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Hermes Press publish some of the best archival collections of comic strips and comic books, as well as historical art books on a wide variety of subjects.  (If there is no link for the title, it is because Hermes has no distinct link.  Search their website for information.)  All of these titles are subject to revision, especially the reprint volumes.  Most times, the original art or proofs are hard to find, and art must be reconstructed or restored from clippings or scans.

So here are their Fall titles, just in time for your Christmas list!  (Boxing Day = Comics Day for me, when I go and buy all the titles “Santa” didn’t bring me.)  That will probably include the new Walt Kelly book, and Male Call.  (And if I’m naughty, a Chiodo retrospective.  What better punishment for a bad boy than good girl art?)

What makes you wish you were a good kid this year?

The Phantom the Complete Series: The Gold Key Years, Volume One

The 1960s comic book adventures of The Phantom return in full, glorious color! Hermes Press will collect, beginning with this volume all 74 issues of The Phantom, starting with the Gold Key years. This collection, which consists of eight volumes, spans 15 years and starts by assembling all 17 Gold Key Phantom comic books into two volumes. Also offered in this series will be all 11 King Phantom comic books as well as all 45 Charlton Phantom books as well. Volume One collects eight stories in one volume.

The Gold Key comic book version of the grand-daddy of costumed heroes, the Ghost Who Walks, is available again, digitally remastered to look better than the original books. Featuring cover art by famed painter George Wilson with interior artwork by Bill Lignante and stories by Bill Harris. Don’t miss them!

Brenda Starr, Reporter: The Collected Newspaper Sundays and Dailies

Hermes Press adds yet another important title to its line-up of classic comic book and comic strip reprints with Brenda Starr, Reporter® by Dale Messick: The Collected Daily and Sunday Strips.
Brenda Starr, the world’s most famous fictional reporter, role model to scores of aspiring female journalists, will now have her own series of reprint volumes starting with the strip’s debut on June 30, 1940. Created by Dale Messick, the first woman to create, draw, and write a syndicated newspaper strip, Brenda Starr, Reporter® successfully mixed romance, fashion, and adventure into one of the longest running features in newspaper history. Even though the strip will officially end its syndicated run on January 2, 2011, the feature will continue through Hermes Press’ reprints of strip’s early years.
The first volume of this series will reprint, for the first time, the first two Sunday storylines in full color. Hermes Press is digitally restoring these Sundays so that they look better than when they were first released. Also featured in this volume will be the first “Man of Mystery” story featuring Brenda’s love interest, Basil St. John.

Brenda Starr, Reporter® started as a Sunday only strip but by October 22, 1945 a daily version of the feature also appeared. The first daily sequence will also be featured in the first volume of Hermes Press’ reprint.

Fans of classic comic strips and Brenda Starr, Reporter® will have a chance, thanks to this new reprint, to see one of the great newspaper features all over again, from the beginning.

Johnny Hazard the Newspaper Dailies, Volume One: 1944-1946

Frank Robbins’ masterpiece, one of the all-time greatest action/adventure newspaper comic strips, Johnny Hazard, is back! When Johnny Hazard first saw newsprint it was near the end of the Second World War and the first story-line in the feature finds Johnny escaping from a German prisoner of war camp by stealing an enemy airplane. From there his adventures were packed with never ending action, Veronica Lake-esque women, and classic bad guys. Now you can see it all from the beginning, complimented by the work of one of the master artists of the comic strip medium, Frank Robbins. Reproduced entirely from original King Features press proofs.

Dark Shadows the Original Series

For the first time in over forty years read the original, first graphic novelization of Dark Shadows The Original Series entitled “Interrupted Voyage.” Conceived by Gold Key editor Wallace I. Green as a novel written by D. J. Arneson and illustrated by Dark Shadows comic book artist Joe Certa, this book presents a complete extended story with over forty illustations. This intreaging story finds Angelique casting Barnabas back to 17th Century Salem! All artwork has been painstaking digitally colored to perfection. This volume also boasts an extensive photo supplement.

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Volume 1

[Hermes lists a Volume 3 which was published in August, but not this volume.  Could this be a rights issue?  Or it hasn’t been added yet to their website?  There’s a Volume 2 scheduled for February, one month after Volume 1.)  Here’s the sales pitch from Diamond:

With the arrival of the long-awaited third volume of the critically-acclaimed comic book Lions, Tigers and Bears, it only makes sense to re-issue the first, four-issue mini-series of the title in a graphic novel format, and to add an all-new back-up story. Hermes Press is excited to release the first adventures of Joey, Courtney, Ares, Venus, Pallo, and Minerva!

Creators of Humor in Comic Books

Now for the first time read definitive interviews and commentary on the greatest creators of humor comic books: CARL BARKS, WALT KELLY, HARVEY KURTZMAN, FLOYD GOTTFREDSON, JOHN STANLEY and MARGE BUELL.

Pop-culture historian Thomas Andrae, author of Creators of the Superheroes and co-author with Batman creator Bob Kane of Batman and Me, guides readers, with rare definitive interviews and commentary, through the history of humor in comic books presenting in-depth dialogues with Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, Harvey Kurtzman, Floyd Gottfredson, John Stanley and Marge Buell. See unpublished artwork by Barks, Kelly Kurtzman and Stanley. A must-have for fans Scrooge McDuck, Pogo, Mad, Micky Mouse, Little Lulu and Melvin Monster.

Robert E. Howard:The Battle for the Legacy of Conan

The first in-depth monograph about the creator of Conan the Barbarian and the inside story about what happened to the character after his creator’s death. Details the complicated history of the legal battles and intricate story of how Howard’s Barbarian made his way from the pulps, to paperback books, to comics books and ultimately to the big screen. Packed with rarely seen photos, documentary materials, pulps covers and interior illustrations, and representative art of this great pop culture icon. Just in time for the release of the new cinematic re-imagining of Conan.

Elizabeth Taylor the Most Beautiful Woman in the World:A Photographic Biography

Elizabeth Taylor may be gone but she will never be forgotten! This film legend is lovingly chronicled in this collection of never-before published film stills which present photos of the most beautiful woman in the world. These photos, made directly from studio negatives, feature Elizabeth Taylor from the 1940s through the early1960s. These stills were taken by some of Hollywood’s top photographers including Bud Fraker, Robert Coburn, and Eric Carpenter. This deluxe art book explores the history of Taylor’s films through hundreds portrait and film scene stills. Presented are over 250 captivating, playful, and sensual gray-tone film stills. Taylor truly was the most beautiful woman in the world!

Male Call: The Complete Newspaper Strips, 1942-1946

Miss Lace is back and she’s with Hermes Press! Milton Caniff’s famous good girl, created just for servicemen during WW II, known to GI Joes everywhere as “Lace,” is available to all her fans in a deluxe hardcover art book reprinting the entire run of the strip. Move over Rita Hayworth, sultry, sassy Miss Lace and her daily adventures are being given royal treatment with a host of extras including a detailed intro by noted Caniff historian R.C. Harvey. Also including in this deluxe reprint of the strip is unused art, documentary materials, advertising art and more.

The Unseen Art of Hollywood: A Retrospective of Film Storyboards

Comic book and storyboard artist Trevor Goring, together with Joyce Goring, detail the history of film storyboards. This important and long neglected art is now given its due with this comprehensive history of the art of film storyboards. Featuring a genre by genre discussion of over one-hundred great films and their storyboards. Features a full range of classic and contemporary films with examples of how directors utilize storyboards in the creation of their films.

Mickey Mouse, Hitler, and Nazi Germany: How Disney’s Characters Conquered the Third Reich

This all-new art book details the business relationships between Walt Disney and the Third Reich during the Second World War and illustrates the popularity of the company’s characters in Germany during that turbulent time in world history. The book is packed with documentary material and authored by international Disney expert and frequent museum curator Carten Laqua.

The Greatest Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Props: Twenty Years from the Collection of Profiles in History

Now see the greatest Hollywood film and television props from science fiction, fantasy, and horror productions all in one book. From King Kong to Forbidden Planet to The Terminator to Star Trek and Star Wars. Assembled from the archives of one of the greatest auction houses specializing in the history of film and television, Profiles in History.

Humphrey Bogart: The Films from 1941 to 1956

Examines Humphrey Bogart’s films starting with the High Sierra, the movie that made him a star and led to his casting in Casablanca. This book details each film with a synopsis, analysis and background stories. The book also provides an overview of Bogart’s contribution to film, his work as a producer, and his relationship with such directors as John Huston and Nicholas Ray. Profusely illustrated the book offers rarely seen film stills as well as the U.S., English, Italian and French versions of the films’ movie poster art.

Good Girl Art Around the World

[No record at Hermes’ website, slated for January.]

European good girls, unlike their North American counterparts, aren’t shy about baring it all in this companion volume to Ron Goulart’s Good Girl Art, providing an in-depth, historical glimpse at Good Girl Comics in Europe. Featuring artwork from the top good girl comic artists in Great Britain, France, Holland, Italy, and Belgium, not to mention Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, this all-new, full-color art book details the artists and their work with over 300 illustrations of sultry, spicy good girls.

The Phantom the Complete Series: The King Years

[No record at Hermes’ website, slated for January.]

The mid-1960s comic book adventures of The Phantom return in full, glorious color! Hermes Press is collecting all 74 issues of The Phantom comic books which ran from 1962-1977, and this volume features the King years. This volume picks up with The Phantom #18, the first King issue, and features all The Phantom stories from issues #18-28. Featuring cover and interior art by Bill Lignante, the King comic book version of the grand-daddy of costumed heroes, the Ghost Who Walks, is available again, digitally remastered to look better than the original books.

Walt Kelly: The Life And Art of the Creator of Pogo

For the first time, an exhaustive look at the art and career of Walt Kelly! From his days at Disney working on such films as Snow White, Fantasia, and Dumbo to his work for Dell comics culminating with Pogo, this full-color art book has it all! Packed with original, never-before-seen artwork, Disney artwork, beautiful examples of Kelly’s comic book and book covers, and animation art, this definitive survey of Kelly’s career presents essays by Walt Kelly scholars Tom Andrae, Carsten Laqua, and Mark Burstein together with an appreciation by Kelly’s stepson, Scott Daley. Also featured is the complete, never-before-printed interview with Ward Kimball, one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” sharing an inside look at Walt Kelly and the Disney studio, as well as a complete, full-color Pogo Sunday sequence.

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