Nick Danger

It's the distinctive butts.

davidh777

Fantagraphics' pics of Buz Sawyer look nice (spoilered for size), and they have a 23-page PDF sample on their site.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-....html?vmcchk=1

Neil M.

I just received the Gasoline Alley Complete Sundays Volume One. It's the same size as the IDW Flash Gordon books but with fewer pages. I just flipped a bit through it and the quality looks really good.

Neil M.

If you were interested in getting Cannon, you might want to purchase it sooner rather than later. It's sold out from the distributor. IST and CGN both are out of stock. There is the possibility that it will get a reprint but you never know. Amazon still has it in stock as well as Fantagraphics themselves.

davidh777

Damn, you're right. Fantagraphics posted this on their Facebook page though as you say their site still has it available:

OK, I just ordered it so it wouldn't slip my mind. Thanks for the tip.

Nick Danger

I'm about half-way through Flash Gordon v.2. Thanks for the heads up.

What a dumb blonde of a comic strip! It's gorgeous and sexy, but it's stupid as can be. Flash and Dale are lost in an alien jungle, and they get snatched up by a carnivorous tree. How will they ever escape? Why, the tree gets hit by lightning! Alex Raymond was a fan of the "With a sudden bound, Dick was free!" school of plotting. I'll let writers be as silly as they want, but I don't like it when they cheat me.

I've read before that Ming the Merciless is the embodiment of the Yellow Peril. I wasn't sure of that until now. Seeing how Raymond portrays Chinese people in Jungle Jim makes it pretty obvious. Racism in pre-WWII popular culture doesn't bother me, but I can think of Asian-Americans friends who wouldn't enjoy the strip.

I'm not sure if the colors are from Raymond, or from a local newspaper. For a while, the syndicate transmitted a B&W copy of the Sunday strips to the newspapers, and a local artist colored them in. Someone made a distracting choice when he painted the Chinese people lemon yellow. It's weird, because the Hindus are a lovely brown.

Jungle Jim is so off that it made me pull out Captain Easy for comparison. Both strips were drawn at the same time. Roy Crane's Chinese people are goofy caricatures, but they look right. I can even make a guess at where they are by their clothes. He obviously thought about who he was drawing. I don't think Raymond ever opened a copy of National Geographic.

So: Amazing art. Dumb plots.

Neil M.

Yeah I'm not a big fan of the plotting either but Raymond's artwork overshadows all of that for me.

I just bought the Foster Tarzan Sundays book and I can't believe how large this book is. I knew it was bigger than the IDW FG and the DH Gasoline Alley sundays but this thing is mammoth in person. I don't even have a shelf that it would fit on right now.

Nick Danger

How big is Tarzan? Flash Gordon is lying flat on a shelf with my atlas. It's the second biggest book we own. (The biggest is 24 inches tall and doesn't fit anywhere.)

I agree that Flash Gordon has beautiful art. We won't see its like again.

Neil M.

I believe it's 20 inches tall. Here it is compared to the Flash Gordon book.

Paul_SD

Yikes! that Tarzan is HUGE. Looks to be about the size of the EC and Spirit Artist Editions. Though I'm loving Valiant , I'll likely hold off on Foster's Tarzan for a while yet. Still have a bunch of Manning's Tarzan to get through- both comic and strip reprints.

Got my Wally Wood Canon book in from Amazon. It's smaller than I expected. Though I suppose the price should have been a big clue. If you've seen the size of the first few Dick Tracy strip books that IDW put out, before they shifted to the larger Terry & The Pirate size, that's the size of Canon.
The ink looks slightly washed out too- not crisp and densely black.
Oh well. Despite not actually being printed any larger than in the original FB softcover, it's still nice to have this in a more shelf friendly, and permanent format.

davidh777

Yeah, I've seen that Flash Gordon at my LCBS and thought that was large.

I got Cannon as well but haven't opened it yet.

Neil M.

I read Cannon last week. I thought it was pretty entertaining but nothing special. I like Wood (no pun intended) so I'm glad I bought it.

ytrez

I'm reading Cannon now and I'm having a blast. It's like James Bond on steroids. Or maybe Viagra!

davidh777

These look good.



Superman: The Silver Age Dailies 1958-1961
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing; Reprint edition (August 13, 2013)



Batman: The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Volume 1 (1966-1967)
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing (April 8, 2014)


Wonder Woman: The Complete Newspaper Strips 1943-1944
Publisher: IDW Publishing (September 2, 2014)

Paul_SD

The Superman one piqued my interest too.
Very tempted by that one...although it's very similar to the majority of Superman stories printed in the comics of the same era and I have a ton of that stuff in various forms I could be reading, rather than spending money buying something new to sit on the shelf and look pretty. That said, I honestly love the format of a comic strip and seeing how that format impacts the storytelling. From what I've read, I think I like the strips of this period better than the actual comic books.
If you are at all interested, you can check out some/most of the dailies here to see if a purchase would be worth it for you.

The Batman strips of that period are extremely dire. I have some fondness for silly Batman, but this stuff taxes even my patience.

Haven't seen many of the WW strips. I think there were a couple reprinted in the Les Daniels book, but mine are buried away somewhere. Might be interested in this but would like to read a few weeks first to see how it plays. As much as I like the character and see enormous potential with her, her comic history- especially in the silver age- is mostly one long misfire.

