FANTAGRAPHICS (ONE OF THE BEST PUBLISHERS EVER) NEED YOU.

let's keep it clear : if you got a few extra bucks this month/week, buy a few of the coooooooool bunch of huge comics Fantagraphics publish each and everyday.
'seems like it's time of trouble for them, and really, really, they deserve some help from all of the comics, illustration, gorgeous art fans that we (you ?) are. many briliants artists do some work through them, and Fantagraphics is always a synonym of quality in this big colored spandex business.
from Jessica Abel to Lewis Trondheim, from Robert Crumb to Dave Cooper, from Jim Woodring (hey MF !) to Charles Burns, from... hell, Daniel Clowes, Jason, Roberta Gregory, Tony Millionaire, Joe Sacco, the Hernandez bros, Max Andersson, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Jason Lutes... i could go for hours...
nice comics but also dozens of up and coming huge artists will probably miss the chance to get some exposure if Fanta stops here ; i'll try to do a little selection of what to get ABSOLUTELY, kind of "fanta-must-have", and i gotta say that the choice will be hard ; 75% of their catalogue is extra-strong, the rest isn't bad either...
many artists already ake this sad news hang around your mailbox, so grab a chance of gettin a nice comics collection, and buy some Fantagraphics books...

(here's a copy of the last Fantagraphics newsletter...)
>>>
Fantagraphics Books Needs Your Help!
Buy Books! Keep Us Alive!

To Comics Lovers Throughout the World:
Fantagraphics Books has just celebrated its 27th year publishing many of the finest cartoonists from all over the world as well as our flagship publication, the magazine people love to hate, The Comics Journal. We are proud of our long-term commitment to comics as an art form and our dogged determination to push excellence down everybody's throats. This is all very well and good but it doesn't mean much in the face of brute economics and it's the wall of brute economics that we've just hit, hard.

Due to two major financial obstacles over the last two years, we're hard against it.

Our former and now bankrupt book trade distributor went out of business owing us over $70,000 which we will never see. (To add insult to injury, we learned that the owner is selling copies of our books that he should've returned on e-bay!) This unexpected shortfall necessitated taking out a couple loans which have now come due. In late 2001, our line was picked up by the W.W. NORTON COMPANY, who took over our bookstore distribution, and has done a magnificent job of providing us unprecedented access to the bookstore market. Inexperience with the book trade resulted in our erring on the side of overprinting our books too heavily throughout 2002,
so that our anticipated profit is in fact sitting in our warehouse in the form of books. Loans must be paid in cash, not books. The only way to get out of this hole we've dug ourselves into is to sell those books. Which is where, we hope, you come in.

Over the last few weeks, we've worked to fix our in-house problems (which included, most painfully, laying off several fine and long-term employees).
We have put in place a system of checks and balances by which we will watch our inventory growth scrupulously. But, we have a debt to pay down and wolves at the door. It's so severe that this month we envisaged shutting down our active publishing, seeking outside investors, or similarly odious measures. (Fantagraphics continues to be owned 100% by Messrs. Gary Groth and Kim Thompson. We'd like it to remain that way.)

If you've respected what Fantagraphics stands for and what we've done for the medium, if you've enjoyed our books, and if you want to insure that this proud tradition continues into this new and ominous century, we're asking you to help us now in our especial hour of need by buying some books.
Put simply, we need to raise about $80,000 above our usual sales over the next month, and the only way to do that is to convert books into cash.

We've spent the last quarter century trying hard to produce the best comics the world has ever seen. You've rewarded us over the years with your loyal patronage, your moral support, your praise, your intelligent and honest feedback, all of which are more than we could ever have hoped for. We know we have tens of thousands of loyal readers: if even a fraction of you come forward and order two or three books that you've been meaning to buy, we'll be over this hump. We've published some some of the best books ever over the last year Gene Deitch's (yes, that Gene Deitch!) THE CAT ON A HOT THIN GROOVE; B. KRIGSTEIN, Greg Sadowski's definitive biography of the pioneering artist from the '50s; the magnificent FRANK collection; and the third volume of the extraordinary KRAZY KAT series. Our publishing plans for 2003 include a huge coffee table book by Will Elder (WILL ELDER: MAD PLAYBOY OF ART); KRIGSTEIN COMICS, a 240 page follow-up collection of Krigstein's best comics from the 50s, and new collections and graphic novels by Gilbert Hernandez, Jason, Dave Cooper, Robert Crumb, A.B. Frost, Bill Griffith, Gary Panter...

We already sell books by mail, so, as clichéd as it sounds, we really do have operators standing by. You can view out catalogue online. You can order by calling our 800 number or on-line at our web site (all ordering information below.)

If this was a standard pitch, we'd offer you some extra incentive a discount or free books or knicknacks or whatnot. But, it's not. We're asking those of you who believe we've contributed something worthwhile and meaningful to help us continue to do so, that's all. We need the full retail value of our books. But we can offer something that won't cost us any money: anyone (individually or collectively) who buys $500 worth of books from us will get a personal phone call from Gary Groth thanking you for saving Fantagraphics ass. Think how much fun this could be at a party!

