Tag: Fantagraphics

Fantagraphics announces a series of Atlas Comics collections

The publisher will work with Marvel to bring the 1950s comics line back into print.

Fantagraphics and Marvel have announced a series of hardcover volumes collecting comics from Marvel’s 1950s Atlas Comics line. Fantagraphics plan to release collections of individual titles and compilations of a single artist, starting with Adventures Into Terror and artist Joe Maneely.

Edited by Atlas scholar Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, the comics were scanned “directly from the original printings and meticulously restored with a wealth of detail never seen before.” Fantagraphics will publish five volumes a year, with the first two volumes coming this fall.

“It is with great pleasure that I reintroduce modern audiences to this hidden gold and Marvel’s talented 1950s creators, many of whom would go on to fame in the silver age and beyond,” Vassallo said.

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Fantagraphics will publish a new Daniel Clowes graphic novel this fall

The creator of ‘Ghost World’ and ‘Wilson’ returns to comics with ‘Monica’ later this year.

Fantagraphics has announced a new project by Daniel Clowes that will arrive in stores this fall — Monica, the life story of a woman that the publisher describes as “mysterious, uncategorizable and quintessentially Clowesian.”

The award-winning creator of Ghost World, The Death-Ray, Wilson, Patience and more took about six years to finish the new project, which will no doubt be one of this year’s biggest releases.

“Daniel Clowes had already created what might well be my favorite body of work in the medium’s history,” said Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds. “But Monica raises his own bar even higher, as both a writer of fiction and as a cartoonist. It’s a masterpiece that is both utterly Clowes and unlike anything else I’ve ever read.”

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Slugfest | Scholastic outlines their plans for the new ‘Dog Man’ book

Plus: The Oloris, Poison Ivy, The X-Cellent, Whistleblowers, Patrick McDonnell and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

The graphic novel phenomenon Dog Man will return at the end of the month with a new book, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, continuing the adventures of our hero, Li’l Petey, 80-HD and the rest of the gang.

Scholastic has announced their promotional plans for Dav Pilkey’s latest, which include a Free Comic Book Day issue, the return of Dog Man: The Musical and Dog Man Day celebrations.

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Fantagraphics will publish Maria Bamford + Scott Marvel Cassidy’s ‘Hogbook and Lazer Eyes’

The new graphic novel will arrive in stores in June.

Fantagraphics has announced Hogbook and Lazer Eyes, a new graphic novel from actress and comedian Maria Bamford and painter Scott Marvel Cassidy.

The two creators, who were married in 2015, met through the dating app OK Cupid, as chronicled on the quasi-autobiographical Lady Dynamite! show on Netflix. The graphic novel will recount their story through the eyes of their pug housemates.

“As a dog lover, and as a comics fan, I was immediately charmed by Hogbook and Lazer Eyes from almost the first page,” said Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Maria and Scott have crafted something as sweet and beautiful as it is laugh out loud funny.”

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Quick Hits | Rest in peace, Tim Kennedy, Aline Kominsky–Crumb

Plus news on Hunter Gorinson, Steve Ditko, Anders Nilsen, Angoulême and more.

Archie Comics artist Tim Kennedy, who collaborated artistically with his twin brother Pat, has passed away. No cause of death has been reported.

The Kennedy brothers began working for Archie in the late 1980s, after graduating from the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Design. They’ve been regular contributors ever since, drawing classic Archie stories as well as projects like the popular Life With Archie, which showed two alternate takes on Archie marrying Betty and Veronica.

“For decades, the Fabulous K Bros have dazzled fans around the world, bringing some of the funniest and most difficult stories from idea to the page,” said Archie Comics President and Editor-in-Chief Mike Pellerito. “No matter the challenge of illustrating a difficult scene with a giant Ferris wheel, intricate architecture, spaceships, car chases or any other wild story idea, they handled it seemingly with ease. Over the past decade or so I think their work has become some of the best and most versatile at Archie.”

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Fantagraphics launches their Cyber Monday sale early

Get 40% off almost everything on their website for today only.

Technically Cyber Monday is next week, but Fantagraphics doesn’t care — they’ve launched their Cyber Monday sale today, offering 40% off on “just about everything” on their website, plus free USPS media mail shipping on orders over $75.

It includes both backlist titles and new releases, including Jordan Crane’s incredible Keeping Two, Barry Windsor Smith’s award-winning Monsters, their collection of Liniers’ Macanudo comic strip and more from Daniel Clowes, Megan Kelso, Simon Hanselman, Jim Woodring, the Hernandez Brothers and lots of other wonderful creators.

That’s it — that’s the post. Go check out the sale, which ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

Fantagraphics gets spooky in a new collection of Ray Bradbury’s EC Comics stories

Almost 30 stories by the author, drawn by some of EC’s finest artists, will arrive in stores later this month.

