The Fantagraphics Books Fall 2021 catalog includes a new graphic novel by R. Kikuo Johnson as well as a 15th-anniversary edition of his first graphic novel, Night Fisher, and new works by Gilbert Hernandez, Peter Bagge, and Jason, among others.
Night Fisher, Johnson’s award-winning first graphic novel (see “Marvel Wins Five Harveys”), is also set on Maui and tells the story of two teenagers whose friendship is strained when they get involved in a petty crime. The book was first published in 2006, and in October, Fantagraphics will publish a 15th anniversary edition. The 144-page, black and white hardcover will have an MSRP of $19.99.
Blubber, by Gilbert Hernandez, was first published as single-issue comics; this volume collects the first five. The stories are imaginative, provocative, and hilarious, filled with strange creatures and absurdist satire, and touching on questions of obscenity, pornography, and art. The 160-page black and white hardcover will be available in December with an MSRP of $19.99.
Other Lives, by Peter Bagge, is a dark satire about four people whose online personas get tangled up with their real lives in complicated and threatening ways. Bagge’s first work after he wound up his comic series Hate, Other Lives was first published in 2010 by Vertigo and has been out of print for years. The new Fantagraphics edition will be a 136-page, black and white paperback with an MSRP of $17.99.
Squeak the Mouse, by Massimo Mattioli, collects the late Italian cartoonist’s underground comics about a cat and a mouse whose chase is much more sadistic, and bloody, than any Tom and Jerry cartoon. First published in the 1980s, the comics are collected in a 152-page, full-color hardcover with a 10” x 14” trim size; the book will be released in December with an MSRP of $24.99.
Good Night, Hem is a collection of three short stories by the Norwegian creator Jason, all featuring writer Ernest Hemingway. In the first, set in Paris in 1925, he meets Athos, the last of the Three Musketeers; in the next, also set in Paris in 1944, he parachutes into Germany to put an end to World War II; and in the third, set in Cuba in the 1950s, he writes his memoir – including his meetings with Athos. The 160-page, full color hardcover will be released in September with an MSRP of $19.99.
Unimpressed is the first book by Miranda Tacchia, a Southern California-based cartoonist and animator who has over 80,000 followers on Instagram. Tacchia’s drawings and single-panel cartoons depict romance, friendship, and life in the city with wry, relatable humor. the 400-page, full color book will be available in October with an MSRP of $39.99.
Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge: World of the Dragonlords, by Byron Erickson and Giorgio Cavazzano, sends the classic Disney characters into a fantasy world ruled by trolls, where humans are peasants and dragons do the heavy lifting. With wizards, warriors, and a fortress city, this original graphic novel is a blend of classic Disney and the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. The 192-page, full-color hardcover will be available in November with an MSRP of $29.99.
Lure, by Lane Milburn (Twelve Gems), is a sci-fi story set in the future, when global warming is making the Earth uninhabitable and the wealthy elites flee to permanent homes in a former luxury resort on another planet. Jo Sparta is one of a group of artists who are commissioned to create artworks on the planet, but when she finds out that the corporation behind the luxury colony is up to no good, complications ensue. Fantagraphics will publish Lure in November as a 192-page, full-color hardcover with an MSRP of $29.99.
Man in Furs, by writer Catherine Sauvat and artist Anne Simon, is a graphic biography of Leopold vol Sacher-Masoch, the author of the erotic novel Venus in Furs. The biography starts in 1870, after the book was published, when a woman offers to play the role of the dominatrix in Sacher-Masoch’s real life; they subsequently were married. Years later, after he has remarried and settled into a less sensational life, he learns that his name has become, well, a household word. The 128-page, two-color hardcover will be published in November with an MSRP of $24.99.