Above is a Richard Sala panel from his Evil Eye comic series, which is published by Fantagraphics books. I touched on the announcement they made yesterday, but I thought perhaps I should discuss it a little further. As you probably know, the company is faced with bankruptcy and are asking all its suppporters out there to buy their books and help them raise funds. You can read the official statement by clicking on the Peculia panels above. While that news made my cynicism buzzer give off a faint buzz, I soon realized that they were on the level and the situation is dire. So if you're unfamiliar with the Fantagraphics oeuvre, I suggest you go to their site and click around. Myself, I've been a regular buyer of Love and Rockets, Eightball, Meat Cake, Evil Eye and Hate over the years, and once upon a time subscribed to the Comics Journal- giving it up only after they raised the price, lowered the paper quality, and cranked the cynicism in their reviews up to ten. But don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Journal. I still pick up the occasional copy when it features someone that piques my interest, and have noticed that they've improved the paper quality a lot– but it's still a little too expensive for me to pick up on a regular basis, especially since I'm still getting Comic Book Artist, another expensive publication that I still get a lot of pleasure from.
Anyway- boy, can I digress or what? I just want to encourage everyone out there to consider ordering something from the House That Groth Built...and I've got selfish reasons for doing it: I want to be able to continue to read the above titles! Even as tight as things are getting around Casa Bacardi, I'm considering ordering some of the Eros comics that have caught my eye like the Young Witches (I got an issue in a sampler pack from FB a few years ago–this is hard-core porn but it's very well drawn and plotted. Problem is, my comics shop won't carry Eros books so I haven't got around to searching any others out) trades or some of the books by Molly Kiely (you may remember that I wrote a paragraph about her a couple of months ago). I've always wanted to pick up on some Acme Novelty Warehouse books as well...I suppose this is as good an excuse as any!
And this ends my shameless shilling for Fantagraphics. I don't know if it will do any good, but I thought I should at least try to do something.
