical retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk with his comic "The Ten Inch Giant."
If you want comic art that knocks your socks off, you'll find plenty, from the likes of David Sandlin, Jonathon Rosen, Stephane Blanquet, Craig Yoe, Christian Northeast, and Mike Wartella. There are also hot new strips by David Lasky, Rick Altergott, Lauren Weinstein, Matti Hagelberg, Danny Hellman, Bob Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, Chadwick Whitehead and others.
Hotwire delivers in the humor department as well. There are laugh-a-minute gag pages by Ivan Brunetti, Johnny Ryan, Doug Allen, Gary Lieb and Sam Henderson. Plus talened Hotwire newcomers Lorna Miller and Karl Wills delight in showing just how cute and cuddly childhood really is.
All this and an absolute killer cover by Tim Lane... hardboiled doesn't get much tougher than this!
Krazy & Ignatz 1941-1942: "A Ragout of Raspberries" (Krazy and Ignatz)
By George Herriman
120-page full-color 9" x 12" softcover • $19.95 USD
George Herriman integrated full, spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June, 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in our fourth color volume, which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1941 and 1942. The color format opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular, rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard and designer Chris Ware's files. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 60 years ago.
For this volume, critic Jeet Heer contributes an essay about the history and precedents of Herriman's unique use of language, exploring his characters' loquacious lexicography.
By Linda Medley
24-page black & white comic book with cardstock covers • $3.95 USD
This issue: Jain, Tolly and Simon get some unexpected help when they find an unpleasant surprise in the Castle's hidden passageways, while the other castle folk learn how not to construct a doorway.
More Old Jewish Comedians: A BLAB! Storybook
By Drew Friedman
36-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover • $16.99 USD
This comprehensive collection of portraiture of Jewish comedians is a sequel to 2006's wildly popular Old Jewish Comedians, which earned Friedman raves from Jerry Lewis, Howard Stern, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly and many more, and earned Friedman his own roast at New York's legendary Friar's Club. This all-new collection includes the famous (Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Soupy Sales, etc.), the not-so-famous (Jerry Stiller, Zeppo & Gummo Marx, Larry Storch, Zero Mostel, etc.) and the largely unknown (Molly Picon, Herbie Faye, Jan Milton, etc.). The Reuben Award-winning Friedman, one of the great caricaturists of his age, presents a thorough visual history of the 20th Century's greatest Borscht-Belt comedians through 28 full-page portraits; every crease, mustache hair, and liver spot looks utterly real. As Booklist put it (after the first OJC), "If only we were all funny enough to get Friedman to draw us!"
Shag: A to Z: A BLAB! Storybook
By Shag
32-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover • $14.95 USD
Shag: A to Z presents, quite simply, 26 original paintings corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. Each painting is accompanied by a short verse extolling the pleasures of a hedonistic lifestyle and the virtues of overindulgence. Shag has spent the last decade creating a body of work based on his idiomatic aesthetic preferences, a world of mid 20th century modern architecture and design, populated by hedonists, supplicants, and indifferent women. A BLAB! Storybook.
The Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees
By Tony Millionaire
120-page black & white 12" x 5" hardcover • $19.95 USD
Drinky Crow may be the drunken star of the weekly comic strip Maakies, but more often than not, he plays straight man to the hapless ape, Uncle Gabby. Here is the newest collection of Tony Millionaire's strip, never before published in book form. The suicide jokes may come less frequently than in earlier years, but the comedy and superb drawing style are at their peak, as is the volume of triple-X cartoon booze consumed.
Maakies features the comical adventures of a drunken crow on the high seas, blending vaudeville-style humor and a breathtaking line that harkens back to the glory days of the American comic strip. Designed by publishing's foremost graphic designer, Chip Kidd, Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees features over two years of strips in a beautiful, deluxe, landscape hardcover format that complements the strip's elegant and classical style.
The Comics Journal
200-page b&w/color 7.5" x 9.5" softcover • $11.95 USD
Boasting a new format and design, The Comics Journal #288 has arrived to enlighten, entertain and irritate comics connoisseurs in all the ways you’ve come to know and love, bringing you comics, commentary and of course the judgement of experts! Check it out:
* Interviews with some of the year’s most interesting cartoonists, including Exit Wounds author Rutu Modan, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks editor Paul Karasik, Alice in Sunderland author Bryan Talbot, The Salon creator Nick Bertozzi, Stop Forgetting to Remember cartoonist Peter Kuper, and Percy Gloom author Cathy Malkasian
# Picks for the best comics of the past year by Tony Millionaire, Dan Nadel, Paul Gravett, Paul Karasik, Kristy Valenti, R.C. Harvey, Noah Berlatsky and a host of other critics and cartoonists
# In this issue’s comics section, a complete serial from June Tarpé Mills’ classic WWII-era adventure strip, Miss Fury (whose glamorous, panther-skin-suited star was the first super heroine created by a female cartoonist), plus an appreciation of its creator by cartoonist and historian Trina Robbins
# Reviews of Winsor McCay’s Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, Jason Shiga’s Bookhunter, the final issue of Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise, and many other notable recent comics and graphic novels
# Tom Crippen’s look at the life and career of Marvel Comics architect Stan Lee
# R.C. Harvey on edgy content (or the lack thereof) in today’s newspaper strips
As always, we’ve got excerpts from the new issue on the TCJ website, including extracts of Joe Sacco’s interview with Rutu Modan and Michael Dean’s conversation with Paul Karasik, as well as the introduction and index to our big year-in-review section.
UPCOMING ARRIVALS COMING SOON
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.
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.
Registered users, click here for a downloadable PDF preview of this book.
Fuzz & Pluck in Splitsville #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.
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.
