Comics UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1606994964/r ... 3G.1EYSP2Z

I've just bought: 'Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vols.1&2' by Floyd Gottfredson for £25

Anyone fans of this strip...own these books...

.I have a Mickey mouse book But these are very small sized reprints and in badly done colour...so can't wait for these proper books and also new stories I've not read before..

Yes, Peter. I'm working my way through Volume 4 from the second box set (I got mine from the Foyles website.) They're fantastic. Brilliant artwork, and lots of features and extra strips at the back. I'm sure you'll love them.

Peter Gray wrote:http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1606994964/r ... 3G.1EYSP2Z

I've just bought: 'Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vols.1&2' by Floyd Gottfredson for £25

Anyone fans of this strip...own these books...

You're in for a treat Peter. I don't have those books but I've read Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse strips in other books and they're great comedy-adventure strips, really well illustrated. The daily strips don't need the addition of colour as they were drawn for black and white and work perfectly well that way. Fantagraphics produce some excellent books and take care with the design and production values so you'll enjoy them I think.

Was looking at other books they do and saw some Steve D (Spider-man) whose early work is very out of this world even before...with floating eyes etc...anyone have any of these volumes...or other books by the company?

For more Disney delights, I strongly recommend their (Fantagraphics) Carl Barks Duck books, Peter - Donald Duck: 'Lost in the Andes' and 'A Christmas For Shacktown' (there's also a third one I haven't got yet: 'The Old Castle's Secret'), and Uncle Scrooge:'Only a Poor Old Man.'

They have great production values and are beautiful books - some of the best humour comics ever; sheer class. They're '40s and '50s reprints, with over 200 pages of full colour comic strips each, and extensive articles at the back. Barks really brings the world of Duckburg to life, though the characters often go off on exotic adventures abroad. These volumes start off with some of Barks's peak period work.

Again, I got these from the Foyles site, about £15 each, with the best, most secure packing you could hope for - they arrive in mint condition!

Another great Fantagraphics series is The Complete Peanuts, reprinting every strip from 1950 onwards (first volume is 1950-1952). The strips remain just as funny into the 1980s. The UK editions from Canongate seem to be exact reproductions of the Fantagraphics books.

An acquired taste, perhaps (quite a weird strip!), but I'm also fond of their Popeye by E. C. Segar series, big volumes reprinting the black and white daily and Sunday colour Popeye strips from the late 1920s onwards.

Peter Gray wrote:Was looking at other books they do and saw some Steve D (Spider-man) whose early work is very out of this world even before...with floating eyes etc...anyone have any of these volumes...or other books by the company?

Yes, I have the three Fantagraphics Ditko books. Excellent way to see Steve Ditko's artwork develop. (Some of the scripts are a bit lame but they're worth it for the artwork.)

Yoe Books are another company that produce excellent archive books:

http://www.yoebooks.com/

Fantastic artist, and I was deeply chuffed after a total stranger described my own cartoons as 'similar in style to Gottfredson' in an online comment---I don't rate myself nearly in the same class, naturally.

Gottfredson is a great artist. I'd like to buy the books but £35 + international postage is more money than I have. Maybe the library will order them in though...

George Shiers wrote:Gottfredson is a great artist. I'd like to buy the books but £35 + international postage is more money than I have. Maybe the library will order them in though...

It's usually around £25 for two volumes in a slipcase, but you can buy the separate volumes individually, of course (though, over here, it's massive savings to buy the slipcase double sets). If you have a local comics shop that sells US Fantagraphics stuff, it may be worth checking if they're able to stock them.

Have you seen the Carl Barks duck material, George and ISPY?

It's usually around £25 for two volumes in a slipcase, but you can buy the separate volumes individually, of course (though, over here, it's massive savings to buy the slipcase double sets). If you have a local comics shop that sells US Fantagraphics stuff, it may be worth checking if they're able to stock them.

I'll take a look when I'm in the area, and that'll probably be when the second issue of Faction comes out.

Have you seen the Carl Barks duck material, George and ISPY?

I have - also great stuff. I particularly like the way he often showed Scrooge swimming in all his money!

Raven wrote:They're fantastic. Brilliant artwork, and lots of features and extra strips at the back. I'm sure you'll love them.

Thanks very much—on behalf of Fantagraphics and myself! (Series editor here...)

Let it be said, right here in ComicsUK (where someone will actually appreciate it!)—beyond Gottfredson, I would absolutely kill to do a major reprint of Wilfred Haughton's MICKEY MOUSE WEEKLY and MICKEY MOUSE ANNUAL material. Unfortunately, I've found that they're an incredibly hard sell on my side of the pond.
In lieu of an actual project themed around them, I did get a feature on Haughton into our third Fantagraphics Gottfredson volume... and years ago, I managed to reprint some Haughton items in this book as well (with animation-style color added, that time—who knows what you'll think...).

I have just put a slipcase set of the Carl Barks Donald Duck books on eBay 331001273199

I love the Mickey Mouse Weekly covers...
I will when I've got time do a feature on my issue I've got.. 10th April 1937..
what is amazing is the mickeyish character is wearing a Mickey Mouse gas mask!! Very early...before World War 2..1939

Also Mickey is playing Cricket!

Got my book today and its very smart looking and lots to read...great for the holiday coming up.

Did you read both of those, Peter - what did you think?

I've just received the double volume set of Gottfredson's 'Mickey Mouse Color Sundays', collecting the big, full colour Sunday strips, and it's lovely, with lots of supplemental material. Same price as the black and whites.

Demonstration of the Color Sundays books here:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-sho ... l?vmcchk=1

(Scroll down a little.)