Review- DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND

DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND (Dover, 2013 Printing; Softcover)

Collects sixty Dreams Of The Rarebit Fiend strips which were originally published in the New York Telegram 10/07/1904- 8/31/1905

Writer and Artist: Winsor McCay

This is the 2013 printing of the 1973 facsimile edition of the original 1905 hardcover. As of this writing one could get a 1905 original for a mere $10,000 on eBay. Or you can do what I did and buy the 2013 reprint which is still floating around out there for under 20 bucks.

As in the 1905 hardcover and 1973 facsimile edition, the strips are reprinted here in black and white. They are shrunk down from their original publication size, although the Dover editions are 10% larger than the 1905 hardcover. Like the 1973 edition, this 2013 printing omits the final strip due to its unfavorable portrayal of minorities.

Rarebit is apparently some sort of toasted cheese snack, and these unfortunate folks ate them before bed. Apparently this Welsh rarebit gives folks nightmares which probe their innermost fears and desires. This predates McCay's signature strip, Little Nemo In Slumberland but treads the same boards: the realm of dreams. Unlike Nemo, this is not a fun, surreal read, but a bizarre probing of anxieties.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

This book is wider than a standard graphic novel.

Linework restoration: I don't have any source material to compare.

Paper stock: Matte stock.

Binding: Perfect bound.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.

Review- DAUNTLESS DURHAM OF THE U.S.A.: 1913-1914

DAUNTLESS DURHAM OF THE U.S.A.: 1913-1914 (Hyperion Press, First Printing, 1977; Hardcover)

Collects Dauntless Durham Of The U.S.A. daily strips from January 22, 1913-January 31, 1914

Writer and Artist: Harry Hershfield

Harry Hershfield's vaudeville melodrama is a charming snapshot of a world long gone. It was a backward looking piece even in it's day, with ironic takes on villains of the late 19^th century. Durham seeks the hand of his beloved Katrina in marriage. At first Lord Havaglass was trying to steal her away, but he was soon replaced with Desmond, the star of Hershfield's previous strip Desperate Desmond. This is when the series really gets going.

Desmond launches one caper after another trying to steal Katrina away. I mean he literally tries to steal her away, as kidnapping must not have been as frowned on back then as it is today. The capers and pissing contents between Durham and Desmond run the gamut of the absurd. There is a real charm to this strip.

Unlike many strips of the era, minorities are portrayed across the board as a melting pot, with stereotypes used as less caricature or more characteristic. There is a huge difference, as one is intended to offend and the latter offends because times and society has changed. One must use proper historical context when reading old material, because nothing from the past can measure up to the values of 2019.

I learned a lot of words when reading this book.

It is fascinating to see then-current events referenced (the new buffalo nickels, Hoover Dam, and many more). Old slang and old songs are referenced as well, and I had a blast using Google and YouTube to experience these as I read the book. It is incredible to be able to add an extra layer of reference to this material in a historical context.

This page is not in this book, but I provide it to demonstrate how this strip looked when originally published. Old newspapers were huge. 

Volume 194, No. 2 of The Official Gazette Of The United States Patent Office lists a claim use date of January 22, 1913 for this strip. American Newspaper Comics by Allan Holtz confirms this date as the start of this series. The Buffalo Enquirer ran the intro strip on January 25, 1913 with the story beginning on Monday, January 27, 1913. Pinning down dates on old strips is a wild game of dice, as syndication often meant that strips appeared on different days in different markets. (Thanks to Brent Swanson and Buddy Lortie of the Sunday newspaper comics 1890-1950 Facebook group for providing the answers for the second and third sentences of this paragraph.)

