| Former type | Comic publisher, Book publisher, Comic book retailer |
|---|---|
| Industry | Comics |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Founder(s) | Thomas Skulan |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Albany, New York |
FantaCo Enterprises was an American comic book store and publishing company founded by Thomas Skulan and based in Albany, New York. As a publisher, FantaCo was known for its idiosyncratic line-up of mostly black-and-white titles, including the humorous Hembeck Series and the horror title Gore Shriek. FantaCo also published a "Chronicles Series," which catalogued top-selling Marvel Comics titles. In its later years, FantaCo published mostly horror and "good girl art" comics.
FantaCo began as a comic book store before branching out into publishing books, magazines, and comics. They also hosted FantaCon, a popular Albany-area comics and horror convention.
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FantaCo began in 1978 as a comic book store[1] and mail-order business, before branching out into publishing in 1980. They were located on the first block of Central Avenue in Albany. Many of the store's employees, including owner Tom Skulan, Mitch Cohn, Roger Green, and Raoul Vezina, worked on FantaCo titles in creative capacities. (Vezina drew Smilin’ Ed from 1980 until his death in 1983.)[1]
The company made its mark in the early 1980s with The Hembeck Series, seven volumes of comics by Fred Hembeck. These magazine-sized black-and-white books poked loving fun at the mainstream comics industry, with Hembeck himself appearing as a cartoon interlocutor with the superheroes he interviewed. During this period, FantaCo also published the Fantaco Chronicles Series, edited by Mitch Cohn and Roger Green, which exhaustively documented popular Marvel Comics titles such as the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Avengers, and Spider-Man. A one-shot title published during this period was Gates of Eden, which featured comics about the 1960s by an impressive array of talent, including John Byrne, Steve Leialoha, Michael T. Gilbert, Trina Robbins, Hembeck, Foolbert Sturgeon, P. Craig Russell, Rick Geary and Spain Rodriguez.
1986 saw the debut of the horror anthology Gore Shriek, edited by Stephen R. Bissette, who also contributed stories to each issue. Besides Bissette, other Gore Shriek creators of note included Greg Capullo, Bruce Spaulding Fuller, Eric Stanway and Gurchain Singh. Gore Shriek volume I ran for three years, and is still fondly remembered by horror fans as one of the top comics in that genre.[2] Gore Shriek Delectus (1989) collects much of the best material from the first volume. Bissette left FantaCo in 1990, over a dispute about a new FantaCo series based on George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.[3][4]
FantaCo revived Gore Shriek in 1990 and started a new line of horror and zombie-related titles and one-shots. This period was noteworthy for the career jump-starts it gave to young creators like Chynna Clugston (Bloodletting) and Steve Niles (King of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead: London, Kill Me Slowly, Scab, and Uptown Zombies).
From 1991-1994, the company co-published a number of Kevin Eastman projects with Eastman's company Tundra Press. Books under the FantaCo/Tundra imprint included Infectious, No Guts or Glory, and Zombie Wars. These projects petered out once Tundra folded in 1993.
FantaCo published book and magazine in addition to comics; their first book being 1980's Mug Shots, a book of cartoons by John Caldwell. Later on, FantaCo published more trade books on the subjects of horror films; splatter films; exploitation films; an early guide to horror, science fiction, and fantasy films on videocassette; and even a straight-ahead horror novel. John McCarty authored three books published by FantaCo, and Chas Balun wrote four.
In a similar horror vein, they put out the FantaCo Horror Yearbook and Price Guide every year from 1978 until 1996; magazines like Barbara Steele: An Angel for Satan, Demonique 4, and the Comics Enquirer; twelve issues of Dread: The Official Clive Barker Newsletter in 1992–1993; and Clive Barker and Zombie War commemorative card sets.
The book Amazon Women: The Art of Tom Simonton, edited by Tim D'Allaird, was FantaCo's final publication, right on the eve of their closure in 1998.
Publisher Skulan also hosted FantaCon, a popular Albany-area horror convention[2] and comic book convention that was preferred by many to the "over-crowded Fangoria events."[2] FantaCon lasted from 1979 to 1990.[3]
With the mid-90s bursting of the speculation bubble, combined with the decline in demand for horror comics, FantaCo started losing money.[5] From about 1995, their titles shifted to the good girl art of Tom Simonton's Amazon Woman comics, and titillating titles like Babes & Biomechanics, Lady Dracula, and Dead Chicks in Lace: Bloodletting Lingerie Special. As a publisher, their last couple of years were exclusively limited to Simonton projects, and in 1998 FantaCo — publisher and retailer — closed its doors for good.[1]
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