50 Comics Positives In 2012: Gary Groth Published Multiple Comics From Walt Disney & Charles Schulz
I don't mean to diminish co-publisher Kim Thompson or the collective, Fantagraphics team, but there's something specific to one-time industry scourge Gary Groth settling into this role as an elder statesman-style publisher and art form advocate, routinely bringing to the world some of the great mainstream all-ages comics of the 20th Century, that makes me smile. You only have to go to one of these awards shows and see Groth read a speech into the record when so many of us still just run up and start shouting things to appreciate how wonderfully he's settled into his new role. Not that the contentious side of Groth's personality has gone away. I had the best discussion of comics issues last February over lunch with him, with surprising positions taken up and down the industry scorecard, deftly argued. No, I would describe it instead as just a greater flowering of Groth's particular talents, and comics is better for it.