This strip ended when Hershfield created Abie The Agent, the long running strip which he is most remembered for. There is a nice happy ending to wrap things up. This strip is all but forgotten. Indeed, I wouldn't have even heard of it had I not checked Art Out Of Time from my local library and been exposed to it. I hope that Library Of American Comics will reprint this in one of their LOAC Essentials books, as that is the ideal format for this vintage of strip.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

Linework restoration: The primitive reproduction methods used in the stone age of 1977 yielded surprisingly decent results. I know that Library Of American Comics or one of the other publishers could do better today, but credit where credit is due. There area few spots that are bad in this book but given the tools that neanderthal 20^th century man had to make this book with I would say that this is a good restoration job for the time and serviceable by 2019 standards.

Paper stock: Matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding that has held up pretty well.

Hardback cover notes: You don't see textured casewrap like this anymore. Primitive man feared nuclear annihilation from Russia and used production methods that ensured that their books would survive the nuclear winter. 

Review- BUSTER BROWN'S ANTICS

BUSTER BROWN'S ANTICS (Frederick A. Stokes Co.(*?), 1906(*?); Softcover)

*My copy has copyright dates on the strips of 1906 and 1907 American Journal Examiner, Great Britain. It's possible that my copy is from the UK. If so, it was released in the UK in 1908, not 1906, which is probable seeing as how the US version is copyright 1906. Contents differ wildly between countries. The French version of this book with the same cover and title has wholly different contents.

The spine of this book.

The following strips are present in my copy of this book:

Buster And The Goat- Tige To The Woods (1906)

Buster's Goat Yields To Kindness (1906)

Buster Fools His Mama/ Up In A Balloon, Boys. (1906)

Poor Buster Gets The Blame (1906)

Buster's Education/ The New Tutor (1906)

Buster Gets The Worst Of It (1907)

Why is a Goat Nearly? (1906)

What Would You Do With A Boy Like This? (1906)

Was It Not Buster's Boat? Not Yet- But- Soon (undated)

Buster's Pet Goat/ But The Goat Was Cleaned (undated)

Getting An Education (1906)

Buster's Dilemma/ And It Was Halloween Too (1906, my copy is missing the second page)

(NOTE) I can't find an exact table of contents for this book anywhere online. My copy is missing the title page, which seems to be in every other copy I've seen online. Most sources show this book as having 31 pages. My copy has a total of 23 pages, meaning that it is likely missing the title page, one story page, and three two-page stories. This was a “quarter box” equivalent beater reader copy when compared to the nicer copies found online. If you are willing to spend upwards of 400 bucks you can get some cleaner copies. I got this for a small fraction of that cost. Oh well, you get what you pay for, right?

Writer and Artist: R. F. Outcault

This is the fourth collection of Buster Brown newspaper strips that was published from what I have gathered. There is a real lack of resources on the publishing history of the character online. The usual sources have some information but it is skeletal at best. I have yet to find a definitive source on the publication history with dates for each strip. Indeed, one may not even exist.

Outcault is an absolute genius. His earlier creation, The Yellow Kid, was a real salt of the Earth concept. Buster Brown is an affluent upper class child, the Little Lord Fauntleroy prudent Victorian child that was all but fantasy to a large portion of the reading audience.

Buster seems to lead a carefree life free of all want, left to pursue fun and mischief with playmates while causing headaches for his prim and proper mother. His talking dog, Tige, seems to be the moral compass and smartest character in the strip.

This stuff bleeds charm. It's a fun read as a read, and when you factor in the obscurity, scarcity, and cultural and historical significance to the artform it's invaluable. There is one strip here which would offend today's more politically correct fanbase. I wish that Sunday Press Books, Classic Comics Press, Fantagraphics, or Library Of American Comics would rescue this strip from the dustbins of history and reprint it in hardcover. This likely hasn't happened because the strips are either scarce and/or there aren't enough fans of Outcault left in this mortal coil to buy them.

I am admittedly not an expert on the Platinum Age of Comics but am eager to learn. There are several Facebook groups on the subject and scattered resources but have yet to find some definitive source detailing the print history of the strip and assorted books. I would be grateful to anyone who can show me where to go to learn more.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Old newspapers were fricking HUGE. The Sunday pages are cut in half here, with the top half's worth of panels going across one page and the second half going across the next. Each page is single sided, likely due to the limits of printing technology of the day.

