Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics is the largest publisher of creator owned comics in America. Beginning in the mid-1970s as publisher of The Comics Journal -- still the most widely respected comics periodical in the USA -- they expanded into classics reprints with their long runing series of Prince Valiant collections, and comics history with the erstwhile long running periodical Nemo. But things really took off when they launched their new comics line with LOVE & ROCKETS #1 (along with the less well remembered Don Rosa's Comics and Stories #1) in 1982. The rest is history. What follows is a listing of our core offering of Fantagraphics publications. Love & Rockets, which we specialize in, is listed on separate pages which you can link to from here. For the most part, we are only listing items here that are currently in print. The few items that are not in print are duly noted as such. The Copacetic Price on all in-print Fantagraphics publications is 10 - 20% off (or more!) of the retail/cover price. All the prices that follow incorporate this discount, unless otherwise noted. The fact that a particular item is not listed does not mean that we don't have it: if you're looking for an item from Fantagraphics that you don't see listed here, just let us know what you're looking for, and we'll get back to you; if it's from Fantagraphics, even if we don't have it at the moment, we can certainly get it for you (and sell it to you for 20% off if it's still in print-- and maybe even if it's not) if you're willing to wait a bit.| Title | Creator | Publisher | Series | Price | ||
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| Blazing Combat | Gene Colan, Reed Crandall, Russ Heath, Al Williamson and more ... | Fantagraphics |
$25.00 ($28.99 list) |
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Here's the official Fanta hype: THE LEGENDARY ANTI-WAR COMIC COLLECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS ENTIRETY. Written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by such luminaries as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, and Gene Colan, Blazing Combat was originally published by independent comics publisher James Warren in 1965 and ’66. Following in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Goodwin’s stories reflected the human realities and personal costs of war rather than exploiting the clichés of the traditional men’s adventure genre. They were among the best comics stories about war ever published. Blazing Combat ended after its fourth issue when military post exchanges refused to sell the title due to their perception that it was an anti-war comic. Their hostility was fueled by the depiction of the then-current Vietnam War, especially a story entitled “Landscape,” which follows the thoughts of a simple Vietnamese peasant rice-farmer who pays the ultimate price simply for living where he does — and which was considered anti-war agitprop by the more hawkish members of the business community. Get a better idea of what's going on here with this generous 19-page PDF preview that contains three complete stories! Writer Archie Goodwin and the original publisher James Warren discuss the death of Blazing Combat and market censorship as well as the creative gestation of the series in exclusive interviews. 208 page hardcover | |||||
| Sublife #2 | John Pham | Fantagraphics | Sublife |
$7.00 ($7.95 list) |
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The creator of the Procrastonauts™ clearly knows whereof he speaks, as he takes his time getting things done; but when he finally gets around to delivering, it's always worth the wait. This has never been more true than with this, the second issue of Sublife. If there's another work currently on the shelves that's more jam-packed with the wholesome goodness of fine comics, then we don't know about it. With the exception of two blank pages that are required to properly demarcate the respective narrative spaces of discrete stories, and which, serving as such, can be considered as aesthetically necessary, this fine objet d'art is brimming over with comics to savor. Starting off with the literally groovy front and back covers, all content contained in this horizontally fomatted, squarebound, 52-page, two-color work of comics art is presented in a formally integrated fashion. Pham uses his format to great advantage, exploiting its ability to emphasize both the vertical and the horizontal axes. As soon as the reader opens the book, it needs to be rotated 90º, which presents a strongly vertical space, in which is first encountered a series of horizontal "daily" strips, folllowed by a truly cosmic saga that makes very good use of this vertical orientation. We are then taken back down to earth by rotating back to the horizontal for a sedately paced tale, then rotate once more to a single vertical spread relating saints and school days, before again going back to the horizontal for a lengthy, rough-and-tumble Mad Max-esque tale that is reproduced from commensurately tough-and-tumble pencils, before everything is wrapped up on the inside back cover, back in the vertical, with a single, full page "Sunday" strip. Don't leave 2009 behind you without reading this! | |||||
