Fantagraphics has announced a new imprint, Takumigraphics, devoted exclusively to East Asian Comics. This new imprint will feature comics, manga, manhwa, and more from Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and other countries. The launch is part of the publisher’s 50th Anniversary celebration taking place in 2026.
Ever since Fantagraphics was founded in 1976, they’ve sought out graphic works that are imaginative, daring, and aesthetically compelling. For the first 30 years, the focus was primarily on English language cartoonists, with forays into definitive translations of exceptional European and South American works. 2010 marked the publisher’s first serious entry into literary manga with the publication of A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by the pioneering shojo manga creator Moto Hagio. Since then they continued to publish manga by Atsushi Kaneko, Kago, Inio Asano, Susumu Higa, Gengoroh Tagame and others.
Takumi is a double-bottomed meaning encapsulating the imprint’s editorial goals: it refers to “excellence,” skillfulness,” “adroitness,” “ingeniousness” — as well as a person who embodies those qualities. It’s a term they feel exemplifies the aesthetic caliber of the books that will comprise this imprint — works of mastery and vision.
While the initial focus of Takumigraphics will be on Japanese comics, future titles will include comics by authors from Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and other Asian countries. While this represents a wide range of nuanced cultures and backgrounds, comics from these countries often share an aesthetic and visual language that they believe readers will recognize and appreciate.
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Source: Graphic Policy