Buster Fools His Mama/ Up In A Balloon, Boys. page two is misbound behind the story which followed it. These books were bound by hand back then, so it is doubtful that the entire run was effected by my copy's defect.

Linework and Color restoration: I couldn't even begin to guess how this compares to the original newspaper strips. From what I've been able to piece together this strip wasn't even printed in color in every market. What I can tell you is that the print quality for this time is downright stunning. Four color printing with minimal line bleed or off-register printing.

Paper stock: Glossy paper of the day, far less glossy than what we would call glossy today but the paper has a slickness to it as well as bright, vibrant colors. Being 110+ years old it is brittle and there are flakes everywhere every time I flip through it.

Binding: Cloth bound. Handling a 110+ year old book felt like handling the dead sea scrolls.

This book once belonged to some children, who wrote their names on the back cover. It's wild to think that the children who wrote this are long dead and gone and likely have greatgrandchildren roaming around now.

Cardstock cover notes: The cover is pretty thick, but time and endless handling have rendered it fragile, with folds, creases, and flaking everywhere. 

Review- BUSTER BROWN

BUSTER BROWN (Create Space, Printed on February 12, 2017; Softcover)

Collects 70 Buster Brown Sunday strips from 1902-1904.

Writer and Artist: R.F. Outcault

The book's spine does not feature the title. -10% enjoyment on The OCD scale.

The Platinum Age of comics (pre-comic books newspaper strips) is woefully underrepresented in Collected Editions. Buster Brown has two reprint books from the 1970s, but neither are complete. A handful of his strips have appeared in books like Society Is Nix, but comprehensive reprints are nonexistent. This mostly forgotten character doesn't have enough clout to be reprinted today, which is a shame considering that he was an outright phenomenon in his heyday. It seems almost criminal to let historically significant works like this rot in the hands of private collectors or exist as poorly scanned images on a handful of websites on the Internet. There aren't enough people who care about the history of the artform to make any publisher take a gamble and release a collection. If I ever win the Lotto I'll do it.

Imagine my delight when I discovered this collection, a bargain priced print on demand reprint from Amazon's CreateSpace imprint for $9.99. Where do I sign? I was in. Two days later this expectedly low budget affair arrived at my home. I have mixed feeling about this book. It's great to own these strips, but I have 20/20 vision and had a hard time reading the dialogue in spots.

This strip stars your run of the mill well-to-do Victorian child getting into all manner of mischief with his dog, Tige. Then-contemporary fashions and slang are fascinating to me. Societal mores, such as the once acceptable spanking of children, are on full display. Buster Brown's resolutions are usually found after him being on the receiving end of his mother's hand or hairbrush. This is unintentionally funny 113 years after publication.

Buster gets in all sorts of trouble and celebrates every holiday along the way. The whimsical nature of the strip, coupled with Outcault's unintentionally creepy faces, makes for a bizarre read that bleeds charm. I love the fashions and customs of the day (i.e. tea parties, the ash man, etc.) and found a reference to the then-new vaccinations, where people still objected to them out of ignorance. Another famous cartoon strip, Raggedy Ann, was actually the symbol of the anti-vaccination movement of the early 20^th century.

This book is a disservice to the genius of Outcault. The stories are great but the subpar presentation prevents me from recommending this book to anyone. I gambled 10 bucks but my advice to you is to find the scans on the Internet that these were swiped from and read them on your device or try printing them out yourself. They won't come out any worse, I promise you.

Junk Food For Thought rating: * out of 5.

The OCD zone- *While this book is wider than a standard trade paperback/ graphic novel, the artwork is shrunk down so much that it is virtually unreadable at times. I can't give a fair rating, so I won't give one at all.

