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Fantagraphics Acquires Gaines Library; Will Release B&W EC Books By Author...

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Yoc:
Fantagraphics announced at its company panel today at Comic-Con International that it has reached an agreement with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. to publish one of the great founts of quality comics in the medium's history, the EC Comics Library.

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/fantagraphics_acquires_gaines_library_will_release_best_ec_books_by_author/

An interesting development.  I wonder what Russ Cochran think about this?

josemas:
I wonder if Russ still has the rights to continue the EC Archives?  I didn't see anything in the article that indicated that Fantagraphics has exclusive rights to the EC material and I notice that all of the Fantagraphics collections are centered around individuals-Kurtzman, Davis, Wood, Williamson, etc... as opposed to Russ's approach of reprinting volumes featuring complete issues thus the projects don't necessarily conflict.

Best

Joe

Drusilla lives!:
I get the impression that Russ is packing it in... it was a great run, and he did a lot to keep those works out there... but hey, he's entitled to retire at some point.  :)

Personally, I don't see why they would want to have creator-centric collections, it might not come off as well as they think.  For example, I happened to recently reread a few "Where Monsters Dwell" issues which reprinted those Atlas monster stories from the late 50s/early 60s, and let me tell you, the first two issues were real bears to get through.  

I partly attribute this to the fact that they consisted of all Kirby-Ayers stories... and pretty bad ones at that.  The third issue was such a pleasure to read due to the inclusion of a single Paul Reinman story (and a mix of inkers on Kirby).  And it only got better in later issues with the inclusion of some Ditko stories as well.  Which made me realize that one of the critical keys to success with many of these anthology comics were their mix of artists.  That's what made EC (and later the Warren mags) so interesting IMO... it was the successful matching and pairing of the individual artists with their diverse styles within each issue that made a big difference... well that, and the fact that they were talented as hell.  :)

So my point is that sometimes the whole IS greater then its parts.  But nevertheless, I guess it will be easier a task cherry-picking the EC material since so much of it was of such a high quality.  But I see Kurtzman, Davis, Wood and Williamson... what, no Ingels?  Of all the EC artists, I'd think he's the one I'd pick for this type of creator-centric retrospective.  Oddly enough, I was thinking just that a few months ago.  That is, how great it would be to have his "Old Witch" material collected together... I mean, not only are there the Haunt pieces, but there's all those stories in the Crime Suspense comics (which IMO don't belong there).  Oh well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

OtherEric:
The one I'm looking forward to is the Wally Wood Artist's edition, which is NOT from Fantagraphics.  But it will reprint Wood EC stories from the original art, at full original size.

narfstar:
The EC comics themselves have been reprinted over and over and over. Anyone who wants to read them can find them. I think the creator centric books opens up a much greater market to them. Even someone who had the volume reprints may well by the books of their favorite creators. I think it was a smart move as there are a lot of artist centric collectors.

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