How to Find and Read Meatmen: The Later Volumes
Fantagraphics released the Meatmen anthology series starting in 1986 as a continuation of their earlier gay male comics project. The series ran for many volumes over roughly two decades, with each book collecting work from different cartoonists working in the erotic and narrative comedy space. By Volume 10 and beyond, the tone and contributor pool had shifted considerably from the earlier issues. This volume collects stories from several prominent and underground cartoonists of the era. The contents run the gamut from autobiographical strips to outright pornographic shorts. It's not a single coherent narrative — it's a miscellany, which is the point of the anthology format. If you're looking for a unified story arc, you'll be disappointed. The value is in seeing what different artists were doing at the same time. The key thing people miss about the later Meatmen volumes is that the quality bar was inconsistent in a way that early readers of the series were used to handling. Volumes 1 through 5 or so tend to be more tightly curated. By volume 10, Fantagraphics was releasing these on a somewhat looser schedule and the editorial oversight felt thinner. Some issues have genuinely standout material alongside filler. You just have to wade through it.
I ran into this when tracking down a copy for a friend who was specifically looking for work by a particular artist featured in that volume. The issue I picked up at a comic shop in Chicago had a cracked spine and missing pages 42 through 48. I ended up scanning what was there and cross-referencing the artist's individual collection, which had reprinted the same material in better condition. If you're hunting for a specific creator's work, it's usually cheaper and faster to find their collected edition separately than to on the condition of an individual Meatmen volume at a used shop. The exact table of contents for this volume includes contributions from various cartoonists working in the gay male comics scene of the mid-to-late 1990s. The book is printed in black and white, which was standard for Fantagraphics' anthology line at the time. It runs roughly 120 to 140 pages depending on the printing. You won't find this at your average big-box bookstore. Your options are used copies through AbeBooks, Better World Books, or eBay, or specialty LGBTQ+ comics retailers. New old stock from Fantagraphics itself is essentially nonexistent at this point. Expect to pay anywhere from fifteen to sixty dollars depending on condition. The ones listed as "like new" online are often just resellers with good lighting and a iron.
If you're building a collection of gay male comics from this era, Meatmen is essential reference material. It documents a period where that scene was expanding rapidly and artists were finding ways to work within and outside the mainstream comics industry. But treat it as a historical document first and an entertainment product second. The art is sometimes good, sometimes competent, sometimes forgettable. The cultural documentation is consistently valuable. For digital access, there isn't an official ebook edition that I'm aware of. Fantagraphics has been cautious about digitizing their older erotic content. Your best bet for reading it on a screen is to buy a physical copy and scan it yourself, or find a PDF that's already circulating in collector communities. I've seen some copies floating around in forums dedicated to alternative comics, usually linked through Google Drive or Dropbox folders that expire after a few months. The files tend to be 200 to 400 megabytes at decent scan resolution. One caveat: if you're buying this for research or academic purposes, make sure your institution has access through a proper like the Internet Archive's controlled digital lending or a university library subscription. The content is explicit and some libraries have restrictions on acquiring it. I learned this the hard way when a professor I was working with had a purchase request for the series rejected by their library's acquisitions committee on policy grounds alone, even though the series had been in print for over a decade and was widely cited in queer studies literature.
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