Secure Internet Orders: http://www.fantagraphics.com
phone: 206-524-6165 or 800-657-1100
via FAX: 206-524-2104
via mail: Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
>>>

here we are. sometimes in the weekend, i'll post a command to my local comicshop, plus i'll post here some of he major shit published by Fanta. give it a try. it definitely worth it. really.

HAVE FUN WITH TTC.

those guys are pretty disturbing and all, every 21st-century-hip-hop-headz already know that. now Teki, one third of TTC, has some new shit comin at our poor, poor ears. 8 )

"hello everybody.
alright so this is a song recorded by Tekilatex and fantastic french noisy electronic punk hop group dDamage.
this funny twisted cover of Cindy Lauper's classic is set to be a huge hit in every lesbian club this summer.
it will soon be available on the tsunami addiction compilation "Boyz revenge" out in june 2003 (more info on http://www.tsunami-addiction.com )". (from Teki Latex)

MATRIX : RELOADED ??? AH AH AH.

from one of the best blogs I ever read (i visit it for months, and i can't keep but checking it), Luke says it all about what is supposed to be THE movie.
what do you wanna know more ? do you really want/need to see it ?
...the third ? which fuckin' third are you talkin about ? "return of the Jedi" ? 8)

PENCILS AND INK. AND A BIT MORE.

1. the bi-monthly Warren Ellis thread. today : Warren Ellis ! (ladies & gentlemen, applause)
guess what ? a few news from one of today's top writers, the one and only (yeah i know, pretty predictable for those of you who read these lines quite often...) Warren Ellis.
i wanna say that Orbiter, his (nearly) last masterpiece, is one of the best things i'd read this year. the art from Colleen Doran show that the artist got some evolution in her way of working, and the Ellis guy told us a story who will make you cry, all of you cosmos-fanatics... Also, for those of you speaking french, Gino did a great review of The Authority, on friday, may the 16, on his coooool blog, Mars Hotel.
"ORBITER burned through a little under 1500 reordered copies in the first few days after release. In that time, the West Coast of America didn't even have ORBITER, due to a distribution fuck-up.
ORBITER got a B in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY."
oh yeah, also : you can find another Warren Ellis interview at Slashdot.

2. Trondheim Export. trust it.
still from the Fantagraphics bunch of rampaging press, french fave Lewis Trondheim's got some more stuff published in english : Nimrod #7 (probably some excerpts from "Approximativement", one of his better works).
"Ever wonder what it's like to sit in on an editorial meeting at L'Association, the French publishing house Lewis Trondheim co-owns? Well, we never had either, but it's actually pretty damned amusing, as Trondheim depicts one in this ish, especially when one devolves into a drunken tussle with a toilet brush, as this one does. Also, little Lewis discovers the joys and pitfalls of thievery, older Lewis battles the bulge, and French legend Moebius makes a cameo." (source : Fantagraphics)
pretty cool advertising for this stuff...

3. Wearing the Horns.
on the comics front, some news from the up and coming Dave Cockrum-related-stuff, the awaited Wearing The Horns from writer Clifford Meth.
from the writer himself :
"Just back after a 5-year haitus, folks. Forgive the intrusion, but lots of new places and people to connect with.
My new illustrated novella WEARING THE HORNS (Aardwolf Publishing) with Dave Cockrum (illos) & Frank Brunner (cover) will be available soon. We are hungry for reviews. All suggestions (and potential reviewers!) are welcome. Please contact me : thecliffordmethod@yahoo.com "

4. some shit about the 2003 Free ComicBook Day.
still on the comics front, i would like to get some echoes or feedbacks about your Free ComicBook Day, for those of you who lived it. how it works, how sad was your usual retailer, which title you found, and so on... basically, whatever.
call me jealous, but since this "don't you know that us 'mericans don't give a fuck about UN or whatever, let's fight" times, it was the first time i envy my favorites united states residents for having such a cool opportunity : bring some comics home for FREE.
and as wrote Paul Ewert in one of his post to the Small Press Comics mailing-list, "Remember the best price you can get is free". eh eh eh.

5. Welcome to Jacob Cooper, and Congrats to Julie & Dave.
recently having his first child, let's hope that Dave Cooper, the huge artist will save some times for keep up our pleasure...
right now, Weasel's Eddy Table Doll is available, ("Based on the character from Dave's WEASEL, Eddy is housed in a fancy box that acts as a sort of diorama, complete with paper stand-up characters in the scene's foreground! And of interest to Weasel readers:
the two-page comic strip on the back of the box is actually a direct continuation of the final Eddy Table story from Weasel #5.
but it won't make us glad after the baaaad thing : Weasel #6 (overbite, paintings & drawings of mostly pillowy girls), the hardcover art book featuring plenty of Cooper's paintings (and with some words from HBO's Mr Show's own David Cross), is already sold out.
what ? what about mine ? fuck. i'm still waiting for it, as for Ripple, the collection of the first ish of Weasel.

