Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Bringing Out Father


Additional Post.

I just found this anouncement online.

"DW will release a 272-page hardcover Bringing Up Father collection under its Library of American Comics imprint in November. The collection will include all the daily and color Sunday strips from January 2, 1939 to July 7, 1940, comprising the “From Sea to Shining Sea” storyline which takes Jiggs, Maggie, Nora, and Nora’s husband Lord Nevere Worthnotten on a cross-country trip to celebrate Nora’s marriage.

The 11” x 10” collection is designed by Dean Mullaney and edited by Bruce Canwell. Canwell and Brian Walker will contribute a text essay with a comprehensive view of creator George McManus and his characters."

After showing the publishing world how a reprint series is supposed to be done with the complete in six volumes Terry and the Pirates reprint and right on the heels of announcing a similar reprint series of Alex Raymond's photo-realistic masterpiece Rip Kirby. IDW and Dean Mullaney have again teamed up for a shocking new in the reprint world... not starting with the first year. Instead, they have picked a complete sequence from the best years of George McManus' strip. I have always wondered why publishers didn't do that more often. How many people are there that are interested in the early badly drawn years of any strip, however popular it became later on? Even IDW's own Dick Tracey series starts with a horribly drawn first few years before they get to the good stuff.

And to make matters worse, because all publishers think alike, really serious collectors often get stuck with the same fe first years before a project is scrapped. For that reason I never bought the Fantagraphics black and white daily Pogo reprints. All of the material they were reprinting had already been colleted in a series of very well edited books by Simon and Shuster (with lots of interesting material added from the editor of the Pogo fan publications, the Okefenokee Star and the Fort Mudge Most). It wasn't until their eleventh volume that they started reprinting new material. And after that the series ended. Now they have announced a new reprint series, starting from the beginning all over again. But this time they are adding the never before reprinted color pages,so I will have to get that. Correction, I will be glad to get that. But I wouldn't have minded if they had decided to bring out a single volume reprinting all of the rarely seen Mars sequence of 1966. Don't know what I am talking about? ou will, when I get ready scanning whatever I have from that gorgeous year long sequence and start sharig it with you.

But for now congratulations to IDW. I can highly recommend this series. Why? Because it contains pages such as these two, which comes from a black and white saturday paper. Believe me, they are even more handsome in color. These are from much earlier in the decade, but they show the full mastery of McManus and his assistant Zek Zekely.

Jan 3 1932:


March 12 1933:

1 comment:

Mike Lynch said...

Thanks for the news that IDW is going to reprint BRINGING UP FATHER! This strip deserves to be seen in its glory, and that 1940 sequence is amazing.

And thanks for all the hard work you do on this great blog, Ger!