Fantagraphics, your favorite Comic-Con misfits, will be cutting a rug in our beautiful new real estate booth space of #1721. We’ve got everything you need to forget that Pokemon Go exists, (or maybe catch a rare one!). Special guests like Daniel Clowes, Ed Luce and Trina Robbins will be joined by many other artists all weekend long with panels, signings, and of course, books. Get a preview below of all the activities, events, and debuts for the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con!
PANELS
Thursday, July 21st
Love & Rockets: Past, Present and Future
Love and Rockets by brothers Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez is one of the most influential comic series to ever be published. Rounding on 35 years, the characters and stories within Love and Rocketshave inspired countless cartoonists, musicians, and writers with their unique world building and stories. Hear about the series from the very beginning with Gilbert and Jaime, publisher Gary Groth (Fantagraphics), co-creator Mario Hernandez (Love and Rockets), and fans like Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Hawkeye), with exclusive art and announcements.
Thursday July 21, 2016 11:00am – 12:00pm
Room 9
Something for Everyone: Indie Comics
Love comics but aren’t into superheroes? What about spooky fairy tales, witty comedy, survival stories, social commentary, or love and wrestling? There is something for everyone in the wide world of indie comics. Moderator Andrew Farago (curator, Cartoon Art Museum) leads Comic-Con special guests Emily Carroll (Through the Woods), Lisa Hanawalt (Hot Dog Taste Test), Jennifer Hayden (The Story of My Tits), Keith Knight (The K Chronicles), and Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf) in a discussion about how they get their unique perspectives across and then out into the world!
Thursday July 21, 2016 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Room 29AB
Comics Arts Conference #3: Comics and Latin America
Award-winning writer and CAC special guest Trina Robbins (Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013) looks at how two women, Lily Renee and Tarpe Mills, presented their Brazilian fantasies to the North American public in the form of adventure strips starring capable, glamorous heroines. Braeden Jones (University of Iowa) demonstrates how contemporary artists recontextualize and reappropriate images, motifs, and themes from historical sources, and compares external artistic influence on Latin America to historical conquest. Nicole Larrondo (Brown University) takes this scholarly journey to Chile, where the comic format is a helpful tool for teaching history, and speculates on the challenges of having the state as the primary support for an artistic form.
Thursday July 21, 2016 1:00pm – 2:30pm
Room 26ABCrockett Johnson’s Barnaby: What Makes a Great Comic Strip
Before Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and Pogo, there was Barnaby. Crockett Johnson’s classic strip combined fantasy and satire, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, with highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous. Johnson’s biographer Philip Nel is joined by Eric Reynolds, co-editor of Fantagraphics’s Barnaby series, cartoonist Jeff Smith (Bone), and moderator Thomas Spurgeon (The Comics Reporter). They’ll talk about why the strip remains so influential and its place in the history of great American comics.
Thursday July 21, 2016 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Room 29ABQueer History in Comics
Queer characters and narratives are finding their way into a popular growing genre of comics with historical themes and stories. However, writing about the lives of LGTBQ past can present a number of challenges for comics creators today. How do writers and artists create a complete and honest view of historical queer characters and their stories? How do we balance modern labels and values to best represent these characters, their experiences, and the periods they lived in? What tools are available for researching queer lifestyles throughout history? Join Prism Comics and moderator Josh Trujillo (Love Machines), Joseph Hawkins(director of the USC ONE Archive), and creators Kez Pagtakhan (Until the Last Dog Dies), Trina Robbins (The Complete Wimmen’s Comix), and Emily Willis (Cassius) as they discuss their work, inspirations, and challenges in presenting LGBTQ history through comics.
Thursday July 21, 2016 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Room 28DE
Friday, July 22nd
Kramer’s Ergot and the Art of the Comic Anthology
Few anthologies have done as well a job of capturing modern cartooning and visual storytelling than the Kramer’s Ergot series, edited and compiled by Sammy Harkham. Learn about the history behind the series, the process of wrangling over 15 artists, and the importance of anthologies in the comics medium, with contributors Johnny Ryan, John Pham, Matt Groening, and Steven Weissman.
Friday July 22, 2016 11:30am – 12:30pm
Room 24ABCWalt Kelly and POGO
The greatest newspaper strip of all time? Some would call it that. Even if you aren’t one of them, you’ve gotta love the wit and whimsy of Walt Kelly’s magnum opus, Pogo, now receiving its first-ever complete reprinting in an Eisner Award-winning series from Fantagraphics Books. Remember this great artist with comics historian Maggie Thompson (Comics Buyer’s Guide), film critic Leonard Maltin, historian Michael Barrier, cartoonist Scott Shaw!,Eric Reynolds(co-editor of the Complete Pogo series), and moderator Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer).
