Fantagraphics is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a bumper crop of archive editions, manga, and new graphic novels from around the world. Here’s a look at some highlights.
The Complete Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea, Vol. 1, by Hugo Pratt: Fantagraphics is the new home of Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese graphic novels, which had previously been published by NBM and then by IDW under their EuroComic imprint (see “Hugo Pratt’s ‘Corto Maltese’”). This volume kicks off a planned complete archive edition of the adventure series with the title story, in which Maltese is cast adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean and rescued by Rasputin, as well as the earliest Corto Maltese story, set in 1904, in which Maltese helps Rasputin after he deserts during the Russo-Japanese War. The 264-page, full color hardcover will be released on October 13 with an MSRP of $49.99.
MAD: The Complete Harvey Kurtzman Years by Harvey Kurtzman et al.: Kurtzman was already working for EC when he started MAD as a comic book in 1952, and he wrote every story in the first 23 issues, working with some of the best artists in the business, including Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Wally Wood. In 1955, he converted the color comic to a black and white magazine and continued at the helm for five more issues, adding radio and TV satirists including Ernie Kovacs and Stan Freberg to his stable of creators. Fantagraphics is now publishing all 28 issues plus additional material as a five-volume hardcover slipcased set, the first time Kurtzman’s run has been reprinted in its entirety. The final volume collects two legacy issues that include Kurtzman’s last completed work, as well as an illustrated history of MAD’s development and impact, a fold-out gallery of alternative covers, and archival material. The boxed set will go on sale on October 20 with an MSRP of $300.
Requiem for Gaza by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco: Sacco has been drawing and writing about the people of Palestine since the early 1990s. Fantagraphics brought his Palestine, first published in 1996, back into print in 2024 (see “Joe Sacco’s ‘Palestine’”) and also published a collection of his short strips (see “Joe Sacco’s ‘War on Gaza’”), which won the 2025 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue/One-Shot; Sacco was also inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame the same year. For this book, he teamed up with Hedges, the former Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times, for a new nonfiction graphic novel based on interviews with 29 Palestinian families, combining Hedges’ text with Sacco’s comics and single images to depict the death, deprivation, and displacement that they have endured. Fantagraphics will publish the 180-page black and white hardcover on October 6 with an MSRP of $24.99.
The Complete Zap Comix by R. Crumb et al.: Fantagraphics first collected the entire run of Zap Comix in 2014 as a slipcased set of five hardcovers with high production values, lots of extras, and a hefty $500 price tag (see “Highlights from the Current Golden Age of Deluxe Editions”). The new set is a three-volume slipcased paperback set that skips the extras but delivers all 16 issues of the series with a considerably lower MSRP of $200, set for release on September 1.
The Ultra Power Mongol Invasion by Shintaro Kago: Kago brings his unique mix of horror, gore, and grotesqueries, all drawn in crisp black and white, to the story of Genghis Khan, whose warriors spread out across Asia riding the disembodied hands of giants. Pretty soon everyone wants the giant hands, as they become an integral part of modern life in this wild alternative history that depicts runaway capitalism with a bizarre and unstable technology at its center. The 192-page hardcover, rated for ages 16 and up, will go on sale on November 10 with an MSRP of $29.99.
The Mess by Noah Van Sciver: A long-lost Picasso drawing brings the promise of financial stability but also threatens the stability of a family in Van Sciver’s latest graphic novel. Erin Messina is clearing out the house of her late father, a hoarder from whom she was estranged for years, when she remembers that he was given a Picasso drawing in 1964. She assigns her teenage son Jackson the task of locating it, and Jackson brings twin skateboarders into the picture with a tale of a long-ago murder. The 168-page, full color hardcover will go on sale on September 22 with an MSRP of $19.99.
The Abyss of Oblivion by Paco Roca and Rodrigo Terrasa: Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Roca and journalist Terrasa join forces to tell the haunting story of a Spanish civilian who was executed after the war by Franco regime and buried in a mass grave, his daughter’s campaign to give him a proper burial, and the dedication of a local gravedigger who helped the families of the dead identify the bodies, mark where they were buried, and leave messages among the remains so they could be identified in the future. Fantagrahics will publish the 296-page, full color hardcover on November 17 with an MSRP of $34.99.
Also on deck are By George: The Comic Art of George McManus, edited by Peter Maresca, and several continuations of Fantagraphics’ archive editions, including Carl Barks in Black and White: Vacation Time and Other Stories: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition, the second in that series (see “Fantagraphics to Publish Carl Barks Studio Edition”), set for release on September 15 with an MSRP of $175; The Marvel Creator Collection No. 2: “Whatever Happened to Scorpio?”: The Complete Jim Steranko at Marvel, a slipcased two-volume hardcover set slated for Octobe 13 with an MSRP of $89.99; and The Atlas Creator Collection No. 4: Bernard Krigstein: The Complete Atlas Stories, to be released on November 10 with an MSRP of $125.
Click Gallery below for covers!
Source: ICV2
