We have no idea what the future holds, but we can guarantee you have some really amazing reads in store! We’ve got a great lineup of books coming out in 2022 and we’re offering you a sneak peek now–see the full list here!
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: the Idiots Abroad and Other Follies by Gilbert Shelton & Paul Mavrides
With the imminent release of a new animated series, Gilbert Shelton’s legendary underground comix heroes find a new crash pad at Fantagraphics.
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are the most iconic and enduring underground comix characters ever created, having sold over 45 million comics in 16 languages. Fantagraphics is proud to announce that it is collecting all their drug-addled adventures in a new series of four volumes. Created in 1968 by Gilbert Shelton, widely recognized as one of the funniest cartoonists who ever lived, the Freak Brothers’ rollicking and hilariously self-destructive escapades are comedic masterpieces of farce and satire.
Our first volume leads off with “The Idiots Abroad,” a relentless novel-length tour de force of slapstick, screwball humor, showing off Shelton’s gift for weaving together an intricate plot with droll dialogue and pitch-perfect visual timing. The Brothers — Freewheelin’ Franklin, Phineas, and Fat Freddy — embark on a trip to Colombia to score some cheap dope (their guiding principle) but, as always, things go awry, and they are separated and scattered around the world — to Scotland, Moscow, Africa, South America, and the Middle East — where they encounter nuclear terrorists, slavers, pirates, and religious fanatics, yet somehow never seem to make it to Bogotá. The Comics Journal named “The Idiots Abroad” as one of the “100 Greatest Comics of the Century” and The Guardian, citing its “graphic quality” called it “astonishing” and said it “recall[s] Hergé in … accuracy and detail.” Rounding out our first volume is another 70 pages of Freak Brothers short stories.
The Freak Brothers, an animated series, set in modern San Francisco, is scheduled for release in 2021. The show stars the voices of Woody Harrelson, Pete Davidson, John Goodman, and Tiffany Haddish.
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: The Idiots Abroad and Other Follies is part of the Zap Comix series.
Prison Pit: the Complete Collection by Johnny Ryan
This filthy meat-grinder of a comics battle royale is collected in one massive volume, now in paperback!
Prison Pit is a planet full of repugnant intergalactic criminals, drug-filled slugs, and now Cannibal F***face (CF). From 2009 to 2018, the crudely manic pen and mind of Johnny Ryan documented mayhem and mutation, as CF loses his arm to a vile beast, replaces it with a symbiotic bug that gives him a steroid-like jolt, and seeks grisly revenge against any and all creatures. To find his way out he must do battle with his archenemy, Slitt, the only one who knows how to escape the hellscape they inhabit. Finally, CF is pitted against the very system that shaped him into the avatar of death and destruction he has become.
Originally collected in hardcover in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Prison Pit: The Complete Collection sold out immediately and fans have been clamoring for a mass market paperback ever since. Combining Ryan’s love for WWE wrestling, Gary Panter’s Jimbo comics, Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, and other influences into a brutal showcase of violence, survival, and revenge, this hilarious, all-original fantasy is for anyone who’s ever wielded a plus-five vorpal blade, lost an afternoon to World of Warcraft, devoured a stack of seinen manga, or cheered when a colorfully costumed villain leaped into the ring to beat someone down with a chair. A funny, filthy, epic sci-fi odyssey, The Complete Prison Pit is a masterclass in comics storytelling and has earned a place in the comics canon.
The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski by Noah Van Sciver
Collects the entire multiple Eisner Award-nominated series, which skewers a self-important male literary poser.
Living in a beat-up motel, consorting with the downtrodden and mid-level literati, Fante Bukowski must overcome great obstacles: a love interest turned rival, ghostwriting a teen celebrity’s memoirs, no actual talent — to gain the respect and adoration of critics and, more importantly, his father. Van Sciver has created a scathing, hilarious, and empathetic character study of a self-styled author determined to prove that he’s just one more poem (or drink) away from success.
Originally published in hardcover in 2020, The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski quickly sold out and is nominated for a 2021 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album. This expanded paperback edition includes additional content, including a 2020 Slate interview with Fante himself and a cover gallery of Fante’s previous books. Also: a foreword by novelist Ryan Boudinot (Blueprints of the Afterlife); a facsimile reproduction of Bukowski’s literary debut, 6 Poems (thought lost to time in the wake of a motel fire that destroyed the entire original print run); a “Works Cited” section; and a selection of “visual tributes” by over two dozen cartoonists — including Nina Bunjevac, Simon Hanselmann, Jesse Jacobs, Ed Piskor, Leslie Stein, and others.
Illustrating Spain in the US Edited and curated by Ana Merino
A dazzling combination of comics and essays sheds light on the rich but often overlooked contributions of Spanish immigrants to the political, cultural, and scientific history of the US.
Since the very founding of the United States, the country’s history has been intertwined with that of Spain’s, in many essential yet often overlooked ways. Illustrating Spain in the US brings together some of Spain’s most acclaimed cartoonists and scholars to celebrate and interrogate the contributions of Spanish immigrants to America’s political, cultural, and scientific history.
