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Fantagraphics December Newsletter

As the year draws to a close, were looking back over all the books we released in 2022 and were feeling pretty good: our artists continue to astonish us with their work and were proud to publish them! And while were obviously biased, we think our books and comics make for some great holiday gifts. Keep scrolling for a full list of this years titles, our holiday gift guide, and our new Love and Rockets tote bag (plus a discount code)! But first, heres the news roundup:

• Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection by Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez is out and this 26-pound behemoth of a box set is getting lots of attention! Check out these pieces in the New York Times (Love and Rockets, a Series that Helped Redefine Comics, Turns 40), GQ (How Los Bros Hernandez Stayed Punk for 40 Years with their Epic Comic-Book Saga, Love and Rockets), NPR ('Love and Rockets' celebrates 40 years of edgy, Latinx, alternative comics), and Vulture (Los Bros on Love and Rockets Most Memorable Women and Forgettable Men)!

• NPR chose Who Will Make the Pancakes: Five Stories by Megan Kelso as part of their Books We Love list! Thy inh says, Megan Kelsos graphic anthology thoughtfully examines American feminism in diverse social contexts.

• Men I Trust is a timeless, modern work of art: this poignant and surreal graphic novel captures the struggle of modern relationships as we know it. AIPT gave Men I Trust by Tommi Parrish a 10/10!

• this is the book I'd been waiting for. And it doesn't disappoint in any way; it exceeds beyond any expectation. The Comics Journal published a glowing, in-depth piece about Maverix and Lunatix: Icons of Underground Comix by Drew Friedman and an interview with Drew!

• The 2023 Angoulme International Comics Festival announced their selection of top books and were thrilled to see so many Fantagraphics artists on the list: Anne Simon, Erik Svetoft, Jason, Glenn Head, Joshua W. Cotter, Antoine Coss, and Gilbert and Jaime HernandezThe Comics Beat has the scoop!

December New Releases:

Francis Rothbart!: The Tale of a Fastidious Feral by Thomas Woodruff

A stunning, head-turning, graphic opera masterpiece from an acclaimed painter and illustrator.

Francis Rothbart! follows a feral child who is raised by magpies and other creatures and is repeatedly struck by lightning. Because of the phenomena, the child develops eccentric talents, which he then abuses, leading to his ultimate destruction by the same natural world that once nurtured him.

Written mostly in rhymed verse, Franciss picaresque saga unfolds in an allegorical environment, much like the topographical constructions behind renaissance religious paintings. Referencing both the Venetian landscapes of Bellini, Pierro di Cosimo and Carpaccio, mixed with the unlikely animated backdrops of Jay Ward and Chuck Jones, Woodruffs images recall the fictive gardens of a paradise lost that lingers somewhere deep in all our souls, moist and dark like the caves of the pious saints.

Combining both paintings and drawings, each scene is a visual and verbal feast that transports us to a place in which trees anthropomorphize into figures bending from the weight of stalactite crowns, an iris becomes the gown for an oneiric sprite, and the sky rains down tears, as if mimicking the melancholy of a weeping willow. In a muted palette, Woodruffs carbon and white charcoal pencil drawings bring us ever closer to this mythical ecology. The artist lovingly focuses on every detail: ethereal, fragile blossoms, petals, roots, and leaves; impressively observed wildlife creatures; and each curve of the hand lettered text is rendered by the delicate hand of an illustrative obsessionist with a penchant for the poignant. Woodruffs images are multi-sourced amalgamations that echo with familiarity, portraying a world that is not only our own but also exists in the place of our half-remembered dreams.

Thomas Woodruffs first graphic novel is a self-described graphic opera unlike anything ever created, a tour de force of words and images in harmony that will be one of the most talked-about books of the decade.

In His Time: The Early Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Jason Novak

Ernest Hemingway, as the author of this graphic adaptation acknowledges, may be culturally out of fashion, but his short stories, especially those that appeared in the first 1924 version of in our time, are timeless. The stories from that edition are, as the cartoonist Jason Novak writes in his introduction, the shortest Hemingway ever wrote. Most of them could more properly be described as vignettes. Any one of them taken alone might be better classified as a prose poem; it is only when read together that they achieve a cohesion as 'stories'.

In this new adaptation, Novak finds the graphic equivalent of Hemingways lean, muscular prose stark, punchy, beautifully composed panels that illustrate the understated poetics of those early, famously groundbreaking stories.

Pogo The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: Volume 8: Hijinks from the Horn of Plenty by Walt Kelly

Collects the years 1963 and 1964 of the classic newspaper strip whose political satire feels more timely than ever.

Walt Kelly's newspaper comic strip Pogo was a platform for Kelly to express political satire and commentary via a wildly entertaining, motley group of swamp critters. He tackled many of the sociopolitical issues of his day: the Red Scare, civil rights, the environment, consumerism. But the strip is also a joyous, poignant, beautifully drawn, and occasionally profound work of 20th-century popular culture. It is such an all-time classic it is hard to believe that this series marks the first time that Pogo dailies and Sundays have been published in complete and in chronological order anywhere. Not only does each volume contain two full calendar years of restored black-and-white daily strips: it also includes all 104 Sundays from the same period. For the first time since their original appearance more than 50 years ago, the Sundays are in full, glorious color!

