Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Fantagraphics has been reprinting the hardcovers. You should be able to buy all of them in slipcases or individually. I prefer the slipcases as you can get them cheaper than buying them individually.

EDIT: There is one slipcase (63-66) that is oop but Fantagraphics has been reprinting them so it will probably be a matter of time before it is in print again.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing about Dick Tracy. I need to pick up some of the Dick Tracy volumes myself, but I read a specific period as a kid and I'm not sure when it was.

For Phantom as with a lot of classic characters, yeah, there are a lot of different versions, and as I'm anticipating with Tracy, a lot of your enjoyment might depend on what you're used to reading. Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with the Phantom, but I THINK that the classic version is the Newspaper Dailies collections.

http://comicwiki.dk/images/thumb/a/a..._1936-1938.jpg

Youtube can be a good place to "try before you buy," but it looks like Hermes Press is not as good as, say, Fantagraphics at putting up samples of their titles. Here's a guy who recorded a look at his whole collection. Not sure how useful it is at finding reprints, but you can poke around at that and other videos and see what else turns up.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/p7OzObqKmiM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

I just bought all the Hermes Press Phantom Dailies and Sundays books except for volume 3 which seems to be out of print. Flipping through the pages, they look pretty good. The books use thinner paper than LOAC who I think do a better job for the most part.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Recently finished the first volume of Pogo - and I simply cannot express how much I enjoyed the entire experience of it! Having only been minorly exposed to Pogo before, it turned out to be an amazing venture into a world that more people should seek out. Kelly's art is perfect! He can do so much with one small square frame by not doing too much with it (if that sounds goofy, just check out his stuff!).

I have the next two books already, but am breaking into Krazy Kat for a few days in order to fully digest and appreciate the Pogo experience (an interesting shift of gears!).

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

That's great! I need to fish my copy of Pogo V.1 out of the holding tank and get it up on the shelf so I can start dipping into it.
I LOVE Krazy Kat too, but sometimes Herriman can seem like work (being in the presence of brilliance can often be daunting). I need to pull those out more often as well. Great art is edifying.

Assuming you ever get caught up on all this stuff (yeah, right?) you may want to check out King Aroo. A similarly whimsical strip with a strong Pogo-esque vibe to it- and IDW put out two attractively compact and economical volumes of it.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Never heard of it - but am tagging it on Amazon for future consideration. ... for when I get caught up ... I have relatively few books, but my time to read seems so limited! But I love the old stuff! The first Popeye book was very enjoyable - and I have the next couple volumes waiting for me. Terry and the Pirates ... more Krazy ... Nemo ... Pogo ... Peanuts ... Such an entertaining art form! How did we end up with Garfield?

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Need to take a new picture of my Peanuts books. I wonder if the last volume will have it's own slipcase...otherwise my collection will look terrible! ;)

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Garfield is comprehensible even when the panels are 1 inch across.

When I had a Krazy Kat avatar, this is how much I could fit in that amount of space.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...n/kballoon.gif

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

As I slowly work my way through "The Kat Who Walked in Beauty" I'm constantly awed by the cover! That long, panoramic, embossed panel of "Krazy" is so striking in its simplicity and detail.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Just recently purchased the 1975-1978 2-volume set of Peanuts from Amazon: after this, all I'll need are the 1973-1974 and 1989-1990 volumes to have all of the 70s and 80s strips.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Weekend digital sale from Hermes Press on some classic Phantom and Buck Rogers. Looks like a nice time to get some classics cheap, and space efficient!

Hermes Press Pulp sale ends 3/8/15 and includes two old Buck Rogers collections (and a new Chaykin collection), six collections of classic Phantom, and the first issue of the 2014 Phantom reboot by Peter David.
https://www.comixology.com/Hermes-Pr...Sale/page/5674

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

just received my only order (so far) this year with IST

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...mL._AA160_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...3L._AA160_.jpg

both of which will go in the holding tank for now while I catch up with their previous volumes. Great to have Tarzan all wrapped up. I'm still only on volume 3 of Valiant so it will be a while before I even bother taking this one out of the bag IST shipped it in.

Also in the same order was

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...yL._AA160_.jpg

Some of my all time favorite Alex Toth work. The bulk of the book is identical to what was printed in the Dragon Lady Press edition back in the late 80's. The IDW further includes about ten extra pages of prelim pencils, color roughs, and assorted material. And it's HC, oversized (almost as big as the Valiant books), and printed on much better paper. A very sweet little upgrade.

and last, but not least

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...1L._AA160_.jpg

So happy to finally have this material collected properly. I remember when the strip came out and was a daily reader well up into the '80's. Great stuff. The production design on the book, along with Romita's slick line style, and his expert spotting of blacks, look gorgeous! So many times I was tempted to add the previous Marvel collections of these to an order. Just goes to show, if you have reservations about something- it pays to just skip it.

a small order, but all winners.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

I have fond memories of reading that Spider-Man strip in the paper. Does it hold up years later?

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

It does for me. If you enjoy the era of the comic when Romita took over for Ditko, it still plays a lot like that.

I love the form of comic strips though so I'm particularly fascinated by how well Lee and Romita both adapt to the structure and restrictions of it. They both transition seamlessly to the format and pace the storytelling beautifully.
It's lighter, fun reading. But it's also Lee doing Spidey so the Parker angst is still there occasionally (as it should be IMO) interspersed between face-offs with Doctor Doom, Kraven, Doc Ock and the rest.

Have to confess though, I haven't read too far yet, so I don't know if Lee is cribbing from any specific comic issue story lines. That might limit people's enthusiasm depending on how well versed they are with the comic issues 39-90 or so

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

This might interest some of you:

https://www.comixology.com/DC-Thomson/page/6974

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Can't believe we're almost done with The Complete Peanuts....the OCD in me hopes for the last single volume they'll have a slipcase for it. :)

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Or maybe do some kind of bonus book of interviews or essays or sketches and other material to round out the two book slipcase concept.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

That sounds very likely, IME, how they'll do it, and is, IMO, how it should be done.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

I was re-reading my Pogo volume 1 in bed. Mrs Danger looked over my elbow, admired the panel borders, and said, "He was such a good artist."

How often can you say that about somebody's panel borders?

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

That was fast! It's great when a title is popular enough that it can stay on schedule.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

There's only 14 months of strips left for the final volume of Peanuts. And I read on another forum that they're including the entire run of Li'l Folks in Volume 25. It doesn't sound like a 26th book is going to be made at this point. I was hoping that the 26th book would be a hardcover of the Li'l Beginnings book that was released back in 2004.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Pretty much everything about how Pogo was drawn is amazing. I decided to take a detour with the 2nd Popeye book before starting volume 3 of Pogo.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Wow, Complete Peanuts is almost done? I remember the start of the 12 year publication plan and thinking "HOLY SHIT that's really long term." Time flies.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

Anyone care to peg the golden age of Peanuts when everything was hitting on all cylinders? There had to have been ebbs and flows over the decades.

Re: Classic/retro comic strips thread
 

My favorite period is mid-'60s to early '70s. I like the story arcs, and by that time the key characters have been introduced.