COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2012:

FANTAGRAPHICS and COMIXOLOGY ANNOUNCE DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

 Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-4 Available Now
To Help Celebrate
30 Years Of The Hernandez Brothers’ Groundbreaking World

July 14th, 2012 – San Diego, CA. / New York, NY. — Today in a wide-ranging panel celebrating the 30th anniversary of publishing the Hernandez Brothers’ groundbreaking Love and Rockets series co-publisher Gary Groth, president of the 36 year-old publishing house, announced Fantagraphics Books’ entrance into the digital age through a brand new digital distribution agreement with comiXology, the revolutionary digital comics platform with over 75 million comic downloads to date and a library of more than 25,000 comics and graphic novels.

To mark the occasion, Fantagraphics Books and comiXology have immediately made available the first four issues of the Hernandez Brothers’ phenomenal Love and Rockets: New Stories. Groth also announced that following Comic-Con, comiXology will debut Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 on the same day as the print release is available in comic book stores this September. Subsequently, Fantagraphics will begin to release certain titles from their extensive front list and back catalogue across the entire comiXology platform.

“Fantagraphics Books is one of the longest running, independent comic publishers around with an incredible array of titles. I’ve been chasing them for three years to be a part of our platform and am thrilled not only to bring their books to the digital world, but also to be a part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Love and Rockets," said comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger. "I’ve long been a fan of Hernandez Brothers’ work, and couldn’t think of a better way to kick off our new relationship with Fantagraphics. There are many happy people in the comiXology offices today.”

"We’ve been exploring our digital options for a few years now, and the more I learned, the more I kept coming back to ComiXology," said Eric Reynolds, Fantagraphics Books Associate Publisher. "Seeing these first four issues of Love and Rockets: New Stories in comiXology’s Guided View is exciting.”

Fantagraphics and comiXology worked closely together to acquire the highest resolution source material to make sure these volumes of Love and Rockets: New Stories look great in comiXology’s new high–definition comic format — CMX-HD — for Love and Rockets fans that are reading on the new iPad.

In early May, comiXology revealed they had crested 65 million comic and graphic novel downloads since the beginning of the platform, with 15 million of those downloads happening in 2012. ComiXology recently unveiled that only one month later in June they had hit 77 million downloads — an addition of 12 million downloads — continuing on a trajectory of record-shattering growth.

About Fantagraphics Books

Fantagraphics Books has been a leading proponent of comics as a legitimate form of art and literature since it began publishing the critical trade magazine The Comics Journal in 1976. By the early 1980s, Fantagraphics found itself at the forefront of the burgeoning movement to establish comics as a medium as eloquent and expressive as the more established popular arts of film, literature, poetry, music et al. Fantagraphics has since gained an international reputation for its audacious editorial standards and its exacting production values and continues to expand the comics medium by releasing the highest quality books. 

About comiXology

Founded in 2007 with the mission of bringing comics to people everywhere, comiXology — in just five short years — has revolutionized the comic book and graphic novel world. From creating the industry leading platform for digital comics to tools and services for brick and mortar retailers, comiXology has lead the charge in exposing new audiences to the rich history and culture of comic books. With the development of the Comics by comiXology digital comics platform — — available across iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire and the Web — comiXology provides the easiest way worldwide for people to enjoy comics at just the click of a button! Regularly ranking as the top grossing iPad app in the entire iTunes App Store, Comics by comiXology was recently chosen as a preloaded app on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Providing digital comics across multiple platforms, comiXology will not stop until everyone on the face of the earth has been turned into a comic book fan.

A quick rundown of a few scenes in the Fantagraphics booth (#1718) at Comic-Con International Day 1:

Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez make final adjustments for the first signing of the day.

Line for the Hernandez signing about halfway through.

Esther Pearl Watson and Trina Robbins draw in fans' sketchbooks while Kristy & Ian share a laugh in the background.

Don Rosa regales Kristy & Janice.

Comic-Con exclusive: Natalia's new mini-comic!

T-shirts going fast!

Hernandez family portrait: Carol, Natalia, Gilbert & Jaime. Most adorable family ever? (Special background guest: Eddie Campbell.)

Malachi Ward chats with John Pham.

Gary Groth (fresh from the airport) and smilin' Don Rosa.

More tomorrow!

