7/5/12

Life and Art of Walt Kelly, The Phantom, Uncle Scrooge, Outland. Comic-Con July 11-15

San Diego Comic-Con is July 11-15. We will be in our usual spot, at the beginning of the 1500 aisle: 1503 and 1505. We have just two booths this year. One will feature vintage comics books paperbacks, out-of-print fanzines, illustrated and children's books from our sister business, Bud Plant and Hutchison Books. The other booth will be filled with new material from here. I'm concentrating on the more offbeat and special things we handle, including signed books, sketchbooks, and art books. Every item that we discount online will also be discounted at the show. I hope to see you there. When we return from the show, we'll have new signed sketchbooks and art books--just as soon as we can get them onto the website and into these emails.


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The Phantom by Lee Falk and Ray Moore: This is a big week for this classic adventure strip. The first volume of 1930s full color Sundays is our featured item. Also here is the long-awaited The Phantom Dailies Vol 4, collecting rare strips from 1940-43. Volume 1 has been out of print since early 2011 but a new printing is due in this month. Volume 2 is also now available again. Volume 3 is current out of print. Hermes Press has also released two Phantom collections from the 1960s from the Gold Key and Charlton series.


From the same publisher we also have Buck Rogers: The Complete Sundays Vol 2, also first announced last year. I don't have Volume 1 on hand but am ordering more copies right now, so that both will be available. Buck was the first true science fiction strip. It's quirky and yet brilliant, with delightful spaceships and creatures "from the 25th Century." Buck and Wilma travel around the solar system encountering aliens and alien worlds. Buck Rogers began in 1929, five years before Flash Gordon was created. Unlike Alex Raymond's creation, Buck was not particularly sophisticated or stylish in art, but it still has a charm that can't be denied.


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Walt Kelly: The Life and Art of the Creator of Pogo - Thomas Andre has long been a chronicler of both Carl Barks and Walt Kelly history. Here is a magnum opus, a long-overdue look at the career of a genius of comics. Kelly began his career working for Walt Disney's animation division. Then he became a mainstay at Dell Comics around 1942, creating Fairy Tale Parade, the finest fantasy comic book of the Golden Age. He was doing the covers for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories while Carl Barks was drawing the Duck stories inside. Then came Animal Comics and the first adventures of Albert and Pogo, still in the 1940s and several years before Pogo became a newspaper strip. Here is that story, accompanied by original art from his Disney cartoon work and early Pogos; anecdotes from Ward Kimball and others he worked with; and lots and lots of cool comic book covers and Sunday pages in full color. This gets Our Highest Recommendation.


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NEW BARGAIN--PRICED BOOKS

Prince Valiant: Far From Camelot by Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz - Now on sale at just $10.95, a savings of $9.Val is again off on his own, with only his wits and his skills to keep himself and his son alive in a decidedly dangerous world.
Originally created by Hal Foster, and now written by Schultz and drawn by Gianni, these stories of the iconic knight errant are epic comic adventures. This collects Sunday Pages November 21, 2004 to May 11, 2008, an amazing three and a half years! Click here for all our other Prince Valiant collections.

Best of Gahan Wilson - A fun softcover collection with both color and b&w cartoons, published by the respected Underwood Books. $6 off at just $8.95. Also in stock is Wilson's Nuts, and 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons--two volumes in slipcase, now at a $50 savings: just $75.
Classic Children's Comics edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly.- Spanning roughly from the 1940s to the 1960s, this is packed (352 pages in full color) with charming and inventive work by the greats. Here are complete stories by Carl Barks, Milt Gross, Walt Kelly, Harvey Kurtzman, Sheldon Mayer, Basil Wolverton, John Stanley, C.C. Beck, Dan Noonan, Dave Berg, George Carlson and many others. Characters from Little Lulu and Tubby, to Powerhouse Pepper and Gyro Gearloose get into surreal, hilarious mischief in these tales which appeal to adults and children alike. Published at $39.95, now only $17.95.


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Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins On Stage Vol 10 and Buck O'Rue by Dick Huemer and Paul Murry - Two excellent new collections of rare newspaper strips. Buck O'Rue is by two veteran Disney creators, Dick the writer and Paul the artist. In the early 1950s they took some time off from working on Disney animation, to create this. It's a spoof of the then-current craze for westerns and cowboy heroes. It is a satisfying thick collection with lots of detail about both creators and how the strip came to be. This includes both dailies and Sunday pages.

From Leonard Starr, we still have Mary Perkins on Stage collections Volume 2-9 on hand. Volume 1 is out of print. Outstanding artwork by Starr, and gripping stories of this beautiful actress and her many dangerous adventures.


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The Complete Outland by Berkeley Breathed - Soon after retiring from Bloom County, at the peak of it's popularity, Breathed took some of his favorite characters and dropped them into a strangely surreal new territory: Outland. 280 full color Sunday Pages, from 1989 to 1995!

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Uncle Scrooge "Only a Poor Old Man" by Carl Barks - This is the second release in the new Barks reprint series, the first of which is Donald Duck "Lost in the Andes." This new hardcover collects not only the very first Uncle Scrooge adventure, but his "origin" of sorts, "Back to the Klondike." How did he start his fortune? Digging for gold and fighting claim-jumpers in Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush! Wonderful work by Carl Barks. Highly Recommended.


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The Complete Lunar Tunes by Wally Wood - This inexpensive ($9.95) little collection first appeared in 2005 and sold like hotcakes. Unavailable for four years, here is a new edition. This is adult material, Wood's no-holds-barred excursion in Mad-style humor but with his trademark sexy girls and compromising situations. Click here for all our Wally Wood collections, including the bestselling Strange Worlds of Science Fiction.

