If you are a cartoon fan, you have probably encountered Fantagraphics Books, which reprint old comic strips, as well as old Disney comic books. Unfortunately, their collections are badly flawed, and I wish somebody else would handle them.
Strike One: Overall Unprofessionality
The main offender here is the Pogo series. The flap for Vol. 1 says it is "the best damn comic strip of all time." Then the "Swamp Talk" commentaries by R.C. Harvey cites literally Google and Wikipedia as the extent of his research. I am not kidding.
I am 21-years-old and a non-collegiate and I could do better...and have done better.
Strike Two: Unusual Schedules
They started the Pogo series in 2011, with one-a-year with twelve volumes. Volume Nine will be released next year. I can not find a reason why they have published these so sporadically. As for The Complete Carl Barks Library, they started with Christmas on Bear Mountain, Scrooge McDuck's first appearance, but as Vol. 5. To this day, there has been no Vols. 1-4. I can find no explanation for this.
For some reason, Barks (and Don Rosa, presumably) have their stories printed out of order in the collections. Again, there is no explanation for this, since there was never any continuity in the stories, all being ten-pagers.
Strike Three (You're Out!): Overpoliticized Commentaries
The current trend of today's America is to add politics to everything because the internet has created a brood of moralistic crusaders, blue-nosing their ideas into entertainment. Unfortunately, Presentism is applied too, so somehow the the past had Twentieth Century social axes to grind. For example, The George Herriman Library Vol. 2 has an essay arguing that he somehow applied CRT ideas in his strips--which is odd, considering that he had no political affiliations other than being "a pacifist" and never voted once in his life. Even though Herriman was a man of color masquerading as White, there is no sort of underlying racial commentary underneath that is definite, most especially not a hundred years ago. His only playtime with politics was his numerous jabs at Prohibition. His racial references are the typical stereotyping for African-Americans common then.
Additionally, Krazy and Ignatz were not black and white, as the Sundays reveal:
In the Carl Barks series, it made some claim that Uncle Scrooge somehow showed the evils of capitalism, or something, implying he would approve of Occupy Wall Street. (Apparently, "Carl Barks" translates to "Karl Marx".) Racial undertones are also implied by the contributors.
Maybe these contributors need to stop reading comics and get some fresh air, because in their boredom they have discovered the important allegories of Gyro Gearloose.
If you think I am only targeting the Far Left, I would be just as frustrated if it were Rush Limbaugh or Alex Jones forcing their ideologies on the past. It is stupid, one-sided, and irritating. Yes, people like Walt Kelly would parody politics, but at least it was the concerns and controversies of his day, not what people talk about now.
I have considered writing to Fantagraphics to request they stop this, but if they cared how people felt, they wouldn't be feeding me this bullcrap! I have also not bought their collection of Floyd Gottfriedson's Mickey Mouse comic strip (animals are my thing), and who knows what abuses are within its two covers.
Vol 4 of Carl Barks came out last month. Vol 3 is coming in July.
ReplyDeleteIf i remember, they started at 5 because they wanted to begin with the strongest stories first to hook consumers (Barks mentioned way back that his late 40s - 50s output was his best work). Cinebook does this with some of their Franco-Belgian titles.
Thanks for the info! Went to their site hundreds of times while writing and did not notice!
DeleteIf they started this weird numbering out of greed, sad.
I somehow missed this one, and have to say your analysis is pretty spot on.
ReplyDeleteYou think the "Pogo" collections have a spotty publication schedule, you should check out their "Barnaby" series--A planned five volume set, and after TEN years, they're only up to the FOURTH, and that came out in 2020! To be fair, however, Fancy Graphics did do a good job getting the "Peanuts" books out on time.
I would recommend obtaining the Gottfredson Mickey series ( too good to pass up) and only reading the strips while judiciously skimming the supplemental material. Yes, there's quite a bit of wokeism and leftist diatribes included in the essays, but after a volume or two, you'll know which researchers to avoid (As an aside, I know contributor Joe Torcivia pretty well having communicated with him for over a decade, and you can usually count on him for level-headed, knowledgeable commentary without the posturing and pretension).
I have the Gottfredson on my Christmas list. It seems like Torcivia was the only commentator I liked in Uncle Scrooge.
