There are many pretenders to the throne, but make no mistake: Fantagraphics Books is the very embodiment of so-called alternative comics. Even the most cursory look at the publisher's titles reads like a definition of the genre: Daniel Clowes' "Eightball," the Hernandez Brothers' "Love & Rockets," Peter Bagge's "Hate" and many more. Even Fantagraphics' erotic-comics imprint, Eros Comix, made a sizable cultural splash, publishing unrepentantly smutty titles like Anton Drek's "Wendy Whitebread." Basically, if you've ever bought a comic book that contained no superheroes, mutants, monsters or leather-clad vigilantes, odds are good you picked up a Fantagraphics title.

The Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery in Georgetown — adjoining top-shelf vinyl LP dealer Georgetown Records — is everything you'd expect from such an imaginative and daring company. One could easily spend hours here, browsing through titles by Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, Richard Sala, Gary Panter, Dame Darcy and others — touching on subjects as sensitive as gay relationships and as outrageous as grave robbing. Collections by Chris Ware, Tony Millionaire and Art Spiegelman are filled with unspeakably beautiful art and heartrending stories that will equal — or exceed — some of the best movies you've ever seen. Compiled volumes of Charles Schulz's early "Peanuts" comics, the pinup art of Jack Cole, the pop art of Jim Flora – it's all here.

And yes, Virginia, they've got the raunchy stuff. A tiny 18-and-over room in the back of the shop contains all of Eros Comix's collected, er, joie de vivre — your "Bondage Fairies," your "Diary of a Dominatrix" and so on. It's all part and parcel of the Fantagraphics experience — a store that is virtually bursting at its seams with visions and ideas.

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