Little Orphan Annie reprints about to begin

[Rob Allen]

This message was posted by Dean Mullaney on the comic-strip-classics group at Yahoo:


IDW is sending out the LOA press release this week, so I want to let the group know what's going to be in first books. Many of you were kind enough to share your opinions about where to start, color v. B&W, etc. Thanks to everyone.

I decided to start at the begininng because this is where Annie's personality is firmly established, and recurring characters such as the Silos, are introduced. While a fair amount of the early strips have seen print in one (poorly reproduced and incomplete) form or another, there's so much that HASN'T been seen. Volume 1 will contain the first three years, ending with "The Haunted House" 10/27. By my count, 646 dailies have been reprinted by C&L or Tony Raiola. My first book will have about 1014 strips, including the never-before-reprinted 1924 strips in which Annie escapes the orphanage and is "adopted" by "Daddy."$39.95 for three full years.

Volume 2 will also cover three years and contain roughly 960 strips, of which only 590 have seen reprinting. This will take us through the end of "Shipwrecked" 11/30.

Each book will contain 36-40% never-before-reprinted material, and I'm getting the strips from Gray's archives at Boston University so we'll have the absolute best reproduction. I'm leaving next week for the summer on Cape Cod and will spend a lot of time going through Gray's art and papers in Boston.

Where do go for volume 3? COLOR Sundays, I hear ya, folks! As far as I know, this'll be the first time LOA Sundays will be in color alongside the B&W dailies. It's still up in the air whether I'll continue directly after "Shipwrecked" or jump ahead to 1934-36.

If you're wondering how long the series can last, we're broadening our marketing outside the comics market. We're doing promotional tie-ins with the producers of the Annie musical, which is still performed regularly around the country, and will have a tie-in with next year's 30-anniversary soundtrack reissue. The more copies we sell, the longer the series lasts.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their two cents worth.

Finally, Terry vol. 1 is at the printer.

Dean

[Cei-U!]

I have three volumes of Fantagraphics' Little Orphan Annie collections I think are pretty darn nifty so I'm not sure why Dean finds it necessary to diss other editions to promote his own. I'm glad he's dedicated to putting out high quality collections of classic comic strips--and regardless what folks think of Clarence Grey's politics, he was a terrific storyteller--but that one note in the press release is a clunker.

Cei-U!
I summon the arf!

[einnor]

He was referring to the EARLY hodgepodge reprints of LOA that are out there (1924 -1930). You know, the stuff that these first two volumes will be reprinting. Not the later (1931 - 1935) Fantagraphics books. The first four of those five Fantagraphics books are great (the 1935 volume is all out-of-whack). Of those early years reprints... he's right. Much of it is badly done, and they sometimes skip relevant strips, etc. These first two volumes of Complete Annie will take care of that.

As a matter of fact, he is "considering" skipping over 1931 thru 1933 (the first three Fanta books), because there is no need to re-do something that was already well done (see paragraph five). So it is basically just the opposite of "dissing"... he really liked them!

Volume One is finally due out on June 11, so let's all go out and buy a copy, so this reprint series will continue! (No, I don't work for IDW... just an Annie fan!)

[Ryan K]

He was referring As a matter of fact, he is "considering" skipping over 1931 thru 1933 (the first three Fanta books), because there is no need to re-do something that was already well done (see paragraph five).

I would really prefer that they don't do that. For one I would like everything in one format, plus I don't own all of those Fantagraphics volumes and I don't relish the idea of hunting them down now (and I believe most of them are out of print). If they're going to publish the Complete Little Orphan Annie I want it to be complete.

That said, I am looking forward to volume 1. I don't know when the hell I'm gonna have time to read it. The classic reprint books are stacking up at a rapid pace at my house. But I don't mind buying these with an eye towards the future.

[WW Doctor]

I would really prefer that they don't do that. For one I would like everything in one format, plus I don't own all of those Fantagraphics volumes and I don't relish the idea of hunting them down now (and I believe most of them are out of print). If they're going to publish the Complete Little Orphan Annie I want it to be complete.

I agree with you on this point. The first two Fantagraphics volumes (1931 and 1932) are very difficult to find, and very expensive if you are lucky to find a copy. And really, if were doing three years a volume, we're really only talking about one volume and we'll be at 1934 anyway.

