FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS AND ROSEBUD ARCHIVES ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP, LAUNCHING WEB SALES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL CARTOON ART IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS

SEATTLE WA, / DUMONT NJ, APRIL 8, 2010 --- Fantagraphics Books and Rosebud Archives have announced an agreement to market a wide variety of products related to vintage comics and posters, historical cartoons, advertising images, and illustration. The product lines will include prints, posters, framed art, books, stationery, and a hybrid format called the Rosebud PadFolio. The products are available for sale immediately on Fantagraphics.com:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/rosebud

“We are proud to be allied with Fantagraphics, whose commitment to quality and the advancement of the graphics arts has been notable for decades,” announced Rosebud Archives founding partners Rick Marschall and Jonathan Barli. “Our own commitment to preservation, restoration, and high historical standards are a perfect match with Fantagraphics.”

The core of Rosebud Archives’ image bank is arguably America’s largest private resource of comics-based popular culture, the collection of Rick Marschall, to which is added the collections of Jonathan Barli and several other major sources in the US and in Europe. Barli, veteran proprietor of Digital Funnies, is a specialist in restoration and themed compilations of cartoon art. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts.
Rosebud Archives releases will also include collectors’ editions of artwork created for, and featured in, Fantagraphics publications, including The Comics Journal and Nemo magazine. “The availability of Rosebud’s customized art objects is a perfect complement to the Marschall Books imprint we previously announced,” said Fantagraphics President Gary Groth. “Rick Marschall’s imprint will be a series of substantial volumes by individual cartoonists, thematic anthologies, and cultural collections of cartoon-related imagery. Rosebud will produce customized and short-run cartoons in various popular formats, which we’re very happy to provide on our website.”

Rosebud Archives was established in 2009 and has already released several lines of products that reflect the company’s vision. These early releases feature the work of George Herriman, ZIM, and Charles Dana Gibson; cartoon series by Gluyas Williams; prints of cartoons by Winsor McCay, Harrison Cady, and John T McCutcheon; and special art by Cliff Sterrett, George McManus, and Milt Gross. Specialty items include a “Krazy Kat” triptych and a Limited Edition portfolio of Marlene Dietrich photographic portraits. Boxed editions of works by great black-and-white cartoonists are issued under Rosebud’s “Shwartz and Weiss” imprint. Stationary items include notecards, postcards, and envelopes. Framed, frame-ready, and gallery-wrapped prints are also offered. The Rosebud Padfolio is a bound portfolio with detachable prints, a uniquely devised format.

Rosebud Archives offers its products on its own website (www.rosebudarchives.com), and has made all products available on the Fantagraphics Books website (www.fantagraphics.com). “A perfect synergy of serving the sophisticated comics connoisseur, and reaching collectors far and wide with proven integrity,” is how Marschall characterized the agreement between the two companies. Fantagraphics’ website offers all its books —by such cartoonists as R. Crumb, George Herriman, Charles Schulz, Hal Foster, Basil Wolverton, Gahan Wilson, Steve Ditko, Robert Williams, Daniel Clowes, Jim Woodring, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, and many others— directly to consumers. “We have tried to publish the best cartooning in the world, and Rosebud’s beautifully conceived art objects fits right into our aesthetic,” said Groth.