IDW Publishing Forums

[Cnwl]

Not me (I hope!), but rather the blizzard-like conditions that are expected to be pummeling us here in New England by Friday. Buckle the seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy day/night/day ... But meanwhile, these notes ...

Doc! Good seeing you back in this neck of the woods! Thanks for the consdiered remarks about OPUS, and you may be glad to know KING AROO Vol 2 is at the printer right now. We're excited all over again to be bringing more Jack Kent whimsy back into print! Also found your notes about the Fawcett collections most intriguing -- I have a full run of TUMBLEWEEDS myself, and growing up, while Fawcett was publishing so many paperback strip collections, I always loved their work -- inexpensive, easily transportable, good-enough repro (certainly superior to most newspaper repro of the time!) ... it just seemed like a perfect sorta package for gag-a-day strips. Good luck running down the books you're still looking for!

MR. A: Another thumbs-up for OPUS/Breathed that was much appreciated!

GRYPH: Also gratified to see you enjoyed CORRIGAN. Last volume in the Al/Archie run will be coming up later on this year, and we'll be doing more with X-9 after that ...

MARV: The listing is kinda sorta up to Amazon; still a small handful of months between where we are now and publication, though. I turned in my POLLY text (what fun to produce!) on Sunday the 3rd, a full dozen days early, but Dean has to work his design magic, the make-ready has to be assembled, we have to proof/copy-edit, and then the printer has to do its thing. It'll be here before you know it, and meanwhile, THE GUMPS "Death of Mary Gold" is coming up very soon. Very cool to be presenting a slice of this once-supremely-popular series!

Well after midnight around here and I'm starting to fade. Thanks for the notes & commentary, one and all --
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Best wishes --

- B -

[bem1]

Cnwl:

I'm wondering the same thing as Marv about King Aroo vol. 2. I've been looking for a phish and have not seen it yet.

Also what's the deal with Steve Canyon vol. 2. For some reason Amazon has been jacking around the price. Are supplies low?

Looking forward to getting Dick tracy, Lil abner, and Opus.

[ericb33]

[Cnwl]

Our second Alex Toth book (GENIUS, ILLUSTRATED) is supposedly hitting store shelves before the middle of this month! Hoo-hah!

Also exciting that New England is in the middle of this major storm and electricity is still flowing to me, though several hundred thousand are reportedly without power right now. Strong winds bellowing outside; over a foot of new snow on the ground, with more to come in the next several hours ...

Eric: Yes indeedly-do, SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN Vol. 5 is the last of the Al Williamson/Archie Goodwin run on that strip. I think you'll be pleased with our next SECRET AGENT X-9 offering ...

BEM: Tough to say -- Amazon does what Amazon does, sometimes. I know AROO Vol 2 is at the printer now, is targeted to be on sale in March, and folks will be able to buy it via Amazon. Given how long Vol. 2 was delayed as the artwork for the book was being located, could be Amazon is being ultra-conservative in listing the re-solicitation, but that's pure speculation on my part.

Meanwhile, even though I turned in my text for the POLLY & HER PALS 1933 ESSENTIALS volume, I'm exploring another possible source of more info on Cliff Sterrett and his fictional family. There's always more to know, after all ...

Best to all from --

-- Nanook of the North

[Cnwl]

GENIUS, ILLUSTRATED goes on sale today in comics shops and brick-and-mortar stores (available via on-line booksellers within the next week). The first review is up, at Comics Bulletin:

http://comicsbulletin.com/reviews/5387/review-genius-illustrated-the-life-and-art-of-alex-toth/
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Cnwl]

I promise not to list _every_ review GENIUS, ILLUSTRATED garners, but given we've picked up two notices on our first day on sale, it seems right to point them out.

So, after you've checked out what Jason Sacks had to say at COMICS BULLETIN, go to COMICS ALLIANCE and check out what John Parker had to say. The link is: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/02/13/alex-toth-genius-illustrated-review-idw/
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Gryphon]

Is king aroo vol 1 out of print?

If so will there be a new printing soon? And will it correct the errors in the first printing?

[Gryphon]

And when will the tarzan strips show up on amazon? I must have them.

WIll they be corrigan/kirby sized?

[emb021]

Tarzan & Manning.

I've long been a ERB fan, but strangely never got into reading Tarzan. I got the Mars series, Venus series, pretty much all his SF output. (I think the only non-sf work of his I've read was "I am a Barbarian"). But never got into Tarzan. I was attracted by the lost world element, but never read the them.

I did enjoy the work of Russ Manning in the comics I read, mainly his work for Magnus. As I got a lot of Gold Key stuff as a kid (instead of Marvel or DC, it was later I got into them), I also got the Golden Key Digest, and enjoyed the 2 volumes devoted to Tarzan. I loved the Manning work on Tarzan and Korak and Brothers of the Spear. Not so much Jesse Marsh's work on Tarzan.

