One day I had to go to the library to get a book from my 7th grade reading list and I saw this huge book of comics and I just had to take it out. I read it probably 100 times .It became my favorite book.My favorite comics were Popeye, Gasoline Alley, The Smythes,and Krazy Kat. I love this book and you will to. So my advice to you is if you love comics you will love this book!

I've always been a huge comic strip fan going back to the days when my dad was the press foreman and he let me (as a little kid) watch the "Sunday Funnies" get printed. Awesome! Fast forward to my high school years. I was bored and killing study hall time in the library when I stumbled upon this book.

The book is broken down by period going back to the first comic strips and working their way up to the early 70's. There's some text where the authors write to explain the different styles or comment on various strips but the real gem here are all of the comic strip samples in this book. Some strips (like Mickey Mouse) get many pages as they tell a whole story. Others don't get but a single sample strip, especially strips after the 1950's.

I love this book and will break it out from time-to-time just to read all of the classic strips like "Yellow Kid", "Buster Brown", "Katzenjammer Kids", "Mutt and Jeff", "Little Nemo in Slumberland", "Thimble Theater", "Mickey Mouse", "Krazy Kat", and many, many more.

It's a shame this book hasn't been re-published with new sections to include modern classics but oh well. If you can find it, it's well worth having!

Growing up in the 60s & 70s, I wasn't much enamored of comic strips appearing in the newspaper with a scant few exceptions. Newspaper comics were awfully stale if not comatose at the time; they smell even worse now. In light of this reality, thank God I found this book 20 years ago. To me, this mammoth oversized anthology of color and b/w strips (mostly vintage 1895-1950) was and is an education, a revelation and a door to a separate reality. Who knew that such fully realized, utterly compelling and unique works of art were once commonplace features in our daily and Sunday newspapers? Compiler Bill Blackbeard provides minimal but insightful commentary, which only underscores his good taste as the majority of SMITHSONIAN is devoted to the actual comics themselves. Wherever possible, he provides continuities of strips to give the reader not only a fuller flavor of the individual storylines and the era they appeared in, but each strip's particular dynamic with its audience. What's also impressive is the sheer number of titles sampled. Among the weightier excerpts are Popeye, Moon Mullins, Wash Tubbs/Capt. Easy, Barney Google, Polly and her Pals, Krazy Kat...but many of the lightly-skimmed properties are just as good. Set aside their enormous entertainment value and what you may find most impressive is how starkly individual each strip creator is; what ends up on the page is the sum total of one man's creative & emotional being, distorted through a prism of fantasy or slapstick or melodrama. Your net gain as reader: 336 pages of the kind of joyous, crazy, all-elbows-and-graceful-despite-it art that can only emerge from forms that the Arbiters of Taste don't take very seriously. Splendid as this book is the first time 'round, it continues to enrich you, always revealing more with every subsequent re-reading. Out of print for a while but readily available through the online auction services; I also hear it's being reissued soon. By the way, the other mandatory strip anthologies are the 'sequel' to this one (COMIC STRIP CENTURY), an important predecessor (Robinson's THE COMICS) and the entire run of Rick Marschall's NEMO magazine; happily, there is next to no duplication of strips reprinted between all of them (apparently the archivist's code of honor). If this book floors you like it did me, seek them out and flabbergast further.

This is a charming collection of early 20th century comics by Lionel Feininger. His colorful drawings are enrapturing: he has a great sense of design and ability to create characters. The Kinder Kids escape their elders and embark on fantastical adventures, Wee Willie Winkie sees the world through the imaginitive eyes of a child. These comics are very funny and magical.

If anyone out there recalls a magnificent comic-strip anthology called THE SMITHSONIAN COLLECTION OF NEWSPAPER COMICS...well, consider this the unofficial sequel. (Both were compiled by Bill Blackbeard.) Though the 2 books in this set are both 9x12, the dailies and Sundays still needed to be reduced in size to fit the page, resulting in teeny-tiny lettering...and that's the only possible quibble anyone could have over these lush, lavish, color-drenched volumes which use all of our vaunted Modern Technology to achieve glorious reproduction quality on a half-century's worth of the greatest works of this woefully-unappreciated medium: it's a staggering, colossal achievement. Reading these, one is continually delighted if not astounded less by the individual artists' narrative and rendering skills (which is considerable) than by the unbound, unfettered, totally free rein of invention and imagination our daily newspapers once contained on the comics page. COMIC STRIP CENTURY features all the giants (Segar, Caniff, Capp, King, McCay, Outcault, Willard, etc) as well as continuities of many brilliant-but-neglected strips like 'Minute Movies', 'Heiji' and 'The Bungle Family'. How I envy the Gen-X reader who picks up these books and discovers this unforgettable universe for the first time...he or she will never be satisfied with 'Dilbert' or 'The Lockhorns' again! Highest recommendation.

