Of all the comic publishers in the world why is it fanta graphics have to be the one that’s suffering the most (why not Top Cow we all know the industrie would be better with out them). They have done nothing but publish some of the best comics and Graphick novels. I’m just pissed Fanta Graphics has done nothing but good for the industry, when ever i here anyone say there is no deviersity in American comics i send them to Fanta Graphics, the say there isn’t anything for female readers i send them to Fanta Graphics, some moron starts claiming that American comics are only about large breasted women in G strings (thank you Top Cow) I point out Ghost World was a comic book published by fanta graphics. I just don’t even want to think will happen to artist like Robert Crumb (that man is so hard to keep happy), Daniel Clowes and so many other great writers and artist if fanta Graphics close. I pretty sure that the majority of comic readers can agree that if Fanta Graphics closes that the deiversity, quality and the respect of the Comics have earned as being a legitimate artistic medium will be devastated if Fanta Graphics titles end up in the hands of any other publisher or worse yet have no publisher. Well I think I’m going to pick up a copy of Ghost World, the complete Mr. Natural, and the Life and Death e of Fritz the cat this month.
WHAT WORLD!!!
I love FantaGraphics, the prime source of the intelligent comic art.
I’m very grateful for Dan Clowes.
I guess I have a bit of a personal investment, too, since Colin Upton’s an acquaintance and the Big Thing series features a few ‘documentary’ stories featuring folks in our peer-group, a couple of which I can be spotted lurking in the backgrounds of.
I’m all for a government bailout.
Well, the largest growest Graphic Novel segment that I know of is manga (esp Tokyopop and Viz). Fantagraphics doesn’t publish any.
Their stuff is high end and cerebral. Ergo, most people don’t want it.
Them’s the facts.
PS – Fantagraphics is one word, lowercase g.
I miss Hate, even though Bagge copped out and gave it a happy ending.
http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/005056.html
Fantagraphics is in big trouble. If you believe, as I do, that they provide something unique that should be supported, they really need that support right now. If you’re normally inclined to buy one or two of their books a month, would you consider buying three or four this month?
I think the Hernandez brothers are outstanding talents. I can’t imagine any other companh giving them their first break (except maybe Kitchen Sink, and they’re gone now).
Holy shit, this is bad news.
Independent publishing is in dire straits these days (the consolidation of book distributors during the mid-nineties was miserable for the business, and the Bush Depression ain’t helping either), and the publishers of comix are being hit particularly hard.
I’ve known Denis Kitchen and Gary Groth for years, and I was heartbroken when Kitchen Sink went out of business…mainly because the “L’il Abner” project has been sidetracked indefinitely. (Denis had been pubishing EVERY daily strip in book form, from 1934 on…he’d gotten up to 1961 before the hammer fell. So we’ll be waiting forever for the rest of the run, plus the Sunday strips.)
I’ve got loads of Fantagraphics titles in my library: the “Thimble Theater” collections, the “Alley Oop” and "Krazy Kat "and “Love and Rockets” books, and tons of Winsor McKay and Peter Bagge, and the entire run of “Nemo” magazine. Groth may be a little stinker in person, but he and Thompson DO have impeccable taste in comics, both vintage and contemporary.
I just snuck over to the Fantagraphics website and found that they’ve just brought out a collection of the 1950’s one-panels by Gene Deitch, starring “The Cat”…a horn-rimmed jazz aficionado whom I first encountered in reprint in R. Crumb’s old “Weirdo” magazine from the 1980s. Gene is also the dad of famous underground cartoonist Kim Deitch, who created “Sunshine Girl” back in the 1960s.
I’m gonna go buy the Gene Deitch book now, and look for more good stuff. Let’s try to keep the boys in business.
<< I was heartbroken when Kitchen Sink went out of business…mainly because the “L’il Abner” project has been sidetracked indefinitely. (Denis had been pubishing EVERY daily strip in book form, from 1934 on…he’d gotten up to 1961 before the hammer fell. So we’ll be waiting forever for the rest of the run, plus the Sunday strips.) >>
Me, too, Ike. I got all the Li’l Abner until they stopped.
And Fantagraphics was reprinting all the POGO dailies, they’ve got eleven six volumes out and then that dried up too. Sigh.
So why diddnya come over ta Brooklyn tha last time ya hit town? I woulda innerduced ya to Evil-Eye Fleegle. We get tagether an shoot pool alla time. His single whammy clears da table.