Saved by the Beagle

Surprisingly, the financial trouble Fantagraphics was going through at the time didn't impede the process. In 2003, Groth says, "I called down to Creative Associates and just warned [them], 'You know, we sent out a plea for help with financial assistance. You are probably going to notice this; we're sending it on the Internet. But I want to assure you that if we make enough money doing this, that we'll be fine.' And they were cool. They basically figured that if we went out of business it wouldn't happen, and that if we didn't go out of business it would happen, so we were just going to sit tight and watch what happened."

Fantagraphics employee Jen Ralston in the publisher's offices. (Kevin P. Casey)

What continues to guide Fantagraphics—what made the Schulz family trust them enough to do Peanuts justice—is the overwhelming sense of mission that emanates from everything they issue. Thompson and especially Groth are driven by what comics should be, not how much they might make. If they didn't publish The Complete Peanuts themselves, they'd be the first in line at Zanadu or Golden Age Collectibles when someone else did—and the first to complain that it wasn't done right.

Judith Eve Lipton

Gary Groth, Eric Reynolds, and Kim Thompson (from left) at Fantagraphics' Lake City Way headquarters.

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Fantagraphics' Top 10
By Douglas Wolk MORE

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• Hunter S. Thompson
• Gary Groth
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• Graphic Novels and Comics

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"At this point, I would say that if Fantagraphics vanished in a puff of smoke tomorrow, I suspect that most people who deserve to be published and most of the things that deserve to be done would be done," says Thompson. "You know, we essentially made it so successful that there are a lot of people that, should we falter, could take over." Maybe that will happen eventually. But it looks like we'll have another dozen years to find out.

mmatos@seattleweekly.com