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Frequently Asked Questions |
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Submission Questions:
Will Fantagraphics publish my comic? Fantagraphics Books publishes comics for thinking readers - readers who like to put their minds to work, who have a sophisticated understanding of art and culture, and appreciate personal expression unfettered by uncritical use of cliché. Fantagraphics will practically always reject any submissions that fit neatly into (or combine in a gimmicky fashion) the mainstream genres of superhero, vigilante, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. While some of our publications are suitable for young readers, we do not publish children's picture books. Take note of the originality and diversity of the themes and approaches to drawing in such Fantagraphics titles as Love & Rockets (stories of life in Latin America and Chicano L.A. which draw on influences as diverse as Luis Buñuel, Frida Kahlo, and Hank Ketcham); Palestine (journalistic autobiography in the Middle East); Eightball (surrealism mixed with kitsch culture in stories alternately humorous and painfully personal); and our Ignatz series of comics (contemplative literary pieces that explore the limits of the medium). Try to develop your own, equally individual voice; originality, aesthetic maturity, and graphic storytelling skill are the signs by which Fantagraphics judges whether or not your submission is ripe for publication.
What formats do you publish? The formats that Fantagraphics publishes include but are not limited to: • Graphic Novel: Any number of pages, with page size varying to suit each book. • Standard Comic Book Format: 6-5/8" wide by 10-1/4" tall; 24, 32, or 48 pages plus covers; one-shot stories or limited series
We want to see an idea that is fully fleshed-out in your mind, at least, if not on paper. Please submit a minimum of five pages of completed art (high-quality reproductions only, please — no original art!) so that we can get an idea of what you deem a finished product and so that we can adequately evaluate your skill at blending visual and textual storytelling elements. Please also include a synopsis of your storyline and, if a serial, a brief note stating approximately how many issues you have in mind.
Fantagraphics is an independent company with a modus operandi different from larger, factory-like corporate comics publishers. If your talents are limited to a specific area of expertise (i.e. writing, inking, pencilling etc.), then you will need to develop your own team before submitting a project to us. No matter how brilliant your idea, we will not pair you with another creator.
How and where should I send my submission? When will I hear back? We do not assume responsibility for unsolicited submissions. This means sending nothing that you'd mind us throwing away, since we don't have the room to store rejected submissions and won't spend our own money to send them back to you. If you really want your submission back, include a self-addressed envelope with appropriate postage or International Reply Coupon (IRC). If you don't, your submission will be discarded.
Do not send original art, portfolios, or other expensive packages. We receive a great volume of submissions, so sending your work by any of the various express-mailing services will not appreciably speed our decision. Please allow two to three months for a response. Hopefully, we can get back to you sooner, but there are periods that we are especially swamped with submissions. The old saw "Don't call us; we'll call you" certainly applies. Do not stalk us.
While we request that you include a cover letter (stating your name, address, etc.) with your submission, we need no resumé - your work stands or falls on its own merits.
Send a self-adressed, stamped envelope for us to enclose our reply in, or an International Reply Coupon if you're located outside of the United States.
Address all submissions correspondence to: Submissions Editor, c/o Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 USA.
Website/Ordering Questions:
If you had a login on our old website, you will need to create a new registration; the old user accounts were not transferred to the new site. If you have registered on the new website but are still unable to log in, the following is most likely the problem: When you register, you should receive an e-mail requesting that you confirm your registration. Some people find that this message gets caught in their spam filter by mistake, so check to see if the message is in your spam folder. Once you find it, please follow the instructions in the message. If you do not find the message, please contact us and we will unblock your registration. You might also want to add "fantagraphics.com" to your e-mail whitelist to ensure delivery of future messages.
Please contact us and we will send you a new password (we cannot recover old passwords, but once you log in with your new password you can change it to whatever you like).
Why do I have to register on your website to place an order? When you register on our website, your billing and shipping information is recalled when you log in, saving you the trouble of re-entering all that information every time you place an order. Even if you never visit our website again, you still would have had to provide that information to us in order for us to complete your order. And be assured that we have no nefarious plans for your registration information; we do not share it with any other parties, and we will not do anything with that information that you tell us not to do. If these terms are still unacceptable to you, you may place your order by calling our toll-free Customer Service line at 800-657-1100 (206-524-1967 outside of the U.S.) — our representatives will be happy to take your call.
I get an error when I try to place my order online. Please make sure that your credit card information, including the card number, expiration date, confirmation code (the 3-digit number on the back of the card) and billing address are correct. If your billing address does not match the address on your credit card statement, your order will not be completed. If you are sure all these things are correct but you still receive an error, please copy the error message that you receive and contact us with the error pasted into your message — we will investigate and get back to you.
Orders are almost always sent out the next business day for rush delivery and within a couple days for standard delivery. The best way to find out the status of your order is to call us at 1-800-657-1100 (206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) Monday-Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Pacific time, or send an email to
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Someone in our Customer Service bullpen will help you right out!
Can I pick up my order in person? If you're local, i.e. in the Seattle area, we have an even better option for you: visit the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery located at 1201 S. Vale Street in the Georgetown district of Seattle. ( See here for more info.) There you'll find our entire catalog of in-print books and comics in stock and ready to buy! To make sure the Bookstore has something in stock before you visit, give a call at 206-658-0110.
Do I have to order with a credit card? Ordering online requires the use of a credit card (Visa or Mastercard). If you prefer to order with a check or money order, download our printable order form (PDF format), print it out, fill it in using our website as a catalog, and mail it with your payment to Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115.
