# Is this description misleading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [November 30, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820 "2020-11-30T15:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/1 "2020-11-30T15:45:03Z")
I’m a sucker for reprints of ancient newspaper comic strips. I got a little excited when I saw this description of a Krazy Kat book: “This new deluxe hardcover collects full-sized Sunday newspaper comics from 1919 through 1921 in a handsome archival collection.” Full-sized Sunday pages! That should be huge, like a book of posters! Then I read on and find the book is 11.4 x 0.9 x 13.8 inches. In what world is 11.4 x 13.8 a full-sized newspaper page? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/2 "2020-11-30T15:47:25Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > “This new deluxe hardcover collects full-sized Sunday newspaper comics from 1919 through 1921 in a handsome archival collection.” - That doesn’t say they’re _printed_ at full size. Buy a magnifier. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/3 "2020-11-30T15:55:34Z")
Are they, perhaps, spread across two pages to show the original 14x17 dimensions? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/4 "2020-11-30T16:01:34Z")
No, thank God. That would have been terrible. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/5 "2020-11-30T18:53:15Z")
I doubt they printed a single comic on a Sunday page. Newspaper sizes were traditionally 15" wide, so given margins, 13.8" would be a reasonable width. Length was 22", so 11.4 also makes sense if two comics were on a page. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/6 "2020-11-30T18:58:55Z")
They did devote full pages to Sunday strips. Little Nemo is a good example. Thimble Theater and Krazy were, for a while, full pages. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/7 "2020-11-30T20:07:51Z")
Other Krazy Kat collections that more precisely advertise original size are 14x17. The newspaper pages were 16x22 leaving room for margins and a header. [https://sundaypressbooks.com/kkbook.php](https://sundaypressbooks.com/kkbook.php) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/8 "2020-11-30T20:38:58Z")
Huh. Coincidentally, I just bought a book of reprints of Little Nemo in Slumberland comics. The cover says “302 full-page weekly comic strips”. The book is 8.5" x 11" and the images are about 7" x 9.5". They did say full-page rather than full sized, so I don’t think this is terribly misleading, and the Amazon listing did show the actual size of the book. I do find myself using a magnifying glass on some of those pages. I’d say the “full sized” description on the Krazy Kat book is indeed somewhat misleading. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/9 "2020-11-30T20:44:24Z")
Seems like shrunken Nemos would be almost unreadable. Like when Winsor (in contrast to the virtuosity of his art) would pretend to miscalculate how much space his word balloons needed and cram in a bunch of text at the end. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/10 "2020-12-01T14:01:28Z")
Since the OP didn’t link to whatever they found we can’t be too sure. Perhaps what they meant was it was a book of individual Krazy Kat cartoons at their full size as printed in the Sunday comics. So each book page has 2 or 3 episodes of Krazy Kat; each printed at full size of 9-ish inches wide by 3-ish inches tall. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/11 "2020-12-01T14:03:07Z")
> **[Amazon.com: The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1919-1921:...](https://www.amazon.com/George-Herriman-Library-Ignatz-1919-1921/dp/1683963679)** > > Amazon.com: The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1919-1921: 9781683963677: Herriman, George, Blackbeard, Bill: Books ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/12 "2020-12-01T15:02:31Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > They did devote full pages to Sunday strips. Not necessarily the entire page, though. Viz. the Chicago Examiner from April 30, 1916. Krazy Kat takes up maybe 3/4 of a page: > **[Chicago Examiner Vol. 16 no. 44](https://cdm16818.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/examiner/id/73277/rec/609)** ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-description-misleading/926820/13 "2020-12-01T16:38:31Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Seems like shrunken Nemos would be almost unreadable. Like when Winsor (in contrast to the virtuosity of his art) would pretend to miscalculate how much space his word balloons needed and cram in a bunch of text at the end. There are certainly some parts that require a magnifying glass. Interestingly, there are some parts where the text is hard to read because the text is so small that the half-tone dots interfere with the letter forms. This makes me think the text was probably hard to read even in the original newspaper prints.