The Comics Journal #311

by Kate Beaton (Artist), Gary Groth (Editor), Austin English (Editor), Kristy Valenti (Editor)

Overview

This issue features an in-depth, personal conversation between Kate Beaton and Sarah Glidden about depicting history, humor, and social issues in comics form; a profile of Gilbert Shelton; an interview with musician and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis and much more.

Featured in this issue: An in-depth, personal conversation between Kate Beaton (Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Hark! A Vagrant) and Sarah Glidden (Rolling Blackouts), from the Pizza Island comics collective, about depicting history, humor, and social issues in comics form; a profile of Gilbert Shelton (Zap, Fabulous Furry Freak Bros.), which includes a never-before-published-in-English “Shelton Hagiography” by French cartoonist Pic; and an interview with musician and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis (12 Crass Songs, Fuff). Plus: “An Imaginary Publication Cover Gallery” by Marc Bell (Hot Potatoe); a new manga column that puts classic and contemporary manga (Kamen Rider and Hunter X Hunter) in concert; a publishing roundtable on how to grow the adult audience for comics; a deep dive into an underdiscussed Charlton cartoonist, Enrique Nieto; a case for fine artist Dorothy Iannone’s work as comics, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798875001208
Publisher:	Fantagraphics
Publication date:	06/10/2025
Series:	The Comics Journal
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kate Beaton is a Canadian cartoonist who appeared in the comics scene in 2007. Since then, the collections of her landmark strip Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops each spent several months on the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list, as well as appearing on best of the year lists from Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, NPR Books, and winning the Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey, and Doug Wright Awards. She has also published the picture books King Baby and The Princess and the Pony. Beaton lives in Cape Breton with her family.

Gary Groth is the co-founder of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. He lives in Seattle.

Austin English is an artist and writer living in Brooklyn. He has written for The Comics Journal regularly since he was 17. As a cartoonist, he has published the books Gulag Casual and Meskin and Umezo. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, including Marvin Gardens in New York and Et Al gallery in San Francisco. He runs the comics publishing house Domino Books, which he founded in 2011. He also teaches comics, drawing and art history at both Parsons School of Design and The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Kristy Valenti is an Eisner-Award-winning editor at Fantagraphics Books. She lives in Seattle.