| The Comics Journal #300 | Kevin Huizenga, Art Spiegelman, Howrad Chaykin, Ho Che Anderson and more ... | Fantagraphics | The Comics Journal |
$12.75 ($14.99 list) |
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This is, reportedly, the last issue of the Journal in it's current format. After this it will become a hybrid publication: updated daily online with the news, reviews, and opinion pieces that have been Journal mainstays for many a decade now, and then, a semi-annually published deluxe book-like edition that sounds like it's taking its cue – at least somewhat – from Comic Art Magazine. That said, this format is going out with a real BANG! Its 286 pages are packed with some of the greatest comics conversations you are likely to find under one cover anywhere! Check it out: The ball starts rolling with a whopping 32-page exchange between none other than Art Spiegelman and Kevin Huizenga – this one alone is worth the price of admission; this is then folowed in due course by conversations between Jean-Christophe Menu and Sammy Harkham; Frank Quitely and Dave Gibbons; David Mazzucchelli and Dash Shaw; Alison Bechdel and Danica Novgorodoff; Howard Chaykin and Ho Che Anderson; Denny O'Neil and Matt Fraction; Jaime Hernandez and Zak Sally (!); Ted Rall and Matt Bors; Jim Borgman and Keith Knight; and Stan Sakai and Chris Schweizer... whew! So what are you waiting for? You know you can't pass this one up! | |||||
| MOME #17 | Paul Hornschemeier, Dash Shaw, Tom Kaczynski, T. Edward Bak and more ... | Fantagraphics | MOME |
$12.75 ($14.95 list) |
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edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds There's no question that the highlight of this issue is the thirty page conclusion to Paul Hornschemeier's Life with Mr. Dangerous, which began its serialization in MOME all the way back in the first issue! Next up in the list is the first ever (to our knowledge, anyway) collaboration between the mighty Dash Shaw and Tom Kaczynski, the aptly titled, "Resolution." Also on hand are the second parts of both T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man" and Ted Stearn's new Fuzz and Pluck adventure, "The Moolah Tree," as well as the first two parts of Oliver Schrauwen's latest, "Congo Chromo." Laura Park, Sara Edward-Corbet, Rick Froberg, Kurt Wolfgang, Derek Van Gieson, Renée French, Josh Simmons and Michael Jada round out the issue. MOME continues to deliver on its promise. | |||||
| Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Volume One | Steve Ditko | Fantagraphics |
$34.95 ($39.95 list) |
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edited by Blake Bell <<•>> This is it! The motherload of classic early – and rare! and expensive! (take from us, we know) – Ditko comics from 1953 to 1955 is now available in this readily affordable (well, at least when compared to the originals) 240 page hardcover volume from Fantagraphics Books. Primarily produced for the then respectable Charlton Comics, but with a handful executed for Prize, Ajax, Gillmor and Timor – these are comics! Presented here in high quality reproductions taken from full color scans of the original comics, this is how they are meant to be seen. All we have to say right now is, "Yes, yes, yes! Read these great comics." (OK, we also have to say that all fans of Gilbert Hernandez should be taking an extra hard look at some of the comics contained in this volume, as close examination will reveal that therein lies some of his primal inspiration as a cartoonist.) | |||||
| The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. | Dash Shaw | Fantagraphics |
$17.77 ($19.99 list) |
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The wunderkind of comics strikes again with this unique book that is as visually intriguing as it is intellectually challenging. It intermeshes comics – most of what is collected here originally appeared in the pages of MOME – with storyboards and production sketches for some animations that Shaw produced, in collaboration with Jane Samborski, for IFC. Starting with the animation-cell-like dustjacket that overlays an illustrated cloth hardcover, and proceeding through a variety of paper stocks, this full color collection by the author of the much heralded Bottomless Belly Button will take you on a ride that makes you think. | |||||
| Ganges #3 | Kevin Huizenga | Fantagraphics | Ignatz |
$7.25 ($7.95 list) |
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It's time for comics connoisseurs to crank up their cogitation once again, as a new issue of Ganges is in stock and on sale here at The Copacetic Comics Company. And the verdict? Kevin Huizenga once again delivers the goods! This time around we have the inner workings of an agitated mind – that of Glenn Ganges, to answer your question – at the edge of sleep, visually embodied as its own cartoon being, distinct and separate from – if in many respects identical to – the body housing this mind. All readers who have ever had a rough time falling asleep and have had their mind wander to and fro seemingly of its "own" accord will have plenty to relate to here, and there are indeed many comic moments in this comic book, BUT there is also much food for thought, along with a poetic evocation of middle-American suburban landscapes as dreamscapes that shows Huizenga