Broken Frontier

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! Heading into the weekend with our penultimate exclusive preview of our celebratory Fantagraphics month and this time it’s from The Mess, the much anticipated new graphic novel from Noah Van Sciver! Pre-order online here THE MESS by Noah Van Sciver A family death and a missing Picasso send a mother and son on an unexpected spring break that threatens to permanently damage their relationship — if they survive the trip! When her semi-estranged and penniless hoarder father...

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! Katie Skelly’s Heaven focuses on the tantalising mystery of a strip club that seems to appear and disappear at will. As the story unfolds, its focus shifts towards the women at its centre – their friendships, ambitions, agency and sense of identity. Blending mystery, horror, coming-of-age and erotica with Skelly’s distinctive visual style, Heaven is a story that resists easy categorisation.

Marvel continue to license out their classic back catalogue to other publishers like Dark Horse, Fantagraphics and Clover Press but it’s leading to some interesting approaches including the upcoming The King Goes West, featuring Western comics by the one and only Jack Kirby.

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! The title Lost Marvels may be something of a misnomer (forgotten, obscure, rare… yes… lost? Not so much) but Fantagraphics’ reprint series of some of the hidden corners of Marvel history has certainly given new audiences the opportunity to discover work they may never even have realised existed. The fourth volume in the series takes something of a different approach.

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! At the beginning of our celebration of 50 years of Fantagraphics at Broken Frontier this past month we interviewed Jesse Moynihan about his epic saga Forming.

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! As part of our celebration of 50 years of Fantagraphics, we’re highlighting their most revolutionary, their most out there, their most individual graphic novels of the last 50 years. Despite being a recent addition, Fungae from Wojtek Wawszczyk and Tomasz Lew Leśniak can surely take its well-deserved place amongst them.

One final Comics Cultural Impact Collective online roundtable meeting for the moment with a Scottish Comics Roundtable coming in September. There’s an incredible evolving small press and indie scene in Scotland so this feels very apt. Full details are below courtesy of CCIC, who have been doing incredible work over the last three years working to boost the form, support those who work in it and improve its infrastructure.

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! Reading a book as raw and candid as Kayla E.’s Precious Rubbish the reader can’t help but ask themself the question of whether this truly singular approach to graphic memoir proved to be cathartic as a process, a difficult but necessary revisitation of trauma, or a combination of both. The artist speaks of the book more in terms of exorcising the past: “If an exorcism can ever be slow and quiet, then every panel I’ve finished has felt something like an exorcism.

The Gosh! Comics and Broken Frontier Drink and Draw Online is back again this week and we’re inviting you to join in the fun with a little reminder of some recent art from our D&Ds. Here’s the details: Where and when? On Bluesky via the Broken Frontier account on Thursday, August 27th. Introductions at 7.15pm BST with the drawing rounds starting at 7.30pm. What is the format? We have a drawing theme for three sessions across the evening.

FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! A couple of weeks ago at Broken Frontier our Swati Nair reviewed the first volume of Marina Lisa Komiya’s On Their Frontlines: The Lives of Japanese War Brides describing it as “an impressive opening volume.” Today at BF we’re very pleased to be able to revisit the book with this preview of pages exclusive to us! Pre-order online here ON THEIR FRONTLINES: THE LIVES OF JAPANESE WAR BRIDES VOL.