Dash Shaw has a strange habit of defining things, of explaining all the elements of his world in minute detail. In his new 700-plus page graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button (Fantagraphics, $29.99), that microscopic focus takes on monumental scope as Shaw relates the foibles and piccadiloes of the Loony family when the patriarch and matriarch…
In one item of news coming out of last weekend’s Book Expo America, publisher Fantagraphics will be offering new reprints of long-running comic strips Prince Valiant and both Wash Tubbs and its successor, Captain Easy. According to iCv2: Prince Valiant will be presented in an oversized color hardcover format, with two years per book, beginning…
The Complete Peanuts, 1967-1968 By Charles M. Schulz; foreword by John Waters Fantagraphics, February 2008, $28.95 By 1967, [[[Peanuts]]] wasn’t just another comic strip in the local newspaper, it was a media phenomenon. The first TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, had won an Emmy amid universal acclaim two years earlier, and You’re a Good…
Fantagraphics’ upcoming Steve Ditko retrospective Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko will be available next month, so resident Fantagraphics jack-of-all-trades Eric Reynolds recently took the opportunity to share a story with readers that he’s called "How I Pissed Off Steve Ditko." Reynold’s tale is one of those personal experiences with industry legends that…
The image at right isn’t the cover of the latest MOME ($14.99), Fantagraphics’ collection of vignettes from various cartoonists. That’s because the actual cover features full male nudity and a body gushing blood. As much as that might create a challenge for the volume’s shelf presence, it sets a fitting tone for the stories within,…
In the new massive two-volume set Willie & Joe: The War Years, Bill Mauldin’s World War II cartoons are given a deluxe treatment, from the Army-green canvas covers to the oversized printing of Mauldin’s voluminous output. The only thing publisher Fantagraphics couldn’t overcome in producing the book was the rough condition of much of Mauldin’s…
This year marks a resurgence of interest in the late Bill Mauldin, who started out as a soldier-cartoonist in the U.S. Army during World War II. This revival is thanks largely to Todd DePastino, author of the new Mauldin biography A Life Up Front and editor of Fantagraphics’ new collection of Mauldin’s cartoons, Willie &…
There’s something effortless about the comics of Jaime Hernandez. Both in storytelling and art, his Love and Rockets books glide smoothly, seamlessly along – perfect little vignettes into imagined lives. This isn’t to say Hernandez doesn’t work hard at his craft. Take a deeper look at efforts like his latest collection, The Education of Hopey…
The world is a bit nicer today, as the acrimonious lawsuit between Harlan Ellison and Fantagraphics has not only been settled,but the terms of the settlement have been released. Both parties agreed that "ad hominem, personal attacks" will cease as long as each is alive (or, in the case of Fantagraphics, in business). In addition,…
According to Dirk Deppey at The Comics Journal’s ¡Journalista! website, and Dirk should know, the Harlan Ellison vs. Fantagraphics Books lawsuit has been "resolved." Deppey received the following e-mail from his boss, Gary Groth: THE LITIGATION BETWEEN THE PARTIES HAS BEEN RESOLVED. THE PARTIES ARE NOT AT LIBERTY TO DISCUSS THE TERMS OF THE RESOLUTION…
At New York’s Book Expo America today, Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth took time out from a busy schedule with booksellers, rights agents and talent to talk to ComicMix‘s Martha Thomases and Mike Gold briefly about the upcoming arbitration session to settle Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit. We asked why he wasn’t able to go to Los Angeles…
As previously reported, the scheduled mediation in the civil case between Harlan Ellison and Fantagraphics Press, originally scheduled for May 29 in the 9th Circuit Court in Santa Monica California, has been delayed until June 28. "As to the postponement of the court-mandated mediation hearing that was scheduled for the 29 of May, which did…