slowly feeling his way towards integrating some weightier emotional content into his analytics. In dissecting the mechanics of consciousness on the precipice of sleep, as the waking mind gradually lets go of sensory input and transitions to a period of internal synaptic data transfer, Huizenga once again strives to put the language of comics to novel uses. The layers of consciousness are first depicted and then explored as metamorphic strata composed of distinctly variant degrees of abstraction; memories transform into imaginings which then turn in on themselves in auto-analyses all prompted by the slightest shifts in the tectonic plates of self-awareness. This is a comic that not only can, but demands to be read over and over again. There is so much going on here that each reading will turn up something that was missed before. Here is work that is powering comics forward, and that should not be missed by anyone who want to see where it's going. | |||||
| MOME #16 | Sara Edward-Corbett, Ben Jones, Jon Vermilyea, T. Edward Bak and more ... | Fantagraphics | MOME |
$12.75 ($14.95 list) |
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<<•>> edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth <<•>> The obvious highlight of this issue for us here at The CCC is the new Cold Heat story by the team of Frank Santoro, Ben Jones & Jon Vermilyea. In addition, we have on hand: the furiously productive Dash Shaw, who translates an episode of "Blind Date" into comics form; the second chapter of T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man - The Strange Journey - and Fantastic Accounts - of the Naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, from Bavaria to Bolshaya Zemlya (and Beyond)"; new work from Renée French (who is also responsible for this issue's front and back covers); an all-new “Funny Bunny” strip by the rarely seen (in comics, anyway) Archer Prewitt; “The Moolah Tree”, a new Fuzz & Pluck graphic novel from Ted Stearn, begins it's serialization here; the MOME debut of Nicholas Mahler – "What Is Art?" (translated by Kim Thompson); and new stories from Lilli Carré, Conor O'Keefe, Laura Park, Nate Neal, and Sara Edward-Corbett, with incidental drawings by Kaela Graham. Get a PDF preview, HERE. | |||||
| Like a Dog | Zak Sally | Fantagraphics |
$18.88 ($22.95 list) |
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Long suffering indy comics – and, indy music (he was a member of the rock trio Low for many a moon) – creator, editor and publisher steps into the Fantagraphics spotlight with this rugged yet strangely elegant hardcover collection that gives us – his not quite so suffering fans – a chance to read the vast majority of his hard to find and largely out of print work, including, most notably, the first two numbers of The Recidivist (the third is still, as of this writing, in print and available from Sally's own imprint, La Mano). Visceral, gripping, dark, and, most importantly, good, these are comics worth reading (and to help induce you to take the plunge, we're offering it at a special price). | |||||
| Popeye, Volume 4 - "Plunder Island" | E.C. Segar | Fantagraphics | Popeye |
$25.00 ($29.95 list) |
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The latest giant-size, full-color, die-cut-hardcover collection of the classic Sunday pages (as well as also containing, in glorious black and white, the accompanying daily strips, cleverly laid out six [as in Monday through Saturday] to a page so as to perfectly balance out the weekly rhythm of the Sunday pages) is here. Classic comics written and drawn by E.C. Segar collected in a book designed by Jacob Covey that is published by Fantagraphics so as to be offered for sale by Copacetic, and purchased by... you? | |||||
| Pim and Francie | Al Columbia | Fantagraphics |
$25.00 ($28.95 list) |
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Yes, you've read that correctly, it's an entire hardcover volume devoted to the work of that notorious comics recluse, Al Columbia. Enter the deeply creepy cartoon world of funeral parlors, undertakers, cadavers and creatures the likes of which were never seen anywhere but in these pages. This book reads like a scrap book for an aborted animation project that succeeded all too well in dragging the artist's inner demons out from his unconscious and into the light of the drawing table lamp, whereupon they proceeded to wreak havoc on his soul. It appears that the artist may have come to the realization that he could not allow these foul creatures to become fully formed, lest they burrow into the collective consciousness – or, conversely, this may very well be from whence they emerged and he has cleverly trapped them here so that we could identify them and thereby prevent them from inflicting any further damage. Either way, tread carefully... | |||||
| The Complete Collected Peanuts Gift Box Set 6: 1971 - 74 | Charles Schulz | Fantagraphics | The Complete Peanuts |
$39.99 ($49.99 list) |
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As always, this box set contains the two latest volumes in the series (11 & 12, this time around) , nestled in a sturdy Seth-designed slip case, for a substantial savings. | |||||
| The Complete Collected Peanuts, Volume 12: 1973 - 74 | Charles Schulz | Fantagraphics | The Complete Peanuts |