Linework restoration: Awful. Imagine listening to a mp3 that is sourced from a cassette which was recorded off of a record by placing the tape recorder next to the speaker as the record played. You are dealing with this level of loss of fidelity. These strips were originally printed in color. The black and white presentation here is a murky grayscale mess. I have actually located the page where these scans were swiped from for this book. This material deserves better than this book, which any boob could have slapped together using Amazon's CreateSpace imprint.

Paper stock: Lighter weight uncoated stock.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock. 

Review- BUSTER BROWN: EARLY STRIPS IN FULL COLOR

BUSTER BROWN: EARLY STRIPS IN FULL COLOR (Dover, First Printing, 1974)

Facsimile edition of the 1904 hardcover collection Buster Brown And His Resolutions, which collects fifteen Sunday newspaper strips which were originally published in 1903 and 1904 in the New York Herald.

Writer and Artist: R.F. Outcault

Before there were Buster Brown shoes there was Buster Brown the comic strip. R.F. Outcault was the premiere cartoonist of his day, arguably the first “superstar” in the world of comics. His Hogan's Alley (later The Yellow Kid) strip, published during the mid-1890s through the turn of the 20^th century, made his name. His work on this strip and Pore Lil Mose remain criminally neglected in this golden age of comic reprints. I have been waiting for Sunday Press Books or another publisher to preserve them for posterity. The sad fact of the matter is that comic fandom as a whole has little interest in the history of the medium prior to superheroes, and reprints of strips like this would be expensive to produce and sell very few copies for any publisher brave enough to even try. If I ever win the Lotto I will procure a complete run of this series and start up a publishing company to rescue these lost classics from obscurity.

Early 20^th century newspaper strips were compiled and reprinted in hardcover books. These were the first collected editions, if you will. I was looking at Buster Brown books one night on eBay when I came across this book. A few minutes on Google and I was able to peg this as an affordable reprint, and in color no less! Dover must have photographed the old book that they did this facsimile off of, as the colors are completely authentic and scanners as we now know them were science fiction back in 1974.

The strip itself is charming. Buster Brown is a child in a well to do family during the then-contemporary Victorian era. The fashions and furnishings were current when published but look like something out of Henry Ford Museum today. Buster and his dog Tige always get in trouble, with Buster often finding his posterior region on the receiving end of a hairbrush. Buster tends to get himself into all manner of trouble with a resolution provided in a text panel in each strip. This book seems to span all seasons and doesn't seem to follow any publication order, as it skips back and forth between 1903 and 1904 copyright dates. The strips themselves are undated.

Beating your children with a hairbrush was not only acceptable, it was passed off as wholesome lowbrow family entertainment in 1903-1904. 

Outcault remains a genius. Many modern comic fans are willfully ignorant of the history of the medium. I am by no means an expert, but I am learning more all the time, and the Internet has made studying the history of the medium easier than it would have been in my younger days. Unfortunately many strips like this remain out of reach of most fans due to expense or scarcity. We have been living in the golden age of comic reprints over the past dozen or so years, and in spite of everything that has been published one thing remains clear: We have barely even scratched the surface.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This opens like a calendar, meaning that it opens vertically and not horizontally like a normal book. The strip was originally published as a full sheet. Those old newspapers were huge, so each one is cut in half, with one half on one page and the other half on the next.

Linework and Color restoration: I have no source material to compare this to, but everything looks “authentic”. It's interesting how some of the earliest four color printing presses were more accurate than the ones which would turn up and print early comic books.

Paper stock: Thick uncoated stock with minimal browning on the edges, a real feat for a forty-plus year old book.

Binding: The binding is a stapled, saddle-stitched book.

Cardstock cover notes: Extremely thick cardstock cover with a durable lamination.

Review- THE WORLD ON SUNDAY: GRAPHIC ART IN JOSEPH PULITZER'S PAPER (1898-1911)

THE WORLD ON SUNDAY: GRAPHIC ART IN JOSEPH PULITZER'S PAPER (1898-1911) (Bulfinch, First Printing, 2005; Hardcover)

Reprints the first and last page of the The World's Sunday supplement section unless otherwise noted. Each date shown is two pages. 

