So I just received my truly awesome The Complete Far Side. Two volumes, 1250 pages, thirty pounds, 4300 Far Side comics, essays, and comments, all on very high quality paper. It isn’t perfect–the pages are oversized (9 x 13), but the comics haven’t been increased in size, which leaves a lot of dead space–but it’s as good a comic strip collection as has ever been produced. It’s worth every cent of the $95.00 I paid for it (2.2 cents per comic).
What other comic strips deserve this super deluxe treatment? What would you be willing to pay to own a complete collection of in high quality binding on glossy paper?
I’ll start with the obvious: Calvin and Hobbes. My wife would throw a fit if I were to spend another $100 on a set of “comic books”, but I’d actually be willing to sell some stuff to raise the dough for one of these. At four strips to a page, with Sundays getting a full page to themselves, the complete run of Calvin and Hobbes would take a set about the same size as The Comlete Far Side
My second nomination would be Bloom County. A relatively short run comic like The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, it might suffer from having too much topical humor, but I’d buy it.
Other great comics might be worthy of this treatment but have too much material to cover. I was going to suggest Pogo, but a complete run of Pogo would require roughly a four volume set coming in at twice the size of The Far Side. The comlete run of Al Capp’s Lil Abner (inlcuding only those by Capp himself) would take five or six volumes this size. We’d be looking at a MSRP of roughly $300 for a set that size, which all but the most hard-core would reject. Perhaps decade sets would work for long run comics.
I’d personally be willing to buy a complete Modesty Blaise (roughly 8000 dailies, no Sundays), which would require four volumes this size, but I suspect I’d be one of about a half-dozen in the US who’d buy this.
What strips would you like to see get The Complete . . . treatment?
I would definitely buy one as well. You’re right about the topical humor though… I’m pretty sure I’ve read an interview with Breathed in which he said that he didn’t feel the strip had aged well enough to put back into print.
There are plans to publish a full set of Peanuts, every single strip from all nearly-fifty years. Whether the plans amount to anything or not remains to be seen, of course.
It won’t be in one boxed set, of course. Still, if it comes to pass, it’s going to take up an impressive chunk of shelf space.
Fantagraphics Publishing recieved permission from the Schulz estate to compile the complete Peanuts, and they will. The first volume, covering 1950 to 1952, will be released on April 1, 2004, and I’m not foolin’. Two volumes will be released each year.
And it’s brilliant. There are biographical stories on Prohias regarding his exile from Cuba…tales of him berating the MAD staffers (including the ones who could speak Spanish) and various other cool stuff.
It sits proudly on my shelf. I think I’ll go read it again right now.
I’m debating whether I really want to get the Far Side collection. There would be no debate for a Calvin and Hobbes collection, even at double the price.
Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County would be my top choices as well. After that, I think the field drops a bit for me, but here are my picks:
Foxtrot is my favorite currently running strip. As a science teacher, I get a kick out of the strips involving physics homework or similar themes. (Bill Amend was a physics major)
Doonesbury, like Bloom County, is very topical and older strips might be terribly dated, but a collection would be a great way to look back at the politics and culture of yesterday.
Mother Goose and Grimm cracks me up pretty often. I might buy a collection of it, too.
Dan O’Neill’s Odd Bodkins. Though there are two collections extant, neither is complete. Nor do they include his work on the Dan O’Neill’s Comics and Stories, a short series of comic books with stories by O’Neill and others showing characters from Wlt Dsn*y’s empire doing various naughty no-no’s.check this site for more information.
But see, it’s not actually complete. It has all the MAD strips, but some that appeared only in Spy books have been left out. I was gravely disappointed to find that one of my favorites, which came from a book, was not in the “complete” collection.