EC Comics will also hold a special place in the hearts of comics fans, as they brought together some of the best creators of the time to create comics featuring horror, science fiction, war and other genres — names like Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Joe Orlando, John Severin and Al Williamson, among many others. Just in the past week EC Comics was referenced by both Scott Snyder and D.G. Chichester in their respective newsletters.

One name that might not immediately come to mind, though, is Ray Bradbury. The author of Fahrenheit 451, The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes and more was a prolific short story writer, and EC adapted many of those stories into comics — 28 of them, in fact, which are being collected later this month by Fantagraphics.

Home to Stay includes every Bradbury story that EC adapted between 1951 and 1954, including “Home to Stay”— a combination of two Bradbury science fiction stories that Bradbury himself proclaimed topped his originals, combined by scripter Al Feldstein and artist Wally Wood.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Noah Van Sciver

The critically acclaimed cartoonist discusses his two latest projects, ‘Joseph Smith and the Mormons’ and ‘As a Cartoonist.’

Noah Van Sciver has always been a prolific cartoonist. This summer he released two new books, which represent the best work he’s done so far in his career.

Joseph Smith and the Mormons, which is out now from Abrams, is a project Van Sciver has been working on for more than a decade. To say that it’s Van Sciver’s best book, which I believe, is to sell it short, because the book is also the most ambitious project that Van Sciver has attempted. The book looks at the life of Smith and, without captions or word balloons, manages to convey so much information as it charts the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s an incredible work of cartooning and of history.

His other book is As a Cartoonist, a collection of short comics published by Fantagraphics, which were made in the same period, and share a number of concerns and approaches. Both books are deeply personal in different ways. I’ve talked with Van Sciver a few times over the years, and I was thrilled to be able to talk with him about these two books.

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Fantagraphics will celebrate 40 years of ‘Love & Rockets’ with a slipcase edition and more

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez will attend Comic-Con International this week to celebrate the anniversary.

Fantagraphics has announced their plans for the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. Those plans include a slipcase edition of the first 50 issues of the groundbreaking title.

The Brothers Hernandez self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets back in 1981, which was re-published by Fantagraphics in 1982 with a color cover. The series would continue through 1996 and issue #50, the final issue of the first volume. Since then, the series has returned for three additional volumes, as well as countless spinoff series featuring the characters from L&R.

“When I read Gilbert and Jaime’s stories in Love and Rockets for the first time their work looked to me, miraculously, like the artistic future of comics — and so it was,” said Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth. “It has certainly been a high point of my career (and my life) to have known and published these brilliant cartoonists over the last 40 years, and I look forward to publishing them another 40. Well, OK. Maybe 30.”

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Fantagraphics, Sunday Press enter into a publishing agreement

Fantagraphics will distribute both previous and new projects from Sunday Press.

Fantagraphics has announced that they’ve entered in a partnership with Sunday Press, the publisher of collections of classic comic strips like Little Nemo in Slumberland, Walt & Skeezix, Little Joe and more.

Fantagraphics will distribute Sunday Press’s previous publications beginning in July 2022, and in 2023 will start publishing new books under the Sunday Press imprint. Sunday Press previously had a similar agreement with IDW.

“It’s just a perfect fit for a small publisher like myself,” said Sunday Press founder and editor Peter Maresca in a statement. “I’ve always been a great admirer of the editorial decisions and quality production from Fantagraphics and I’m very happy for this chance to become a part of their family.”

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‘Stone Fruit’ by Lee Lai wins the 2022 Lynd Ward prize

Lai and Fantagraphics add another award to a growing list.

Stone Fruit, Lee Lai’s graphic novel about a queer couple and their relationships with their families, has added another award to its growing collection. Penn State University Libraries has awarded it the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize for 2022. The graphic novel was published by Fantagraphics in May of 2021.

The award comes with a $2,500 prize, and the winner is chosen by a jury. In their write-up, the jury said, “Lee Lai’s ‘Stone Fruit’ is one of those rare graphic novels where everything — story, text, images, style — comes together in full complement to create a memorable, moving experience for readers.”

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R. Kikuo Johnson’s ‘No One Else’ wins the 2022 L.A Times Book Prize

The graphic novel about a family on Maui dealing with grief was published by Fantagraphics last fall.

The Los Angeles Times has awarded R. Kikuo Johnson’s No One Else its annual Book Prize for 2022 in the Graphic Novel/Comics category.

“I once believed that awards were given mostly on merit, but obviously luck and other factors have just as much to do with it, and that makes me even more grateful that the dice rolled my way this time,” Johnson said on Instagram. “The five other finalists made beautiful books that make me proud to be a cartoonist and so thankful to the generation of artists before us who built the doorways that we get to walk through.”

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