Reprinted here are 2/13/1898, 2/20/1898, 3/20/1898, 3/27/1898, 4/3/1898, 5/29/1898, 7/3/1898, 7/24/1898, and 9/19/1898.

1/1/1899, 2/12/1899, 3/19/1899, 4/2/1899, 10/15/1899, 10/22/1899, 11/5/1899, and 12/10/1899.

3/18/1900 and 8/26/1900.

3/10/1901 (3 pages total), 3/11/1901 (front page of Monday paper), 6/2/1901, 8/11/1901 (back page includes Sherlock Sam and Little Willie half page strips), and 10/13/1901.

3/23/1902 (back page includes Chollie And Gawge and Alpha, Omega, And Their Sister Sue half page strips), 5/11/1902 (four pages total, including A-Maying full page strip), and 11/23/1902.

4/5/1903.

1/31/1904 (six pages total), 3/13/1904 (including Superstitious Smith full page strip), 5/8/1904, 5/22/1904, 9/11/1904 (back page includes The Angel Child And The Professor half page strip), and 10/2/1904 (six pages total).

4/30/1905.

4/8/1906, 4/29/1906 (four pages total, with the back page including The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy and Billy Bragg half page strips), 6/17/1906, 6/24/1906 (including The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy half page strip), 7/8/1906 (including The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy half page strip), 7/22/1906 (including The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy half page strip), 7/29/1906, and 8/5/1906.

1/20/1907 (including The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy and Little Sammy's History Of The World half page strip), and 4/21/1907.

4/5/1908 (including Pups and Yens The Janitor half page strip), 4/19/1908, and 10/11/1908.

2/14/1909 (back page of the magazine section only), 2/15/1909 (front page of the Monday paper), 3/14/1909, 3/21/1909, and 3/28/1909 (includes The Newlweds strip).

1/16/1910.

7/16/1911, 7/23/1911 (four pages total), 10/1/1911, and 10/15/1911.

Newspapers are important cultural artifacts. They are snapshots of a moment in time, here one day and then replaced by the next day's events. This books shows reproductions of the only copy of these newspapers in existence today. These were rescued from a library in England that was going to sell them to private collectors at great financial expense by Nicholas Baker and Margaret Brentano. This collection, which contains every single paper from 1898-1911, now resides at Duke University in their Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. I would love to see it, but I somehow doubt that they would let me go there, pull up a chair, and pore over each bound volume.

Think of all of the great art and important documentation that has been lost. Newspapers are disposable items, meant to be read once and then discarded. Most newspaper collections were scrapped in the '50s for inferior microfiche. Everything is digital now, and I can't help but think that we are an EMP away from losing our entire culture and history. That is why I like books and paper. Barring flood, theft, or fire they can last hundreds of years and survive almost anything besides silverfish.

Joseph Pulitzer's paper was important for a number of reasons. As explained in the introduction of the book, the paper contained the earliest published works of H.G. Wells and many others, the first crossword puzzle, and was also one of the very first to use the color printing press.

The paper also had a view of the evolution of New York City from the ground floor. You can read the dilemmas and philosophical debates of things like skyscrapers (The American Skyscraper Is A Modern Tower Of Babel from 2/20/1898 and How Far Can New York Climb Into The Sky? From 1/20/1907), the onset of the kite flying craze (The Present Kite-Flying Craze And What May Come Of It from 10/22/1899), the ramifications of the electric light (The New Broadway- The Street That Knows No Night from 11/5/1899), the celebrating of the opening of the New York subway system (New York's New Wonder: The Subway. From The Battery To Harlem In Fifteen Minutes from 10/2/1904), and the impact of automobiles. The world was changing at a rapid pace that must have been even more confusing to people then than it is to people today.

