A rollicking oral history of Fantagraphics' first three decades.
In 1976, a group of young men and women coalesced around a fledgling magazine and the idea that comics could be art.
In 2006, comics intended for an adult readership are reviewed favorably in the New York Times, enjoy panels devoted to them at Book Expo America, and sell in bookstores comparable to prose efforts of similar weight and intent.
Comics As Art: We Told You So tells of Fantagraphics Books' key role in helping build and shape an art movement around a discredited, ignored and fading expression of Americana the way insiders share the saga with one another other: in anecdotal form, in the words of the people who lived it and saw it happen. Comics historian and critic Tom Spurgeon (Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book) and designer Jacob Covey (The Complete Dennis the Menace) assemble an all-star cast of industry figures, critics, cartoonists, art objects, curios and groundbreaking publications to bring you a detailed account of Fantagraphics' first thirty years.
It's the story of fans who looked at the objects of their affection and demanded something more. It's a saga of scratched-together office spaces, mounting debts, public feuds, lawsuits, acrimony, office pranks and last-minute fundraisers. It's a description of how a fanzine becomes a magazine becomes a movement becomes a touchstone. It's a detailed catalog of the look of a cultural awakening. It's a story that includes appearances by Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Harlan Ellison, Jim Shooter, Stan Lee, Dan Clowes, Frank Miller, Peter Bagge, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Dave Sim, Steve Geppi, Todd McFarlane and every other major figure in the arts or business end of modern comics.
More than a corporate history or a fond look back, Comics As Art: We Told You So makes the warts-and-all case for Fantagraphics Books' position near the heart of the modern reclamation of the comics art form.
In 1976, a group of young men and women coalesced around a fledgling magazine and the idea that comics could be art.
In 2006, comics intended for an adult readership are reviewed favorably in the New York Times, enjoy panels devoted to them at Book Expo America, and sell in bookstores comparable to prose efforts of similar weight and intent.
Comics As Art: We Told You So tells of Fantagraphics Books' key role in helping build and shape an art movement around a discredited, ignored and fading expression of Americana the way insiders share the saga with one another other: in anecdotal form, in the words of the people who lived it and saw it happen. Comics historian and critic Tom Spurgeon (Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book) and designer Jacob Covey (The Complete Dennis the Menace) assemble an all-star cast of industry figures, critics, cartoonists, art objects, curios and groundbreaking publications to bring you a detailed account of Fantagraphics' first thirty years.
It's the story of fans who looked at the objects of their affection and demanded something more. It's a saga of scratched-together office spaces, mounting debts, public feuds, lawsuits, acrimony, office pranks and last-minute fundraisers. It's a description of how a fanzine becomes a magazine becomes a movement becomes a touchstone. It's a detailed catalog of the look of a cultural awakening. It's a story that includes appearances by Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Harlan Ellison, Jim Shooter, Stan Lee, Dan Clowes, Frank Miller, Peter Bagge, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Dave Sim, Steve Geppi, Todd McFarlane and every other major figure in the arts or business end of modern comics.
More than a corporate history or a fond look back, Comics As Art: We Told You So makes the warts-and-all case for Fantagraphics Books' position near the heart of the modern reclamation of the comics art form.
