In honor of this week's comics coverage, here's an abbreviated, comics-themed edition of the BNC:
1. Whither The Strip Collection?
Thanks to a handy application called Comictastic, I read a ton of syndicated newspaper strips every day. (With comics, as with music, movies and TV, I like a varied diet: a little art, a little craft, a little kitsch and a little trash.) One of my favorite dailies has become Brooke McEldowney's 9 Chickweed Lane, a whimsical trifle that's rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but may be the best drawn strip around, graced by a style reminiscent of Jules Ffeiffer, Al Hirschfeld, and some of the more modernist Chuck Jones animated cartoons.
9 Chickweed Lane's been around for nearly 15 years, but I've only been reading it for about two, so I went looking for some collections to fill in the gaps. No luck. Outside of one book of McEldowney's cat themed strips–not my favorite–nothing appears to be available, new or used. It used to be that nearly everyone with a syndicated comic strip got a book deal, even if it was only for little Fawcett pocket paperbacks; but these days, only a handful of titles–Zits, Get Fuzzy, Mutts, a few others–are collected with any kind of regularity. There'd be a riot if any local Style Section editor tried to dump Blondie or Hi And Lois, but when's the last time you saw either of those strips on a book store shelf? (Not that I'd necessarily want to read a year's worth of 21st century Blondie in book form, but isn't it odd that one of the longest-running strips on the comics page doesn't have any wide-ranging publishing prescence to speak of?)
In a lot of ways, this is a great time to be a comic strip fan. The complete runs of Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side are readily available (for a hefty price), and publishers like Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and IDW are in the process of archiving the likes of Peanuts, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Pogo and Gasoline Alley. (Can I please urge everyone again to buy and enjoy the Gasoline Alley books? I'd like to do well so I can keep reading them.) But I can't help but think of what Charles Schulz once said about the way his books were treated in his lifetime. They sold millions of copies, but bookstores tended to shelve them haphazardly in some dark corner, next to the Erma Bombeck.
Seriously, how hard can it be to collect a strip and keep the collection in print? The writing and drawing's all done. These strips advertise themselves, to everyone who reads the comics page every day. The only real overhead is the printing costs, but even a limited run is bound to generate at least some profits. (The Peanuts books are reportedly a cash cow for Fantagraphics, even though they don't sell massive amounts.) Both publishers and the culture at large is missing a chance for significant enrichment.
(On the other hand,
some of my
favorite strips of recent years
have gone belly-up, so maybe the medium is
less popular than I think.)
2. The Best Comic Book I've Read Lately
I'm on the mailing list for several of my favorite comics publishers, some of whom send me everything they release–it's a sweet life I lead, I tell you–and some of whom send me catalogs of upcoming titles, so that I can request what I might want to review. When I peruse, say the Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly catalogs, it's mostly in anticipation of books I'm certain will be worth my time. (A new Ivan Brunetti collection? Awesome.) But when I get DC Comics' quarterly "Graphic Novel Catalog," it's a whole different story. It's not that I'm not looking forward to two hardbound volumes worth of Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" stories or a Showcase collection of Adam Strange comics; but at the same time, my experience with reading or re-reading "classic" DC has been that their potential outstrips their actuality. Aside from rare treats like Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man–jazzy Carmine Infantino art and clever mystery plots!–I mostly end up reading vintage comics with a kind of rictus grin on my face, like when I get trapped at a party between two people sharing an inside joke.
Nevertheless, I can always count on passing a happy evening reading DC's "Graphic Novel Catalog," and the Summer '07 edition is no exception. Sandwiched between the CMX/Vertigo/Wildstorm titles I don't care much about, I see a lot of hope on the horizon. There are the sure-fire winners, like the upcoming Showcase volumes devoted to The Flash (at last!) and The Legion Of Super-Heroes (arguably the only pre-'70s DC team book worth reading), and the special omnibus TPB The Amazing Transformations Of Jimmy Olsen. (I've been reading the Olsen stories in Showcase Presents: Superman Family, and I just can't get enough of his "big scoops" and poignant man-crushes.) Then there are the could-be-good books, like the Atom, Batgirl and Wonder Woman Showcases, and the reprints of Michael Fleisher's '70s "Encyclopedia Of Comic Book Heroes" volumes. Finally, there's the sure-to-disappoints, like the Showcases of "The War That Time Forgot" and The Martian Manhunter, and the Secrets Of The Batcave collection that's bound to contain too many post-'70s stories for unnecessary "balance."
But that actual letdown is months away. For now, in catalog form at least, DC's summer output looks strong.
3. "Robin, what have I done to you?"
Not much to say about this, except that it puts the funny back in funnybook. My favorites: #s 1, 6, 7, 13, 14 and 15.