IDW Publishing Forums

[Edward J Grug III]

[Cnwl]

Mr. A: That is indeed an idea of considerable merit, and we _have_ done that -- or something close to it -- a time or two on the website (if my admittedly-spotty memory is not playing me false). I'll mention this to Dean and our Webmaster and see if we can't make "sampler" entries a more formal part of our on-line offerings.

Thanks much!
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Best wishes --

- B -

[bem1]

Mister Allen said " I never bothered to give the Archie volumes a look, but at a bookstore tonight, I finally flipped through them and was caught completely off guard. The strips are amazing. "

I agree and I wish there were more Archie strips in the pipeline. A long time ago, I e-mailed Dean Mullaney about Archie, and if I remember correctly, he said they were extremely hard to come by. There was an essay started in that first book of strips that we have never gotten part two of. Sort of like King Aroo, eh, Cnwl, eh. Anyways back to Archie, I thoroughly enjoyed the Sundays, but did not know if LOAC made a decision to go anthology instead of archival because of lack of strips or what.

Some other notes on what I've been reading. In the latest LOA, the lawyer Tecum seems to different then Gray's other characters. Where most of his other characters pull themselves up by sheer grit and determination, Tecum tries to do the right things, but outside forces seem to sweep him along, and he realizes it and accepts it with a wariness and bemusement at the same time. I'm looking forward to the next volume to see the demise of Axel and what happens to Nick Gatt and Tecum's relationship.

I also got the latest Dick Tracy and where I took my time reading LOA, I read Dick Tracy almost compulsively. Even though Gould relies on a formula, it is a formula that works. Bad guy does something. Dick Tracy sees it. Dick Tracy pursues villain. Villain becomes increasingly desperate until Tracy puts villain in prison, or villain is killed. But I'm not knocking it. It works, and I'm still turning the pages to see how it will play out.

On my reading table, I have Flash Gordon vol. one and Steve Canyon vol. one. I read the Steve Canyon reprints from Checker. They mutilated the Sundays, so I'm hoping a better presentation makes for a better reading experience. I also read Flash Gordon in the Checker reprints and I remember the writing and character development to be lacking, but again maybe a better presentation will help. Still looking for Polly and her Pals Sundays champagne edition vol. 2.

On another note I am wondering what happened to King Aroo vol. 2. I thought it was supposed to be out in October and have not seen anything on it yet.

Cnwl, I do appreciate what you are saying about getting it right or getting it on Tuesday, but sometimes knowing that a line or title has not been abandoned is all I need to hear. On another message board, people are wondering about the Family Circus .

Throughout the rest of the year, I plan on picking up Gasoline Alley, the two Roy Crane books by Fantagraphics, and the Lil Abner book.

LOAC as I look back has put out a lot of books this year alone, finished up a couple of lines, Secret Agent x-9 and Berke Breathed's library, started a couple of lines, Gasoline Alley and Skippy, and did a couple of stand-alone volumes, Cartoon Monarch Chuck Jones, along with continuing LOA, Dick Tracy, Rip Kirby, Flash Gordon, Archie Sundays, Secret Agent x-9, etc etc. so I guess I'm saying I'm looking forward to 2013's offerings!!

[Cnwl]

Hey, BEM --

Glad you enjoyed the latest LOA and TRACY. Everyone's favorite blank-eyed orphan is headedf for interesting times as the War years approach ...

Hope you enjoy both FLASH/JIM and STEVERINO -- everyone knows I'm a big Caniff fan, so my knee-jerk expectation is that everyone will climb on the bandwagon with me; your mileage may vary, of course. No matter the presentation, FLASH/JIM will never win awards for the writing and characterization, but [A] I'm moderately proud of the text in that first volume, shedding biographical light on wordsmith Don Moore that has never (to my knowledge) been unearthed before while also presenting two sides of a debate about Moore's contributions to FLASH and its topper without taking either side and [B] like TRACY, I find there's something just totally compelling about FLASH -- he was an interplanetary Capt. America before Cap was a glint in Simon/Kirby's eyes (I keep pining for a planned-out/definite-duration-a-la-BABYLON-5/true-to-the-spirit-of-the-original, big-budget FLASH GORDON TV series, but *Sigh*, it's not likely to happen). And ooo-la-la, Raymond's talents grow by leaps and bounds in such a short span of time!

Your line about the KING AROO Vol 2 essay cracked me up! Guess what? That baby's been written since October of 2010 (back when we expected the book to come out on time, before we knew of the degree of difficulty Jack Kent Jr. was having locating all the strips). The rest of Kent Sr.'s story is pretty great, and I look forward to sharing it with everyone. AROO Vol 2 is coming up, but we made the call that finishing GENIUS, ILLUSTRATED is more important than finishing AROO Vol 2 -- only so many resources, and so many hours in the day.

