attn comix fans: fantagraphics apparently in big trouble

i'll second that "if only i had cash," slutsky. :P

Dame Darcy, whose comic Meat Cake is on Fantagraphics, went to my high school.

Fivvy, don't knock yourself. I'm only able to consider this because payday is tomorrow.

What happened to the porn comix underwriting the 'good' stuff? Bottom fall out of the market?

maybe this will teach gary groth to be nicer

For many reasons, this is a genius statement.

I like the idea of organizing a party for the purpose of celebrating when the Gary Groth phone call arrives.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/cart/

Search by 'Krazy Kat'

Anyone ever read Schizo or The Biologic Show? Those were great.

eightball is the best comic book on earth (even though it seems to appear only once in eighteen months). if fantagraphics folds, dan clowes (and the other "bigger" names) will find homes. i would love to see dan clowes published by drawn and quarterly (home to some of my other favourite comics), but smaller artists and more marginal works could end up getting frozen out. it's sad because the medium is dying as a consumer product and at this stage of the game, somebody like fantagraphics is pretty irreplaceable.

unfortunately, fantagraphics ain't gettin a cent from me right now. i've bought a lot of their stuff over their years ... and that they've made (by their own admission) a gross tactical error and are now shamelessly begging for dollars is (aside from being an unusual marketing ploy) not something that makes me feel particularily charitable.

btw, scaredy cat: that issue of eightball you mention is actually one of the greatest things ever, and david boring is genius! please give them another chance!

Krazy Kat: only two volumes out. The third's not even been solicited yet, but has been mentioned.

I wholeheartedly agree. I actually didn't like much of David Boring, but that new issue was fantastic.

We had the same thing up here in Canada with the Chapters/Indigo juggernaut, buying tons and tons of copies of books from smaller presses, and then returning almost every copy at the end of the fiscal year; these presses were in a bind because it meant that had to print enough to meet the orders placed by the big boxes, even if those places weren't going to bother actively selling them. Thus at the end of the year many small publishing houses ended up going broke when they received returns pretty much matching the original orders. Certainly I can see a similar situation here with Fantagraphics.

As for which Love and Rockets to start with, man, any of them are great, but I really like The Death of Speedy and Blood of Palomar; I wonder though if it wouldn't be better to just start at the beginning (Music for Mechanics) and work through them in order, just because there is a certain chronology to them, and you'll probably miss a lot of the drama if you don't know the back history.

your observation about the chapters/indigo juggernaut is quite astute. the state of the direct market for published works (be they books or comics or whatever) is quite different than it once was. even in the last five years ... how could groth and co. (who have a business that was established before megastore lunacy was a reality) have known?

love and rockets! awesome, but magazine-sized.

i bought something else from fantagraphics quite recently. i can't remember what it was called but it was about an american living in mexico and her reactions to mexican culture, etc.. it was a really good read. anyone know what this was called?

i wonder if both fantagraphics and d&q are both in trouble now that the focus of the indie-alternative thing now seems to be on that post-top shelf/kochalka "funny animals who say 'shit' and waive their dicks around" thing

It's fine and it's tasteful and well done, of course, but where is the hilarity that used to be found within the pages of an Eightball comic? I enjoyed the Velvet Glove issues the best... whatver came before Ghost World was golden. After Ghost World, I just prayed for a decent one-page gag to crack me up. Anyone remember the guy staring at the worm through the microscope? The worm says, "WHAT?!?" and the guy answers, "I'm looking for a reason to hate you"? That was the funniest thing in that whole damn comic and it was only 3 or 4 panels... Remember "My Suicide", "On Sports", "God Thinks You're A Douche" or "I Love You" and "I Hate You" featuring LL? Remember the kid who fucks bugs? Those were the days!

- Eric Reynolds

this is arrant nonsense. All three episodes of David Boring rocked hard, and the one Eightball issue there's been since then was complete genius - even the Pinefox agrees.

Anyway, maybe now is the time to start reading Love & Rockets. Given the puny state of the dollar I'll probably be able to rack up enough of an order to get Grother to phone me just by spending 50 euro. Winner.

Maybe it should've been called "David Rocking" (and, yes, while we're at it, maybe the Boredoms should be called The Rockdoms).

J0hn, you aren't in 1reland right at the moment, are you?

