FEBRUARY NEWS

Raised By Ghosts, Briana Loewinsohn’s highly anticipated YA follow-up to Ephemera: A Memoir, is out this month and it’s getting lots of love: Publishers Weekly named it as one of the top 10 most anticipated YA graphic novels this Spring and gave it a starred review (“Soft brown shadows overlaying a desaturated palette and segmented pacing suggesting the prolonged passage of time evoke the feeling of memories—dimmed and faded over time—being recounted to a trusted confidante.”)!

Also on the list of graphic novels Publishers Weekly is excited about this Spring: Precious Rubbish by Kayla E., Santos Sisters Vol. 1 by Greg & Fake, Life Drawing by Jaime Hernandez, and Season of the Roses by Chloé Wary!

“The grim humor, grotesque imagery, and brilliant craftsmanship displayed here make a strong case for Sala being among the very best cartoonists of his generation.” A starred review from Library Journal for Night Drive by Richard Sala—out 5/20!

That’s not all: Library Journal also gave Search and Destroy Vol. 2 by Atsushi Kaneko a starred review! “Kaneko’s kinetic illustration, dynamic sense of page design, and emotionally charged storytelling combine for a gripping and intellectually provocative exploration of what it truly means to be human.”

"Comics, for me, were a way of coming back to my original point of creative inspiration." Ari Richter (Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A Graphic Family Memoir of Trauma & Inheritance) was interviewed by Gary Groth for The Comics Journal!

Joe Sacco went on The Chris Hedges Report to discuss War On Gaza—catch the full interview here (link)!

FEBRUARY NEW RELEASES

RAISED BY GHOSTS BY BRIANA LOEWINSOHN

This brilliant YA graphic novel is a love letter to family and all of the messy complexities they come with, from the acclaimed author of Ephemera: A Memoir.

Set in the author’s own teenage years, Raised By Ghosts begins in 1991 with semi autobiographical Briana in middle school. Classes are a bummer, but lunches are worse; either spent alone, or being teased. Traditionally a good student, Briana is not doing well in her academics, but keeps it a secret. Her parents (divorced) are a mess, and largely absent. She spends a lot of time by herself. By high school, she makes friends, and those connections are her only source of happiness as they help each other navigate adolescence. But life at home with each parent remains fraught. When her relationships at school begin to falter, she has no one to turn to, forcing Briana to grapple with her sense of self-worth, her longing for belonging, and her desire for authenticity in her relationships.

Raised By Ghosts is a powerful, affecting graphic novel for young adult readers. The story is told by shifting between Briana’s first-person class notes and diary entries. In her understated yet masterful approach to comics storytelling, Loewinsohn eschews dramatic confrontations and overt sentimentality, preferring instead to underscore the idea that sometimes acceptance and love can be communicated through quiet, everyday moments and close family bonds.

Orders of Raised by Ghosts include a unique bookplate signed by Briana Loewinsohn while supplies last!

I LIKE PEOPLE THAT CAN’T SING: PAUL NELSON INTERVIEWS LEONARD COHEN AND LUCINDA WILLIAMS ED. BY KEVIN AVERY

Two long-lost interviews with two of the greatest pop singers of the modern era by one of the greatest rock journalists and interviewers.

In 1991, legendary but down-and-out rock critic Paul Nelson landed his dream assignment: fly from New York to Los Angeles and separately interview two of the most distinguished popular music artists: Leonard Cohen and Lucinda Williams. He encounters them at a time in their careers when both are wrestling with their respective record companies to be better taken seriously—in some cases just to be heard. Previously unpublished, these landmark interviews provide the opportunity to compare, among other things (upbringing, education, influences, loves and losses), the thought processes behind Cohen and his music (“I’ve always admired the people who could write great songs in the back of taxicabs like Hank Williams. I was never one of those guys”) to Williams and hers (“See, I’m trying to dispel the myth … that you have to be miserable and suffering and so on and so forth to be able to write”).

I Like People That Can’t Sing allows us to read the minds, so to speak, of these nonpareil singer-songwriters over three decades after the fact. Whether it’s the sometimes prickly Williams, protecting her time and privacy, or the ever-elegant Cohen, openly discussing his bouts with depression, the book sometimes reads like an intimate conversation (Williams discussing her estranged brother), other times as a late-night confession (Cohen on the breakup of his marriage). Includes a heartfelt foreword recounting her relationships with Cohen and Nelson by Suzanne Vega.

GIVE ME LIBERTY!: A REVISED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BY GILBERT SHELTON, TED RICHARDS, WILLY MURPHY, GARY HALGREN

THE STORY OF AMERICA’S BATTLE FOR INDEPENDENCE… BUT FUNNY!

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION. The true history of the American Revolution as it was never taught in school! Two titans of underground comix team up to retell the essential moments of the war against the British — as it might have seemed to the ordinary people of the time.

