Comic Reprint Dreams

Posted on January 10, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

I always get into threads on the Comics Journal message board where people discuss dream reprint comics… here’s the current thread, and below is my response.

These are indeed the best times ever for comics reprints. I second or third much of the above. Barnaby was the first one that popped in my mind… and boy do I wish someone would do for the Barks stories what Dark Horse is currently doing with Little Lulu. An affordable complete Wash Tubbs/Captain Easy would be fantastic too. A complete Polly and Her Pals would be wonderful.

I’d start with Humbug, Trump and Help! by Kurtzman, but it sounds like that is all happening this year! Huzzah! About damn time.

Then I’d move to Pogo, but Fantagraphics has that covered soon too.

In no particular order:

The Doo Dads by Arch Dale
The Complete Comics of Johnny Gruelle
Everything by Walt Kelly that is not Pogo
The Non-Disney Carl Barks (the Barks Bear Book is very cool, but the reproductions are abysmal)
Jingle Jangle Tales by George Carlson
The Gumps by Sidney Smith
Barney Google by Billy DeBeck
Stumble Inn by George Herriman
The Complete Steven by Doug Allen (this would be a best-seller if it was marketed well, I think… one of the funniest strips ever. How does this not already exist?)
The Complete Heiji and other comic strips of Dr. Seuss (if there are any other comic strips… I don’t think this would be a very big book, but it would certainly sell well)
A library of the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse adventure strips
The Complete Odd Bodkins by Dan O’Neill
The Complete Non-Freak Brothers work by Gilbert Shelton
A collection of Craig Thompson’s Kids Strips Drawn for Nickelodeon Magazine
The Otto Messmer Felix the Cat Library (again, the Dark Horse Little Lulu format would suit this perfectly, and I can’t think of a better comic for small children… if marketed to the children’s book market, these would sell wonderfully, I think)
Richard Outcault’s Buster Brown
The Compleek Gustave Verbeek
Big, Heavy, Book of A.D. Condo’s Everett True (usable as a projectile)
The Comic Strips of Milt Gross
A Complete Caricatures of Al Hirschfeld book along the lines of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker
Boob McNutt by Rube Goldberg
The Complete Cartoons of Gluyas Williams
The Comics of Jimmy Swinnerton
The Comics of Tad Dorgan
The Comics of Harry Grant Dart
Mr. and Mrs. by Claire Briggs

Crumbling Paper: Billy Bounce Takes a Picture- Not

Posted on January 8, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Happy New Year! Here’s a new year’s strip from 1904, featuring bizarre ball-boy and ball-buster Billy Bounce, drawn here by C.W. Kahles. Note this strip uses a joke in the title I erroneously had attributed in my mind to Wayne’s World… apparently it is much older. A brilliant joke it is- not.

I posted Billy Bounce strip earlier here.

Click the image below to see the full page (warning: contains offensive racial depictions, as is often the case with old comics).

Interesting Links: More Mr. Twee Deedle!

Posted on November 29, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

My friends at Barnacle Press just posted a WHOLE LOT more of Johnny Gruelle’s obscure Mr. Twee Deedle (which I mentioned with an example the other day)… they just more than doubled the number of these fantastic and gorgeous strips that I’ve seen in my life. Don’t miss them… click the image to go to Barnacle Press’ Mr. Twee Deedle collection.

Crumbling Paper: Johnny Gruelle’s Mr. Twee Deedle

Posted on November 28, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

I wish someone would collect some or all of Johnny Gruelle’s neglected comic strip Mr. Twee Deedle into a book. Gruelle is better known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, so I suspect there would be a big market for his work. The obscurity of this strip puzzles me somewhat considering the high quality of the work and the potentially large market for the material… I have probably seen less than ten examples of it. What little I’ve seen of the strip is a lot of weird and surreal fun. Here’s an example I scanned (not in color, unfortunately… the color ones I’ve seen have been spectacular). Click the image to see the full strip.

Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia says about Mr. Twee Deedle.

Here’s the Lambiek page on Johnny Gruelle.

Crumbling Paper: The Outbursts of Everett True (strip #35)

Posted on November 20, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Go here to see more Outbursts of Everett True on this site.

If you have a desire to draw your own interpretation of an Everett True strip and send it to me, I’d love to put it up for the internet for all to see with a link to your website or what have you. Send it to me at: