Rettet Fantagraphics!

[Mille]

A very important message from Stan Sakai...

"Fantagraphics Books, who publishes the first seven Usagi trade collections as well as other fine books, is in financial trouble according to an e-mail sent out by publisher Gary Groth. Their book store distributor had gone bankrupt last year owing them about $70,000. (This is ironic since Fantagraphics have been doing very well in such stores.) They were forced to take out two loans to keep them going, but the loans are coming due. FB also overprinted books in 2002, but their creditors will want cash, not inventory. Fantagraphics is owned wholly by Gary and Kim. One option for them is to sell part of the company, which might cut into the creative freedom they've been enjoying.

"They're asking for fans, pros, anyone to buy books and merchandising from them. This plea had worked for Top Shelf, and kept them out of bankruptcy from the same situation with the distributor. Fantagraphics has been publishing for about 27 years and has a lot of great books--from the complete Prince Valiant to Love and Rockets to, of course, Usagi.

Check out their website."

http://www.fantagraphics.com has a much more detailed account of FB's situation. FB has supported Stan Sakai's UY comics for approx. 18 years now, almost as long as UY has been around (next year will be UY's 20th Anniversary). Kim Thompson, a true believer in Usagi and many other top notch "funny animal" comics, helped make UY the success that it is today. It's a safe bet to say that without Kim and FB, UY may have gone the way many of the other B&W Boom comics went...

If you are missing any UY issues or books, visit FB's website today!

http://www.fantagraphics.com/cart/

Type in "usagi" and check out their selection... They have many of the Vol 1 UY comics in stock (4,5,7,10,15,29-38), all of the UY trades, including Dark Horse's books. Lots of extras, like UY Color Special 2 and 3, Book 1 and 5 hardcovers, Space Usagi, and UY Vol 2 #1 (from Mirage). Best of all, everything is offered at or below cover price!

If you purchase anything from FB's site (not just UY comics) we'll enter you to win some cool UY collectibles. We are working out the details of what will be offered in the raffle, but there will be multiple winners and the prizes will be awesome. All you would need to do is forward your email confirmation from Fantagraphics. Each item purchased counts as one entry, so the more items you purchase, the more chances you have to win!

Send your email confirmations to: savefanta@usagiyojimbo.com

Please act today, as FB only has about a month or so to recover!

[Kar-Fai]

"They have a lot of wonderful stuff up on the website -- comics, books, limited edition prints, a Chris Ware lunchbox, tee shirts, erotica (from their Eros Press imprint and elsewhere), CDs, DVDs, and oodles of other wonderful stuff, much of which would look a lot more enticing if they'd put a few more pictures up. I mean, would it kill them to show us what the Jules Feiffer print looks like? Or the two Barry Windsor Smith Prints? And what exactly is the Comics Journal Interview CD? Er, sorry. Anyway, they have lots of wonderful stuff there, buy anything and you'll make a difference, buy $500 worth and Gary will phone you up and say thank you really really politely.

I was trying to think of something I could add to that, to help, and I couldn't. Except if you don't want a phone call from Gary and you'd rather have one from me on their behalf, tell them when you spend your $500 and I'll see what I can do. "
______
Das sagt Neil Gaiman in seinem Blog (http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp).

Wer also schon immer mal 500 Dollar für tolle Comics ausgeben wollte kann ja auch gleich noch nen Anruf von Neil Gaiman dazunehmen.
KF

[Spong]

Fantagraphics Alive And Kicking!


We have been awed and humbled by the voluminous response to our open letter of May 29, and want to thank everyone who spread the word, beat the drums on our behalf, endorsed our efforts, supported us, and defended us against our few but vociferous detractors. (See below for what we hope is a complete list of benefactors.)

We are pleased -and relieved- to announce that we reached our immediate goal by the end of the work day on Friday, June 6. We have moved from depression to elation to a state of dizzying exhaustion over the course of that long, frenzied week.

====================

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyes!!!!

[Mille]

Das wär ja noch schöner gewesen!
(Und dabei hab ich unsere Bestellung noch gar nicht losgeschickt!)

[Spong]

Ooooch ich dachte wir hätten die gerettet.

[SUBZERO 2000]

Na ja, ein kleines finanzielles Polster schadet nie. Jetzt ist wahrscheinlich der günstigste Zeitpunkt um mal abzuchecken was man schon immer von fantagraphics lesen wollte aber noch nicht bestellt hat.

[Spong]

Genau.