Alphabetical Index of Fantagraphics Books

Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life

Ellen Forney’s Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me was one of the best graphic novels of 2012. An honest, unflinching exploration of her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, the book dealt with how she came to terms with the condition and how it affected her as an artist. But what did she do about it? Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life, the follow-up, covers that. It’s a self-help book, the visual equivalent of a scrapbook of hints, tips, reminders, […]

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Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen

Dylan Horrocks’ Hicksville is one of the best graphic novels ever, about a world where comics are part of everyone’s daily life. At the time it came out, we hadn’t yet reached the point we’re at today, where it’s acceptable, even desirable, to know about comics. Then, liking comics meant something was wrong with you, and Horrocks’ vision was really a fantasy, a dream world that existed only in imagination. That was over 15 years ago. I was excited to […]

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Barnaby Volume 1

The author of the wonderfully imaginative Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson, brought that creativity to the comic strip format during World War II. This first volume of Barnaby contains comics from April 1942 through the end of 1943. Barnaby is a typical boy who’s visited by the world’s strangest Fairy Godfather. Mr. O’Malley wears a hat and trenchcoat and is never seen without his cigar (which he calls his magic wand). It’s unclear, at times, whether he’s really […]

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Displacement: A Travelogue

Displacement is a followup to Lucy Knisley’s previous travelogue, An Age of License, but this time, instead of portraying a young woman starting her life, she tackles the end. She describes the difference like this: “That trip was about independence, sex, youth, and adventure. This trip is about patience, care, mortality, respect, sympathy, and love.” Knisley accompanies her grandparents on a cruise for the elderly, and Displacement is her journal about taking care of them while they travel. In her […]

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An Age of License: A Travelogue

Lucy Knisley is one of my favorite comic artists. I haven’t read a book of hers I didn’t like, which means each new title comes with greater expectations. An Age of License is the first of two travel memoirs by her coming from Fantagraphics, and I’m pleased that it’s as good as I hoped. It’s set in 2011, when Lucy went to a Norwegian comic festival. Along the way, she went to France to visit her mother, who was vacationing […]

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Young Romance 2: The Best of Simon & Kirby Romance Comics

The first Young Romance volume must have done well, because here’s a second collection of classic love stories by masters of the comic medium Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. In contrast to that volume, which ranged more widely across years and titles, this one more closely approaches chronological coverage. The reprints here come from Young Romance #1-10 (with the exception of stories included in the first book) and Young Love #1-2, published from 1947-1949. A thorough introduction by comic historian […]

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Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Volume 2: Robin Hood Rides Again

Floyd Gottfredson’s color Sunday comic strips from January 1936 through December 1938 are collected in Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Volume 2: Robin Hood Rides Again. This will be the final volume of his Sunday work, since after this period, he gave up the job to focus on the daily strip. As in the first volume, there are exceptional extras putting this work in context. The introductions are helpful in understanding the connections to the film cartoon Mickey, which […]

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Christmas on Bear Mountain

Another end of the year, another Christmas-themed Donald Duck collection. This time, it’s historically significant — since Christmas on Bear Mountain is Uncle Scrooge’s first appearance. (His second appearance is in the most recent Donald Duck volume, The Old Castle’s Secret, released this past summer.) In his introduction, Scrooge lives down to his name, sending his nephew Donald and his nephews to a mountain cabin stocked with food and presents only to scare him with a fake bear attack to […]

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