Edited by comics legend Mark Evanier and Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, with supplements and resources by comics historians R.C. Harvey and Maggie Thompson, each volume has a surprise foreword. (Jake Tapper, Sergio Aragons, and Neil Gaiman have contributed.) Each dust jacket spotlights gorgeous, hand-painted "collaborations" between Kelly and cartoonist Linda Medley, the acclaimed creator of Castle Waiting.

Also out this month: Pogo The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Box Set: Vols. 7 & 8: Pockets Full of Pie & Hijinks from the Horn of Plenty

The Complete Crepax: Erotic Stories, Part I: Volume 7 by Guido Crepax, translated by Micol Arianna Beltramini

In the first of two volumes in Fantagraphics' Crepax series devoted to the artist's comics adaptations of the erotic literary canon, Valentina takes on Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, and then we follow Arsan's Emmanuelle on her sensual journey.

"Story of a Story" (1981) stars Milanese photographer Valentina. Finding herself home alone, she cheekily decides to fantasize about Georges Bataille's infamous novella The Story of the Eye with a twist: she's playing all the roles! In the stories "Emmanuelle" (1978) and "Emmanuelle: The Anti-Virgin" (1990), Crepax follows the titular heroine on her sensual journey as the polyamorous wife of a French diplomat in Thailand. While the character is best known as the star of a series of pornographic movies, most notably the 1974 film starring Sylvia Kristel, she originated in a banned 1959 novel by Marayat Rollet-Andriane (pen name Emmanuelle Arsan), a Thai French woman. Emmanuelle has a sexual encounter on a plane, plays a steamy game of squash with a countess, falls for a woman named Bee, and has an intense experience at a temple, among the many other transgressive exploits Crepax details from the novel. And, in an innovation of Crepax's own she crosses paths with King Kong!

This volume is the first of two featuring comics adaptations from the literary erotica canon along with supplemental and contextual material. And, as Antonio Crepax observed in the Crepax Archives, "[The cartoonist,] covered by the authority of classics, ventures into territories of eroticism that up to now he had only dared to touch."

Artichoke Tales by Megan Kelso

Megan Kelso's acclaimed graphic novel, in a new paperback edition.

Prior to cartoonist Megan Kelso's long-awaited 2022 release, Who Will Make the Pancakes, Kelso spent six years creating her first long-form graphic novel, 2010's Artichoke Tales. The book, a fantastic family saga spanning three generations and an entire continent, was a critical smash named to many "Best of 2010" lists. Fantagraphics is proud to bring this perennial classic back in print with a new paperback edition.

Artichoke Tales is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Brigitte whose family is caught between the two warring sides of a civil war. It takes place in a world that echoes our own, but whose people have artichoke leaves instead of hair. Influenced in equal parts by Little House on the Prairie, The Thorn Birds, Dharma Bums, and Cold Mountain, Kelso weaves a moving story about family amidst war. Kelso's visual storytelling uniquely combines delicate linework with rhythmic page compositions, creating a dramatic tension between intimate, ruminative character studies and the unflinching depiction of the consequences of war and carnage, lending cohesion and resonance to a generational epic.

The first 150 orders of Artichoke Tales include an exclusive bookplate signed by the author! Pre-order now to claim yours.

Prince Valiant Vols.13-15: Gift Box Set by Hal Foster

Our series of special slipcased gift sets of the most visually opulent comic strip in the medium's history, based on the King Arthur mythos, continues with Vols. 1315 (1961-1966).

In Vol. 13, from the Middle East to the road to Rome, danger follows the noble Prince of Thule. In Vol. 14, Valiant fights battles large and small, and Prince Arn comes to the rescue. In Vol. 15, Arn lands on the New World, and Aleta is mistaken for a mermaid.

December Events:

• Saturday, December 10th, 6:00-8:00 PM PST: Genevive Castre Complete Works Art Show, Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, Seattle, WA

• Saturday, December 10th, 7:00-9:00 PM PST: Megan Kelso (Who Will Make the Pancakes: Five Stories) in conversation with Rina Ayuyang (The Man in the McIntosh Suit) at Silver Sprocket, San Francisco, CA

• Saturday, December 17th, 12:00-1:00 PM PST: Megan Kelso (Who Will Make the Pancakes: Five Stories) Pancake Breakfast at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, Seattle, WA

• Saturday, December 17th , 1:00 PM PST: Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets) Book Signing at Golden Apple Comics, Los Angeles, CA

December Deal of the Month Discount

A little thank you to our loyal subscribers: Every month, scroll down and check this space for a limited-time discount, special offer, or other exclusive, plus a sneak-peek excerpt from an upcoming book! Enjoy, and thanks for shopping Fantagraphics! This month:

Use code JINGLEBELLS at checkout through December 31st for 20% off your next purchase at Fantagraphics.com!*

*Cannot be combined with other offers

Every holiday season, we take the guesswork out of gifting with a thoughtfully curated list of present suggestions. Weve got a gorgeous collection of titles with something for everyone on our listthis year, treat your favorite readers to some of the best graphic novels around! Head to the Fantagraphics blog to see the full list!

We published so many incredible books in 2022check out the year in review here!

A sturdy, organic cotton tote featuring beloved characters from Love and Rockets, drawn by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez! Big enough to carry all your favorite comics (although perhaps not quite large enough to hold Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection) and it's printed by hand right here in Seattle. Love and Rockets: still the greatest since 1982!

Were All Just Fine by Ana Penyas, translated by Andrea Rosenberg