Sorry to hear they're in trouble, but you know, they have their own advertising arm in the Comics Journal.

Eric, let us know how things turn out (if you ever revisit this place). I love your job, too.

I'd start it myself but I don't think I've ever had the pleasure.

I have the first 4 and they are grebt.

Well thankfully Fantagraphics continues on. However, this was just sent out from Kim Thompson, along with an introductory note from Gary Groth:

Kim Thompson has been my partner at Fantagraphics Books for 35 years. He's contributed vastly and selflessly to this company and to the comics medium and worked closely with countless fine artists over that time. This is a tough announcement to make, but everyone who knows Kim knows he's a fighter and we remain optimistic that he'll get through this and report back to report to work, where he belongs, doing what he loves.

– Gary Groth

--

I'm sure that by now a number of people in the comics field who deal with me on a regular or semi-regular basis have noticed that I've been responding more spottily. This is because of ongoing health issues for the past month, which earlier this week resolved themselves in a diagnosis of lung cancer.

This is still very early in the diagnosis, so I have no way of knowing the severity of my condition. I'm relatively young and (otherwise) in good health, and my hospital is top-flight, so I'm hopeful and confident that we will soon have the specifics narrowed down, set me up with a course of treatment, proceed, and lick this thing.

It is quite possible that as treatment gets underway I'll be able to come back in and pick up some aspects of my job, maybe even quite soon. However, in the interests of keeping things rolling as smoothly as I can, I've transferred all my ongoing projects onto other members of the Fantagraphics team. So if you're expecting something from me, contact Gary Groth, Eric Reyolds, or Jason Miles and they can hook you up with whoever you need. If there are things that only I know and can deal with, lay it out for them and they'll contact me.

--

On behalf of Kim, we would like to encourage anyone who would like to reach out to him to feel free to send mail to him c/o Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, or email to fbicomix @ fantagraphics dot com

fuck cancer

w/ the possible exception of art spiegelman, thompson has done more than any other American editor to promote and support the translation of European comics and for that alone he deserves much praise and good wishes.

no exception, if Kim's out of commission even this year, the amount of well-translated material in English next year (from multiple publishers) drops enormously. plus he's an excellent publisher, a fine editor*, and a great writer a) about comics b) in internet threads.

plus he personally bankrolled Fantagraphics into, essentially, existing when he was about 20. one of the best people in comics of the last fifty years straight up.

*ok, it still shits me that he won't correct Pete Bagge's sloppy spelling. fight cancer and give us another couple of decades of awesomeness anyway, Kim

I hate this news. Kim is a really nice guy with great taste and a great sense of humor, and a living reminder that funny animal comics were once, long ago, a perfectly respectable mode of expression. I wish him the best possible outcome.

*yeah it drives me crazy too that fanta does not correct typos in the lettering of their master cartoonists eg bagge, clowes, but w/e

fuck. this sucks

awful news. KT was always a much-welcome voice of reason and decency on the TCJ message boards.

he's a great, more generous and affable foil to Groth.

Bagge's Escape from Hate Island strip about the three of them always cracks me up

Oh damn. Kim Thompson passed on earlier this morning. The email in full:

--

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, on American soil, in late 1977. One "fanzine" he had not contributed to was The Comics Journal, which Groth and Michael Catron began publishing in July of 1976. That was soon to change.

"Within a few weeks of his arrival," said Groth, "he came over to our 'office,' which was the spare bedroom of my apartment, and was introduced by a mutual friend — it was a fan visit. We were operating out of College Park, Maryland and Kim's parents had moved to Fairfax, Virginia, both Washington DC suburbs. Kim loved the energy around the Journal and the whole idea of a magazine devoted to writing about comics, and asked if he could help. We needed all the help we could get, of course, so we gladly accepted his offer. He started to come over every day and was soon camping out on the floor. The three of us were living and breathing The Comics Journal 24 hours a day."

Thompson became an owner when Catron took a job at DC Comics in 1978. As he became more familiar with the editorial process, Thompson became more and more integral to the magazine, assembling and writing news and conducting interviews with professionals. Thompson's career in comics began here.