So its interesting we are seeing an explosion of Russ Manning/Tarzan work of late.

Dark Horse is doing archive reprints of Russ Manning's work on Tarzan and Korak comic books, as well as Brothers of the Spear (I hope they do the whole run). Now IDW is doing the Russ Manning Tarzan newspaper strip (why you guys instead of DH I don't get).

Now I see that DH is coming out with their first volume of Tarzan dailies, this one from 1931-33 with Hal Foster. For $125. Yesh. I missed out on the old NBM Tarzan collections as I was a poor college student and new job holder. Would have like to have gotten them, and kept hoping in this new period of strip reprints they'd get done. Just not at that price.

Oh, well.
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MB

[Delhidally]

[Cnwl]

Hi, All --

Delhi & EMB: Yup, ERB, Inc. makes all decisions regarding the licensing of Burroughs properties. More than one publisher handling a wide-ranging or long-running property certainly has precedent -- Dark Horse got the rights to reprint ARCHIE comic books and we got the rights to reprint ARCHIE comic strips; D&Q is doing WALT & SKEEZIX while we do GASOLINE ALLEY; now DH will do the Foster TARZAN edition and we'll do the Mannings. For a rights-holder, dealing with more than one publisher can make sense -- competition always brings about the best deals, and "splitting the pie" allows more work to get out there in a shorter period of time (working in parallel rather than in series shortens cycle times). Right now there's a definite market, but who's to say what audience tastes will support, say, five years from now? If you're a rights-holder, why not strike as often as you can while the iron is hot?

Gryph: re: KING AROO Vol 1 -- huh? I just looked at Amazon's listing and one can buy a copy there right now, if one is so inclined. AROO didn't sell anywhere near as well as, say, DICK TRACY or TERRY sells, so last I knew there were still copies available for any potential buyers. Once we get to go back for a second printing, the master file for that book has long been corrected, meaning a second printing will have those two glitches repaired. (As a rule of thumb, humor strips don't sell as much as adventure strips, and while that hasn't prevented us from doing humor -- AROO, BLONDIE, BRINGING UP FATHER, et al -- it does mean we have to pick our choices carefully, because sales prove the audience for adventure is larger than for humor. Go figger.)

Back to Delhi: The Amazon KING AROO Vol 2 situation puzzles us, too -- it's not like we haven't inquired (and it's not like we won't inquire again!). Sometimes, Amazon does what Amazon does, I guess ...

And back to EMB to round out this one: I always love hearing about how folks got into comics, their early buying habits, the series and creators who captured their youthful interests. Thanks for describing yours -- very interesting!
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Best wishes --

- B -

[bem1]

Thanks for keeping us up to date Cnwl. It must be fun to work to put something together and see the positive reviews come in and even the anticipation of announcing a new line and seeing people become excited about it.

I just bought Lil Abner vol. 5, and have been reading it quite a bit. I enjoy seeing the Sundays in all their colored glory. It struck me though, and I went to the web to investigate or recall some information. Ham Fisher and Al Capp had a nasty vicious feud. I have read the first twenty seven (?) years of Lil Abner and have reread the first ten.

I have never seen Joe Palooka. I can not recall ever reading one strip. Is it just not that good? Is it good but its reputation tarnished by the feud? Is it just a mediocrity with maybe good art but bad writing or visa versa?

All of a sudden I got curious and want to know.

I am impressed with the amount of stuff LOAC is putting out this winter/ spring of 2013, but am looking forward to seeing the summer/ fall 2013 line up announced. I'm looking forward to Archie vol. 2 even though it skips ten years. Will it have the second part of the essay from the first. I'm also looking forward to Bringing Up Father, LOA, Dick Tracy, and the Gumps book.

Congrats on the positive reviews for the Toth book. No time to rest on your laurels though. What's involved with the third book?

[positronic1]

Hi, first time posting here on the IDW forums. Couldn't believe the entire LOAC discussion is compacted into a single thread!?

Anyway, as I have begun to tire of most of Marvel and DC's product over the last few years, I have been picking up more and more Silver Age/Golden Age/Classic Comic Strip reprints... and am just amazed at all the stuff available or just coming out -- between Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Hermes Press, and IDW especially.

Just in the past couple of months I've picked up IDW's Woodworks, The Complete Brian Bolland Judge Dredd, Comics About Cartoonists, Star Trek Newspaper Strips, Alex Toth Genius Illustrated, L'il Abner Vol. 5, and X-9 Secret Agent Corrigan Vol. 5. I'm a little late in catching up on those last two so I'll have to backpedal and order the first 4 volumes from Diamond when I can afford to.

There's just an amazing smorgasbord of material out there to be had right now. I'm in heaven with all of the recent releases of Manning Tarzan material from Dark Horse (plus Brothers of the Spear, and the totally UNexpected authorized reprint of Charlton's UNauthorized JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN by Sam Glansman). And just now comes the double announcement of DH's Tarzan Sunday Comics and IDW's Russ Manning Dailies & Sundays. Wow, it's incredible.

