FantaCo Enterprises

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FantaCo Enterprises is an American

FantaCo Enterprises began in 1978 as a mail order company and comic book store located at 21 Central Avenue in Albany.[1] The name was short for either "Fantasy Company" or the "Fantastic Company," depending on Skulan's mood.^[1] Many of the store's employees, including publisher/owner/editor Tom Skulan, Mitch Cohn, Roger Green, and Raoul Vezina, worked on FantaCo titles in many creative capacities.

FantaCo's first foray into publishing was Raoul Vezina's Smilin’ Ed, about a rat with the personality of a 1950s children TV host.^[1] Smilin'Ed was also the store's emblem.^[1] Vezina drew Smilin’ Ed from 1980 until his death in 1983.^[2]

The company made its mark in the early 1980s with The Hembeck Series, seven volumes of comics by

1986 saw the debut of the horror anthology Gore Shriek, initially edited by Skulan, and later issues by Stephen R. Bissette, who also contributed stories to each issue. Besides Skulan and Bissette, other Gore Shriek creators of note included Greg Capullo, Bruce Spaulding Fuller, Eric Stanway and Gurchain Singh. Gore Shriek Volume 1 ran for three years, and is still fondly remembered by horror fans as one of the top comics in that genre.^{[citation needed]} Gore Shriek Delectus (1989) collects much of the best material from the first volume.

FantaCo revived Gore Shriek in 1990 and started a new line of horror and zombie-related titles and one-shots. This period was noteworthy for the career jump-starts it gave to young creators like

From about 1995, the company's titles shifted to the good girl art of Tom Simonton's Amazon Woman comics, and titillating titles like Babes & Biomechanics, Lady Dracula, and Dead Chicks in Lace: Bloodletting Lingerie Special.

From 1991 to 1994, the company co-published a number of

In a similar horror vein, they put out the FantaCo Horror Yearbook and Price Guide every year from 1978 until 1996; magazines like Barbara Steele: An Angel for Satan, Demonique 4, and the Comics Enquirer; twelve issues of Dread: The Official Clive Barker Newsletter in 1992–1993; and Clive Barker and Zombie War commemorative card sets.

The book Amazon Women: The Art of Tom Simonton, edited by Tim D'Allaird, was FantaCo's final publication in the 1990s, right on the eve of their storefront closure in 1998. Mr. Skulan went into semi-retirement and FantaCo Enterprises remained dormant until 2013.

FantaCo owner Thomas Skulan also hosted

With the mid-1990s bursting of the speculation bubble, combined with the decline in demand for comic books, in general, in conjunction with an untenable situation with a large corporate distributor,^{[citation needed]} Skulan decided to close the storefront. ^[3] FantaCo's mail order operations continued. In 2016 FantaCo Publishing was revived with the publication of Smilin' Ed Comics, in honor of FantaCo co-founder Raoul Vezina. The company currently publishes about one title per month.

• The Hembeck Series (1980–1983)
  • #1 Hembeck: The Best of Dateline: @!!?# (1980)—originally published by Eclipse Comics and later re-issued by FantaCo^[2]
  • #2 Hembeck 1980 (1980)
  • #3 Abbott and Costello Meet the Bride of Hembeck (1980)
  • #4 Bah, Hembeck! (1980)
  • #5 The Hembeck File (1981)
  • #6 Jimmy Olsen's Pal, Fred Hembeck (1981)
  • #7 Dial H for Hembeck (1983)
• Smilin' Ed Comics (1980–1983)

• Alien Encounters
• FantaCo's Chronicles Series (1981–1983)
  • #1 The X-Men Chronicles (Dec. 1981)
  • #2 The Fantastic Four Chronicles (Feb. 1982)
  • #3 The Daredevil Chronicles (Apr. 1982)
  • #4 The Avengers Chronicles (June 1982)
  • #5 The Spider-Man Chronicles (Aug. 1982)
  • Chronicles Annual (1983)

• Déjà Vu
• Gates of Eden

• Gore Shriek vol. I (1986–1989)
• (This is) Sold Out (1986–1987)^[4]

• Gore Shriek Delectus
• Shriek

• Gore Shriek vol. II (1990–1991, including an Annual)

• Night of the Living Dead (1991–1992); collected in Night of the Living Dead (1991)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-22-3
• Night's Children
• Vault of Screaming Horror

• Amazon Woman: Jungle Album trade paperback
  ISBN 978-0-938782-43-8
• Clash of the Amazing Colossal Women

Fantaco/Tundra publications

• No Guts or Glory (1991)
• Zombie War (1992)
• Zombie War: Earth Must Be Destroyed! (1993–1994)
• Infectious (1994)

Magazines

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (September 2024)

• Deep Red (1987)[5]^[6]

• Mug Shots: A Splendid Collection of Cartoons, by John Caldwell (1980)
• Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo: A Critical Survey of the Wildly Demented Sub-Genre [sic?] of the Horror Film That Is Changing the Face of Film Realism Forever, by John McCarty (1981)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-01-8
• Video Screams: The Official Source Book to Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Related Films on Videocassette and Disk, by John McCarty (1982)
  ISBN 0-938782-02-9
• The Amazing
  ISBN 978-0-938782-03-2
• Horror Holocaust, by Chas Balun (1986)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-05-6
• The Gore Score, by Chas Balun (1987)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-06-3
• Midnight Marquee #37, edited by
  ISBN 0-938782-10-X
• Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast (1988)
  ISBN 0-938782-07-X
• The Deep Red Horror Handbook, by Chas Balun (1989)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-12-4
• Ninth and Hell Street, by Chas Balun (1990)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-13-1
• Famous Monsters Chronicles, edited by
  ISBN 978-0-938782-18-6
• Connoisseur's Guide to Contemporary Horror Film: The Best of the Beasts and Blood (1993)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-27-8
• Freaks of the Heartland, by
  ISBN 0-938782-37-1
• Amazon Women: The Art of Tom Simonton, edited by
  ISBN 0-938782-38-X
• Gorgo Attacks! edited by John Walter Szpunar (2022)
  ISBN 978-0-938782-68-1