$23.99 ($28.99 list) |
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<<•>> introduction by by Billie Jean King <<•>> This is the dawning of the age of... Woodstock and Peppermint Patty, who take center stage along with the rest of the Peanuts gang as we head deep into the heart of the 1970s. Billie Jean King's introduction is a real surprise and has to be the most sincerely heartfelt one yet. The range of introducers this series has accumulated thus far is a real testament to the amazingly broad appeal of Peanuts: from Walter Cronkite (Volume 2) to Whoopi Goldberg (Volume 5), from Jonathan Franzen (Volume 4) to John Waters (Volume 9), and now Billie Jean King – everyone loves good ol' Charlie Brown and Co.! | |||||
| All and Sundry | Paul Hornschemeier | Fantagraphics |
$25.00 ($29.99 list) |
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by Paul Hornschemeier All the bits and pieces that were scattered hither and yon have been carefully collected and sequenced in this big fat scrapbook that was (no surprise here) designed by Hornschemeier himself. There's much to be gleaned here, especially by the artists among you. Not sure what kind of work has been collected? This PDF preview should give you a better a idea. | |||||
| From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millenium | Steffen Maarup | Fantagraphics |
$25.00 ($29.95 list) |
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This is a flexi-bound collection of 178 pages of comics from Denmark: black and white, duotone and full color. There's an amazing variety of work on display here, from three-panel pen and ink dailies to full color graphic novellas. Satire, sarcasm, cuddly cuteness, potentially discomfiting explorations of the unconscious, and much more are packed in side-by-side and executed in a dazzling variety of styles. Take a look at this 14-page PDF preview and see what you think. | |||||
| Prison Pit | Johnny Ryan | Fantagraphics |
$11.77 ($12.99 list) |
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We have to say, from the looks of Prison Pit (Book One), that it appears that Mr. Ryan has been spending some quality time with the works of Mat Brinkman. This work is quite a departure and long time Ryan readers may not know what to make of this violent (well, at least that's familiar), nearly wordless, quest-driven narrative set in a barren and nameless terrain. Fans of hyperviolent role playing video games may have met their match with this one. | |||||
| West Coast Blues | Jaques Tardi, Jean-Patrick Manchette | Fantagraphics |
$16.66 ($18.99 list) |
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France's king of crime comics is back! West Coast Blues is an all-new noir full of dramatic pen and ink travelogue of anarchic violence: from seashore to urban center to deep in the woods. A world full of people you don't want to meet doing things you'd be better off not knowing about, but somehow, there's something about this world which makes you curious: just what makes these people tick, and what does that say about the world we live in? | |||||
| The Squirrel Machine | Hans Rickheit | Fantagraphics |
$16.66 ($18.99 list) |
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It's a freaky frenzy of pen and ink in this aptly titled tale of sex and science fiction set in Victorian-era New England. Rickheit splices 19th century literary tropes onto a 21st century comics sensibility to come up with a sort of H.G. Wells meets Jim Woodring tale that defies description. 178 pages of the mind-bending and the macabre. Having trouble visualizing this work from our paltry description we have provided you with? Have no fears, a 15-page PDF preview is here! | |||||
| Giraffes In My Hair | Bruce Paley, Carol Swain | Fantagraphics |
$17.77 ($19.99 list) |
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Carol Swain is one of Britain's finest artists, and with Giraffes In My Hair, written by her current companion, Bruce Paley, we have her most substantial work to date. It is a memoir of Paley's "life in the tumultuous '60s and '70s." Starting out in 1967 with hitchhiking and moving on through dropping acid, Disneyland, Chicago '68, Black Panthers and then into the '70s, and Max's Kansas City, doing drugs with Johnny Thunders and punk rock "nihilism." All told in Carol Swain's exquisite, understated and finely tuned pencil rendering that are a pleasure to behold. But you don't have to take our word for it; just check out this 9-page PDF preview and decide for yourself. | |||||
| The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book | Joe Daly | Fantagraphics |
$18.88 ($22.99 list) |
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Two full color works, the novella length, "The Leaking Cello Case," and the novel length, "John Wesley Harding," make this hardcover volume a welcome arrival for all long suffering fans of South Africa's reigning comics hepster, Joe Daly. Here is work that really is like no other, a truly diverse amalgamation that brings to mind comics from Hergé to Clowes to Pete Sickman-Garner, but remains utterly unique and distinctly South African. Not enough people are hep to this guy, so we say, "Check this one out!" And we're making it easy for you, with this 10-page PDF preview. | |||||