To mark the 30 year anniversary of the groundbreaking comics series Love & Rockets, Fantagraphics Books announced an agreement with digital vendor Comixology at the San Diego Comic-con International to release the first four issues of the Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets New Stories in digital editions for the iPad. In September, Comixology will release Love and Rockets New Stories #5 as an e-book simultaneously with the print edition. The L&R series will be the first Fantagraphics titles to be released as e-books and beginning with L&R New Stories #5, Fantagraphics will begin releasing a select number of its titles in digital format.
Although Fantagraphics has taken its time to begin releasing digital editions of its titles, Fantagraphics associate publisher Eric Reynolds said, “We’ve been exploring our digital options for a few years now and the more I learned the more I kept coming back to Comixology.” Fantagraphics has been working closely with Comixology to produce the e-book editions will maintain the high production standards of its book. L&R New Stories will be released in CMX-HD, Comixology’s high-definition comics format, offering the highest resolution quality for the reproduction of the print material.
Created by the acclaimed brother comics creators, Jaime, Gilbert and (sometimes) Mario Hernandez, L&R offers powerfully emotional, humane and funny stories that recount the fictional lives of a vividly entertaining and endearing cast of chicano characters. After 30 years of publishing, the comics series has more than 20 book collections of various kinds.
Comixology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger, “Fantagraphics Books is one of the longest running, independent comic publishers around with an incredible array of titles. I’ve been chasing them for three years to be a part of our platform and am thrilled not only to bring their books to the digital world, but also to be a part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Love and Rockets. I’ve long been a fan of Hernandez Brothers’ work, and couldn’t think of a better way to kick off our new relationship with Fantagraphics.”
