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| By Stefan Blitz |
With the majority of current comics being disappointing, full of properties rather than stories, I’ve found solace in the medium by looking at a great deal of the classic reprint material being released by various pubishers.
IDW Publishing is currently putting out some of the most interesting and eclectic material currently being published.
With various licensed titles, some truly engaging original work and some of the best looking archival material being published today, anyone with a love of comics should be looking at this work closely.
I recently took a look at three of their recent, fantastic releases and for a few hours, was reminded why I love comics.
Steve Ditko’s Monsters Volume 1: Gorgo
Edited by Craig Yoe
Published by IDW Publishing / Yoe Books
Yoe Books does the impossible; taking a series of ingredients, in this case, a comic adaptation of a mediocre B-movie (but let’s be realistic, it’s much further down the alphabet) by a comic legend (and recluse) who delivers a fairly redundant giant monster comic on a regular basis and spins this into archival gold in a handsome, nostalgiac release that’s a welcome addition to their series of distinguished archive volumes.
Obviously influenced by the successful Godzilla films, Gorgo is a fifty foot giant prehistoric lizard creature, who’s adventures are usually spawned by him running off from his two hundred foot tall even more destructive two hundred foot tall mother.
I’ve never been particularly engrossed by most Charlton Comics. The sad part, is I believe I’ve been turned off my their rather industrial font that seemed to permeate much of their work (which unlike the mechanical font of EC Comics, never seemed to fit within the style of the work).
A footnote to his bibliography, Steve Ditko’s nine issues of Gorgo (all reprinted within and written by Joe Gill) are both rather simplistic in their storytelling and linework (certainly in comparison to his Marvel work on Spider-Man and Doctor Strange which he produced concurrently). Yet, despite my apprehensiveness toward the font, the book itself is a bit of a charmer, and an entertaining throwback to comics of yore.
Like any Yoe Book release, one of the big draws is the production design, which in this case is impeccable. The handsome hardcover features sepia endpapers and a reptillian texture to the cover. The books insides are reprinted faithfully, utilizing the Ben-Day dots of the time over a cream colored paper, reminiscent of early (slightly yellowed) newsprint.
Yoe also writes an informative introduction that gives an exhaustive background on both the comic and film.
There’s a pretty good chance that if you love comics, you love giant monsters. The book itself is a work of art and the wonderfully wacky contents within are sure to engage both the most innocent and cynical of readers. Highly recommended.
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Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
Edited by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell
Published by IDW Publishing / The Library of American Comics
Known for being a curmudgeon and for severing relationships on a whim, Alex Toth has a reputation of being one of the comic book industry’s most bitter personalities.
Yet, without a doubt, the late cartoonist is one of the most influential comic artists, perhaps second only to Jack Kirby. He is the quintessential comic artists comics artist
Genius Illustrated is the middle volume in an examination of his life and career and covers the period from the sixties through his death in 2006.
Included within are original comics pages, full comic stories, storyboards,
model sheets, advertising art, his inimitable correspondence and sketchbook
pages and doodles.
Toth’s work until this period was solid, but it wasn’t until he went to work at Hanna Barbera and designed a number of their adventure and superhero shows that he was able to develop a style that maximized energy and dynamics with an economy of lines that is deceptively simple but technically complex cementing Toth as one of the industry’s most electric and engaging draftsmen. As a book, the biographical text is engrossing, but it’s the hundreds of pieces of artwork by Toth (who is actually my favorite illustrator) that makes it a must have.
Along with the previous volume, Genius, Isolated, Genius, Illustrated is likely the comic biography that all future ones will be held up against. And unlike his artwork, the life of Alex Toth was fairly complicated. A magnificent volume.
Popeye Classics Volume 1
By Bud Sagendorf
Edited by Craig Yoe
IDW Publishing / Yoe Books
At one time one of pop culture’s most recognizable and iconic characters, Popeye has faded into the background of most modern audiences.
After Fantagraphics completed their reprinting of the classic strip by E.C. Segar, Yoe Books and IDW have teamed up to launch two new Popeye series; one a series of new adventures and the other, reprinting the classic comic books previously published in the late fifties from writer/artist Bud Sagendorf.
Two years ago Yoe and IDW released Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales of Bud Sagendorf, which likely indicated that there was a demand for this material.
This book collects issues #1-4 of the reprint series, Classic Popeye.
Opening with an introduction by Yoe and an assortment of illustrated ephemera, the book dives into reprinting the issues and like the Gorgo book reviewed above, does so beautifully. The endpapers feature an illustration of Swee’pea and The Jeep and the artwork itself is reprinted on ivory stock utilizing the Ben-Day dots.
The stories themselves are where the real entertainment is. Sagendorf (who eventually went on to create more Popeye tales than his creator Segar) fills each issue with a full length story and various shorter tales focusing on Popeye and his large supporting cast (including Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Geezil and more). Included are the stories Shame on You, That’s What I Yam, SMASH!, Spinach Revolt, Map Back!, Easy Money, Gift From Uncle Ben, Dead Valley and Ghost Island, plus several one pagers.
With the first volume in a potential twenty five volume series (IDW plans on reprinting all of the almost 100 issue run, so a hardcover reprint as well seems plausible), Classic Popeye does a phenomenal job reprinting these wonderful, timeless tales that like Barks’ Duck Stories, are not only appropriate for, but engaging for readers of all ages.
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