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David Mazzucchelli's Daredevil Born Again Artists Edition - We have a very few of these and no guarantee we can order more. Also coming shortly: Will Eisner's Spirit Artist's Edition and the reprinting of Wally Wood's EC Stories Artist's Edition.


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NEW ADULT ITEMS

Art of James Hottinger - We have a few new adult items this week, too many to picture below. From SQ publishing is this first collection of fantasy & sword and sorcery ladies, in full color, by James Hottinger.

Also from SQ is Fever Pitch by Elias Chatzoudis. A fun book of cartoonish, busty girls, akin to Bruce Timm's style.

Art of Dave Nestler: Wicked Intentions - Now on sale at just $8.95 (originally $14.95). I've always enjoyed Dave's work, he stands out amongst contemporary erotic artists. He has been featured in numerous erotic art collections.

The World of Erotic Art 4 was announced last year in our catalog but we were forced to cancel it due to delays. This is the "Spectrum Annual" of nude photography and erotic artwork...and combinations of both. Acclaimed jurors judge the entries and the final selections became a major exhibit in both Europe and the U.S.

Femme Fatales of the 1950s by Bunny Yeager - Bunny's new collections have been very popular. Click here for all her work. This 2008 classic is one of her best, complete with vintage photos of Diane Webber and Bettie Page.

The Big Book of Boobs is also back in stock. We have a really cool new erotic collection coming up next week, Kamikazee Girls, which I like a lot. And Adult Movie Superstars. Both may be on the website by the time your read this.

-Bud

Some of my favorite new Items:

WALT KELLY: The Life and Art of the Creator of Pogo
For the first time an exhaustive look at the art and career of Walt Kelly; from his days at Disney working on such films as Snow White, Fantasia, and Dumbo to his work for Dell comics. His brilliant Fairy Tale Parade and Animal Comics, culminating with his creation of Albert and Pogo as a comic book feature! This full color art book has it all!
Item Code: WKLIFE
Published at $49.99
On Sale! Save $10!
Your price: $39.99

PRINCE VALIANT: Far from Camelot
The very first new collection of Prince Valiant stories by the acclaimed team of Shultz and Gianni. Val is again off on his own, with only his wits and his skills to keep himself and his son alive in a decidedly dangerous world. Originally created by Hal Foster, and now written by Schultz and drawn by Gianni, these stories of the iconic knight errant are epic comic adventures. This collection of Sunday pages run from 2004 to 2008.
Item Code: PVA
Published at $19.99
On Sale! Save $9!
Your price: $10.95
     
LEONARD STARR'S MARY PERKINS ON STAGE Volume 10
This outstanding newspaper strip moves into the late sixties and early seventies, with the culture changes here reflecting the huge changes in the U.S. This is now 2/3's of the ways through this wildly popular, long-running strip. Mary is doing Shakespeare at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Constance Heath agrees to coach aging movie idol Liam Kildane, and the mysterious Tala returns. New introduction by Al Milgrom, and more!
Item Code: LE10
Your price: $24.95
   
THE ADVENTURES OF BUCK O'RUE
Writer Dick Huemer and artist Paul Murry took some time off from working on Disney animation, to create this long lost gem. It's a spoof of the then-current craze for westerns and cowboy heroes. It is a satisfying thick collection with lots of detail about both creators and how the strip came to be. This includes both dailies and Sunday pages. Murray worked on major Disney films including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Song of the South, plus countless shorts and cartoons before becoming a regular drawing Mickey Mouse in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.
Item Code: BUCKO
Your price: $29.95
     
WALT DISNEY'S UNCLE SCROOGE: Only a Poor Old Man
Uncle Scrooge is one of the great, enduring characters in the Disney universe, and this volume includes the earliest, classic 1950s Scrooge stories, including his first full-length adventure: "Only a Poor Old Man." And "Back to the Klondike," which reveals how Scrooge amassed his vast fortune in the frozen gold rush in Alaska, only to lose his true love! Plus much, much more in over 200 captivating pages by this multi-award-winning master of comics fun and adventure! Introduction by George Lucas, who says of this "A priceless part of our literary heritage."
Item Code: WDUSONLY
Published at $28.99
On Sale! Save $5!
Your price: $23.99    

THE COMPLETE LUNAR TUNES
No kid's comic, this contains the explicit musings of one of the fathers of the underground comix movement, and EC's most acclaimed artist. Favorite characters like Bucky (our space-explorer), Nudine, Pip, Snorky, Playboy bunnies, the Rolling Stones, Bogart, even Woody himself appear here. Wood combines the wit that made him a star at MAD with his far-out settings from Weird Science. The result is a hilarious comic excursion into hyperspace by a surreal parade of characters. This is the last comics work Wood did before he killed himself.
Item Code: LUNT
Your price: $9.95
THE ART OF JAMES HOTTINGER
From sexy witches that remind us of Dave Steven's work, to a lovely green wood nymph--naked, mostly--to warrior women, pirate girls, tomb raiders, a cute leather-bound vampire, mermaids, space girls. This is fun and sexy, too, not over-the-top but delightfully naughty. Everyone is having a good time, with all that delightful detail that makes each picture more realistic...and appealing.
Item Code: ARTJHO
Your price: $14.95



THE WORLD'S GREATEST EROTIC ART OF TODAY Vol 4
Check out the winners of the annual Erotic Art Contest with this amazing collection of daring, risqué artwork from around the world! While this includes lots of great photography, it's also loaded with illustration, mixed-media and sculpture, all celebrating the human sexual urge. These works are humorous, daring, expressive and just a little bit naughty.
Item Code: WOG04
Published at $39.95
On Sale! Save $7!
Your price: $32.95          

Click here to see all of our newest titles!