The very first news item on the Beat back in 2004 was a note that Dark Horse was reprinting Little Lulu in B&W.
Well, now I can report that D&Q is reprinting LIttle Lulu in full color starting next year.
The John Stanley/Irving Tripp masterpieces – based on Marge’s tomboy from the pages of the Saturday Evening Post – are timeless tales of human foibles and fantasy and easily one of the great comics runs of all times.
The reprint series will be co-edited by Frank M. Young and Tom Devlin with the art and orginal coloring restored, and the series will include historical essays and context for the stories.
The first volume, Little Lulu: Working Girl will collect the first five issues of the Dell Four Colour Comics of Lulu appearances including #74 (June 1945), #97 (February 1946), #110 (June 1946), #115 (August 1946), #120 (October 1946), the first three of which written and drawn by Stanley.
From the PR:
Marge’s Little Lulu remains one of the greatest achievements in comics history, first created in 1935 by Marjorie Henderson Buell as a strip in the Saturday Evening Post, and expanded upon and brought to life in full colour in the classic Dell comics by journeyman John Stanley from 1945-1959. Marge’s Little Lulu is timeless with consistently inventive and laugh-out-loud funny stories of the battle between the sexes that are enjoyable to all ages. Stanley deftly defined the personalities of all the characters including Lulu’s foil, Tubby, the sidekicks Annie and Alvin, and most of all, Lulu herself. Stanley turns Lulu into a proto-feminist, someone who continually outsmarts the “fellers” who more often than not enlist her help in their neighborhood shenanigans. Stanley’s writing is charming and anarchic, featuring complex characters and absurd storylines that are utterly real as well as brusque, unpredictable, enchanting.
My collection of Devlin’s previous deluxe Tubby reprints are all enshrined in a place of honor here at Stately Beat Manor. These new color volumes shall stand by them.
Nice. My 7 year old loves these, and they are hard to come by.
Recommendation noted!
While I hate being faced with the vulgarly cheap dilemma of figuring out “will I pay again for material I mostly own just for ancillary material or completism” and figuring out how the DandQ volumes match against the 6 or so Dark Horse’s I don’t already own if I decide I can’t spend a lot on stories I own and read already, given that those six DH’s I’m missing are the most expensive books less than a decade old in secondary markets I’ve ever encountered, hooray!
I treasure my Dark Horse volumes — this material is great even in black and white!
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