Also looking forward to the Yoe Books! DITKO MONSTERS collections.

So, does IDW do "Wish Lists"...?

Goes without saying that I want the REST of the run of MISS FURY as soon as it's feasible --- I realize there are difficulties in finding the strips to reprint, but keep working on it.

Other stuff on my comic strip reprint dream list includes Invisible Scarlet O'Neil by Russell Stamm, The Shadow by Walter Gibson & Vernon Greene, Captain Midnight by Erwin Hess ("Jonwan"), Brick Bradford by Paul Norris, and THE COMPLETE ALLEY OOP by V.T. Hamlin. Got a couple of the Kitchen Sink Alley Oop collections before they went out of print, but I want the whole damn run of the strip...!

[positronic1]

I'm going to go ahead and guess that the forthcoming Secret Agent X-9 collection will be the complete Alex Raymond and Dashiell Hammett collection. I know Kitchen Sink did it almost 25 years ago (and I missed it then), but I figure it's time to reprint it again.

PS - When's the Alex Toth Genius Animated book due? I can hardly wait. This is the stuff I've been wanting to have in one nice hardcover collection for like, forever.

[Cnwl]

Hiya, BEM! I've tried to work in at least a reference to Ham Fisher in each of my LI'L ABNER text features, and have addressed at some length Capp's assiting Fisher on JOE PALOOKA and, subsequently, Fisher stealing away one of Capp's earliest assistants. I keep dropping in those Fisher references because I'm trying to indicate the feud is simmering away, but has not yet erupted into the nastiness that is to come. We'll be covering it in due course in future ABNER releases!

(We also ran four Sunday PALOOKAs ghosted by Capp in ABNER Volume 1, showcasing the first appearance of the character "Big Leviticus" and his hillbilly brethern, so you can get at least a taste of PALOOKA in that volume -- and there'll be a reference to PALOOKA in my text for ABNER Volume 6, too).

JOE PALOOKA was _incredibly_ popular in its day (again, ABNER Volume 6 will touch upon this), and like so many comic strips, it has contributed to the popular lexicon ("You big palooka ..."). Personally -- and this is just me speaking -- I dunno how modern audiences would take to it, even from a historical perspective. I think 21st Century audiences would be pleasantly surprised by, say, BRICK BRADFORD, but might look at JOE PALOOKA and ask (in classic Looney Tunes fashion), "What's all the hubbub, bub?" Again, just my personal perspective there ...

BRINGING UP FATHER: OF CABBAGES & KINGS is at the printer right now, and I am _so very proud_ of this one! Wait'll you see the spot art we've found for your enjoyment! Bee-you-tee-ful!

POSITRONIC (I always enjoy a good Isaac Asimov reference!): Welcome in, glad t'have ya aboard! For pleasure, I just finished reading Marvel's KA-ZAR MASTERWORKS, and rather enjoyed it. I had forgotten King Kirby drew the first two Ka-Zar stories in ASTONISHING TALES -- I'm a sucker for John Buscema art (plenty of that here) -- and there was more Barry Smith work on this strip than I remembered. All in all, a pleasant trip backward in the time machine!

The Hammett/Raymond SECRET AGENT X-9 actually has been reprinted many a time in the past thirty years -- I own a version that is sized like a prose trade paperback, circa 1983, published by "International Polygonics Limited" (as you can tell, not one of the more successful publishing companies ever launched!). I even remember that I bought it at the beloved-and-much-missed Harvard Square bookseller, WordsWorth. Many folks agree with you -- a 21st Century edition of the Dash-&-Alex material is a good idea.

Since both of you asked about GENIUS, ANIMATED: We expect an early 2014 release, and we intend to do our utmost to insure we don't slip that schedule! ANIMATED will include some of the model sheets and storyboards that have seen print before, B*U*T will include scads of stuff that _hasn't_ been published ANYWHERE ELSE! We have permission to use Alex's backlog of work that rests in the Warner/Hanna-Barbera vaults, which includes lots of presentation pieces used to pitch series to the network brass, which typically never see the light of day (we ran a few of 'em in ILLUSTRATED, just to whet everyone's appetites, but there's much, much more), plus other items that haven't been seen. And as with the first two books, private collectors and Friends of Alex who have specific treasures related to Alex's days in anaimation have been very generous, offering to share their possessions with us -- and who are we to say no?

For those who don't like reading a lot of pesky words, ANIMATED will be right up their alley -- like our Eisner-nominated CANIFF, it will be more of an "artbook" in format. ANIMATED will contain more text than CANIFF, but far less text than ISOLATED or ILLUSTRATED. Dean and I believe the three books together will present a really well-rounded portrait of Toth's life and career.
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Best wishes --

- B -