Books published by publisher Fantagraphics Books

Charlie Brown may not be the best pitcher, batter, or team manager, but his love for the game is boundless, no matter how many home runs he gives up, how many games he loses, how many errors his team makes, or how many times the game is rained out. This delightful collection of newspaper comic strips —Batter Up, Charlie Brown! — features three complete baseball stories starring good ol’ Charlie Brown and his frustrating (and frustrated) teammates Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang.

Presents the years 1957-1960 of the politically progressive, influential newspaper strip. This is the first time Pogo has been complete and in chronological order anywhere―with all 208 Sunday strips from these four years presented in lush full color for since their original appearance in Sunday newspaper sections. In Volume 5, the Okefenokee gang try to dig a canal to compete with the Suez. In Volume 6, Albert Alligator and Beauregard Bugleboy fend off a man-from-Mars. Black & white and color illustrations throughout

In Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island, the classic 1930s newspaper strip Mickey Mouse is back for another round of thrills, chills, and epic journeys as cartoonist Floyd Gottfredson takes the titular character from the depths of teeming jungles to the halls of spooky Blaggard Castle. Mickey fights with pirates on desolate Treasure Island; he quests with Goofy to catch ruthless counterfeiters; and battles to save windy Horace Horsecollar from mad scientists, a robbery frame-up ― and himself! Mickey’s classic Disney bad guys are here too: archenemy Pegleg Pete is joined by the mysterious “Bill Shakespeare” and hypnosis-happy Professors Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex!

Donald Duck discovers an ancient map and triggers a race to recover a fabulous Viking artifact that will give its owner full legal title to all of North America! “The Golden Helmet” takes Donald and his nephews on one of their greatest quests ever―a rip-roaring adventure full of twists, turns, and calamitous reversals of fortune as they bound across treacherous seas, struggle across treacherous terrain―and get waylaid by treacherous opponents. Plus: Three more bonus tales guest-starring Daisy Duck, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, and of course, Huey, Dewey, and Louie!

In 1955, Gene Deitch embarked on a daily comic strip for King Features Syndicate that he hoped would become his life's work. One of the most unusual strips of the decade, Terr'ble Thompson was about a very odd little boy who had his "Werld Hedd Quarters" in a tree house and was regarded far and wide as "the bravest, fiercest, most-best hero of all-time." This book collects the entirety of Deitch's short-lived inspiration for Tom Terrific, and a new generation will discover what could have been one of the great comic strips of all-time had it continued. The strip is drawn in a simple, modernist style that served as an antidote to the ubiquitous Disney look that had spread into all facets of popular culture. Terr'ble Thompson was a visual and verbal feast of fun that blended time and space, with Terr'ble going on adventures with great historic figures like Columbus, George Washington, and Davy Crockett. This collection features annotations for the entire run of the strip by Deitch himself, as well as introductory essays by Deitch, his son Kim, and historian Dan Nadel (The Ganzfeld). The book collects both the dailies and Sundays, with many of the latter newly re-colored by Deitch.

Vol. 3 collects the newspaper strip's postwar years of 1946–1947, continuing five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O’Malley’s misadventures. Bumbling but endearing, Mr. O’Malley rarely gets his magic to work—even when he consults his Fairy Godfather’s Handy Pocket Guide. The true magic of Barnaby resides in its canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the understated elegance of Crockett Johnson’s clean, spare art. In its combination of Johnson’s sly wit and O’Malley’s amiable windbaggery, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous, Barnaby expanded our sense of what comics can do.

Volume Four collects 1948–1949; the misadventures of five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O’Malley continue. Bumbling but endearing, Mr. O’Malley rarely gets his magic to work ― even when he consults his Fairy Godfather’s Handy Pocket Guide. The true magic of Barnaby resides in its canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the understated elegance of Crockett Johnson’s clean, spare art. It combines of Johnson’s sly wit and O’Malley’s amiable windbaggery, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous. Designed by Daniel Clowes (Patience, Wilson), it includes scholarly material.

Continuing our ongoing commitment to keep this perennial, canonic series in print, we re-present the most often-demanded volumes in The Complete Crumb Comics series. Vol. 8: Starring Fritz the Cat features one of Crumbs most notorious comics, The Death of Fritz the Cat, as well as Whiteman Meets Bigfoot, the complete Big Ass #2 and Mr. Natural #2, wild jams and loads of photos! This volume covers the years 1971-1972.

Linus and his wait for the Great Pumpkin have been a pop culture touchstone for nearly 50 years thanks to the animated television special (“I got a rock”), and it all started in the classic Peanuts strips (1959-1962) collected in this affordable, fun-sized gift book. Linus’s proselytizing that on Halloween, the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch and travels the world bringing presents to good little girls and boys are derided by his sister Lucy, laughed at by Charlie Brown, met with skepticism by baby Sally, and even causes “denominational squabbling” over who’s better, the Great Pumpkin or Santa Claus. Year after year, Linus faces his persecution and inevitable disappointment with either blind faith or Quixotic perseverance. Charles M. Schulz’s homage to the power of idealism and belief makes these some of the most beloved comic strips of all time.

In our title story, Uncle Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews are hot on the trail of a pair of old saddlebags filled with gold nuggets. Then, Donald dons a suit of armor with a rubber sword for a costume party, but he embarrasses Daisy and becomes the object of scorn and ridicule ― until a pair of lions break free! And when Gyro Gearloose invents a virtual reality headset, Donald and the boys find themselves menaced by fearsome creatures on other worlds. Carl Barks delivers another superb collection of imaginative exuberance, high-concept hijinks, and all-around cartooning brilliance.

The legendary ugly artist of Mad finds God! Cartoonist Basil Wolverton was known for his grotesque drawings in Mad magazine. He was commissioned and later employed by a church to write and illustrate a narrative of the Old Testament. Compiled and edited by Wolverton's son, Monte, the 304-page Bible Stories includes all of Wolverton's artwork for the Worldwide Church of God corporation. Recording artist and noted EC authority Grant Geissman (Tales of Terror: The E.C. Companion and Foul Play!: The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!) provides an insightful foreword, while Monte Wolverton delivers commentary and background in the introduction and in each section. This volume is authorized and commissioned by the Worldwide Church of God and endorsed by the Wolverton family. Many of the illustrations in this book are regarded as Basil Wolverton's finest work. Still others have never been published.

400 pages of internationally acclaimed, classic comics in two volumes, snugged into a sturdy slipcase at a special price and that even Uncle Scrooge couldn’t resist! This holiday season's Carl Barks Library gift box collects two of our earlier volumes in this popular series: Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Lost Peg Leg Mine" and Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: "The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama." Full-color illustrations throughout.