In 1981, Fantagraphics began publishing comics (such as Jack Jackson's Los Tejanos, Don Rosa's Comics and Stories, and, in 1982, Love and Rockets). Thompson was always evangelical about bandes dessinées and wanted to bring the best of European comics to America; in 1981, Thompson selected and translated the first of many European graphic novels for American publication — Herman Huppen's The Survivors: Talons of Blood (followed by a 2nd volume in 1983). Thompson's involvement in The Comics Journal diminished in 1982 when he took over the editorship of Amazing Heroes, a bi-weekly magazine devoted to more mainstream comics (with occasional forays into alternative and even foreign comics). Thompson helmed Amazing Heroes through 204 issues until 1992.

Among Thompson's signature achievements in comics were Critters, a funny-animal anthology that ran from 50 issues between 1985 to 1990 and is perhaps best known for introducing the world to Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo; and Zero Zero, an alternative comics anthology that also ran for 50 issues over five years — between 1995 and 2000 — and featured work by, among others, Kim Deitch, Dave Cooper, Al Columbia, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sacco, David Mazzuchelli, and Joyce Farmer. His most recent enthusiasm was spearheading a line of European graphic novel translations, including two major series of volumes by two of the most significant living European artists — Jacques Tardi (It Was the War of the Trenches, Like a Sniper Lining up His Shot, The Astonishing Exploits of Lucien Brindavoine) and Jason (Hey, Wait..., I Killed Adolf Hitler, Low Moon, The Left Bank Gang) — and such respected work as Ulli Lust's Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Lorenzo Mattotti's The Crackle of the Frost, Gabriella Giandelli's Interiorae, and what may be his crowning achievement as an editor/translator, Guy Peelaert's The Adventures of Jodelle.

Throughout his career at Fantagraphics, Thompson was active in every aspect of the company, selecting books, working closely with authors, guiding books through the editorial and production process. "Kim leaves an enormous legacy behind him," said Groth, "not just all the European graphic novels that would never have been published here if not or his devotion, knowledge, and skills, but for all the American cartoonists he edited, ranging from Stan Sakai to Joe Sacco to Chris Ware, and his too infrequent critical writing about the medium. His love and devotion to comics was unmatched. I can't truly convey how crushing this is for all of us who've known and loved and worked with him over he years."

Thompson was diagnosed with lung cancer in late February. He is survived by his wife, Lynn Emmert, his mother and father, Aase and John, and his brother Mark.

!!! oh man

RIP

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Kim-Thompson-RIP.html&Itemid=113

damn, rip

very sad to hear this. KT was one of the good ones.

a true American hero, RIP

:-(

RIP

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Gutted. RIP, Kim. And thanks.

yeah, weird to think how much stuff I was exposed to because of the tireless efforts of one dude

Peter Bagge's depiction of him in that Hate Island strip is my enduring image of him lol

Worst fucking news. I always liked Kim. He was always approachable. That he was a great editor doesn't even need saying. I can't imagine how this feels to the core FB family. Fuck this fucking disease.

my shelves are full of great great comics edited, translated or published by kim thompson. rip.

RIP

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/04/05/arctic15_custom-4b9c8cfcc4051b2324371509c36dee6c5c7ef9ab-s6-c30.jpg

this is terrible news. echoing what others have said: i've read countless books over the past 25 years that owe their existence to kt. RIP.

DDDDD:

Tributes to Kim Thompson

Wonderful stuff. Thanks for linking that.

Obituary by Tom Spurgeon.

oh man, i hadn't heard. one of my heroes, so sad to see you go.

the groth-thompson debate about dilbert that was linked in one of the tributes is great and reminiscent of nabisco-era ilx discourse:
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Dilbert-Let-s-You-and-Him-Fight.html&Itemid=113

haha, that's awesome.

r.i.p. kim thompson:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1375025_10103639002267160_1274976626_n.jpg

Awesome

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantagraphicsbooks/fantagraphics-2014-spring-season-39-graphic-novels

2k for every book fanta puts out in a year might be a good deal if it were not completely outta my financial means

Pledge $200 or more

GROTH MOVIE NIGHT - ANNOYED: Dinner and a Brian De Palma movie night in honor of Kim Thompson (and to annoy Gary) at the Groth Manor with the Fanta crew

I hope this isn't an indicator of major financial trouble :( Just pitched in $40 for a signed copy of Jim.