Evan Dorkin ([info]evandorkin) wrote,
@ 2007-03-08 21:56:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Reasons To Be Cheerful: Roy Crane

(17 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]lois2037
2007-03-09 05:18 am UTC (link)
Thanks--I needed a bit of cheering up.

(Reply to this)


[info]dculver
2007-03-09 05:48 am UTC (link)
I love his stuff.

I recently grabbed a torrent with all the Buz Sawyer dailies.

(Reply to this)


[info]penrod_pulaski
2007-03-09 08:27 am UTC (link)
god, i love Roy Crane.

(Reply to this)


[info]bertozzi
2007-03-09 12:58 pm UTC (link)
Ahhh....roundness!

Man, could that guy draw. I've been meaning to buy a book of Easy or Wash Tubbs. Any recommendations on where to start?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]evandorkin
2007-03-09 05:13 pm UTC (link)
I keep getting whupped on e-bay trying to pick up the NBM Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy volumes. I'm not as interested in Buz Sawyer material (for the time being), but I wouldn't be surprised if one of those "Comics of Yesteryear" public domain fan-type revivalist press joints were pumping out some version of these strips in some flimsy, bare bones, overpriced format. I'm no expert on old strips, that's for sure. So I dunno Crane's supposed sweet period on Easy or anything. I just want the entire run, because I'm a freaking fanboy.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Wash Tubbs start set
(Anonymous)
2007-07-06 03:26 pm UTC (link)
I'd actually not start with the NBM volumes but the 5+ mags from Dragon Lady Press. They reprint material from ca 1930, when I find the storytelling at its absolute peak. Then – when you're hooked - go get the NBM vols.
/Germund von Wowern

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mr_sadhead
2007-03-09 04:14 pm UTC (link)
I was skeptical, then I got to the bottom of the page. "Oo, wot a temper! Oo, how I rage!" Brilliant.

(Reply to this)


[info]ihnatko
2007-03-09 04:18 pm UTC (link)
They started re-running Milt Caniff's "Steve Canyon" strip, starting from Day One...that's at least one surefire daily reason to be happy, for the next twenty years at least!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]evandorkin
2007-03-09 05:19 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, but I personally can't keep up with anything, even if I bookmarked it or whatever, I'd fall too far behind. I'm a geezer, I need print, give me the books. I can't relax reading on a screen.

Sarah's a Caniff fan and we have most if not all of the KSP Canyon stuff, as well as the NBM Terry run, the FBI Dickie Dare, Male Call, and that oversized Terry reprint series that stopped, sadly, at volume 2 (the same folks, iirc, that did two volumes of Polly and her Pals. Well, same format, if anything). I haven't been able to get into Canyon much as of yet, something about it puts me off. I'll have to come back to it and give it another shot when time allows.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]ihnatko
2007-03-09 05:57 pm UTC (link)
I use a Mac app called "Comictastic" that automatically downloads all of my favorite strips every morning before I wake up, and puts them all on one page. Morning comics (both in print and onscreen) have been part of my morning routine for so much of my life that I'll probably still be reading them four days after I'm dead.

I have a harder time following adventure strips when they're put into anthologies. The pacing just feels "off." But I wish these Caniff strips were posted at higher resolution...72 DPI goes down double-hard when you're looking at art that was originally meant to be printed some eight inches wide.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]moroccomole
2007-03-09 10:08 pm UTC (link)
You might know this -- where can I find old "Bumble Family" strips by H.J. Tuthill. There are a handful in the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics that crack me up, and I would love to find more of them.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]moroccomole
2007-03-09 10:11 pm UTC (link)
Whoops, make that "The Bungle Family." Of which I am apparently a member.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]evandorkin
2007-03-10 01:10 am UTC (link)
There's 15 pages of The Bungle Family in The Comic Strip Century, a two-volume slip-cased HC set released in '95 by Kitchen Sink. I believe this was sort-of recently reprinted in a single, cheaper volume or something like that, I bet an Amazon or Google search could clear that up.

Iirc some Bungle Family material was reprinted in an issue of Nemo. Maybe it was Hogan's Alley. Possibly both. But at least one of those magazines ran a continuity or two, because I remmber reading one of the later, science-fictiony storylines with the little spacey-like imp with powers. As a fan of imps in general and imps with extraordinary powers for sure, this I very much enjoyed. My copies of both magazines are buried beneath some stuff in the work room so forget the idea of having me look for them to confirm anything. Every fan for himself.

Bungle Family originals come up on e-bay fairly often and don't go for much, relatively, sometimes as little as $30- $40. I haven't bought any, myself, they're fairly static, a lot of the draw for TBF is the writing, imho. The art's fine enough, but every strip, save for those with imps, looks fairly alike. Even more so than the average plain folks family in a house-type bit.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]moroccomole
2007-03-10 01:29 am UTC (link)
Thanks for the leads. I'll see what I can dig up.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Ha.
[info]iblis_kukl
2007-03-10 05:59 am UTC (link)
A friend of mine just posted this link. You were actually the second person I thought to pass it on to, although you're getting it first:

> http://tcj.com/journalista/?p=307

eliazar }()+

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Ha.
[info]evandorkin
2007-03-10 07:20 pm UTC (link)
Was the link for the Steven Grant quote specifically? I read that, enjoyed it, always believed in the general point he's making there. Wish the fans in the trenches would stop buying things they don't actually enjoy. But it's spitting in the wind, they're four-color crackheads, zombified porn addicts, angry sports fans looking for a never-ending argument at the local bar.

Or was the link for someone shooting Captain America? Is that how that creaky fictional character got snuffed? He got shot? What happened to his mighty shield skills? He's had six decades of bullet dodging skills, wtf? Where was Redwing to take the bullet? Isn't that why he had The Falcon around, bullet catching for the man? Whatever. Move along, nothing to see here, another blip on the radar, another big, temporary spike on the superhero comic book EKG before it eventually flatlines.

These one-upmanship crossover events can't keep the patient going forever, and if it does, look at the horrible quality of life being offered. I was flipping through the most recent Previews the other day and couldn't believe the state of DC books -- whatever wasn't an event was a crossover or a tie-in or was festooned with character guest appearances. DC should just throw there hands up and admit they can't keep ongoing titles ongoing without stunts, Superman or Wonder Woman must waltz through every mid-line book once every two months, switching off with Batman and Green Lantern. It's like the worst wrestling shows where no one is allowed to actually wrestle, everyone talks, and talks, three or four personalities hog all the air time, and anytime a discernible match comes off, there's a multitude of run-ins spoiling everything. When every story demands a handful of deaths and graphic shocks, they lose their appeal and shock value. They're photoshopping themselves into a corner, where to go after you've exhausted all this rape and kill and rend? I don't want to even know.

I say this all as someone who used to like Marvel and DC comics. I've never had a problem with the superhero genre, just the way the genre represents and dominates what should be a fuller, richer medium on Direct market shelves. Such is life. Give 'em what they want, and even if you give 'em what they don't want, they'll still buy it, the suckers. If you don't vote with your money, all the angry message board posts in the world mean jack shit.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ha.
[info]iblis_kukl
2007-03-11 04:34 am UTC (link)
Yeah, it was pretty much for the quote. Had a particular "Eltingville" scent to it.

But how Cap can't manage to stop a bullet with that big-ass shield when Wonder Woman has deflected flurries of them for years with those little bracelets will likely remain one of those lingering mysteries for many years to come.

eliazar }()+

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(17 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…