6. for the British Jews who don't like Joe Sacco : fuck -let's keep it clear- you.
"The Board of Deputies of British Jews has demanded that the Waterstones chain in the United Kingdom stop selling Palestine by cartoonist Joe Sacco, claiming that "book contains numerous references to Jews in general and not just to Israelis. The tone of these references is quite unacceptable."
Waterstones, to their credit, in turn has said that it operates a non-censorship policy and will not honor the request.
(source : Fantagraphics)
Palestine if just one the best comics ever. period.

...
...uh....
...and, hum....
...i wanted to wait a few weeks before posting this. the proof that Ellis is a fuckin brilliant guy. posting this at the time he posted it on his Bad Signal mailing-list had to be felt as "anti-american" (which should be a shame, of course, eh eh eh), so i decided to post it only now, which is, i must admit, maybe worse. :) anyway.
(Ellis wrote about the media jumping on the Jessica Whatever death while the hum, "Shock And Awe and Let's Fuck'em" scenario...)

"BBC: "...brave Jessica, wrapped in the Stars And Stripes, the symbol of her freedom..."
CNN: "...next: a pretty prisoner of war."

Oh, and eleven other people may have been found there. But they appear not to have been passably cute white girls, so fuck 'em.
Kaveh Golestan, an important documentarian and photographer working with BBC correspondent Jim Muir and producer Stuart Young, died in Iraq yesterday.
But BBC News 24 were covering the arrival of the plane carrying Brave Jessica in Germany, and BBCi fucked up the webpage with his obit.
Dan Curtis Johnson thinks Brave Jessica will have her Playboy shoot by July. I personally think we'll see her next on American Idol.

Colin Powell, reduced to a bagman now his Doctrine of "overwhelming force" has been discarded in favour of Shock And Awe (which didn't actually work, as even the inventor of the doctrine has commented) and putting marines on starvation rations into streetfighting scenarios, has apparently successfully bribed Turkey. This may forestall what looked like an imminent military coup, as allowed by their weird state constitution.

Elsewhere, Japan's looking to arm up, because Kim Jong Il scares the crap out of them. Ror. Kim Jong Il scares the crap out of everyone, and the snapshots of life in North Korea are nothing short of surreal. Japan, on the other hand, has been a post-imperialist nation for a very long time, dissolved into a fascinating mess of near-Victorian social confusion and pop culture run riot.
Takeshi Kitano runs a TV freak show roughly entitled, "Japan, This Is Where You Went Wrong."
And Robert Mugabe is comparing himself fondly to Hitler. Which should come as no surprise to anyone who saw him grow That Moustache some years back.

How can you not want to write about the world?"

OUPS. ONE WEEK LATE.

yeah i know. NO, don't think i'm giving up this blog. it's just that i just can't see the end of my many many runs-to-nowhere.
anyway. still waiting for more stability in my life, and for some time for writing here all the stuff that i wanna say. or share. or whatever.

last weekend was SPENDING MONEY time, as i spent a few days buying comics and records, with an ease that should scare me.
let's see what we have here...
- yeah... got it, at least : ORBITER by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran,
- the overmediatized 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (tpb) by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith (idw publishing),
- some Vertigo nice shit, FABLES (tpb) (dc/vertigo),
- wow, some Paul Pope kindalike... non, just kidding. CHANNEL ZERO : JENNIE ONE from Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan (ait/planet lar),
- more Mignola's red creature, HELLBOY : WEIRD TALES 1 & 2 (feat. Andi Watson, John Cassaday,and many other...),
- some WEASEL comics from Dave Cooper (Fantagraphics),
- the biiiig X-FORCE HARDCOVER tpb from Milligan and Allred.
- some very old issue of FLBLB, a indy french comics anthology,
- the last Comic Book Artist magazine, featuring loads of stuff on John Buscema (rip) and Adam Hugues,
- and a magnificient print for the small press expo of last september, done by Jason Little (fourth pic on this link)... oh my god i like it, it's beautifuuuul.

oups i gotta go. is this... ? yeah. fuck. it's already time to quit. will be back on friday, i think. got many REAL things to say, and not only reviews of the above stuff.
damn fuckin public computer sharing... argh.

YAAAAY !

Some news from our favorite beared dj, the one and only Vadim guy, still in north america for what looks like an amazing tour. (nearly) Live from Vads, some news and feelings about the last week of these weeks out there...

..."...(in Quebec city, Quebec...) for the show, not that many people turned up - perhaps just over 130, but then again the club did no visible promotion of any kind. However of the 130 people who did come, they were the loudest most hyped, amped 130 people we have ever seen. Perhaps its a French thing? Cause in France we get really good crowd response but we get big audiences as well. In fact France is right one of the best places for the Russian percussion to play in the world.Sixtoo rocked his set as well, he¹s a great guy..."...

eh eh eh. finally, the man understood. eh eh. :)