ARCHIE strips _are_ difficult to find, but we're pretty persistent. We expect to have more Bob Montana for you in the not-terribly-distant future. And the year isn't over yet -- our ESSENTIALS line will kick off with BARON BEAN Volume 1, to be followed next year by THE GUMPS (reprinting the watershed "Death of Mary Gold" sequence) and POLLY AND HER PALS: 1933 DAILIES (champagne edition Sundays Vol 2 will be a'comin' in due course, as well). Sterrett's dailies are often hysterically funny! Kitty isn't the only animal he does a fantastic job drawing, lemme tell ya ...

I'm headed across country to UCLA next week for a few days of research. Expect a travelogue about my junket to appear on the LOAC website, most likely running sometime shortly after Thanksgiving.
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Gryphon]

I decided to go with getting the secret agent corrigan volume 1.

[emb021]

Well, I received several recent strip reprints recently, so haven't had the change to really delve into them.

Got the second Buz Sawyer collection. Was a little disappointed that they changed the cover from what we were originally shown. I liked the first go around, as it matched the first cover. They decided to do something different with the Sundays in this one. As I understand it, with Buz Sawyer, the Sundays had their own continuity, mainly with Buz's old buddy from the War, so the Buz collections have mainly been collections of the daily strip, but they do include a few Sundays when called for (kind of like the early LOA did with the Sundays). The size of the Buz collections have been geared, size-wise, toward the dailies, so in the first Buz collection, they did the Sundays on fold out pages to accommodate the larger size. I thought it a good solution, but I think others didn't like it. So in this collection they just put the Sundays on the regular pages, so they are a little smaller then they were in the originals. So I guess they'll get complaints about that, tho there aren't that many Sundays.

Got the 3rd Captain Easy collection. One more to go. Wonder when/if they will start collecting the Wash Tubbs daily?

Got the 4th Mickey Mouse daily collection. And I see from Amazon they now plan on doing a Mickey Mouse Sunday collection in color next. Should be good because while the MM Sunday was MAINLY gag strips (like the early LOA Sundays), they DID have adventure storylines as well.

And while not a strip reprint, got the 3rd Carl Barks Donald Duck collection.
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MB

[Gryphon]

skippy vol 2 and flash gordon vol 3 are now on amazon.

[Edward J Grug III]

Skippy:

http://www.amazon.com/Skippy-2-Complete-Dailies-1928-1930/dp/161377589X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353196162&sr=1-3&keywords=skippy

Flash:

http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Flash-Gordon-Jungle-Jim/dp/1613775806/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353196336&sr=1-21&keywords=flash+gordon+alex+raymond

[emb021]

[Cnwl]

Just a fast note -- got back Saturday from my four-day whirlwind junket to UCLA, researching their George McManus papers. There's a detailed travelogue coming on the website in the days ahead, and wowee, some mighty nice McManus artifacts in the UCLA holdings!

But that's for the (near) future -- for now, to all our American readers, here's a hope for a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. We'll see you on the other side of the turkey and mashed potatoes!
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Gryphon]

Per their facebook page IDW/Library of American Comics is bringing vol 1-4 of Rip Kirby back into print.

[ericb33]

[Cnwl]

No firm decisions made yet (still looking at sales figures and other factors), but all things being equal, we'd gladly do more RIP KIRBY in the months ahead.

Any reactions from those who've sampled BARON BEAN to the new ESSENTIALS format?

And did Berkeley Breathed fans note that the OPUS volume is now on sale? Who'd'a thunk just a few short years ago that the complete Breathed ouevre would be back in print?

Time to go gobble (spaghetti, not leftover turkey, believe it or not), then back to work on a couple different projects --
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Best wishes --

- B -

[mister allen]

I picked up Baron Bean Wednesday, but have only been able to read the first month or so. I already love the comic. It's fun, very well drawn, and does a great job of world building right from the get go. I hope there isn't too long of a wait between this and the next volume (of Baron Bean, that is).

I think I really like the format, too. Despite the smaller book size, the strips are considerably larger than the other comics being reprinted. The one-per-page thing is working well.

My only concern is turning the pages--I'm terrified of tearing the pages because they're so thin and wide! I'm sure if I read responsibly and turn slowly, there'll be no problem.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next volume.

Oh, also, the essay by Jared Gardner is really well done, too. Great intro.

[JDviant]

I have Rip 1, 2, and 4. So very, very happy to be able to get 3 soon! Can't read 4 until I do!!!