What I’m Reading, Part 1 (The Classics)
Thursday, September 27th, 2007One of the coolest things in comics these days is the complete reprint collections of old newspaper comics. A person can read Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, Moomin, Gasoline Alley, Popeye, and many others, typically in beautiful, hardbound editions which totally do justice to the comics. And if you’re a Pogo fan, that strip is on the way too.
Recently, I picked up the first volume of Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Now, I was a big fan of the Steve Canyon strip when I was a kid, but although I had heard about how good Terry and the Pirates was, I had never had an opportunity to read the comics. All I can say is, Wow!!! I’m really enjoying this book. I’m re-reading it now so I can just get lost looking at the pictures. That Caniff dude was one amazing artist.
This collection is definitely up near the front of my list of favorites. There is a downside though, the book was a little expensive. But the upside is that it was worth about ten times what I paid for it.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:51 am
I’ve been keeping up with the Fantagraphics collections as far as my local library obtains ($30+ a book is steep, and while more than worth it, it sadly does not change my current income.) I was fascinated to discover that Popeye was (is) really, really good. And not just in that “appreciate the heritage of the art-form and maybe be slightly amused” kind of way, I was laughing out loud at jokes that were created before my GREAT-grandparents were even born.
I couldn’t put The Complete Popeye Vol 1 down for days, and I hope the library gets Vol 2. Now, I haven’t been able to read very much Pogo over the years due to lack of available collections, but what I have read is excellent, so I may have to break down and buy the collections when they come out.
Great job on the comic by the way. I really like the color pallete you use in this (and The Upside-down Me); everything just… pops!
September 27th, 2007 at 3:26 am
The Complete Popeye Vol 1 was awesome! I was really looking forward to that one. I’d seen a few Popeye (Thimble Theater) strips in comic history type books but never had the chance to just sit down and read the comic. I have to admit though that I got bogged down reading the daily strips and had to force myself to keep reading, but then when I got to the second part of the book which was all the Sunday sections, I was hooked. Man, there were some funny gags in there. I can’t wait for Vol 2 to come out.
On the subject of Popeye, my three (almost four) year old boy and I watch Popeye all the time on TV. He loves it! And I think it’s important for a child to learn that there isn’t any problem that can’t be solved with a can of spinach and your “fisks”.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I have a couple of volumes of the POPEYE dailies from 20 years ago, back when Fantagraphics last reprinted the strip. Trade, are you going to buy the Caniff bio by R.C. Harvey? It’s dauntingly big! A doorstop of a book.
This is a great time for comic strip reprints. Thanks to you, I got tuned into THE MOOMINS. And I’m waiting for lots of great other books that are coming: WALY & SKEEZIX 3, POPEYE 2, WHERE’S DENNIS? (gag cartoons by Ketcham), HARVEY CLASSICS, bios of Schulz (one big book, another on PBS), Jack Kirby, and recent film documentaries on John Callahan and Steve Ditko — this is the time when all expendable income goes towards comics, cartoons and reprints! Wowwee!
Oh, I hear rumblings (from reputable sources) of books of Percy Crosby’s work, as well as a reprint collection of THE SMYTHES, a comic strip by New Yorker mag cartoonist Rea Irvin.