Gilbert Shelton (ZAP Comix, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) and Ted Richards (Air Pirates, The Forty Year Old Hippie) combined their cartooning talents to create an episodic, comedic, and more-or-less accurate summary of the founding of the United States of America. Now, for only the second time in 250 years, Fantagraphics Underground brings this lost classic back to print.

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 29: 1993-1994 BY HAL FOSTER, JOHN CULLEN MURPHY, CULLEN MURPHY

In the latest volume of Fantagraphics' ambitious reprinting of Hal Foster's immortal masterpiece, another milestone in the life of Prince Valiant.

The wedding of Karen and Vanni! The adventures of three queens and a princess! Val and Sir Gawain in North Africa! A traitor in control of Aleta's Misty Isles! Siege on top of siege! Val's quest for the truth-compelling Shield of Achilles! Plus, Prince Valiant scholar and translator Dr. Uwe Baumann on Prince Valiant in the early 1990s.

Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal Foster. Starring a daring and gallant young hero, the series features epic sword fights, elaborate scenes of pomp and pageantry, and breathless plotting that always leaves the reader wanting more. Fantagraphics' deluxe editions, each collecting two years' worth of Sunday strips, boast superbly restored artwork that captures every delicate line and chromatic nuance of Foster's art.

SECRETS OF A LOST DIARY BY SANTIAGO COHEN

A tender story told in two lives, Santiago Cohen creates a meditation on heartbreak, isolation, and the promise of solace.

When her dementia-stricken grandmother Babi dies, 15-year-old Lucy —sensitive and sentimental, with a punky haircut and ears full of piercings— is left reeling and unmoored. That is, until a secret diary locked away in a hidden compartment drops out from Babi's desk. What follows is a living epistolary, reflecting grandmother and granddaughter's struggles with belonging. Babi, caught between her Polish-Jewish past and Mexican home, both reckoning with lesbian identity and the need to conceal it. Lucy comes to find they shared far more than a birthday. A moving reflection on love, grief, and connection across generations.

LIFE DRAWING: A LOVE AND ROCKETS COLLECTION BY JAIME HERNANDEZ

Two Latinas, separated by a generation, hinder and help each other find their place in a world they never made.

Ten years in the making (and torn from the pages of the legendary Love and Rockets), Jaime Hernandez's newest graphic novel skillfully weaves two generations of his beloved characters into a satisfying story of love—both young and middle-aged. Life Drawing darts primarily between the youthful Tonta and the venerable Maggie. Tonta has a crush on her art teacher, Ray, as well as an axe to grind with an older woman in the neighborhood. When Tonta finds that the woman, Maggie, is married to Ray, things get complicated. And Tonta does not handle complications well.

Life Drawing showcases Hernandez's brilliant talent for character, weaving relationships, rejections, infidelities, and adventures involving: Tonta's self-involved sisters Vivian, Violet, and Muñeca; her colorful pals Gomez, Judy Fair, and Brown Alice; her mother, the infamous 'Black Widow of the Valley'; and of course, the two great loves of Maggie's life, Ray and Hopey. There's also a forest spirit, two weddings, some cosplay, a little pole dancing, and page after page of breathtaking comics by the medium's most wide-eyed romantic. Did we mention the weddings?

Orders of Life Drawing include a unique bookplate signed by Jaime Hernandez while supplies last!

WORLD WITHIN THE WORLD: COLLECTED MINICOMIX & SHORT WORKS 2010-2022 BY JULIA GFRORER

Collecting over 30 rare works of short fiction tinged with horror and eroticism by one of comics' most distinct voices, spanning over 20,000 years from the Stone Age to the apocalypse.

Julia Gfrörer is quietly one of the most influential cartoonists of her generation. Emerging from the Portland scene at the height of the Obama era, her comics augured the dark times to come, using graphic sex, pitch-black horror, a hunger for exploring the past, and a line cruel as a whip to create her own unmistakable sense of millennial melancholy. Reflecting her DIY ethos, much of her work has only been available in self-published zines or independent anthologies, many of them rare or out-of-print — until now.

World Within the World features 30 of Gfrörer's short stories, culled from a decade of writing and drawing at the bleeding edge of the art form. Her tales of desire, despair, and the universal need for connection span centuries, continents, and cultures from prehistoric teenagers in love to Christian martyrs in the making to modern-day vampires on the make. Along the way her bold, confident work leads the reader to some unexpected places, whether erotica inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe or a post-apocalyptic parody of Frasier. In

FEBRUARY EVENTS

FEBRUARY “DEAL OF THE MONTH”

A little thank you to our loyal subscribers: Every month, scroll down and check this space for a limited-time discount, special offer, or other exclusive, plus a sneak-peek excerpt from an upcoming book! Enjoy, and thanks for shopping Fantagraphics! This month:

Use code VALENTINE at checkout through February 28th for 20% off your next purchase at Fantagraphics.com!*

*Cannot be combined with other offers

SNEAK PEAK OF BEAT IT, RUFUS BY NOAH VAN SCIVER

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