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Frank King




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Walt and Skeezix, Volume Four: 1927 - 1928 Frank King Drawn and Quarterly $34.95
($39.95 list)
Walt-skeezix4
Read more and comment... 		Well, all we have to say is, "It's about time!"  After the timely release of the first three volumes in this excellent reprint project that was a long time dream of series designer, Chris Ware, we waited... and waited... and waited... and still no fourth volume.  Now, finally, we have it.  This time we have on hand two full years of continuity of Walt and Phyllis's growing domestic bliss that is both a joy and comfort to behold.  In addition, as though to make up for the lost time, we also have over 80 pages of bonus material including another essay but comics scholar and Gasoline Alley fan, Jeet Heer, a copious selection of King family photos, and, for us the best of all, 25 loose leaf sketchbook pages containing drawings of the American southwest that Ware surmises were drawn in 1931 that are deft, highly controlled pencil and conte crayon(?) drawings that look like they might have been done by Frank Santoro.  PLUS, at the very end, one Chris Ware related surprise that was interesting to say the least.  In other words:  the wait is over, and the book is worth it.
Walt & Skeezix, Book Three: 1925 & 1926 Frank King Drawn and Quarterly Gasoline Alley $25.47
($29.95 list)
Walsk3
Read more and comment... 		by Frank King The third collection of classic Gasoline Alley dailies has arrived and is ready for reading.  Designed, once again, by Chris Ware, and housing over six-hundred daily strips, this volume continues to be an excellent package at a reasonable price.
Walt and Skeezix The Complete Daily Comic Strips, Volume One: 1921 - 1922 Frank King $25.47
($29.95 list)
Waltskeezix1
Read more and comment... 		Well, first there was the Complete Peanuts, and now there's the Complete Gasoline Alley.  This volume collects only the dailes, due to the fact that the Sundays were gigantic and designed as an organic whole and so not suitable to be broken down and squeezed into this book's format (Many fine examples of the early Gasoline Alley Sunday pages are available in Drawn & Quarterly Volume Three and Volume Four, and one Sunday is reproduced here, just to give you a taste.)  That said, this book, lovingly designed by Chris Ware -- think McSweeney's #13, only not quite as elaborate -- is, from a production standpoint, a true work of art.  The book begins on January 1, 1921, several years into the the strip's continuity, but just before baby Skeezix is discovered on Walt's doorstep and so a perfect place to start the generational saga that Gasoline Alley was to become.  The introductory notes and appendix are expansive, illustrated and accompanied by many, many rare photographs heretofore unseen by just about anyone outside the King clan.   This volume  -- like those in the Complete Peanuts -- contains two complete years, 1921 & 1922 in this case, but with the difference that there are only two strips per page, instead of three, accurately reflecting the significantly larger size that comic strips were printed at during the time these strips originally appeared, compared to the Peanuts strips that began almost exactly thirty years later.   While it's pretty safe to say that Gasoline Alley fans will be in seventh heaven while working their way through this volume, we believe that anyone interested in the early days of American comics strips should at least pick this book up and take a look at it.
Walt & Skeezix, Volume Two: 1923 & 1924 Frank King Drawn and Quarterly $25.47
($29.95 list)
Waltskeezix2
Read more and comment... 		While we're on the subject of classic newspaper comics, we'll take this opportunity to let you know that, yes, the second collection of Frank King's almighty classic, Gasoline Alley is currently gracing our humble shelves. Designed, once again, by Chris Ware, this volume has even more support material than the first collection. A lengthy introduction by comics scholar, Jeet Heer and end notes by Tim Samuelson are accompanied by an amazing selection of photographs from the King family album, sketches and watercolors, scrap-book clippings and other ephemera that together make an excellent frame for the over six-hundred daily strips this volume contains.
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix Frank King Sunday Press $77.77
($95.00 list)
Waltskeezixbig
Read more and comment... 		Sunday Press, the publisher of the Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays collection now presents the best Sunday comics from the first two decades of Frank King’s masterpiece, Gasoline Alley in the same stunning, full size (16" x 21") format.  Designed by Chris Ware and with an introduction by Jeet Heer, these wonderful Sunday pages are a beautiful companion to the popular Drawn and Quarterly books that feature the daily Gasoline Alley strips.  This volume is a giant oversize 96 page, heavy duty hardcover with dust jacket that includes a full-sheet cardboard insert replica of a 1920’s Skeezix cut-out toy.  As with Sunday Press's Little Nemo collection, these incredible Sunday pages have been digitally restored to their original colorful brilliance and are reproduced at full size. In addition, the book is filled with images of comics memorabilia and photographs of King’s life. It also includes texts on King’s life and work by journalist Tim Samuels and comics historian/critic Donald Phelps.