I've been going to Comic-Con for almost 30 years now, god help me. Sometimes I think I know downtown San Diego better than any town I've actually lived in. These are some of the things I think of when I think about Comic-Con:

• The Picadilly

• HateBall Tour 1993 

• Scary bail bondsmen offices

• When you could easily park in the convention garage

• When Hall H was just a grassy knoll where you could hang out before the con opened

• When I cared about the Marvel and DC booths

• When I first met Gary Groth and he had a pony tail

• When I first met Dan Clowes and he charged me $10 for a sketch but not the cute girl in front of me

• When I showed Dick Giordano my portfolio as a teenager and he was incredibly encouraging

• Drunk late-night walks with Jaime back to the hotel

• Eisner Retailer Judging with Sergio Aragonés, who brought his guitar to kill time 

• Sin Alley Cats, The Ol' Prospectors, and Action Suits with Rube Reuben at that Fanta golf course party

• Danzig's stripper room

• Riding elevators with Lou Ferrigno, the guy who played Chewbacca, and Stan Lee

• Being told on at least three separate occasions over three separate years "NO PHOTOS!" by an off-the-clock Lou Ferrigno (including in the elevator)

• Selling comics to Leonardo DiCaprio, who had just flown in via helicopter with Gaston from Meltdown

• Eisner tears

• Jack Kamen's kiss

• When I realized that the Playboy back issue dealers didn't check ID 

• Me, Jane Wiedlin, The Eisners

...so come on a-knockin'!

Our Comic-Con International booth (#1718), all set up and ready for the doors to open. Bursting with books! We had a brisk Preview Night and stuff is already disappearing into the hands of eager fans. The new Love and Rockets t-shirts are going like hotcakes, to the surprise of no one!

Mario & Gilbert Hernandez hung out for our first-ever Preview Night signing and much fun is being had by all.

Keeping it short for now but there's lots more to come! Keep it tuned here and especially to our Twitter feed!

Every year, on the last day of Comic-Con, as our thoughts turn to the arduous task of packing up all of our leftover books for shipping back to our warehouse, desperation creeps in and the discounts start flying left and right. Last year we decided to spread this fun to our mail-order customers and this year we're doing it again! We are not only offering 20% OFF EVERYTHING on our website — use coupon code FANTACON12 at checkout — but a whopping 50% OFF ALL our biggest and heaviest books (see them all here — note that items are discounted 40%, which works out to 50% when the coupon discount is applied) during the convention, from Thursday, July 12 (that's today!) through Sunday, July 15 — and you won't even have to lug them around the convention center or cram them into your suitcase and throw out your back hefting them into the overhead bin (or risk your airline losing them)!

PLEASE NOTE: Since we are shorthanded at our HQ (uh, due to staff being, like, at Comic-Con), and due to the high expected volume of orders, we won't be able to process and ship orders until next week. Please keep this in mind when choosing your shipping option!

Hello from San Diego! As you can see in the blurry camera-phone-pic of Marketing Mix Master Mike Baehr above, we're getting Booth #1718 all ready for you! Hopefully you're following us on Twitter to get all the up-to-the-minute (seconds, really!) photos and news from the scene!

Tonight is Preview Night, and we're so excited to offer our first-ever Preview Night signings! As we mentioned on the FLOG, we've met a lot of customers who were only able to score passes for tonight to the con, so this is a little bonus from us to you, in celebration of the Love & Rockets 30th Anniversary Celebration!

Wednesday, July 11th:
7:00 - 8:00 PM    Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Mario Hernandez

So, come see us at Booth #1718! Uh, it's gonna look a lot better than it does in that picture above...

Hello from San Diego, where we've unpacked the following never-before-seen debut books today (which will all be available to non-Comic-Con-goers in a couple of months at most):

Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez! Our esteemed colleague Heidi MacDonald of The Beat happened by as we were unpacking, saw our stacks of this new volume, and declared it "book of the show" already — you heard it here first!

Buz Sawyer Vol. 2: Sultry's Tiger by Roy Crane — The adventures don't slow down for our flyboy hero in the post-war years as he tangles with the titular femme fatale, tries to foil an insane ex-Nazi, goes in search of ancient Mayan treasure and gets kidnapped to Africa!

The Cavalier Mr. Thompson: A Sam Hill Novel by Rich Tommaso — we're pleased to be distributing this Kickstarter-funded, self-published graphic novel, a nifty early-20th-century period piece starring a hotel dick and a grifter who turns Big Spring, Texas upside-down.

