[comix] FANTAGRAPHICS NEWS
Following is some of the information from Fantagraphics' latest newsletter. To begin receiving the newsletter, go to fantagraphics.com.
SPX COMETH
Alright, you know the routine: you either already have plans to be there, or you're already lamenting missing out on one of coolest North American comics events, the annual SPX show in Bethesda, MD. FANTAGRAPHICS will be representin', full-on-like at this year's show, with the following artists and authors appearing throughout the weekend:
JESSICA ABEL, RICK ALTERGOTT, ARIEL BORDEAUX, CHARLES BURNS, BOB FINGERMAN, FRANCESCA GHERMANDI (first appearance in America!), JASON, PATRICK ROSENKRANZ (ICAF guest), TED STEARN (debuting new issue of FUZZ & PLUCK!)
Oh, and publishing impresarios GARY GROTH and KIM THOMPSON will be onhand to sign your back issues of
Dalgoda and
Ghetto Bitch.
We will be debuting several new books, including DAME DARCY's new and lovely hardcover
Meat Cake Compilation and the latest installment in TED STEARN's
Fuzz & Pluck in Splittsville masterpiece.
HO CHE ANDERSON IN CALGARY FOR WORDFEST
King creator HO CHE ANDERSON, the subject of a major profile in the
New York Times earlier this month, will be appearing at the EIGHTH ANNUAL WORDFEST: BANFF-CALGARY INTERNATIONAL WRITERS FESTIVAL OCTOBER 15-19, 2003. Anderson is confirmed for two events, both on October the 18th in Calgary.
The first event is called "Graffic Jam" [12pm, Art Gallery of Calgary (w/ CHESTER BROWN)], and will be a joint reading / presentation. The second is currently called "Red, Black, Green," though the final title will probably change [3pm, Engineered Air Theatre]. This will be a panel discussion on the topic of what the idea of Black History has meant to the works of the writers involved.
The weekend event will also include a book signing with Anderson (details t.b.a.). For more info, visit
http://www.wordfest.com
WOODRING RECEIVES ART GRANT
Belated congratulations are due to JIM WOODRING, whose
Frank Book continues to earn raves as one of the best books we've ever published, in every respect. A recent reading at the University of Washington Bookstore drew a standing room only crowd hanging on Woodring's every word, as he read a prose script for what would later become one of the wordless stories in
The Frank Book - it had to be seen to be believed. Meanwhile, the artist received a $1400 grant this summer from the WASHINGTON ARTIST TRUST to purchase supplies for a planned series of oil paintings. All we can say is, we wish it had at least four more zeroes at the end of that figure.
AMERICAN AUDIO SPLENDOR
Over at our sister site,
TCJ.com, we're celebrating the release of HARVEY PEKAR's
American Splendor film all through September with an audio excerpt from a classic interview between Pekar and GARY GROTH, presented in a downloadable MP3 form:
http://www.tcj.com/listen/listen.html
In addition, every Friday brings us another installment of our minicomics review series "Dogsbody", by critic DAN HOLLOWAY:
http://www.tcj.com/dogsbody/db030801.html
ARE WE FILING A LAWSUIT YET?
There's a controversy brewing in the daily comics world - JIM DAVIS's company, Paws, Inc. (celebrating GARFIELD's 25th anniversary) is using ZIPPY THE PINHEAD's long-recognized catch phrase, "Are we having fun yet?," as its company motto (??!!)... Of course, this quote is readily acknowledged as the creation of ZIPPY creator BILL GRIFFITH; it is even listed in
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations as Griffith's.
www.garfieldcollectibles.com/xproduct.asp?dept_id=502
BURNS AND PANTER AND MORE IN ST. LOUIS
St. Louis will host two underground comic legends, CHARLES BURNS (
Black Hole,
El Borbah) and GARY PANTER (
Jimbo, the multiple Emmy Award-winning set designs of
Pee-Wee's Playhouse), at the ST. LOUIS COMIC ART SHOW, a comics expo and gallery exhibition on Saturday, September 27th. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the eclectic City Museum at 701 N. 15th Street. The Show will feature a room of small-press comics publishers and an exhibit of original works of comic art by Burns and Panter. This event will be followed by a Panter/Burns lecture at Washington University's Steinberg Auditorium at 7 p.m.