If you have never read George Herriman's masterpiece--one of the few comic strips I would label as such, and it's creator: a genius--I would NOT suggest this one. Buy "Krazy Kat: the komic art of George Herriman" instead. I say this only because Mr. Herriman's style changes so dramatically throughout his tenure on Krazy Kat, that this can only give you a very incomplete impression of his work and, truthfully, I can't say very much for this particular impression. It is not George's fault, either. At this time a certain visual structure was imposed on his work by William Randolph Hearst--a fan himself of our author/cartoonist--that limits the VISUAL creativity of the strip. Some critics have suggested that this period is where the SOUL of the Krazy Kat strip was first truly refined; where the relationship between Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pupp begins to be fully realized. That may be. The writing is as good as it ever was. But the uniformity of the art and visual structure--all panels are of uniform size, shape, and number (though not at the very beginning of the book)--make the material seem redundant. Especially when reading one after the other in the same sitting.
I love this strip and I respect George Herriman as an artist. If you already have a taste for Krazy Kat--and are longing for more material to be continuously reprinted (as I am)--this is a purchase you should be making without me telling you. Otherwise, you had better get a taste for this particular work before you delve into this chapter of its development. Or try back in a book or two.

Every man, woman, and child should own a complete set of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, but that's currently impossible cos so much of it is out of print (or has never been reprinted). Thanks for getting this thing started again, Fantagraphics, and hopefully you'll get the financial support to see this thing through.

If you know nothing of Krazy and Ignatz, I can only invite you to slide into their surreal world. Words won't do it justice. Krazy is yin, Ignatz is yang. You figure it out.

Wow. There is justice in the world. After Eclipse stopped their "Kompleat Krazy Kat" series I feared that no publisher would dare take up the cause for a loooooooong time. I'm having spasms of joy over the continuation of the series. There was indeed no comic (even the best ones) that came close to the subtlety, detail, and substance of Krazy Kat. The irreconcilable love triangle between Krazy, Ignatz, and Offica Pupp provided enough material for decades of brutally good material. These volumes also carry on Eclipse's tradition of good and helpful notes at the book's end to elucidate anachronisms that will inevitably arise in nearly anything approaching a century in age.

More good news is Fantagraphic's pledge (near the end of this book) that once they complete the Krazy Kat cycle (kompleat with the kompleat Kolor Komiks in full Kolor), they will go back and republish the years covered by the Eclipse volumes! I was never able to find all 9 volumes, and those that appear on E-bay tend to get VERY pricey ...

This is good news for all of the Kat's devoted followers. May Fantagraphics march on.

This Taschen book adequately reprints the first run of Winsor McCay's seminal comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. Little Nemo is a 9-year old who drifts off to sleep each night only to be transported to Slumberland, a hallucinogenic world of circus performers, royal court attendants, exotic personages of all stripe, and animals both tame and wild. I loved looking at these strips as a child, but I didn't understand them until much later.

McCay worked on an epic scale. Each strip ran to dozens of dialog baloons and hundreds of clearly rendered people and things, and often involved a half dozen characters or more. The most notable denizen of Slumberland other than Nemo is Flip, Nemo's arch-nemesis, who is set on nothing more than casting Nemo out of Slumberland by tricking him into waking up. The stories are scary in the amorphous manner of dreams -- characters grow large and walk over cities, or so small they are dwarfed by raspberries, inducing a dreamlike sence of vertigo and plasticity. Another recurring dream-like theme is flight, effected by baloons, stars, giant dragonflies or even Nemo's own out-of-control bed.

The strips, originally filling a 15x23 inch newspaper page, are perhaps the most intricate and well rendered comics ever to be produced. At just over 12 inches tall, these reproductions are disappointingly small. And although the text is clear, it is tiny. Each panel is exquisitely composed and could stand on its own as a compelling work of graphic art, drawn with a beautiful art nouveau line and a rainbow pastel palette that makes one wonder what they knew about printing comics in 1905 that's been since forgotten. Although numbered for readers at the time, McKay's control of flow leaves no doubt as to the order of panels in the mind of the modern comic entusiast; he would routinely stretch time and space, and think nothing of propelling action from one panel to the next -- tricks in the bag of every modern comic artist. (As an aside, Scott McCloud's book "Understanding Comics" is a most excellent treatise on comic book art in general and page flow in particular.)

If you know of Little Nemo, but do not have this collection, go for it. Anyone that appreciates well drawn and written Sunday comics should try LN. Come on gang, become a Nemoite!!

Paging through this book is a completely humbling experience. Today, anyone with even a modicum of Photoshop chops can wow the folks back home with glitzy effects or totally synthesized environments and interfaces. (--Not that that is entirely a bad thing.) But long before computers, Winsor McCay was making vivid, fevered, fully realized jaw-dropping dreams with india ink, brush and a scratch pen. (Leave it to the psychedelic 60s to rediscover this trippy gem of the comics.) And it isn't just the narrative content, as singular as that is, that begs our attention: Even in an age of artists like J. C. Coll, Franklin Booth, Willy Pogany, Charles Dana Gibson, Rose O'Neill and other masters of illustration, Winsor McCay was a titanic genius.

The obsessive level of McCay's detail cries out for a larger sized reproduction of these great Sunday Pages. But for the price, this collection is unbeatable.

I'm a long time fan to Herriman work. When I find a new book with his drawings I go get it that instant. I got this and had a great shock!!! This is a b/w book that does not show all the greatness of Herriman art. Herriman used colors, shapes and shades at such a great level that you should try to find a book that will do him justice.

Regarding the review below: Sunday Krazy Kat strips were not printed in color until 1934, so the strips in this volume (which covers the period from 1927 to 1928) are presented as they were originally published. While there are many pre-1934 strips that were hand-colored by Herriman, they were intended to be personal gifts to fellow cartoonists and not for publication.

Comics do not get much better than Krazy Kat. These new editions have brought me out of mourning for the Eclipse series (the single volumes of which sometimes go for $100+ on e-bay). Plus, these are great looking books and each one is filled with extra info and photographs in the introduction and some cool tidbit in the back (this one has a picture of a wooden Ignatz doll complete with box from the 1920s).

Krazy Kat can be classified as art, but hopefully it won't be classified TOO MUCH as art, because it can be appreciated on many levels as well as an artistic one. Krazy's worst fate would be to end up as solely a museum piece for aficionados. Krazy doesn't belong in a museum, he/she belongs in books; which is what makes this series so great. I just wish they could print all of them at once.

Krazy Kat works by means of the tension of 3 forces: innocence, evil, and justice. Krazy is the ultimate innocent who, when Offissa Pup pummels Ignatz with his club, merely says "Those two play so well togedda." Ignatz is evil and maybe obsession. His grand purpose in life is to "bean" Krazy with bricks. He sometimes goes to Rube Goldberg extremes to succeed. Offissa Pup is justice which is sometimes just, sometimes political, sometimes personal. In an old daily strip, Offissa Pup grabs Ignatz and says "To the jail, viper!" When Ignatz replies "Why?" Offissa Pup only says "Because it gives me pleasure." Things get more complex because Krazy loves Ignatz and Offissa Pup often insinuates that he loves Krazy. A futile love triangle and battle of good, evil, and justice gets mixed up in a strange salad.

It is simply one of the best comics ever produced.

Collecting the complete color comics from 1934-1936, this volume even includes the earliest strips featuring actress Helen Kane, the Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl. While Fleischer dropped the Kane conceit relatively quickly, the strip's Hollywood elements continued. Despite the Koko the Clown "Out of the Inkwell" anomaly, the storyline is relatively continuous, portraying page-long parables touching on fashion faux pas, affectionate appraisals, the foibles of fandom, liberated women, and challenging children. The recurring characters of the director, Aunt Tilly, Hunky, and Bubby contribute some consistency, but for the most part, the strip's cameo characters -- including Betty's many love interests, pretty boys all -- are relatively interchangeable. Bill Blackbeard's introductory essay adds some valuable cultural context to what might otherwise be mistaken as a one-joke wonder or Hollywood licensing deal, making the book a solid source of comic strip history.

...

If you are a fan of Holmes or even a fan of classic newspaper comic strips, this book is for you. I received from a playwright who is mentioned in the book and I ended up becoming a collector of vintage comic strips! It seems that the author reprinted a number of vintage works like Krazy Kat.