Comic Strips

It's the first ever Peanuts graphic novel, Charlie Brown! Last week people were speculating over the announcement that kaboom! -- BOOM! Studios' new all-ages comics imprint -- would be publishing something Peanuts-related. Was it strips reprints? Comic book reprints? What? The reality is that it's an ALL NEW adaptation of a new Peanuts animated movie, Happiness Is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown, which Warners Home Video is releasing in March.

...unless you read old comic strips. Fantagraphics' Floyd Gottfredson reprint project was a big news item at last year's San Diego, and you can bet that the book (due on April 15th) will get people talking some more. FBI released a pdf of the promo materials and here's a sneak peek.

United Media, the syndicate behind such beloved comic strips as Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy (above) and scores of other great strips of the past, is outsourcing its comics syndication business to Universal Uclick, according to a press release. In syndication terms, this is as if DC suddenly outsourced its publishing to Marvel. New York-based United and the similarly named but Kansas City-based Universal uClick -- which is owned by publisher Andrews McMeel, were long two of the three biggest comics syndicates -- King Features is the third -- and oversaw the immensely lucrative and popular icons of the comics pages for decades.

Tarpé Mills is a name well known to comics historians, not only as one of the best of the female cartoonists of the war years, but as the creator and artist of Miss Fury, one of the first successful superheroine characters, which ran for nearly a decade as a sunday newspaper strip. It was a lively blend of outre characters, adventure and naughtiness. This April Dean Mullaney's Library of American Comics is reprinting the best of the strips in a deluxe volume complete with an introduction by comics historian Trina Robbins. Mullaney provided a desception of the volume and this preview for our Anniversary week:

Variety confirms that everyone's favorite orphan is getting a reboot courtesy if Will Smith's production company, with daughter Willow Smith set to star. Smith's production company is teaming with Jay-Z to form a new movie-making joint venture and ANNIE is on the list.

By Jen Vaughn -- What do you do with a man with a wild mind of his own and a pair of drawing hands that just won't quit? You make him KING.

James Kochalka is the one of forerunners of autobiographical diary comics with his syndicated comic, American Elf, which is also available online and began way back in October, 1998. He is also the creator of other excellent comics like irreverent SuperF*ckers and children's books like the Johnny Boo series and most recently, Dragon Puncher. His comics are published by Portland-based comics publisher, Top Shelf.

We continue our series on cheap, obsolete media formats by showcasing a technology little improved in two thousand years. In an age when technology gets tossed aside in favor of the Latest Thing Next Year, is it any wonder that books are finally becoming quaint antiques, reminiscent of an earlier, less complicated age? But don't worry, bibliophiles! Just as there are still markets for mangles and typewriters, so too will a market for books exist in less developed cultures! As the book market in the U. S. slowly shrinks and shrivels, numerous bargains will appear, like the ones below!

I'm home for the holidays, and spending some time digging around my parent's basement, delving into my assorted and sordid collection of ephemera. The above...

If you are grieving for the loss of Brenda Starr with the previous story, fear not, Hermes Press is launching a reprint series of the strip from the beginning with the first two storylines in full color. The first book comes out in June 2011. We'll be making some room on the shelf.

Another classic comic strip just ran out of panels: Brenda Starr is ending its run on January 2. Writer Mary Schmich and artist June Brigman have decided to end their run on the strip, and the syndicate decided to end the strip with them. The death of Schmich's mother is said to have been the turning point in deciding to move on.

While the news that Fantagraphics is to publish Barnaby might have seemingly exhausted the archives of cult favorite comic strips that need to be reprinted, it is definitely not so. Percy Crosby's Skippy is another much-admired comic strip getting a reprint...but this one has a hell of a backstory.

The much-beloved cult strip Barnaby by Crockett Johnson is getting a quality reprint, courtesy of Fantagraphics, The Comics Reporter reports. Eric Reynolds will edit while Dan Clowes supplies the art direction. First volume is due in April 2012. Spurge has all the history and details: