By Torsten Adair

The following is a selection of new comic strip titles due to be published this Fall 2010. This list is not comprehensive, as there are over 200 books about comic strips scheduled from September to December. These are just the titles which caught my eye. Although you are welcome to debate the definition of “comic strip” in the comments, for my purposes I’m including single-panel cartoons as well as books about comic strips in this list.

If you would like to browse forthcoming comic strip books at your leisure, click here. Instead, I have selected titles which caught my interest. These are not necessarily titles I will purchase, but which I will definitely look at once they arrive at my local comics shop or bookstore.

Also, there are many new volumes of some amazing strips which are part of ongoing series (Peanuts, Popeye, Krazy Kat), but which I’ve omitted below. Either readers already know about these collections, or a curious search will find them. I’m not slighting any strip… one man’s Cathy is another woman’s Gil Thorp, and everyone has his or her favorite. Feel free to use the comments to draw attention to any new comic strip collection you feel deserves more attention.

Please be advised that publication dates are not set in stone, titles may change, and covers may be altered. Also, your local comics shop might receive copies before your local neighborhood website or library. Links connected to publishers will link to the publisher’s website, sometimes to the exact title. Links for the ISBN-13 (also known as the Bookland EAN) will take you to the title as featured on BarnesAndNoble.com . I consider my tastes to be rather eclectic. If you feel I’ve neglected or slighted a title, publisher, or creator, please feel free to mention it in the comments below. Yes, you may promote your own work, but please include the ISBN for easy searching (and shopping!)

I will post the October list later this month. I will also be posting specific subject lists (such as this one), but these will not have a set schedule.

Disclaimer: I am employed by Barnes & Noble. This and any other posts by me have no official connection to B&N. Neither I or Heidi MacDonald receive any remuneration from linking to barnesandnoble.com . As always, feel free to send us your PR. Even better, send us some free books!


xkcd: volume 0 by Randall Munroe


Shapes & Colors: A Cul de Sac Collection by Richard Thompson


The Best of FoxTrot by Bill Amend


Doonesbury and the Art of G. B. Trudeau by Brian Walker


40: A Doonesbury Retrospective by G. B. Trudeau


MAD’s Greatest Artists: Sergio Aragones: Five Decades of His Finest Works by Sergio Aragones, Patrick McDonnell (Foreword by)


Not Just Another Sweetheart Deal: A Collection of Rose is Rose Comics by Pat Brady, Don Wimmer


Careless Talk Costs Lives: Fougasse & the Art of Public Information by James Taylor


How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels by Paul Karasik, Mark Newgarden


Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942-1945 by Ernie Bushmiller


Pogo: The Complete Comic Strips, Volume 1: “Through the Wild Blue Wonder” by Walt Kelly, Jeff Smith (Designed by)


Rude Britannia: From Hogarth to Now by Martin Myrone, Tim Batchelor (Contribution by), Cedar Lewisohn (Contribution by)

[A brief editorial note: This was a recent exhibition at the Tate Britain art gallery. They offer a multitude of merchandise in conjunction with this exhibit, of which the above is the exhibition catalog.]


1 COMMENT

  1. I’m glad the Sergio Aragones book is in a more affordable format. The Don Martin collection is beautiful, but has such limited appeal at its $150 cover price that even hardcore fans that wanted it (like me) had to wait until it was on clearance from B&N. To justify spending $150 on any book, I’d have to want to read it all the time, but there are way too many other good books to read, too.

    I’d rather have more money to spend on additional books with high-quality content, even if the format quality has to be sacrificed to lower the price. Heck, I’ve got 25-year-old trade paperbacks that have held up just fine!

  2. Tim, the Don Martin two-volume set sold HORRIBLY (from my empirical evidence). Running Press tried to reproduce the success of Andrews McMeel’s Calvin and Far Side collections. Instead, you can pick up a remaindered set on BN.com for about $25 (9781615573332). (Either there is a huge inventory, or it’s not selling at that price either, as it’s been listed at that price for MONTHS.)

    Given the market for books in general, publishers would do better to follow the design of the Complete New Yorker Cartoon collection. One volume of the “best of” with a DVD in back containing every single cartoon, with a robust search engine. The problem with these huge omnibus editions is that they are hard to reprint on a fast turn-around schedule. If you underestimate demand, you lose holiday sales. If you overestimate, you lose money.

    I love Sergio’s work, but I don’t think a huge omnibus would work, given the marginals. What MAD should have done twenty years ago was issue a clip-art collection of the marginals for newsletters. Also, they would be perfect space-fillers for small-town newspapers and newspaper classified ads. Of course, MAD did issue the Absolutely MAD DVD collection a few years ago, so almost everything is there. (If you do purchase the MAD DVD-ROM, I recommend getting the National Lampoon DVD-ROM as well. GIT Corp. is the publisher.)

  3. Oops! Good one, Mr. Yoe!
    And I forgot to duplicate the Polly and Her Pals book from my September list!

    Verily, we are living in a comics renaissance!

  4. Torsten,

    Thanks for bringing up those DVD suggestions – those are an absolute bargain, and I’m guessing they’ll become collector’s items within a few years when each issue is a 99-cent download…