In semi related strip news- the new paperback reprinting of the original Spider-man newspaper strips is a major improvement in layout and reproduction over the original hardcover.
Of all the comic book heroes translated to newspaper strips, the first couple of years of Spidey (by Lee and Romita) were among the most successful, from what I can recall. It's great that they are finally available in a well produced package.

Neil M.

There are three Superman books and I recommend them all. The Batman comics are very silly but slightly amusing. You need to realize that the comic was a result of the success of the tv show so that obviously impacted the storytelling. The essay at the beginning of the book gives a nice detailed look at the history of the comic. I'm looking forward to the WW book.

I want the Spider-man comic but wish it was a hardcover.

Paul_SD

Got a few books in today including the third volume of Buz Sawyer and Genius Animated, the last volume in the three book Alex Toth project.

Reproduction in Buz looks good. I still wish the strips were being printed larger, but unlike the first volume, the majority of the book here shows decent reproduction. I've been greatly looking forward to this as it finally moves past material that Dragon Lady Press collected and the majority of it is all new to me.

Genius Animated is a flat out masterpiece. If you've seen the first two books you probably know what to expect. If you've seen the book "...By Design" which contained almost nothing but several hundred pages of the model sheets Toth did for Hanna Barbera and others, then prepared to be blown away. Not only are there a ton of those re-printed here (beautifully, and unlike the high contrast way of the earlier book) but there are also gorgeous multi panel storyboard sequences as well as full color concept/presentation art for the shows.
An epic end cap to a monumental project.

Paul_SD

Got another beauty in today



Same size as the IDW Flash Gordon, but less thick due to the difference in paper stock (which in this case is a good, semi glossy one). Reproduction is good to excellent with most pages falling in the latter category.
Had some concerns about how well DH would pull this off and how many copies I would have to go through from Amazon before I got a 'good' one. No worries on either account as DH did a wonderful job on it's end and even sent these to retailers in their own shipping box, which means it arrived from Amazon essentially double boxed.
If you have any interest in this material I would order sooner rather than later as it was just released and is already Out Of Print.
A volume 2 is due in September (hopefully).

davidh777

I picked up Setting the Standard but am generally unaware of Toth's work. I've seen the cover of Genius Isolated but didn't realize that was part of a three-volume set. I'm definitely interested after reading your rundown.

Just ran across this as well, which appears to be at least partially Toth:

Paul_SD

Ironic you point that out as it was the Torpedo Toth stories that finally clued me in to what a genius the guy was. When I was in art school I ran across reprints of the stories in a comic Neal Adams put out which was, by then, kicking around in the 25¢ bins. Blew my mind with how deceptively simple yet powerful they were.
Toth is the prototypical artist's artist. Much of what makes him exceptional may be lost on laymen who will be more easily dazzled by the blizzards of (unnecessary) line work employed by other, more conventionally popular artists.

But he only did two stories (about 12-14 pages total) for Torpedo. The rest of the book is Bernet who is another artist well worth checking out. It's a great read anyway. If I didn't already have the individual volumes I'd pre-order the omnibus in a heart beat.
Toth left the strip because of moral reticence due to the anti-hero nature of the character.

Twenty years ago Bernet was a disappointing substitute for Toth, but in the last decade or so I've come around to appreciate him on his own merits, which are considerable. He did some great, fun work on Jonah Hex that is worth tracking down.

If you enjoy Joe Kubert (with a dash of Bruce Timm), you'll like Bernet. And all three of those artists (and many others) were influenced by and appreciated Toth.

Neil M.

I've never read Torpedo so I'll put that on the wishlist. Thanks for pointing it out. I also saw a bunch of new LOAC listed on Amazon. Specifically Li'l Abner vol 7, LOAC essentials Baron Bean 1917, Bobby London's Popeye Vol 2, Silver Age Batman Vol 2, and Superman Golden Age sundays 1946-1949.

Nick Danger

Interesting. I have Torpedo 1936 vol. 1 printed by Catlan Communications. It never did anything for me. I just looked at the credits, and Alex Toth only illustrated the first story in the volume. Maybe that's the problem.

Paul_SD

Don't know if I've posted a link to this guys blog here yet.

This is my favorite art/illustration related content on the net. The blogger (David Apatoff) is an enlightening appraiser of the art form -as well as a cartoonist and illustrator in his own right- and has written the text to several recent books on old school illustrators like Albert Dorne and Robert Fawcett. He is also a big cheerleader of cartoonists like Leonard Starr (Mary Perkins: On Stage) , Alex Raymond, and of course Toth.

Here and here are a couple of his old posts with Toth references.
Not only are his posts beautiful nuggets of wisdom and observation, but they attract quite a few equally well educated, astute comments from readers as well.

Well worth perusing in your spare time.

Paul_SD

one other short comment on Torpedo.
Every time I see Miller's Crossing I can't help but be startled at how much Gabriel Bryne's character looks and acts like Torpedo. It seems way too close to be pure coincidence. At times in the film, the similarity is so close it seems near to plagiarism.

davidh777

Well, who doesn't enjoy Kubert and Timm. (You might also have mentioned in an earlier draft Darwyn Cooke, who I'm a fan of.) I'll take a look at these, thanks!