COMPLETE CREPAX HC (2025)

"The fourth volume of Fantagraphics' groundbreaking Complete Crepax series puts the author's sexy proto feminist heroine Valentina, the globe-trotting Milanese photographer, front and center in a series of erotic comics narratives. Most of the comics in this volume, spanning 1965 to 1985, have never before been published in English. It includes Crepax's first foray into comics magazines-'The Curve of Lesmo'-in which our heroine is introduced as an adventurer's sidekick! Elsewhere in this volume, she becomes a mother, outwits a gang of jewel thieves, flashes back to her childhood and adolescence, encounters a mysterious cello, and much more! Not only is Crepax's impeccable draftsmanship on full display, but this deluxe package highlights the innovative visual storytelling techniques that made him an international sensation."

"The Complete Crepax Vol. 5: American Stories collects stories that span 1968-1986, such as Crepax's ode to boxer Joe Louis. In other tales, Valentina attempts to balance new relationships with lovers alongside the domestic life she shares with Phil. Meanwhile, Valentina's fantasy life goes Hollywood. Bonnie and Clyde make an appearance, and there are several homages to the silent film era. "

"In The Complete Crepax Vol. 6: Dangerous Liaisons, which spans 1977-1989, Valentina settles into middle-aged home life with her longtime partner, Phil, with whom she has a grown son, Mattia. Two of Crepax's lauded graphic adaptations: 'Venus in Furs' and 'The Memoirs of Cassanova' are featured."

In the first of two volumes in Fantagraphics' Crepax series devoted to the artist's comics adaptations of the erotic literary canon, Valentina takes on Georges Bataille's The Story of an Eye, and then we follow Arsan's Emmanuelle on her sensual journey. "The Story of a Story" (1981) stars Milanese photographer Valentina. Finding herself home alone, she cheekily decides to fantasize about Georges Bataille's infamous novella The Story of an Eye - with a twist: she's playing all the roles! In the stories "Emmanuelle" (1978) and "Emmanuelle: The Anti-Virgin" (1990), Crepax follows the titular heroine on her sensual journey as the polyamorous wife of a French diplomat in Thailand. While the character is best known as the star of a series of pornographic movies, most notably the 1974 film starring Sylvia Kristel, she originated in a banned 1959 novel by Marayat Rollet-Andriane (pen name Emmanuelle Arsan), a Thai French woman. Emmanuelle has a sexual encounter on a plane, plays a steamy game of squash with a countess, falls for a woman named Bee, and has an intense experience at a temple, among the many other transgressive exploits Crepax details from the novel. And, in an innovation of Crepax's own - she crosses paths with King Kong! This volume is the first of two featuring comics adaptations from the literary erotica canon along with supplemental and contextual material. And, as is observed in the Crepax Archives, "[The cartoonist,] covered by the authority of classics, ventures into territories of eroticism that up to now he had only dared to touch."

In Part II of Guido Crepax's "Erotic Stories," Alain Robbe-Grillet introduces the Italian master's comics adaptation of the groundbreaking BDSM Story of O by Pauline Réage. This volume of Fantagraphics' ambitious series reprinting all of Guido Crepax's most significant comics is the second of two volumes featuring Crepax's comics adaptations from the literary erotica canon. This volume contains Crepax's longest graphic novel - "Story of O." A woman finds fulfillment when she subsumes her identity by sexually submitting to a secret society. Crepax sumptuously draws every strike of the whip and taps into the sensuality of body modification in his adaptation of this groundbreaking work. Also included is his short story "Unexpected Exchange," filled with the sensual delights you have come to expect from Crepax: lingerie, bisexuality, the 1920s, and the most symbolically drawn train you've ever seen outside of a Hitchcock film. As the Crepax Archives observes, "The cartoonist, licensed by the authority of classics, ventures deeply into territories of eroticism that up to now he had only dared to touch." In addition to the usual accompanying essays putting Crepax's stories into historical and cultural context, this volume also features Nouveau Roman novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet's (The Voyeur, Last Year at Marienbad) introduction to Story of O. Guido Crepax was born in Milan, Italy, in 1933. After acquiring a degree in architecture, he worked on award-winning advertising campaigns for such corporations as Shell and Dunlop. He went on to become one of Italy's most important cartoonists, most famous for his psychedelic and erotic Valentina stories. Some of her exploits were adapted into a TV series and a film. He died in 2003. Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008) was an influential French writer and filmmaker associated with the Nouveau Roman movement in novels such as Le Voyeur and La Jalousie. His film collaborations, such as Last Year at Marienbad (with Alain Resnais), won prizes and Academy Award nominations.