Recently Read: Little Orphan Annie in the Great Depression, by Harold Gray

 

This 1979 Dover collection of strips originally published in 1931 rank with the best of 20th century newspaper comics. The ravages of the Great Depression hit Little Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks hard; they first lose their entire savings and then are homeless when a competing businessman/gangster burns their mansion down. This is just the beginning of the tragedies herein, but both fight back against adversity with hard work and indefatigable optimism. Annie even adopts another orphan along the way! Beautifully drawn, imminently readable, these Dickensian tales stand the test of time and are most recommended.

The source material was provided at the time by Bill Blackbeard's San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, and is far superior in quality to the same strips published in book form by Fantagraphics.

Pin It

Tweet

Recently Read: Popeye: the 60th Anniversary, Edited by Mike Higgs

This book is an oddly edited but very entertaining collection and overview of the Popeye comic strip. Even the name of the book is in question. Online copies are described as "Popeye: the 60th Anniversary", but nowhere is that written on the cover or copyright page (it looks to be just called "Popeye"). It seems to have been originally published in the '80s, but the copyright page only states, "This edition published 1995". It appears to have been a British book but, again, the copyright page gives no indication of that. I'd love to know the history behind this strange publication.

The meat of the book is reprints of creator E.C. Segar's work (the color panels not particularly well scanned). One of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century, Segar's work is impeccably timed, hilarious, whimsical and sharply satirical. The collection also presents work by later Popeye writers and artists Bela Zaboly, "Doc" Winner, Bud Sagendorf and Bobby London. The essayists include Bill Blackbeard, who compares Segar to Dickens and Smollett, Denis Gifford on Popeye comic book history (including little-known British Popeye comics never printed in the states), and Glenn Mitchell on Popeye on film.

This collection has, arguably, been superseded by later collections, but as a sampler of Segar's work, it still does the trick.

Pin It

Tweet

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

The OSU Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has started a lively blog reporting on their acquisitions and events, complete with Twitter feed. The library holds the worlds largest collection of cartoon art.

Recent blog entries have covered the birthday of comics historian Bill Blackbeard (the above drawing is by one of my favorite cartoonists, the great Alfredo Alcala), original art by Alfred Andriola and visiting cartoonists Matt Madden and Derf.

Check out and bookmark the blog here: http://library.osu.edu/blogs/cartoons/

Pin It

Tweet