Diplomat Eduardo Garrigues and cartoonist Rayco Pulido resurrect the historical figure of Bernardo de Gálvez, who played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War. Professor James Fernández, Filmmaker Luis Argeo and artists Ana Penyas and Seisdedos bring to life the rollicking immigrant enclave of Tampa, once known as the “Cigar Capital of the World.” Professor Estrella de Diego and cartoonist Carla Berrocal shed light on the Spanish actors, screenwriters and musicians who broke into Hollywood and made their mark on American cinema. Professor María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco and cartoonist Max lead readers through the labyrinthine history of Spanish art collecting in the US, and the influence of Spanish art on popular American art movements. And much more! Combining the graphic expressiveness of comic art with the illuminating perspective of scholarly essays, this project aims to spark a creative dialogue about Spain’s legacy in the US.
Halcyon by Ron Regé, Jr.
Halcyon is a graceful and psychedelic vision of a graphic novel that spans time, terrestrial planes, SF, and new age mysticism to detail the spiritual journeys of its two nonbinary protagonists.
The sleeping figure on the cover hints at the dream logic that drives this visual feast of a graphic novel. It can’t all be explained, and it isn’t meant to be explained. Ron Regé, Jr. is one of the singular cartoonists of his generation, an unusual but skilled stylist and storyteller with an acutely passionate moral and idealistic core that stands out amongst his peers. Halcyon is a spiritual cousin to Regé’s 2012 graphic novel The Cartoon Utopia, which has garnered a following in new age and hermeneutic studies circles and in which higher beings try to communicate with us through art, music, and storytelling — a theme revisited here via the book’s central characters. Halcyon is the work of a cartoonist at the height of his powers, a superlative use of the form in the service of relating the author’s compassionate — and visually stunning — worldview.
Olympia by Bastien Vivès, Florent Ruppert, & Jérôme Mulot
Meet Alex, Carole, and Sam: the most notorious trio of cat burglars of the 21st century, starring in this graphic novel sequel.
Alex, Carole, and Sam use technology, know-how, and some serious chutzpah bordering on hubris to reinvent a profession that has lost much of its fun and insolence since the early 20th century. After successfully stealing Le Grande Odalisque by Ingrés from the Louvre, the art thieves have a new mission: nab Édouard Manet’s Olympia — plus two other masterpieces — from the Petit Palais in Paris. Naturally, complications ensue, and not just from the fact that Carole is nine months pregnant at the time of the heist!
Forming a trio as formidable as their protagonists, Bastien Vives, Jérôme Mulot, and Florent Ruppert deliver an explosive, grand symphony of adventure, as well as a very touching and funny character study in this eagerly anticipated sequel to The Grande Odalisque.
Metax by Antoine Cossé
A society, greedily dependent on a mysterious natural resource, meets a force indifferent to social or class status in this graphic novel.
In the dystopian city-state of Kronin, the chief engineer is in charge of all mining of Metax — a precious material that has become indispensable to survival because of its extraordinary qualities. Meanwhile, a police officer investigates the mysterious killing of royal horses, suspecting a terrorist insurrection. Sabrina, the engineer’s daughter, is a member of this resistance group, which appears to be comprised of children. Meanwhile, the King’s hidden hand sets in motion a power play that will change the destiny of the kingdom forever, and all of these characters get caught up together in a whirlwind of violence and faith.
This lusciously illustrated, science fiction fantasy by French cartoonist Antoine Cossé moves with the grace of a swan. Dark, romantic, and compassionate, it is an exploration of greed, its consequences, and the possibility of escape.
My Badly Drawn Life by Gipi
This coming-of-age graphic memoir is a relentless and exhilarating journey to the depths of the human condition, rendered with precision and verve by one of the world’s greatest living cartoonists.
“You’ve always got to laugh at tragedy. That’s why I laugh about my ailment. Ailments. About being a sexual spastic. About my perennial, cowardly, tantalizing desire to die. You can laugh about anything. Almost.” Spoken by his self-depiction, these bitter words set the tone for Gipi’s pitch-black humor in this unvarnished and uncompromising autobiographical tale. A young adult adrift in the world, Gipi’s stand-in grapples with sexuality, insecurity, deception, depression, drug use, fading friendships, and the capricious cruelties of the world as he struggles to determine whether his life is worth living.
Drawn in Gipi’s signature elegantly scribbled ink style and punctuated by vivid watercolor splashes, My Badly Drawn Life weaves through the past and present, through narratives both real and imagined, to create an impressionistic account of his complex inner life. In this kaleidoscopic journey into the depths of his psyche, Gipi processes the shadowy traumas of his upbringing; in doing so, he produces a gripping work of utter cartooning mastery.
Life of Che Written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, drawn by Alberto Breccia and Enrique Breccia, with an afterword by Pablo Turnes
Published in 1969, this Argentine graphic biography about Ernesto “Che” Guevara was an instant bestseller. Banned by a military dictatorship, and almost lost, it has never been available in English — until now.