I just picked up my copy of Volume One yesterday, and read the introductary text pieces by Dean Mullaney and Jeet Heer. I like the fact that the book is broken up into chapters, something I kind of wish they were doing with the Dick Tracy series in particular. Looking forward to digging into the strips.

[Nakomah]

So it has finally been released? I actually ordered this from Amazon and can't wait but would like a review please!

[WW Doctor]

So it has finally been released? I actually ordered this from Amazon and can't wait but would like a review please!

Yes, the first volume was released this week, picked it up from my comic shop on Wednesday. While I have yet to read through the entire book, I'm most impressed with the collection so far. It reprints the dailies from 1924 to 1927, but also includes a few Sundays as well. In particular, the Sundays that actually were a part of the strip's continuity are included, though in a separate section at the beginning.

Breaking the strips into chapters is helpful, something that wasn't done in either the Dick Tracy or Terry collections, as chapters are natural breaks between reading sessions. And this is a big book, there's no way you'll get through it all in one reading session.

The reprint quality is excellent, on a par with the Terry and Tracy collections.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with this when you get it, I'm thoroughly enjoying my copy.

[Nakomah]

Thank you for the review but did you say the sundays are contained in a seperate section? Is this like with the terry books and done for the sake of continuity (The sundays were a different story) or some weird random thought process?

[WW Doctor]

Thank you for the review but did you say the sundays are contained in a seperate section? Is this like with the terry books and done for the sake of continuity (The sundays were a different story) or some weird random thought process?

I probably wasn't quite clear, the Annie book reprints the daily strips, almost without exception. If you're expecting something along the line of the Terry books, you'll probably be disappointed.

There are only 12 Sundays included in the book, the very first Annie Sunday, three stand-alone Sundays and eight Sundays that were a part of the daily continuity. These are all printed at the beginning of the book. A note appears in the margins when reading the dailies letting a person know when one has to flip to the front of the book to read the Sunday. Flipping to the front of the book can be a pain, but I suppose this was done so the Sundays could be reproduced in color, rather than black and white.

Why so few Sundays? Well, in the early years of the strip the Sundays were generally stand-alone gags and not part of the daily continuity, with those few notable exceptions included in the book.

My guess is that if sales are good for the Annie daily reprints, we'll see a Sunday volume sometime down the road.

[Ryan K]

I probably wasn't quite clear, the Annie book reprints the daily strips, almost without exception. If you're expecting something along the line of the Terry books, you'll probably be disappointed.

There are only 12 Sundays included in the book, the very first Annie Sunday, three stand-alone Sundays and eight Sundays that were a part of the daily continuity. These are all printed at the beginning of the book. A note appears in the margins when reading the dailies letting a person know when one has to flip to the front of the book to read the Sunday. Flipping to the front of the book can be a pain, but I suppose this was done so the Sundays could be reproduced in color, rather than black and white.

Why so few Sundays? Well, in the early years of the strip the Sundays were generally stand-alone gags and not part of the daily continuity, with those few notable exceptions included in the book.

My guess is that if sales are good for the Annie daily reprints, we'll see a Sunday volume sometime down the road.

Wow. That sounds . . . kinda terrible.

I've been very impressed with IDW's Complete Dick Tracy and Complete Terry and the Pirates, so this is very surprising to hear these things. Black and white pages mixed with color pages hasn't been a problem in those books. And I hate the idea of skipping Sundays just here and there in a book called the Complete Little Orphan Annie.

At $40 a pop, I think I'll just skip these.

[WW Doctor]

Wow. That sounds . . . kinda terrible.

I've been very impressed with IDW's Complete Dick Tracy and Complete Terry and the Pirates, so this is very surprising to hear these things. Black and white pages mixed with color pages hasn't been a problem in those books. And I hate the idea of skipping Sundays just here and there in a book called the Complete Little Orphan Annie.

At $40 a pop, I think I'll just skip these.

Well, to be fair to IDW, the book does state on the dust jacket: "The Complete Daily Comics", not the Complete Little Orphan Annie.

The good news is since the Sundays were normally not part of the continuity, you're not missing any of the story by not including the Sunday strips. Drawn and Quarterly is doing much the same thing with Gasoline Alley (under the title Walt and Skeezix), only reprinting the dailies and skipping the non-continuity Sundays.

