Likely to Delay Release of ‘Atlas Comics Library No. 9,’ ‘Bitchy!’
A cargo vessel carrying full print runs of two upcoming Fantagraphics titles was struck and damaged by an Iranian missile in or near the Strait of Hormuz, Fantagraphics co-founder Mike Catron revealed on Facebook over the weekend. “The report we have is that the ship has limped to a safe port, where we await further news,” Catron said in the post. “Our thoughts are with the crew, and we hope and pray for their safety.”
Both books, The Atlas Comics Library No. 9: Adventures Into Weird Worlds Vol. 1, collecting work by Russ Heath, Bernard Krigstein, Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Carmine Infantino, and others, and Bitchy! The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken, by Roberta Gregory and Helen Chazan, were scheduled to be released in early June but, Catron said, “that timeframe now seems unlikely.” Even if the books, which were printed in India and were headed for the Port of New York, were not damaged in the strike, transferring them to another vessel and getting it out of the danger zone could delay publication by a month or more.
Bitchy!, a 500-page collection of Gregory’s Midge McCracken comics, most of which originally appeared in Naughty Bits, was originally slated for March release (see “Fantagraphics to Collect Roberta Gregory’s ‘Bitchy Bitch’ Comics”) and then delayed to early June. The Atlas Comics Library is a collection of pre-code comics published by the precursor to Marvel (see “Fantagraphics to Collect Marvel’s Pre-Code Atlas Comics”).
Catron posted the news on Facebook on March 13.
