Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Events, Fantagraphics, Pop Culture, san diego comic con | Tagged: Bimbo Agitprop, Gilbert Hernandez, jim woodring, Lovers of the Empire, Natalia Hernandez, Quacky, Raquelle Jac, Roy, san diego, sdcc, Yudori
Fantagraphics SDCC Debut Lovers Of Empire, Bimbo Agitprop, Roy, Quacky
Fantagraphics debut the following at San Diego Comic-Con: Lovers of the Empire, Bimbo Agitprop, Roy #2 and Quacky
Published Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:57:15 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary
- Fantagraphics heads to San Diego Comic-Con Booth #1721 with four early-release debuts ahead of wider comic shop dates.
- New Fantagraphics books include Lovers of the Empire, Bimbo Agitprop, Roy #2, and Jim Woodring’s Quacky.
- Lovers of the Empire and Bimbo Agitprop lead Fantagraphics’ SDCC lineup with romance, memoir, and underground energy.
- Fantagraphics also hosts SDCC signings with Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Natalia Hernandez, Katie Skelly, and more.
Fantagraphics will be at Booth #1721 at San Diego Comic-Con with a bunch of their creators and comic books, a number of which will debut at the show before going on sale at comic book stores in the coming weeks. They are Lovers of the Empire: Vol. 1 by Yudori, Bimbo Agitprop by Raquelle Jac, Roy #2 by Gilbert Hernandez & Natalia Hernandez and Quacky by Jim Woodring
Lovers of the Empire: Vol. 1 by Yudori
Roy #2 by Gilbert Hernandez & Natalia Hernandez
Bimbo Agitprop by Raquelle Jac
Quacky by Jim Woodring Hardcover
- Lovers of the Empire: Vol. 1 by Yudori Hardcover – $25 Early release
South Korea, 1929. Arisa Jo, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is the most eligible bachelorette in all of Gyeongsung (the capital city). With her Western dresses, movie star hairstyle, and assertive attitude, she embodies bold “Modern” values. Meet her opposite, Jun Seomoon, a young man from the countryside deeply rooted in tradition. When Jun is charged by Arisa’s father to be her escort in the big city, these opposing forces create sparks. Through this unlikely connection, these teenagers open their eyes to new perspectives amidst the rapidly changing world they live in.
$24.99 8/19/2026 - Bimbo Agitprop by Raquelle Jac Hardcover – $35 Early release
Bimbo Agitprop captures the reality of growing up in West Texas in the early 21st century, through Satanic Panics, Y2K, a recession, abusive parents, shitty men, identity-centric politics, and woke/anti-woke pendulum swings. Reflective of the author’s era (born in the late 1990s) of hyperindividualist over-sharing of late 2010s internet, while being firmly grounded in the unfiltered, handmade, radically anti-establishment art of the 1960s underground comix, Raquelle Jac keeps her wounds fresh and open to both remember the past and protect herself in the future. At turns explicit, hilarious, profane, and defiant, Bimbo Agitprop is both an act of self-preservation and a call to arms. Jac boldly embraces frivolity, “bimboism,” comedy, memory, and storytelling to interrogate reality in the 2020s, ping-ponging among relationships, psychedelic trips, good sex, bad sex, romance, and trauma. Her dense, obsessive pages read like a manifesto, announcing the arrival of a remarkable new voice in comics.
$34.99 8/5/2026 - Roy #2 by Gilbert Hernandez & Natalia Hernandez – $5 Early release
Roy is haunted by nightmares of the Froat, so he gets up and goes for a stroll and runs into Tom-Jim-Jack Clown — battling a generic Froat for control of each other’s life force! In “Captain Cockatiel & Rudy,” the duo sail the high seas and discover an island of scaredy cats! Plus, Roy reveals his secrets of Christmas shopping!
$4.99 8/19/2026 - Quacky by Jim Woodring Hardcover – $19.99 Early release
Jim Woodring has been drawing the otherworldly, allegorical adventures of his cartoon Everycreature, Frank, for three and a half decades. These stories are a singular rarity in the comics form — both bone-chillingly physical in their depictions of Frank’s travails and profoundly metaphysical at the same time. Not since George Herriman’s Krazy Kat has the comics language been so exquisitely distilled into pure, revelatory aesthetic expression. With Quacky, Woodring adopts the format of 1930s Big Little Books to deliver a text story with illustrations, in which the typically nonplussed Frank’s reactions are told to us explicitly, through narration and his own thoughts. Frank is buffeted by generosity, anguished to see how loving friends perceive him, distraught by the process of aging and physical transformation in a beloved pet, delighted by nature and physical experiences shared with others, and ultimately sees a path toward radical acceptance in the face of trauma. Frank cast regulars Pupshaw, Pushpaw and Manhog are here, along with new entries to Frank’s world of the Unifactor. And, in a backup feature, we meet a cast of toontown pigs in a story that undercuts the kiddie book format: “Hoggy Goes Hogwild.” Cunningham, the clever pig who helps all his friends, and his confirmed fiancée, Porceline, are called on to assist local pal Hoggy – who turns out to have gone on a violent crime spree, presaging a possible psychotic break. Jim Woodring is back, and no two worlds wouldn’t be the same without him.
$19.99 8/12/2026
As well as the following signings…
- Thursday, July 23:
- 12pm – 1pm – Mathew Klickstein (See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture)
- 1pm – 2pm – Briana Loewinsohn (Raised By Ghosts), Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets)
- 2pm – 3pm – Gilbert Hernandez, Natalia Hernandez (Roy #2)
- 3pm – 4pm – Katie Skelly (Heaven), Jaime Hernandez (Love & Rockets)
- 4pm – 5pm – Jaime Hernandez (Love & Rockets)
- Friday, July 24:
- 11am – 1pm – Jaime Hernandez (Love & Rockets), Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets), Natalia Hernandez (Roy #2)
- 1pm – 2pm – Carol Tyler (The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief) Mathew Klickstein (See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture)
- 2pm – 3pm – John Pham (J & K) + Katie Skelly (Heaven)
- 4pm – 5pm – Briana Loewinsohn (Raised By Ghosts)
- Saturday, July 25:
- 12pm – 1pm – Mathew Klickstein (See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture)
- 2pm – 3pm – Briana Loewinsohn (Raised By Ghosts) + Carol Tyler (The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief)
- Sunday, July 26:
- 2pm – 3pm – Briana Loewinsohn (Raised By Ghosts)
- 3pm – 4pm – Barbara “Willy” Mendes
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