I enjoyed the political cartoons as well. More truths were told in those than in news articles, as the greatest truths are often told in jest. Teddy Roosevelt was depicted in a less than favorable light a few years before he ran for President of the United States Of America. It's fascinating to see how people believed that politics was as corrupt around the turn of the 20^th century in the same way that we do today. The more things change, I suppose. It's funny that people look at these as the good old days. When you read some of the articles you can see horrific labor battles, fears about the influx of immigrants and the subsequent increase in homicides, and concerns about the monopolies of Rockefeller, Ryan, and Morgan. It saddens me that the people of 2142 will look back on 2016 and think Man, they had it made. No robots ordering them around and they were able to eat food that was not synthesized in a lab.

I bought this believing it to be a collection of Platinum Age newspaper strips. What I got instead was a fascinating look of a world long gone. A world that would be lost forever if a husband and wife didn't raise a small fortune and save these newspapers from the scrap heap. This book is a treasure.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The material is shrunk down from it's original publication size by a third. It is still readable for the most part, with only the text in some of the ads and articles requiring a magnifying glass.

Linework and Color restoration: Photographed or scanned high in high resolution. The browning and discoloration found in paper of this vintage is present, although they are remarkably intact with no flaking or cracking.

Paper stock: Super thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Thick matte dustacket. The hardback casewrap has the same images as the dustjacket on it and has a matte coating that is resistant to scuffing.

Review- ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMICS VISIONARIES, 1900-1969

ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMICS VISIONARIES, 1900-1969 (Abrams ComicArts, Third Printing, 2010; Hardcover)

This book is an excellent overview of the forgotten and the esoteric comic strip and comic book artists of the early 20^th century. The material is broken down into five categories, Exercises In Exploration, Slapstick, Acts Of Drawing, Words In Pictures, and Form And Style. I will list each artist covered as well as the material that is reprinted in this book.

First up we have Harry Grant Dart's The Explorigator strip, a beautifully drawn surreal series obviously inspired by Winsor McCay's Little Nemo In Slumberland. The strips for 6/14/1908, 6/21/1908, 7/26/1908, and an undated 1908 page are all shrunk down too small to comfortably read.

Next is Howard Nostrand's classic What's Happening At...8:30 P.M. from Witches Tales #25 from 1954. This tale has since been reprinted multiple times by multiple publishers.

Herbert Crowley's The Wiggle-Much is completely ruined due to the strip being shrunk down to fit into this standard sized book. It seems fascinating, but is unfortunately too small to read. The strips reprinted here are 4/3/1910, 4/17/1910, 5/1/1910, 5/8/1910, 5/15/1910, 5/22/1910, 6/5/1910, and 6/12/1910.

Odgen Whitney's Herbie is brilliant. It is bizarre and doesn't make much sense, but that is what makes it so great. His emotionally abusive father certainly doesn't help him any. Old comic books are fascinating snapshots of bygone eras. Societal mores are on full display, albeit often in caricature. A story from 1964's Herbie #3 is reprinted here.

Not everything here is a winner, though. Take Rymond Crawford Ewer's Slim Jim. It would suck even if it were presented in full size. The 4/30/1911, 5/27/1911, 6/17/1911, 6/24/1911, 7/8/1911, 12/16/1911, 11/29/1914, 4/11/1915, and10/31/1915 are reprinted here. This strip will likely never be reprinted again anywhere. Indeed, one has to wonder if any company could even piece together a full run of the series to reprint even if they wanted to.

Another one that has been reprinted many times since this book is Bob Powell's godlike Colorama from 1953's Black Cat Mystery #45. Psychedelic before the term even existed.

I'm not much of an anthropomorphic animal kind of guy, but I can appreciate anything that is well done. Walter Quermann's Hickory Hollow Folks is highly derivative but enjoyable nonetheless. The strips collected here are from 7/3/1938, 7/31/1938, 8/21/1938, 9/11/1938, and 10/23/1938.

As we move to the Slapstick section of the book my enthusiasm waned. I am not a fan of slapstick comics. Milt Gross' Nize Baby is tolerable. The strips from 4/3/1927, 5/28/1927, 8/6/1927 are reprinted here. A 15 page Pete The Pooch story from 1947's Milt Gross Funnies #2 rounds out his section of the book.