Why can only North American customers order The Complete Peanuts? Contractually, we're only allowed to sell Peanuts in North America. This is because licensors (such as United Media, who licenses Peanuts) sell their properties to publisher by specific "territory" and if a licensee is allowed to sell his version outside his "territory" this can harm the licensor's attempts to sell their licenses. For instance, a British publisher recently picked up the rights to The Complete Peanuts; if Fantagraphics had been allowed to sell to the United Kingdom these past few years, it's possible the British publisher would have been discouraged. But the bottom line is, OUR CONTRACT PROHIBITS US FROM SELLING PEANUTS OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA. That said, if you really want a Complete Peanuts and live outside North America you can probably get them from one or the other mail-order service (Amazon.com ships internationally, for instance); you just can't get them from us.
It's after 9am on the East Coast. Why is no one answering my call? We are open from 9 am West Coast time. We try to specify this in all our ads; if you found an ad that said we were open from 9:00 a.m. that didn't specify Pacific Standard Time we apologize.
Can you guarantee my comics will be 100% mint condition? We know this can be a touchy subject, especially for collectors. Our warehouse staff is extremely skilled at carefully packaging orders to minimize damage. That said, even fresh off the press, there are bound to be slight flaws here and there, and trying to upgrade a brand-new book to a "minter" copy is a gamble at best.
Do you ship using reinforced cardboard boxes? The increased expense of using reinforced boxes would force us to increase our shipping charges, something that most of our customers would NOT want to happen. We do try our best to pack all orders with the materials we have available in the most secure manner.
Where's my 20/20 Club membership card? If you join the 20/20 Club and do not receive your membership card with your order, do not be alarmed! It will arrive separately within two weeks. Our orders ship from our warehouse, while the membership cards are mailed in batches from our office.
Questions About Our Publications:
What Fantagraphics comics have been adapted for film or TV? Of course there was the Ghost World film, adapted by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff from the graphic novel by Clowes. Charles Burns's Black Hole is currently in development as a major motion picture with David Fincher attached as director. Harvey Pekar's collaborations with Robert Crumb, as depicted in the American Splendor film, can be found in our Complete Crumb Comics series. An animated short of Peter Bagge's Hate can be found on the DVD of the documentary Hype. On the small screen, Tony Millionaire's Maakies appeared as animated shorts on Saturday Night Live and later on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim as the series The Drinky Crow Show, which ran for one season (2008-2009). Adult Swim also commissioned and aired a pilot episode of Michael Kupperman's Snake 'n' Bacon in 2009; Kupperman has also created shorts for SNL. The cable network Oxygen recently ran a series of animated shorts starring Roberta Gregory's "Bitchy Bitch." Back in the 1990s, MTV's animation anthology series Liquid Television included Charles Burns's "Dog Boy" and Richard Sala's "Invisible Hands" (which was an original creation not based on a book or strip). For more information about these various projects, check Google, YouTube and the IMDb.
How can I license one of your books for foreign publication? Please contact
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with all foreign licensing requests.
Why only two Peanuts books a year? 12+ years is too long to wait. Well, we're nearly halfway there by now! While we realize fans would gobble them up like M&M's if we released one a month, we didn't think the general market could absorb more than two relatively expensive books a year.
Are you going to reprint any of the sold-out Prince Valiant volumes?
Are you going to reprint the early Krazy Kat books? Yes! After 2008's volume of Krazy & Ignatz collecting 1943-44, we will circle back around and reprint the first 9 years originally published by Eclipse in 3 volumes of 3 years each. Our editions, just like the volumes we have published to date, will sport brand-new design by Chris Ware. Krazy & Ignatz 1916-1918: "Love in a Kestle or Love in a Hut" is scheduled for release in early 2010, and Krazy & Ignatz 1919-1921: "A Kind, Benevolent and Amiable Brick" will follow in late Summer 2010. And yes, when 1916-1924 are done being collected in softcover volumes, we will compile those into the third and final big hardcover volume (which will actually be Volume 1).
I heard you were publishing The Complete Pogo. Where is it? Finding the best-quality source material to scan for the early volumes proved to be trickier than anticipated, which has pushed back the release schedule, but we've now cleared that hurdle and are shooting for a Summer/Fall 2010 release.
Are all the Eightballs still in print?
You must have copies lying around of that issue of Eightball I still need! Believe us, if we had any, they would be available for sale on the website. Or eBay. Or our storefront in Seattle, where you can often find a few copies of rare gems that are technically out of stock. And no, our personal copies are not for sale.
How much is Love & Rockets #1 worth?
When are you going to bring back Amazing Heroes? When Kim finally loses his mind.
I know how to fix a problem with one of your books. Who do I talk to? E-mail
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and it will be forwarded to the responsible party.
Can I scan your comics and distribute them on the Internets? Really now, you should know better than to even ask.
Questions About Our Artists and Staff:
Where do Peter Bagge and Jim Woodring live?
Can you give me Robert Crumb's phone number?
Can I feature the art of [insert cartoonist here] on my website? A panel or two, sure. Anything more, you need our written permission.
May I adapt [insert comic title here] to an amateur short film? We do not grant licenses for any of the following artists: Daniel Clowes, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware or Joe Sacco. There are far too many similar requests for us to accommodate all of these. Please submit all other queries in writing to
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I want to hire [insert name here] to illustrate my album cover. We may be able to help, but be open to suggestions. The more high-profile the artist is, the busier and more expensive they are. We publish a ton of great cartoonists and while they might not be superstars like Clowes, Crumb, Burns, Ware et al., they can draw real purdy and would likely work for much less money and on a much tighter deadline.
How many people work at Fantagraphics?
Can I be an intern at Fantagraphics?
Can you arrange a date for me with Gary Groth?
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 November 2009 )
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