However, I do have hope that if sales of Annie are good that we'll see a Sunday volume as well. Walt and Skeezix has already had a Sunday volume released, so obviously sales of the daily volumes were good enough to support a Sunday volume. And I think that Annie will sell better than Walt and Skeezix, as it is a higher profile property.

[Ryan K]

Well, to be fair to IDW, the book does state on the dust jacket: "The Complete Daily Comics", not the Complete Little Orphan Annie.

The good news is since the Sundays were normally not part of the continuity, you're not missing any of the story by not including the Sunday strips. Drawn and Quarterly is doing much the same thing with Gasoline Alley (under the title Walt and Skeezix), only reprinting the dailies and skipping the non-continuity Sundays.

However, I do have hope that if sales of Annie are good that we'll see a Sunday volume as well. Walt and Skeezix has already had a Sunday volume released, so obviously sales of the daily volumes were good enough to support a Sunday volume. And I think that Annie will sell better than Walt and Skeezix, as it is a higher profile property.

I just think if you're going to reprint some Sundays in there, reprint them all. Walt and Skeezix works for me because the Sundays were never part of the continuity and had a distinct format and approach. They're my favorite books being published at the moment and everyday I hope D&Q will release a Complete Sundays series for Gasoline Alley rather than the $95 "Best Of" book you refer to (which I just couldn't bring myself to splurge on).

I enjoy seeing the growth of the artist in these books and skipping non-continuity Sundays and placing other Sundays in a seperate section of the book seems like an unnecessary distraction to me. It's not the worst thing in the world. But with so many strip reprint books on the market (and more coming soon) it does make me think twice about plopping down $40 a book on a new series of reprints.

[Nakomah]

I understand now but have to agree in that either print all of the strips or do not print them at all not to mention printing them in order (placed in the book in the right place) Oh well, I will just have to wait until Amazon sends this to me to see for myself.

[einnor]

Did anyone else notice the "jump" on page 76 ? It looks like the 12-21-24 Sunday strip was part of the continuity, but was not included. (And maybe Dec 28 ?)

I really wish now that they would have just included all the Sundays with all the dailies, even if they are done in b&w. That would have been better than skipping most Sundays, including only those that (they thought) mattered, and in a different section! And then later start including them in volume 3, but only reprinting HALF the total number of strips! It will take FOREVER, just to make it to 1950 !

I wish the Peanuts Sundays were in color, but that reprint series is better than the hodge-podge Sunday method being done here. Especially if they miss some, like in Volume 1.

Oh well, it's not the end of the world.

One last thing: C'mon IDW !! Add an Annie page to your site!!

[WW Doctor]

Did anyone else notice the "jump" on page 76 ? It looks like the 12-21-24 Sunday strip was part of the continuity, but was not included. (And maybe Dec 28 ?)

I really wish now that they would have just included all the Sundays with all the dailies, even if they are done in b&w. That would have been better than skipping most Sundays, including only those that (they thought) mattered, and in a different section! And then later start including them in volume 3, but only reprinting HALF the total number of strips! It will take FOREVER, just to make it to 1950 !

I wish the Peanuts Sundays were in color, but that reprint series is better than the hodge-podge Sunday method being done here. Especially if they miss some, like in Volume 1.

Oh well, it's not the end of the world.

One last thing: C'mon IDW !! Add an Annie page to your site!!

I noticed the skip while reading through the story. It does make one wonder why they included some of the Sundays that were part of the continuity and not others.

Like you, I think I would have preferred they just include everything, both the dailies as well as the Sundays, even if the Sundays had been in black and white.

I'll still be picking up Volume 2 (and other volumes as well) but I'm hoping that the book will be a bit less edited (if it's a continuity Sunday, it needs to be included...)

[Ryan K]

Well thankfully it looks like they've decided not to skip the era already reprinted by Fantagraphics. This cover for Volume 3 indicates 1931 will be reprinted.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w149/ryankirk80/51kWzIrlpXL_SS500_.jpg

Thank god.

I did break down and pick up Volume 1 eventually, but it's sitting on a stack of books (that includes IDW's Scorchy Smith) still need to be cracked open.

This cover does put more faith in the project though and I think I'll pick up Volume 2 when it's released now.