We're expecting delivery of more hot-off-the-press debuts in the morning; in the meantime, booth setup proceeds apace in preparation for Preview Night opening tomorrow. It's a good thing these tables are strong.

We're thrilled to announce the Fantagraphics signing schedule for San Diego Comic-Con 2012!

We're also extra-excited to announce our first-ever Preview Night signing!!! That's right! Last year, we met a lot of customers who lamented that they were only able to score a pass for Preview Night and they were missing out on all the signings. So, we've got the great Gilbert Hernandez, Mario Hernandez, and Gilbert's talented daughter Natalia signing at our booth that evening! You complained; we listened! Yeah, don't get too used to that.

Wednesday, July 11th:
7:00 - 8:00 PM    Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Mario Hernandez

Thursday, July 12th:
12:00 - 2:00 PM   Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
2:00 - 3:00 PM    Esther Pearl Watson / Trina Robbins
3:30 - 5:30 PM    Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez

Friday, July 13th:
10:30 - 12:00 PM    Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
12:00 - 1:30 PM    Dave McKean
12:00 - 2:00 PM   Gilbert Shelton
2:00 - 3:30 PM     Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez
3:30 - 5:30 PM    Justin Hall / Trina Robbins / No Straight Lines special guests
5:30 - 6:30 PM    Mark Kalesniko / Shannon Wheeler

Sunday, July 15th:
10:30 - 11:30 AM        Mark Kalesniko / Michel Gagné
11:30 - 1:30 PM    Gilbert + Natalia Hernandez / Jaime Hernandez / Mario Hernandez

30 Years. Three. Zero. In 1982, Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez published their first comic with Fantagraphics, which debuted at that year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. In 2012, Fantagraphics Books announces the best anniversary present you can give the comics making trio: a year of celebrating Love and Rockets.

Jaime Hernandez remembers his first Comic-Con well. “The first time we spotted Love and Rockets some guy was already selling it for half-off.” Fellow professionals took an interest in the Hernandez brothers’ creation. “Chris Claremont walked up and joked that all the women on the cover should have ‘X’es on their belts,” Jaime joked. “I brought along some pages from the next issue and Frank Miller looked through them ‘studying’ my inking style.”

Thirty years later, fans will line up around that same block to get books signed at this year’s Comic-Con International, where Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are invited special guests of the show and will even have a special section devoted to their work in the official convention souvenir program. Look for a major Love and Rockets-related announcement to be made at the show as well during the Love and Rockets panel on Saturday (see below for more details).

Fantagraphics and the Hernandez Brothers will debut three new books at the show. First up is the newest work by Gilbert and Jaime, Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 , featuring Gilbert’s return to Palomar and Jaime’s much-anticipated follow up to “The Love Bunglers” (from #4). Also debuting is God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, Jaime’s superhero epic combining material from Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 and #2 plus 30 all-new pages by Jaime. Meanwhile, don’t forget the children: Comic-Con also hails the release of Gilbert's children-focused graphic novel, The Adventures of Venus.

Fantagraphics is also partnering with Graphitti Designs for the 30th Anniversary and debuting six new Love and Rockets t-shirts at the show. SDCC attendees might want to pack one shirt less for the show, instead picking up one of these colorful designs featuring their favorite Hernandez characters for a great price of $18.99 each, available at the Fantagraphics booth.

Panel by panel and page by page, Fantagraphics is proud to have a thirty year relationship with such prolific creators as the Hernandez Brothers and welcomes all SDCC attendees to come to the Fantagraphics Booth (1718-1722) and visit these special guests, who will be signing daily. Also, don’t miss the 30th Anniversary of Love and Rockets panel on Saturday at the con, from 1:30pm – 3:00pm in Room 24ABC. Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth will moderate a lively trip down memory lane with all three Hernandez Brothers and make a major announcement regarding the future of the series.

For more information as it is released, check the Fantagraphics blog for announcements. Thirty years of the Love and Rockets is at your fingertips!

Joshua Fry Speed: a man of charisma and friendship is the subject of Noah Van Sciver's second history lesson regarding Lincoln. Roommate and confidant to a young Abraham Lincoln, Speed plays a large role in Van Sciver's new graphic novel The Hypo. Find out more about the history of Speed on Van Sciver's blog and pre-order the The Hypo today!