Friday July 22, 2016 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Room 8Generations of Women in Comics
Trina Robbins (Pretty in Ink), Mary Fleener (Twisted Sister Comics), Anina Bennett(Heartbreakers), and MariNaomi (Turning Japanese)-women of four generations-discuss surprising and often unknown contributions by women in comics from early history, WWII, and underground to trends today. Moderated by Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson (The Major Loomed Like a Superman).
Friday July 22, 2016 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Room 8
Marketing and Publicity the Alternative Comics Way
Distribution, press, and conventions can be intimidating ventures for cartoonists with unconventional stories and art; how do you find your market and rise above the rest to be noticed by publishers, reviewers, and booksellers? Jacq Cohen, Anna Pederson (Fantagraphics), David Hyde (SuperFan Promotions), Simon Hanselmann (Megahex), and others shed light on the process of putting yourself out there and getting noticed.
Friday July 22, 2016 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Room 28DEComic Book Secret Origins: How the Industry’s Best and Brightest Began
Every hero has an origin story, the defining moment where they thrust themselves to greatness. So do the comics industry’s best and brightest! Comics luminaries and tastemakersDavid Steinberger (comiXology CEO and co-founder), Denis Kitchen(cartoonist/publisher/agent, The Best of Comix Book), Derf Backderf (cartoonist, Trashed, My Friend Dahmer), and Ed Luce (cartoonist, Wuvable Oaf) offer a look at the extraordinary events that transformed them from comics fan to comic industry heroes!
Friday July 22, 2016 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Room 9
Saturday, July 23rd
Spotlight on Daniel Clowes
Appearing at Comic-Con International for the first time in 15 years, influential cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Wilson) is joined by editor and friend Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics) to discuss his career beginnings, Hollywood, and his newest New York Times bestselling graphic novel, Patience.
Saturday July 23, 2016 11:00am – 12:00pm
Room 28DEComics Arts Conference #11: Focus on Trina Robbins
Comics Arts Conference special guest Trina Robbins is a writer, cartoonist, and comics herstorian. A leader in the feminist underground comix movement with her landmark It Ain’t Me, Babe Comix and co-founding of the Wimmen’s Comix Collective, Robbins is also a renowned chronicler of the history of women in comics. Her work includes The Great Women Superheroes, Pretty In Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013, and The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons from 1913-1940. Robbins, a Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee, has also written Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story, Honey West, GoGirl! and contributed to Sensation Comics and Girl Comics. Her latest opus, The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, collects every issue of this first continuing all-woman produced comic book anthology.Jennifer K. Stuller (Ink-Stained Amazon, GeekGirlCon) moderates.
Saturday July 23, 2016 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Room 26ABCelebrating 40 Years of Fantagraphics
Now in their 40th year of publishing groundbreaking alternative comics, come hear the story of how it all began from founder Gary Groth, associate publisher Eric Reynolds and cartoonists Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, and Simon Hanselmann. Moderated by Nina Gregory, Arts Desk senior editor at NPR.
Saturday July 23, 2016 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Room 26ABGays (and more) in Comics (and more): Year 29: Queerly Inspired
LGBT creators and creators of LGBT-related comics discuss the works and events that inspire their work. Prism Comics and co-moderators Roger Klorese (Prism Comics Board) and Shannon Watters (BOOM! Studios, Lumberjanes) are joined by Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf), Robert Rodi (Merry Men, Loki), Magdalene Visaggio (Kim & Kim), Ari Yarwood (Oni Press), and others to be announced.
Saturday July 23, 2016 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Room 29AB
Sunday, July 24thThe Complete Wimmen’s Comix: A Her-story
Groundbreaking women cartoonists discuss the pioneering history of this comic series that covered still-taboo topics like abortion, menstruation, masturbation, castration, lesbians, witches, murderesses, and feminists. Featuring cartoonists Joan Hilty, Barbara “Willy” Mendes, Rebecka Wright, Lee Marrs, Mary Fleener, Sharon Rudahl, Caryn Leschen, Terre Richards, and moderator Trina Robbins.
Sunday July 24, 2016 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Room 29AB
DEBUTS
Meat Cake Bible
By Dame Darcy
Dame Darcy is one of the sui generis artistic talents of the past two decades — musician, actress, fortune teller, dollmaker, Gen X/feminist icon, and last but not least, cartoonist to the core — and has been bewitching readers for more than 20 years with her neo-Victorian horror/humor/romance comic Meat Cake. Alternating between one-off (often cruelly tragic) fairy tales and ongoing romps starring her eclectic cast of characters, including Effluvia the Mermaid, the roguish rou. Wax Wolf, Igpay the Pig-Latin pig, Stregapez (a women 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, Meat Cake is like a peek into the most creative, deranged dollhouse you ever saw. The Meat Cake Bible is the definitive collection of the series, collecting every story from all 17 issues (1993-2008) — including “Hungry is the Heart,” Darcy’s legendary collaboration with Alan Moore — as well as new stories from the unpublished 18th issue.
