[3][dead link‍] As comics journalist (and former Fantagraphics employee) Michael Dean writes, "the publisher has alternated between flourishing and nearly perishing over the years.

[11] They gained wider recognition in 1982 by publishing the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets,[12] and moved on to such critically acclaimed and award-winning series as Acme Novelty Library, Eightball, and Hate.

[13] From 1985 to 1987, Fantagraphics coordinated and presented (through their magazine Amazing Heroes) The Jack Kirby Award for achievement in comic books, voted on by comic-book professionals.

[6] In 1990, the publisher introduced Eros Comix, a lucrative line of erotic comics that provided a replacement revenue stream for Amazing Heroes and which helped the company again avoid bankruptcy.

[18] In 1998, Fantagraphics was forced into a round of layoffs;[4] and in 2003 the company almost went out of business, losing over $60,000 in the wake of the 2002 bankruptcy of debtor and book trade distributor Seven Hills Distribution.

[27] His absence left the company without a number of titles it had been counting on for the summer and fall of 2013;[23] and, in November, Fantagraphics started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $150,000, which it surpassed in four days.

It is published by Fantagraphics (U.S.), Avant Verlag (Germany), Vertige Graphic (France), Oog & Blik (Holland), Coconino Press (Italy), and Sinsentido (Spain).

Eros Comix was an adult-oriented imprint of Fantagraphics,[30] established in 1990 to publish pornographic comic books like Gilbert Hernandez' Birdland and reprints of work by Wally Wood and Frank Thorne.

[31][32] Eventually, Eros added to its catalogue dozens of comics titles, over 40 collected editions, anime videos, DVDs, and books of erotic art and photography.

[33] Notable Eros titles include Bill Willingham's Ironwood, SS Crompton's Demi the Demoness, Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss, Domino Lady; and the Italian series Djustine, Ramba, and Adult Frankenstein.

[34] Other contributors to Eros titles included Eric Stanton, Mary Fleener, Mikael Oskarsson, Bill Pearson, Malachy Coney, Richard Bassford, Gary Dumm, Frank Stack, Bob Fingerman, Molly Kiely, Yanick Paquette, Robert Peters, John Workman, Colleen Coover,[35] Marc Andreyko, Raulo Cáceres, Larry Fuller, Dennis Eichhorn, Dennis Cramer/Justine Mara Andersen,[36] Jon Macy, John Blackburn, and Greg Budgett.

great, Toshiki Yui, Teruo Kakuta, and Benkyo Tamaoki; and titles like Bondage Fairies, Hatsuinu, Hot Tails, A Strange Kind of Woman, Slut Girl, and Super Taboo.