Not a great deal for volume 3, but fair. Full cover price for a new book. The only other new one I found was on Ebay for $75. The cheapest used ones were only a few dollars less expensive than the new one I bought.

Defective books are no fun. I got the Foundation Trilogy for Christmas when I was about thirteen. I was unhappy when I got to page 60 of Foundation and Empire, and it was page 60 of Foundation.

I have a copy of the Foundation Trilogy that swapped the first page of the first two books (but not the flipside). I guess these type errors are more common than expected.

Fantagraphics is releasing a new Popeye collection

I didn't know Popeye had hair.

With the hat, it's difficult to tell, but he had hair in the early days. I think later on - in the cartoons - he was depicted without, or with just a few strands.

Great news about the new collection! I'd prefer to complete the original set, but them babies are exPENsive!!

edited to add: Aww, just checked the website ... it's the Sunday strips only. Darn.

It's surprising. I have some books from the Limited Edition Club. I have some expensive coffee table books. But the most valuable books I have are the Popeye set that I bought just to read. Go figure.

A quick Buz Sawyer update: I found a nicely priced replacement copy of Book 2 on Ebay and snagged it. It arrived a few days ago and my excitement was thwarted by it having been a library book with stickers and stamps all over it! Beyond that, the book appeared to be in good condition. So I utilized my old DVD skills - and my bottle of Goo-Gone - and successfully removed all of the offending stickers (and tape!). Nothing can be done about the stamp which is on the top edge of the pages. Oh well. Been reading it and really enjoying it! Thanks again to Paul for providing scans of the missing pages. Having them in hand is much more satisfying though. Not sure what I should do with the defective book. Can't see trying to sell it.

Looks like the date has been pushed to January 4th, 2022.

I finished Buz Sawyer vol 2! I read the bulk of it on vacation after the discussion here, then finished it off on another trip. (I had read part of it a couple years ago so had to start over.)

Really good stories as usual. It’s interesting that they included the Sunday strips that followed the same story line, but focused on Sweeney with a more humorous angle. I’m glad they were included but they really didn’t add much value to the daily strip.

I recently dropped into the Fantagraphics Seattle store, and they had two copies of vol 2 in their clearance room. I didn’t check their condition, though. Some other items there were scratch and dent, but Buz doesn’t have a dust jacket to tear so maybe they were fine.

I also finished Buz Sawyer volume 2 last night.

I didn't think it was as good as volume 1. A war just makes a better stage than a South American village.

That’s fair. The character is a war hero and outside of that context is a bit like a fish out of water. I still like the stories, though.

Finished Pogo #7, Pocket Full of Pie. Walt Kelly is still maintaining a high standard into the Kennedy administration. I prefer the Sunday strips in this collection, as they move from slapstick more into character-based humor and wordplay like in the daily strips. For example, Bear is selling burglar insurance. If a burglar gets injured in your house, he's covered.

Finished Buz Sawyer #3. Buz contends with a supervillain out of Dick Tracy, which is fun. His fiancee Christy shows her toughness and goes to Java to rescue Buz. Buz goes on a trip a woman boss. She's a stock man-hater, and he wants her to be more feminine (sigh). After the marriage, Christy goes with Buz to east Africa, where she's a capable descendant of pioneers, except when the plot requires her to be a just foolish girl (sigh). Overall, it was pretty fun.

Has anyone been reading about this upcoming Master Collection of Terry and the Pirates? Twelve volumes plus a supplemental 13th, large size at 11x14, but really expensive. "Discounted" to like $75 each if you purchase in advance.

http://libraryofamericancomics.com/terry/

I'm nearly all digital these days in large part because I don't like taking up all the shelf space, but these aren't available digitally, and I only bought one of the now-OOP volumes. I really liked it, though, and am pretty sure I'd enjoy the whole series. My original plan was to buy the first volume and see how I liked it, but the subscription is somewhat tempting. Granted, if it's widely available online, the discounts could probably compete with the subscription plan.

That page confuses me. Is it the new edition that has both sides of every panel cropped?

Yeah, I saw that and thought: is that supposed to be better?

I think the new one does look good, but I agree the cropping is weird when it’s being presented in a larger format.

Finished Buz Sawyer #4. It's very uneven, with entire stories that are bad. This time Christie gets amnesia. There are about four stories of Buz being saddled with an annoying pet. This time the difficult female boss is the company owner's daughter. There are still good stories, but the gaps between them keep getting bigger. There has been a steady decline in quality since volume one. If there were a fifth volume, I wouldn't buy it. I'm done.

That’s disappointing.

To be fair, nobody could have maintained the quality of the first volume. I think that Roy Crane says in the forward of one of these books that he was working eighty hours a week.

The Terry and the Pirates talk above reminded me that I bought the first volume years ago but never got around to it. So I started it last night. Didn't get too far into the actual strips after reading all the forward/intro/background stuff. But now it's full steam ahead! I have absolutely no experience with this strip other than by reputation. Should be fun!

Yeah, I started the first volume years ago and enjoyed it but never finished it. I just subscribed to the collection, so I’m committed to the first three volumes of that. Pretty sure I’ll like it, though.

I guess so. As I mentioned earlier, the second volume was already straining for ways to use Nazis in a post-war world.

I realize that this is from 1934/5 and is obviously a product of its time, but hoooly crap the slang and racist dialog is jarring! I just went through this with the early Mutt and Jeff strips that had Black characters now and then. I'm glad we're not cancelling old comic strips!

Did you go for the Cyber Monday deal? This is an expensive set! I guess I'll decide later how much interest I have in getting the whole thing (but dang, it looks so nice!! I want!!!)

I noticed they addressed the cropped issue:

Yeah, I kinda expect that from the era, though Buz Sawyer didn’t seem terrible from the ‘40s.

And yeah, I committed, but only for $210 for the first few volumes, at which point I can opt out. I considered the option of getting the first and bonus volume, as I’m guessing we’ll be able to pick up #s 2-12 at normal online discount prices. But it didn’t seem worth going through shenanigans to try to save a few bucks.

That also showed up in the forward of one of the books. Crane did a blackface character in Buz Sawyer, and his boss told him that artists can't do that anymore. In Volume Three, Buz goes to east Africa and all the natives are drawn like Africans.