Stan Mc Govern's Silly Milly is wretched. The less said about it the better. Daily strips collected here are from 7/3-5, 10-13/1944, 9/5/1944, 12/11, 19-22/1944, 3/26-30/1945, 4/2-6/1945, 5/21/1945, and 6/11-15, 1945.

Dick Briefer's Frankenstein is shown here years before all of the other collections sans the Idea Men Productions book which introduced me to the character. PS Publishing, Yoe Books/IDW, and Dark Horse have all taken a stab at reprinting his run. The story reprinted here, 1946's Frankenstein #4, is great.

Jack Mendelsohn's Jacky's Diary is such an obvious influence on stuff like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. My son loves those books. Stories from 1960's Jacky's Diary #1 are reprinted here.

In the third section of the book, Acts Of Drawing, we get Charles M. Payne's S'Matter, Pop, which was titled Say, Pop! in the first strip shown here. An undated strip from 1918, 7/21/1918, 2/20/1921, 4/1/1921, 5/?/1921, and an undated 1924 strip round it out.

Fletcher Hanks in batshit insane. His nonsensical writing, coupled with his bizarre artwork make for an awfully memorable (or is it memorably awful?) reading experience. I had both Fantagraphics books which reprinted his stuff but dumped them years ago. Rereading 1940's Fantastic Comics #10 reminded me that I did the right thing, as his work is like a train wreck.

Sunday Press Books recently issued a hardcover of Garrett Price's White Boy, and after reading a sampling here I want it. I likely won't even get around to buying it, but my OCD homeskillet Ferjo Byroy has it and would loan it to me if I asked. It's great stuff that is worth reading. The Sunday storyline from 6/3/1934 through 9/30/1934 is reprinted here.

A.E. Hayward's godawful Somebody's Strong harshed my buzz from the previous strip. The 7/23/1922, 8/20/1922, 3/28/1926, 5/12/1929, and 4/3/1932 strips are a waste of your time.

Jefferson Machamer's Gags And Gals is unreadable. I like old stuff, but sometimes things just don't translate. It's a historical curiosity and nothing more. Reprinted here are the strips from 4/11/1937, 7/11/1937, 8/1/1937, 8/29/1937, and 11/28/1937.

Underground Comix were never my thing. I understand the historical significance of them, but this one kinda sucks and certainly isn't one of the important ones. Rory Hayes' stories from 1969's Bogeyman Comics #1 and 2 are forgettable.

Harry Hershfeld's Dauntless Durham Of The U.S.A. is brilliant. Great art and a great ongoing story, it is marred by the shrunken size of it in this book. It is so difficult to read that I gave up after a while. It's a shame. Maybe IDW/Library Of American Comics can reprint it in one of their strange small landscape format books. There is lots of great slang of the era here. None of the strips' dates here are known, save that the 62 dailies reprinted here are all from 1913. There was a hardcover from 1977, and it makes me envious of the “old guys”, those collectors from the first and second generations of our hobby. They already knew how cool this stuff was 40 years ago, and here I am just discovering it.

Cecil Johnson's Elmo, from 1948's Elmo #1 is unremarkable. There was a time where I would buy anything that was old, so long as it was slapped between two hardbacks with nice paper and sewn binding. The novelty of reading old comics has worn thin after hundreds of these over the past dozen or so years.

I am not a fan of slapstick comics, but I can appreciate anything so long as it is well done. Boody Rogers' Sparky Watts, from issue 8 of the same title from 1948, is great fun. I especially enjoyed it when Sparky was shrunk down to the size of a flea on the monkey. Dimwitted Slap Happy decided to help the monkey get rid of it's fleas by spraying it in the face with D.D.T. Crazy. As goofy as the two stories from Sparky Watts #8 are, I would be all over a collected edition of it.