Cosplayers
By Dash Shaw
Cosplayers is cartoonist Dash Shaw’s ode to that defining element of fandom, the “costume play” of so many anime and comic conventions. Artfully celebrating both the culture’s obvious theatricality and uniquely D.I.Y. beauty, as well as its often awkward conflation of fantasy and reality, Cosplayers explores these delicate psychological balancing acts via a series of seven interconnected short stories surrounding two talented young women who combine their love of cosplaying with their love of social media and film in order to deepen their relationship with the popular culture they celebrate. Cosplayers depicts their stories in an affectionately funny way, celebrating how much more inclusive and humanistic fandom can be than most of the stories and characters it is built upon. Featuring plenty of easter eggs for fans of the broader culture as well as being the perfect entry point for those completely befuddled by it, Cosplayers is another distinctive, instant classic from one of the most acclaimed voices of his generation, and will be released around the same time as Shaw’s feature directorial debut, the independent animated feature My Entire High School…Sinking into the Sea starring the voice talents of Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, and Susan Sarandon.
Garden of Flesh
By Gilbert Hernandez
As only the unfettered Id of Gilbert Hernandez could conceive, Garden of Flesh is a sexually explicit retelling of the story of Adam and Eve up to Noah’s Ark. Hernandez presents a straightforward adaptation of the Bible parable, but one that also blurs the lines between erotica and pornography, as only Hernandez can. In the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are youthful and beautiful, is sex is a source of happiness, even when it’s psychologically and spiritually fraught? Leave it to Hernandez to explore the story of original Sin from a perspective you didn’t get in Sunday school. As an added bonus, longtime Love and Rockets fans will recognize some beloved characters/actors portraying key players.
Hip Hop Family Tree Book 4: 1984–1985
By Ed Piskor
Book 4 of the best selling series showcases: The rise of Def Jam records! The birth of Dr. Dre’s record career leading to Straight Outta Compton! Introducing new branches on the tree such as Will Smith, Salt N Pepa, Rakim, and Biz Markie. Hollywood also takes notice and releases loads of films like Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Beat Street, Krush Groove and more, all highlighted within this jam packed edition.
Hip Hop Family Tree Gift Box Set: Book 3 & 4
By Ed Piskor
We are releasing our gift box set of Books 3 and 4, in time for the holidays. Exclusive with this box set is Piskor’s crash course comic, Understanding Hip Hop and Comics, a documentation of how the two media have intersected over the past 40 years, spanning graffiti, to album covers, and to actual comics collaborations between cartoonists and rappers.
Otherworld Barbara
By Moto Hagio
In the latest English-language release from one of the most influential manga creators of all time, Tokio is a “dream pilot,” a detective who enters criminals’ dreams to discover their motives. While investigating Aoba, who killed her parents and ate their hearts when she was nine, he discovers a phantom island named Barbara. Then there’s a mysterious and missing geneticist, an eccentric clergyman, a grieving grandmother granted temporary youth, a psychologist killed by a freak tornado… Hagio offers a sci-fi explanation for these seemingly random paranormal elements, and makes it all matter with believable characters in complex and subtle relationships. Fantagraphics Books is proud to present the first volume (of two) of Moto Hagio’s Otherworld Barbara, which won the “Nebula Award of Japan” (Nihon SF Taishō Award) in 2006.
Real Deal Comix
By Lawrence Hubbard and H.P. McElwee
Real Deal Comix trades in what it calls the genre of Urban Chaos — a satiric depiction of the madness that occurs in the urban centers of America. Each story details the everyday struggles of the urban dwellers who go off on each other out of the rage and futility that their lives bring them. These people live on the edge of a precipice, where everyday tasks like going to the store or buying gas requires a stand-or-back-down attitude to survive. Every story ends in mayhem. Join G.C, Ace Brogan and Slick Willie in their adventures in da’ hood, and remember, they live a real man’s life: no matter what, they never back down. Real Deal Magazine (“More Rage per Page, More Slaughter for your Dollar”) was a self-published independent comic book created in the 1990s by Lawrence Hubbard (a.k.a “Raw Dog”) and H.P. McElwee (a.k.a. “R.D. Bone”) and inspired by magazines like Mad and traditional superhero comics but satirizing Blaxploitation movies with a cast of convicts, hustlers, drug addicts, crack whores, car thieves, and murderers. Real Deal has achieved cult status over the years, especially among underground artists and counterculture circles, and has even been featured in a line of t-shirts from Stüssy, but has never been collected… until now.
