Continuing Fantagraphics’ master plan to separate comics fans from their life savings, the company announced two new archival projects at Comic-Con last week: The Complete Zap Comix and “The EC Comics Library.” The former will collect every issue of the seminal underground comic—which was created by Robert Crumb in 1968, and later featured the work of underground legends S. Clay Wilson, Spain Rodriguez and Gilbert Shelton, among others—in an oversized, two-volume, slipcased hardcover, supplemented with with interviews and commentary. The latter will take a different approach to the oft-republished EC line, forgoing issue-by-issue reprints of the likes of Tales From The Crypt and Frontline Combat in favor of artist-specific volumes: a set of Harvey Kurtzman’s war comics; a set of Jack Davis’ horror stories; et cetera. Both the Zap book and the EC series are due to arrive in 2012, joining Fantagraphics’ other archival lines—like the series collecting the newspaper strips Peanuts, Popeye, Krazy Kat, Mickey Mouse, and soon Pogo and Nancy—as well as the ongoing work of such modern masters as Peter Bagge, Jason and Los Bros Hernandez. So… all the more reason for congress to work together to avert a catastrophic meltdown of the global economy, yes?

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