>> edited and designed by Greg Sadowski  >> introduction by Jonathan Lethem  >> Ladies and gentlemen!  Step right up and see the wonders of the ages!  This is where it all began:  the protoplasmic early days of the superhero comic book -- wild & heady, zany & crazy, fantastic & non-sensical, rough around the edges; all this and more.  Reading these stories is like witnessing history in the making, it is being present at the birth.  Sure, we've all read those original Superman and Batman stories along with other DC classics, as well as a those old Captain America, Submariner, Human Torch tales, and maybe a few other Golden Age Marvels (well, Timelys, actually), but these are usually presented in a self-promoting fashion by their corporate owners which mitigates and obscures the historical context in which these works need to be read to fully appreciate their novelty.  The work here spans the years 1936 to 1941, with the bulk of it originating in 1939 and 1940.  It is divided by publisher and includes the Comics Magazine Company, Chesler, Centaur, Fox, MLJ, Fiction House, Columbia, Your Guide/Rhoda and Novelty Press,  Some of the earliest work by the brightest stars of the Golden Age are collected here:  Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Jack Cole, Basil Wolverton, Bill Everett, Ogden Whitney, Dick Briefer, Fred Guardineer, and, yes, Fletcher Hanks.  It appears that this volume has been put together employing high quality scans of the original comic books which were then digitally restored and and enhanced and then crisply printed on flat (non-glossy) bright paper stock, and the results are excellent,  A minor quibble is that, for our money, we would have preferred an off-white paper that more closely matches the newsprint upon which these comics were originally printed, but this is negligible when stacked next to all that is right with the production.  While it should go without saying that no self-respecting comics scholar can pass this up, we hasten to add that anyone who misses the plain old fun that we associate with the term comic book, who wants a jolt of that good ol' four-color energy from back in the day, need look no further than this fine volume.

<<•>>  edited by Dan Nadel <<•>> The long awaited follow up volume to Nadel's pioneering 2006 anthology of rarely seen and under appreciated comics, Art Out of Time, has at last arrived!  This time around we have a tighter focus.  While much of the work contained in Art of Time originally appeared in newspapers and broadsheets, all the work contained in this volume originally appeared in comic book form between 1942 and 1980.  Extending and expanding his mission to bring art world curatorial standards to comics, Nadel has provided an informative introduction to the book as a whole, along with separate one-page explanations of the underlying reasoning behind each of the thematically groupings into which the work is divided:  "Demand and Supply," "Where They Were Drawing From," "It's All In the Routine," and "Expansive Palettes."  The artists included here range from the golden age superhero work of H.G. Peter and Mort Meskin, through the post-WW II "atomic age" genre work of Bill Everett, Matt Fox, Jesse Marsh and Pete Morisi, and also including early work focused on hardboiled detective, Sam Hill, by the one and only Harry Lucey, who is best know for his 1960s work on Archie Comics.  Another artist whose work included here ranges far from their iconic work is John Stanley, who is best known for his multi-decade run Little Lulu.  Nadel has dug up a couple of obscure horror tales from 1962 that should be quite a surprise to most Stanley collectors.  Also from the 1960s we have Sam Glanzman's Kona and Pat Boyette's career high, the 25 page, "Children of Doom" from 1967. Heading into the underground era we have fairly obscure yet  nonetheless era-defining work from Willy Mendes and John Thompson.  And, finally, on the cusp of the undergrounds and the alternative revolution that supplanted them is Sharon Rudahl's 34 page epic, The Adventures of Crystal Night, is presented here in its entirety.  Essential, we say.

<<•>>  edited by Blake Bell  <<•>>  Bill Everett was most widely known for creating The Sub-Mariner, one of the defining characters of the Golden Age of comic books, who remains a highly popular character to this day.  He was a comics pioneer who was present at the birth of comic books and spanned five decades.  This volume takes us back to the very beginning, when Everett helped forge the dynamic page layouts that came to be synonymous with comic books.  While no one surpassed the one and only Jack Kirby in this regard, Bill Everett and a unique approach to the page – angular yet sleek and streamlined – that was quite different from Kirby's and was a formative influence on generations of comics artists.  This book collects Everett's work from comic books that, taken together, would set you back tens of thousands of dollars to purchase if not for this book.  So, thanks once again to Fantagraphics for letting the 99% get their hands on these great works in this excellent, 240 page, full color hardcover volume that does it right.  Get a head start with this whoppin' 23 page preview!  Bell's editorial input leaves much to be desired, as Dan Nadel's brief take on the book makes clear, so it will be up to readers of this book to start formulating critical and historical responses to the material.  That means you!  NOW ON SALE!

Attention Bill Everett fans – this one is for you!  Twenty classic early 1950s far out and fantastic Atomic Age comics tales of science fiction and horror, all lushly illustrated by the legendary Bill Everett and all featuring the quasi-Superherione, Venus!  Plus there's another twenty or so short comics tales drawn by the likes of Werner Roth, Russ Heath, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, John Tartaglione, Mike Sekowsky, Pete Morisi, Sol Brodsky, Carl Burgos, David Berg (yes, that David Berg), Allen Bellman, Hy Rosen & Manny Stallman.  Whew, those were the days!  All reproduced in full color on flat white stock.

Fanta sez:

The Goddess of Love…and SF horror: The eagerly anticipated single volume collecting the 10 rare issues of the overstuffed Venus comics!

 

In the late 1940s, the first half of the Venus series from Marvel Comics predecessors Timely and Atlas Comics was published as a lighthearted romance comic about the goddess Venus taking a job on Earth at a beauty magazine. Never a company to miss a trend, Atlas began introducing more science fiction elements in the 1950s, and eventually turned Venus' dating adventures into a straight-out horror anthology.

Collected here, 70 years later and for the first time ever, is that swift-changing second half of the 19-issue run. Future Marvel stars Bill Everett (seven issues) and Werner Roth (three issues) take Venus to heights of four-color weirdness and pre-Code horror ghastliness. Everett in particular is given free rein and seizes the opportunity: writing, drawing, and lettering twenty ghoulish and goofy masterpieces, including classics like "Hangman's House," "The Day Venus Vanished," "The House of Terror," "The Sealed Spectors," Tidal Wave of Terror," and the phantasmagorical "Cartoonist's Calamity!" These stories showcase the brilliant draftsmanship and storytelling of Everett, one of the giants of the 1940s and '50's comic book industry. His slick, fluid line rendered at Timely/Atlas, from his seminal god-child Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, to the atomic age Marvel Boy, is some of the finest pre-Code horror this side of E.C.'s Graham Ingels.

Series editor Dr. Michael J. Vassallo assisted in the compilation of the first volume of Venus for Marvel 13 years ago, and Fantagraphics is delighted to publish the horror half as the second title in The Fantagraphics Atlas Comics Library.

Deets:
Pages:  310 | Format:  Hardback | Color:  Full-color | Dimensions:  8.8" × 11.7" | ISBN-13:  9781683969198