Publisher to discuss graphic novels, comic books as art at Mission Creek

If you've read and enjoyed graphic novels in the past 40 years — from work by R. Crumb or Bill Griffith to the Hernandez Brothers or Chris Ware or scores of other cartoonists you can name — you should thank Gary Groth.

Groth is co-founder of Fantagraphics Books, influential publishing house for many of the brighter and lesser lights in the comics trade over the past couple generations, including reprints of work by now-legends of the trade to cartoonists who are just trying their wings, from North America and overseas.

'When I started 'The Comics Journal' in 1976, that's when comics were the lowest rung of pop culture,' Groth said by phone from the Seattle office of Fantagraphics, ahead of his April 6 appearance at Mission Creek. Mainstream 'comics were pretty much moronic garbage' — with some significant exceptions from the 1950s and '60s.

So he recruited various contributors to write reviews for his magazine — typed, laid out and stapled together in his two-bedroom apartment — of what then were called underground comics, led most notably by Crumb, Griffith and Art Spiegelman.

While he confessed to growing up in love with the artwork of Jack Kirby ('The Fantastic Four' and innumerable other titles) and Steve Ditko ('Spider-Man'), he came to view superhero comic books as 'the enemy of art.'

'The subject matter … dictated the idiom. The cartoonist would hit a creative ceiling,' he said.

Before the mid-1970s, most cartoonists considered themselves as entertainers or craftsmen, Groth explained. They 'didn't think of themselves as artists.'

But these new alternative cartoonists who were coming of age by the '70s 'took themselves seriously.' They had something to say about life, art and the world. And they could draw, exceptionally well.

In 1981, Groth read a copy of the self-published 32-page 'Love and Rockets,' by Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez. Groth was so enthused, he wrote the review himself.

'It was the comic we were hypothesizing about in 'The Comics Journal,'' he recalled. 'Still today, it has a singular and unique vision and interpretation of the world that is copious and open.'

He then asked the brothers if he and his partners could publish 'L&R.' The Hernandezes agreed, and a publishing partnership continues to this day, relating the ongoing tales of Maggie, Hopey and the villagers of Palomar.

Groth had published a few books before, but 'L&R' became Fantagraphics Books flagship title. Soon to follow were collected works in book form by Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes and Jim Woodring.

Many others have come since.

Fantagraphics has never been a lucrative business, Groth admitted, and over time has employed crowdfunding devices. And the company weighs each decision of what to publish next through a careful balance of what certainly will sell with what likely won't.

'If we think the work will really tank, we have to love it,' he laughed.

For example, Groth is excited about a new title he's getting ready for publication, 'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters,' by Emile Ferris. The 650-page graphic novels tells the stories of a group of people who live in a single apartment building.

'It is absolutely astonishing,' he said. 'The drawing is astonishing.'

In other words, it's in keeping with the mission of Fantagraphics.

If you go

What: Discussion with Fantagraphics co-founder Gary Groth

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City

Cost: Free