Fantagraphics Blog Gary Groth

In Solidarity — Johnny Ryan

In Solidarity — Al Jaffee

In Solidarity — Dame Darcy

In Solidarity — Arnold Roth

I wrote to cartoonists that Fantagraphics publishes, inviting them to do a drawing responding to the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo office on January 7. The purpose is to show solidarity to our fallen comrades and to the scorched-earth tradition of cartoon satire. We would run whatever we received, uncensored. It seemed not only appropriate but imperative that Fantagraphics offer cartoonists a place to display such cartoons since we have published so much satire ourselves – from R. Crumb to Drew Friedman to Johnny Ryan to Jonah Kinigstein. There is a debate simmering as to whether or not Hebdo was…

If you run over to our Kickstarter page, you'll find a few new — and good — premiums. 1. Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden will collaborate on a drawing, and they will do this exactly five times before collapsing in exhaustion (the drawings will be that good). Plus, they'll throw in an original, 10" x 17" vintage syndicate proof for a week of 1960s Nancy dailies! This is the promotional part of the pitch because it primes the pump for their groundbreaking 200+ page analysis and historical monograph of Nancy, How to Read Nancy, coming up in our Fall 2014 season. All this for…

Fantagraphics Books Launches a Kickstarter Campaign to Help Fund Spring-Summer 2014 Comics Publishing Season FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS IS ASKING FOR READERS' SUPPORT THROUGH KICKSTARTER. HELP FINANCE OUR SPRING-SUMMER SEASON, AND BE A PART OF THE COMPANY THAT HAS PUBLISHED MORE OF THE BEST CARTOONISTS IN THE HISTORY OF COMICS THAN ANY OTHER PUBLISHER. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantagraphicsbooks/fantagraphics-2014-spring-season-39-graphic-novels Fantagraphics Books is launching a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to help finance our Spring-Summer 2014 season of books. Earlier this Fantagraphics Co-Publisher Kim Thompson was diagnosed with cancer and died four months later, on June 19, 2013. Because Kim was such an active part of our company, his death has…

(photo credit: Lynn Emmert) Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson died at 6:30 this morning, June 19. "He was my partner and close friend for 36 years," said Gary Groth. Thompson was born in Denmark in 1956. He grew up in Europe, a lifelong comics fan, reading both European and American comics in Denmark, France, and Germany. He was an active fan in his teen years, writing to comics — his letters appeared in Marvel's letter columns circa early 1970s — and contributing to fanzines from his various European perches. At the age of 21, he set foot, for the first time…