The St. Louis Comic Art Show is organized by M. Todd Hignite, founder of one of our favorite magazines,
Comic Art; by Ben and A.J. Trujillo of STAR CLIPPER COMICS in University City, one of our favorite comic book shops; and by Ted May, one of our favorite mini-comics creators. Plus, there's about a zillion Midwest small press creators attending. How can you go wrong?
For more information:
http://www.starclipper.com/show
NEW RELEASES
Quimby the Mouse softcover, by CHRIS WARE: You've read about it already, the second big book from the esteemed Mr. Ware, starring, of course, Quimby, a kind of post/retro Krazy Kat, theatre of the tragically absurd. It's also masterpiece, and maybe the most beautiful book we've ever published. Available now in soft cover as well as hard cover. $14.95 soft / $24.95 hard.
Glamour Girls of Bill Ward hardcover, edited by ALEX CHUN: Ward's girls became staples of countless men's and humor magazines where he shared the pages with cult models like Bettie Page and fellow 'good girl' artists such as Dan DeCarlo and Jack Cole. Ward became the standard bearer and justly famous through the '50s and '60s for his angular, high-sheen images of improbably busty glamour girls, a kind of low-rent Charles Dana Gibson. This volume features the best of Ward's Humorama work, including a selection of Ward's infamous telephone girls. Tame by today's standards, Ward's telephone girls were considered provocative at the time, caught as they were in various states of dress or, more often, undress. The majority of the images in this volume were drawn between 1956 and 1963 when Ward was at the height of his skill, shot from original art and printed in full color. This book not only reproduces over a hundred beautifully rendered illustrations, but also captures a more inn
ocent moment in American pop culture. $28.95.
Angry Youth Comics #5 by JOHNNY RYAN: We at Fantagraphics have searched all over Europe for the greatest graphic masterworks the old country has to offer. We searched tirelessly, leaving no stone unturned, and... well, we couldn't really find anything so here's a new issue of Angry Youth Comix. In this issue: Loady shaves a monkey, and Johnny takes us deep into the heart of. 1976! A 24-page B&W comic for $2.95.
Fuzz & Pluck in Splittsville #3 (of 4) by TED STEARN: Pluck is on his way to the top in the gladiator ring, but he can't find happiness. Fuzz has latched onto a new "protector," but is he too needy to choose wisely? It seems both Fuzz and Pluck are on the road to self-destruction, but at this point we can't reveal how. Though beloved by artists like Chris Ware and David Mazzucchelli, this might be our most underrated series. Funny, surreal, moving and engrossing. $4.95
Dame Darcy's Meat Cake Compilation by DAME DARCY, Introduction by MARGARET CHO: Dame Darcy has been bewitching readers for over ten years with her neo-Victorian horror/humor/romance comic Meatcake. Alternating between one-off (often cruelly tragic) fairy tales and ongoing romps starring her eclectic cast of characters, including Effluvia the Mermaid, the roguish Wax Wolf, Igpay the Pig-Latin pig, Stregapez (a woman who speaks by dispensing pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat), the mischievous Siamese twins Hindrance and Perfidia, Scampi the Selfish Shellfish, the stalwart Friend the Girl, and the blonde bombshell Richard Dirt, all delineated in her inimitable luxurious scrawl, Meatcake is like a peek into the most creative, deranged dollhouse you ever saw (did we mention that Darcy is also a dollmaker whose work has been profiled in books on the subject?).
Dame Darcy's Meatcake Collection assembles, in clothbound luxury, over 50 stories, the very best from the first decade of the
Meatcake comic - almost 200 pages of wild and woolly comics. $22.95.
http://www.fantagraphics.com
http://www.tcj.com
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