Blubber #3
By Gilbert Hernandez
Unleashing the unfettered Id of the great Gilbert Hernandez! Absurd, explicit, and profanely comical, Blubber makes all other comics blush. Pupusi (last seen in Gilbert’s Garden of the Flesh) gets it on with a hideous monster, a couple of lustful faun follow suit, an alien takes a substantial bowel movement, a guy with a large member gets it on with a little alien, and so much more!
Up your pin game and show off your excellent taste in publishers with a soft enamel Fantagraphics shield, designed by Daniel Clowes.
Available first at Comic-Con!
Huck #4 (Image) There’s a sense of something here that you don’t often see in Mark Millar’s work: hope. Now whether that’ll get ripped from under my feet as the series progresses and we head into some darker territory is something I’ve been acutely aware could happen. That Huck that has echoes of Superman is undeniable, but it never feels derivative to me, either. If you haven’t been reading the singles then at this point I’d wait for the trade, because this is definitely worth checking out. Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy
Hip Hop Family Tree #8 (Fantagraphics)*: Ed Piskor’s meticulously-researched and lavishly-illustrated cultural history reaches a new plateau of significance with the emergence on the scene of — Run DMC! The charge coming off this book is electric right now, as the “new” musical, fashion, artistic, and social sensibilities attendant with the rise of Hip Hop make their way from the streets and clubs of New York to the top of the pop music charts. The most obvious labor of love on comic shop racks right now by a wide margin. Overall: 9.5. Recommendation: Buy
Bigfoot: Sword Of The Earthman #3 (Action Lab) There’s a very interesting aspect to this comic; Bigfoot hasn’t said a word in three issues, and his silence is perfectly negated by the narration of his companion who’s name escapes me right now. This has been a solid series so far, with Bigfoot being stranded on Mars, this feels like a brilliant mix of Starship Troopers, John Carter: Warlord Of Mars and Conan all wrapped up in a glossy comic book story. It’s actually pretty damn good. Overall: 8 Recommendation: Read
Captain Canuck #6 (Chapter House Comics) – Wrapping up the first story arc, the comic is an ok ending that wraps up the action nicely and sets us up for what’s to come. As a piece of the arc it’s a solid comic, but on it’s own it’s a bit weaker than previous comics. Still, lots of fun to read. Overall: 7.4 Recommendation: Read
Descender #10 (Image Comics) – One of the best science fiction comics on the market. Amazing story, even more amazing art. Beautiful to look at and fun to read. Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy
Batman #49 (DC Comics)*: The moment we’ve all been waiting for. We knew Bruce was coming back to the cowl it was never a matter of it, it was always when. Snyder has another win this issue, as I think it’s his absolute best one yet. It delves into the Batman legacy as well as probable futures. What really stands out for me is how well Snyder gets the relationship between Alfred and Bruce. He’s not Bruce’s butler, he’s his father. Alfred doesn’t want to lose his son again. Bruce has finally got the peaceful life he’s always wanted but for Gotham to survive, he must allow Batman to return. Now I won’t spoil here as its too good, but the return method is well thought out and true to the character. Julie Madison even plays a big part. With 50 around the corner Snyder has his day numbered on the title but his impact may have crafted the best Batman run EVER. No Capullo this issue but it doesn’t suffer one bit. Yannick Paquette does a terrific job on the art chores. I cannot find any fault with this issue at all. Overall: 10/10 Recommendation: Buy this book.
Shaft: Imitation Of Life #1 (Image)**: David F. Walker returns to the character he rejuvenated — and to the street of New York — with the first of four sure-to-be-spectacular parts. John Shaft wraps up one particularly brutal case, takes some much-needed time off, and the jumps back in to handle a missing persons case that nobody else would have the balls to touch. And he picks up a gay Latino sidekick by the end? As always , Walker adds new depth and dimension to the character without compromising an ounce of bad-ass, while new artist Dietrich Smith picks up admirably from Bilquis Evely. Overall: 9/10. Recommendation: Buy.
Cyrus Perkins and the Haunted Taxi Cab TPB (Action Lab): I always wondered what would happen if the Michael Mann masterpiece ” Collateral “, was a TV show, as this book answers that but with a supernatural twist. The Reader joins Cyrus as he navigates his personal life , avoids thugs , run ins with supernatural creatures were trying find peace for his haunted rider. In what would be a normally dark story ,there are a great many funny scenes.The story by David Dwonch proves an interesting twist to both slice of life genre and the supernatural genre. The art by Anna Lencioni, is vibrant and full of heart.Overall, fun when you least expect it. Overall: 9.2 Recommendation: Read
Patience is the first all new, original graphic novel from Daniel Clowes in over a half-decade, and also the biggest and most ambitious book yet in a storied career that includes multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, a PEN Award, and an Academy Award nomination.
