History

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:

Dept. of lost comics companies: Recently Don MacPherson caught notice of a huge eBay auction of material from the '80s publisher Comico -- for $12,000, you get stacks of mostly color acetates and printing proofs -- not the materials of today's publishing industry, but salvageable with a lot of man hours -- IF you could sort out the rights.

We had a few moments to stop by a signing for 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking last night, and snapped a picture of author Paul Levitz, DC's Steve Korte, and Taschen Art Director Josh Baker. I have seen a lot of books about comics, but I have never seen a more beautiful one than this -- the reproductions are incredibly crisp and vibrant, and there are double page pull-outs, charts and even a chromium insert to mark the "modern age." With the text, Levitz proves that if knowing everything there is to know about a company's history qualifies you to run that company, he was the best qualified president in history.

Dustin Harbin delves into the strange world of the Ames Lettering Guide, whose mysterious wheel and holes have long mystified non-acolytes:

Via the CO2 blog, Gerry Giovinco explores the history of coloring via the color chart, a mix of CMYK values which was all folks had to work with as recently as 10 years ago. I remember once seeing an editor reduced to tears by having to spec a color guide from a color chart. It wasn't pretty.

This video of Stan Lee being confronted with the original art for FANTASTIC FOUR #12 for the first time in 47 years or so (or if he did, he probably forgot) is undeniably touching. But it also contains secret clues to the biggest treasure trove of all, Robert Langdon!!!!

Colleen Doran explains the secret history of Fallen Angels and other subjects of passing interest.

http://www.youtube.com/v/cXyFby9m3fQ?fs=1&hl=en_US More here

Back in the days when comics media was on paper, there was the Comics Journal, the Comics Buyer's Guide, and Comics Interview. Edited by David Anthony Kraft, in the magazine's 150 issue run, just about anybody who was of note in the comics industry of the '80s and early '90s was interrogated. It's a treasure trove of historical material long unavailable (unless you happen to be rooting through The Beat's storage unit) but the revamped Comico is changing that with a POD reprint project that is available now for $34.95 -- the whole project will run 11 books, and each volume will be offered in a regular and deluxe edition, as well as paperback and hardcover.

A letter of early costume design notes is found. Found via Comics Alliance, where it is pointed out that artist H.G. Peter was 61 years old when tasked with designing this iconic character.

Should comics panels be written about or recorded for all to hear? This panel report from APE of Dan Nadel interviewing Daniel Clowes has been linked everywhere, probably because it's such a thorough write-up. There's lots of dish on other cartoonists, and anecdotes from the history of alt.comix:

A big coffee table book on the making of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK may not have pictures of Carrie Fisher's tooting up, but we like these photos best. After 30 years, everything becomes black and white.