Catch a CAB...and See AdHouse, Alternative, Fanfare, Fantagraphics, and First Second

Comic Arts Brooklyn is almost here! If you're able to make it, here are some suggestions on creators and publishers you should look up when you get there. Look for more entries at this tag.

Comic Arts Brooklyn has some of the Panel Patter team's favorite publishers appearing at the show, so many in fact that we're going to break this preview of publishers into two posts!

Instead of re-hashing things we've already said, this post will point you to posts relating to each of the publishers involved. While some may have more coverage than others (I'm pretty sure we've done more for Fantagraphics over the years except for Top Shelf), rest assured that they are all awesome and well worth your time, attention, and hard-earned dollars.*

This is Part 1, and if all goes well, Part 2 should follow just a bit after this one.

  • AdHouse Books, run by Chris Pitzer, is a small press from Richmond, Virginia, making the trip up I-95 to be at CAB this year. I've been reading books from Chris going back to 2008, and I'm sure others on the Panel Patter team extend back even further than that. He never publishes a lot of books each year, but those he does are of high quality, and feature people like Noah Van Sciver, Jim Rugg, and Katie Skelly, just to name a few. Here's our SPX preview for AdHouse, this is all our AdHouse posts, and lastly, the AdHouse website.
  • Alternative Comics was resurrected a few years ago by Marc Arsenault, and he's done a great job carrying on the tradition, by re-printing classic work and bringing new material in the spirit of the old. Some of the creators he's published include Noah Van Sciver (dude gets around!), Derf Backderf, Sam Henderson, and Andy Ristaino. This was our SPX preview for Alternative Comics, you can find our reviews for Alternative comics here, and last but not least, their website.
  • Fanfare/Ponet Mon is an old friend of the blog, and though we do not do a ton of coverage for them, the next book I personally read from Fanfare that I don't care for will be the first. Though they are primarily known for being an upscale manga publisher, Fanfare also handles books from European countries as well. Here's all our posts about their books, and here's the Fanfare website.
  • Fantagraphics, as I mentioned above, is the publisher we've covered the second-most, because pound for pound, they just put out so much incredible material every year. Whether it's new books like How to Be Happy or classic reprints of everything from Peanuts to Steve Ditko, Fantagraphics is one of the biggest names out there, and for good reason. We of course did a preview for SPX, this is our Fantragraphics tag, and naturally, they're on the web, too.
  • First Second has some of the most beautiful looking books being published. Their production values are unbelievable. But just because a book is pretty doesn't make it any good. It's the insides that count, and with Farel Dalrymple, Gene Luen Yang, Paul Pope, and many others on your roster, that's a winning combination. All our First Second reviews are here, and they can be found online here.


When you're at CAB tomorrow, make sure you tell them we sent you!

*Heck, even if you didn't earn it the hard way, spend that cash!