DeleteWah! Wah! Waaaaaaaaah!
ReplyDeleteYou sound like a pathetic egomaniac. Can you please site how've you "have done better" when all you do is post commentary in a childish tone without any self awareness as to how Fantagraphics, or the other organizations you've discussed, actually operate.
The unusual schedules is likely due to that their staff can only do so much at once, and more importantly, that research and gathering the best print sources isn't always the easiest task, and delays are never impossible.
If you have an issue with the commentary given, you can always just stick to reading the meat of each collection. You site the Herriman commentary; some of the racial stuff in his comics is so incredibly obvious that you'd have to be some conservative ostrich not to see it or want to discuss it, especially since it is important to know that despite being mixed race, scholars aren't certain whether or not Herriman saw himself as black
Since you evidently are an ostrich and dig your head in the sand, I expect no response, perfectly in character for someone who doesn't care
-WallCreeker
I cannot tell if this is a troll or not. But anyway, watch and be amazed and how I answer you totally civilly, since you didn't.
DeleteYou might be right about the schedules, but it has been years and years for these things, so something's wrong, especially since the same process is used for cartoon DVDs and they do yearly schedules.
For the commentaries statement, calling me "a conservative ostrich" is just ad hominum. Even if I were conservative, I don't understand how that is the equivilancy to evil, same as I wouldn't say the same for liberal. I have sprinklings of both. You must've missed I said I wouldn't want Alex Jones or Rush Limbaugh telling me their flag-waving bigoted Nationalism. Far Right and Left have no charms for me. These reprint collections are not the place to discuss political ideologies, since none of the people writing and drawing them were thinking of this. It reminds me of Orwell's warnings about rewriting history; now entertainment follows the party's ideologies all along.
Please cite some of the "incredibly obvious" Herriman moments.
That last paragraph by you was an attempt to make me angry and start blowing steam, but it didn't work. Who's "Waah"-ing now?!
To cut Fantagraphics some slack, everyone working there has good intentions and they have published several hundred incredible collections of comic strips. So they can be as late as they want on Barks and Kelly, because we all know they'll come out eventually and they'll be great when they do. (The Barks censorship is unfortunate, but again, a problem for which Fanta can't be blamed; Disney itself is making those calls.)
ReplyDeleteOne point that I'll argue severely is that there is no underlying theme of race in Herriman's strip. That's just plain false. Herriman came from a long line of abolitionists and activists, and spending his whole life hiding his true black identity from society, he definitely filtered his worries and anxieties into the strip. Just look to his earlier work ("Musical Mose" in particular) for blatant examples of this. I also suggest you read the excellent Herriman biography by Michael Tisserand for a good discussion of these theories and others. As Scott McCloud said in his seminal books (which I also suggest you read, whether or not you already have,) everyone's got something to say; it's just a matter of how we say it.
Furthermore, criticism, no matter how far-fetched it may seem on the surface, can ring true as long as it is sound and has a strong argument at its core. Take the numerous articles online about Thomas the Tank Engine reflecting a yearn for a stronger British imperialist policy. That sounded really dumb to me, but when I read the articles, it all clicked. Art only has meaning if we experience and discuss it, and it only continues to have meaning if we continue to experience and discuss it.
I'll agree with you on one point: that the Fanta analysis of Barks is largely off-the-mark. Barks, to again cite McCloud, was an artist who focused on ideas and purpose rather than form (ala Herriman,) so he didn't try to reinvent the wheel as much as he just wanted to tell stories and make you laugh at them. Herriman, focusing on form, didn't think like that. Which side of the spectrum is better? Neither. They're both awesome and allow for plenty of rich analysis. Just be careful which kind you choose and how you choose to convey it.
Howdy!
DeleteI revised some of my Herriman opinions here: https://thegoldenageofanimation.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-very-angry-fantagraphics-fan-leaves.html
The analysis of Thomas sounds a ridiculous as can be. It reminds me of the Lost Cause theory, where a bunch of things in American society are blamed on Confederate memorization, which is of course moronic. In some examples Elvis, Charlie Daniels, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars are accused of being proof "the South won the War." This sounds a lot like Fantagraphics.