Fantagraphics Books

Back in July, ComiXology addressed one of the biggest questions people had with its digital comics service: Do customers actually own the issues they buy? The company unviled a DRM-free backup feature, but only for a handful of publishers, including Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and Top Shelf Productions, among others. This week, ComiXology announced a second wave of publishers that will offer DRM-free downloads -- and no, Marvel and DC still aren't part of the deal.

The comic book, animation, illustration, pinup, mashup, fan art and design communities are generating amazing artwork of myriad styles and tastes, all of which ends up on the Internet and filtered into ComicsAlliance’s Best Art Ever (This Week). These images convey senses of mood and character — not to mention artistic skill — but comic books are specifically a medium of sequential narratives, and great sequential art has to be both beautiful (totally subjective!) and clear in its storytelling (not so subjective!). The words and the pictures need to work together to tell the story and create whatever tone, emotion and indeed world the story requires. The contributions of every person on a creative team, from the writer to the artist(s) to the letterers, are necessary to achieving a great page of sequential storytelling. It is the special nature of comic books that we’re celebrating in this recurring feature: Best Sequential Art Ever (This Week).

Digital comic readers, rejoice: One of the best comic series ever created is now available to buy online, with the news that Fantagraphics Books has signed a deal with ComiXology to bring Love and Rockets to mobile devices worldwide.As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for the classic series by Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez, Fantagraphics has released the first four issues of current

As part of our Valentine's Day Giveaway, two lucky ComicsAlliance readers can win a pair of romantic titles from well-respected comic book publisher Fantagraphics: Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics and Celluloid. Yo...