Harry J. Tuthill's The Bungle Family is so marred by the shrunken size that I gave up trying to read it. What a shame. The 1/1/1933, 8/6/1933, 8/13/1933, 11/26/1933, 12/3/1933, 12/17/1933, 2/4/1934, 3/04/1934, 3/11/1934, 3/18/1934, 4/15/1934, 4/22/1934, 7/29/1934 and 12/26/1937 full page strips are ruined here.

C.W. Kahles' Hairbreadth Harry is genius. I suffered through the smaller size, reading it through the zoom on phone's camera. There is something wrong with a book when you have to use an electronic device to read it. This is very clever strip with gorgeous artwork that needs to be rescued and reprinted. The 2/9/1924, 2/23/1924, 3/8/1924, 4/5/1924, 4/12/1934, 4/19/1924, 4/26/1924, 5/3/1924, 5/10/1924, 5/17/1924, 1/20/1929, 2/3/1929, 3/24/1929, and 3/31/1929 strips are reprinted here. They are not enough. I want more.

Naughty Pete by Charles Forbell is unreadable in this book. It's a second rate Little Nemo In Slumberland anyhow. Strips collected in this book are from 8/17/1913, 8/24/1913, 10/5/1913, 10/12/1913, 10/19/1913, 10/26/1913, 11/2/1913, 11/16/1913, 11/23/1913, 11/30/1913, and 12/7/1913.

T.E. Power's Joys And Glooms is a slice of irony. Hipsters like old stuff and irony, and since this is really old and really ironic they would really like it. The 10/14/1911, 10/16/1911, 10/30/1911, 11/8/1911, 11/13/1911, 12/2/1911, 12/12/1911, and 12/21/1911 certainly pleased men with lumberjack beards the first time around that they were popular.

Gustave Verbeek is all but forgotten with even the strips fans. His artwork has a surreal, childish look to it. The Upside-Downs Of Little Lady Lovekins And Old Man Muffaroo is represented here by the 5/1/1904, 5/8/1904 , 5/22/1904, 6/5/1904, 6/12/1904, an undated 1904 strip, two undated 1905 strips, 7/31/1910, and 6/13/1913.

I couldn't even stomach Gene Deitch's Terr'ble Thompson, as cutesy stuff doesn't float my boat. I did not read the 2/5/1955, 10/20-11/6, 11/10-13/1955, or the 3/04/1956 strips.

Comic books were aimed squarely at children when they came out. While there was certainly a sizeable adult audience for many titles, things like Jingle Jangle Tales #2 from 1943 were for the kiddies. George Carlson's artwork is whimsical and kid friendly for the day.

Norman E. Jennett's Monkey Shines Of Marseleen is godlike. It has a definite Winsor McKay influence, but it so well done who cares! I would love to see it reprinted in its entirety. The 2/28/1909, 3/14/1909, 3/28/1909, 4/4/1909, 4/18/1909, 5/2/1909, 9/26/1909, and 11/21/1909 are all marred by the reduced size.

There is a lot of great vintage material in this book which is not available elsewhere. Unfortunately it is ruined, as the strips are shrunk down in size to such a degree that it causes eye strain. I have 20/20 vision and I had trouble reading it. I ended up using my phone's camera to zoom in, but after a while I became aggravated and gave up on some of the strips. It's a shame that this is the only place to get printed examples of some of these lost classics. I checked this out of the library and I am glad that I didn't pay for the substandard presentation. Saturday or Sunday comic sections were huge, and to see them reduced to this size is painful and heartbreaking.

Still, this is the only game in town to get a lot of this material, so as long as you understand what you are getting you should be okay.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

The OCD zone

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans (or photographs) with minimal tinkering. Line bleed, off register printing, so-called Ben Day dots, and cracked, flaking paper are all present.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lies perfectly flat.

Dustjacket and Hardback Cardstock cover notes: This is a library copy, so the dustjacket is fastened to the hardback and has a Brodart sleeve on it. Therefore, I am unable to comment on them since I cannot inspect them fairly.