TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT

If you've been following this blog at all you know how big a fan of David B's 'Epileptic' I am (my glowing review for which can still be found here). It has been announced recently (unofficially but from pretty dependable sources) that Fantagraphics will apperantly not be printing the second volume of 'Epileptic'... it will instead be handled by Pantheon. Furthermore, at the cost of slightly smaller page dimensions, Pantheon will be printing all six volumes of the story under one cover, and for an apperantly reasonable price as well. The news was broke here, with additional comments from the peanut gallery.

It seems amazing to me that anyone could possibly complain about this. Ever since I read the first Fantagraphics edition of 'Epileptic' I've lived in constant fear of the announcement that there just wouldn't be enough demand to print the second volume in the US. Eurocomics have a spotty history in America - sure, you can buy Tintin and Asterix anywhere, but mostly the stuff just doesn't sell to the fanboy-drenched direct market - or if it does sell, it sells out and stays out of print (a la Marvel/Epic's beautiful but rare Mobius album series from the late 80's).

Humanoids has done a great deal towards finally giving Europe a successful presence on American stands (as has NBM, albeit to a smaller and less specific degree), but the problem with Humanoids is that their books, while beautiful to look at, are just not the kind of things I really long to see imported. Their stuff is mostly sci-fi and fantasy. I very enthusiastically picked up the first four or five issues of "Metal Hurlant" before realizing that it was essentially the same exact book as the American "Heavy Metal", only with better paper and cardstock covers. (I think "Heavy Metal" even has the edge in chain-mail bikini babe erotica, Julie Strain notwithstanding).

So, basically, I don't see any reason why this is a bad thing, except for the fact that Fantagraphics has lost what would have been a presitgious project... but, even then, the first book of the "Complete Peanuts" is about to ship so I doubt they're in any danger of going under.

Now, if we can just get "The Nimrod" on a brisker schedule...