Life of Che is one of the most anticipated entries in Fantagraphics’ The Alberto Breccia Library. Originally released as part of a graphic biography series in January 1969, it came out in Argentina only a year after Ernesto “Che” Guevara had died and reached an audience beyond comics readers. In the 1970s, the military government raided its publisher, destroying the means to reprint the book. The comic was presumed to be lost to history, until a publisher in Spain restored it in 1987. It has never been translated into English until now.
The book begins in Bolivia in 1967, then flashes back through Che’s life — his childhood, his radicalizing motorcycle trip with Alberto Granado, his taking up of arms in Guatemala, his meeting with Fidel Castro, and his subsequent military and political maneuvers, ending in a fade-out to his death. Alberto Breccia and his son, Enrique, drew Life of Che. Enrique draws the Bolivia passages in a woodcut style, while Alberto depicts the flashbacks in his trademark, expressionistic black-and-white. It is primarily set in the field and with the people. Héctor Germán Oesterheld (The Eternaut) blends his authorial voice with Che’s first-person. Life of Che is imbued with a sense of immediacy, as both Che and, eventually, Oesterheld would meet their ends by a military government backed by the American CIA. As Pablo Turnes writes in his afterword, it is “the testament of someone consciously marching toward his revolutionary death.”
Keeping Two by Jordan Crane
20 years in the making, the long-awaited graphic novel masterpiece from acclaimed cartoonist Jordan Crane.
A young couple is stuck in traffic, reading a book aloud to each other to pass the time. The relationship is already strained, but between the encroaching road rage, and a novel that hits way too close to home, tensions are running especially high by the time they arrive back at their apartment. When one of them leaves to get takeout and a movie, each of the young lovers is individually forced to confront loss, grief, fear, and insecurities in unexpected and shocking ways.
Crane’s formal use of the comics medium — threading several timelines and the interior and exterior lives of its protagonists together to create an increasing, almost Hitchcockian sense of dread and paranoia — is masterful. But as the title hints, there are dualities at its core that make it one of the most exciting works of graphic literary fiction in recent memory, a brilliant adult drama that showcases a deep empathy and compassion for its characters as well as a visually arresting showcase of Crane’s considerable talents. Keeping Two is ostensibly a story about loss, but by the end, it just might also be about finding something along the way — something that had seemed irredeemable up to that point. In that way, it’s also a deeply romantic book.
Cartoonist Jordan Crane has been one of the most quietly influential comics-makers of the past quarter-century – in multiple senses of the word: as a cartoonist, a designer, an editor, a publisher, a printmaker, an advocate, an archivist, and more. But Keeping Two is his biggest project in close to two decades and will be one of the most anticipated graphic novels of 2022.
The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Master of Gay Erotic Manga Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Edited by Chip Kidd, Anne Ishii, and Graham Kolbeins
A classic comics collection from “The Tom of Finland of Japan,” now in paperback!
The often violent, visceral, and always provocative style of Japanese manga legend Gengoroh Tagame, one of the originators of Japanese bear culture, comes to life like never before in The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, a new edition of the artist’s first English-language collection. Known as “The Tom of Finland of Japan,” Tagame is celebrated around the world for his groundbreaking work, noted for its masterfully crafted imagery and unbridled exploration of bondage, lust, passion, and romance. This first English paperback edition includes ten short stories dating from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, with an introduction by celebrated novelist and biographer Edmund White, as well as an essay and new jacket design by acclaimed novelist and graphic designer Chip Kidd. Featuring intense, explicit, over-the-top scenes of BDSM among hypermasculine men, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame is a must-have for Tagame fans, as well as fans of bear cultures in general. Produced by veteran “Japanist” Anne Ishii and filmmaker Graham Kolbeins, the book also contains sixteen full-page color illustrations.
The long-awaited follow-up to Tagame’s breakthrough collection, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame Vol. 2 features a treasure trove of long and short stories previously unpublished in English, accompanied by original essays and an exclusive new interview with the internationally renowned cartoonist. Featuring intense, explicit, over-the-top scenes of BDSM between hypermasculine men, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame is a must-have for Tagame fans as well as fans of “Bara” manga (manga created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience) and bear cultures in general.
(Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga, and reads back to front and right to left.)
Schappi by Anna Haifisch
A collection of absurdist comics short stories navigating etiquette and diplomacy within the vicissitudes of the animal kingdom: from proud ostriches to racist mice, and delicious-looking weasels.
In Schappi, Anna Haifisch blurs the boundaries between humans and animals in subtle and absurd ways. In these five collected comics short stories, carnivores and herbivores meet at a disastrous congress of the animals; we get to know a merciless, art-collecting lizard; and are introduced to dancing ostriches and a melancholy, meditating octopus. With singular humor and charm, and a brilliant eye for color, Haifisch tells of the everyday struggle from the prairie to the drawing table, of self-imposed isolation and friendship. At the end of the day, there is hope, even for crying weasels. Haifisch’s wry sense of humor reveals many truths lying underneath her absurdist wit. Printed in five gorgeous Pantone inks, Schappi will shine from a bookshelf like a mad husky’s iris.