Fantagraphics announces Kickstarter to help fund its 2014 releases
The death of Fantagraphics Books co-publisher Kim Thompson earlier this year was a big loss on a lot of levels, especially for the company the loved: Not only did it lose a family member and guiding hand, but it lost the work he was going to do—namely, editing Fantagraphics’ European graphic-novel line. That led to the cancellation or postponement of 13 books scheduled for the spring and summer, which means the company lost a bunch of revenue that has resulted in a “severe shortfall that will impede our ability to produce next season’s books,” it said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Fantagraphics has faced financial trouble—it nearly went out of business in 2003, for instance, when a distributor filed for bankruptcy—but it is the first time since the rise of Kickstarter. Today Fantagraphics announced a Kickstarter project to raise $150,000 to cover its 2014 season of 39 books, which includes a two-volume hardcover box set of Daniel Clowes’ complete Eightball, the complete Witzend collection, new Peanuts collections, Love And Rockets, and much more.