The Comics: The Complete Collection

Originally, the author did 2 volumes on comic strips, one pre 1945 and one post 1945 and this is a combination of the 2 volumes. Walker is the son of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and is currently involved in the Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois strips. This is a history of comic strips from the 19th century to 2002.(Nothing that is very recent). Hundreds of strips are featured with the more famous ones getting a few pages with the obscure strips only getting one or two strips. Short bios on some top comic strip creators as well as a history make up the text and the book is about half Walker's writing and half reprints of comic strips. Just the sheer number of different comics from different eras is extremely impressive. Even faithful readers of the comic strips will no doubt be introduced to many that they had never seen before. Everything about it - the writing which gives a very detailed history, the great artwork, and the variety is excellent. This is for anyone who enjoys the comic strips and would enjoy learning about the history. 5 Stars.

This book is absolutely stunning. I was born way too late to see most of these strips in the newspapers (born in the Doonesbury era) but I adore the great old comics. This affectionate, comprehensive and gorgeous retrospective has them all, going back to 1900. All the great ones are here: The Yellow Kid, Buster Brown, the Katzenjammer Kids, Krazy Kat, Terry and the Pirates, Little Nemo in slumberland, Prince Valiant, Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes, along with hundreds of lesser known but fascinating strips like Herriman's The Family Upstairs (surely the most unusual premise for a strip ever) Bringing Up Father, The Little King, Barnaby. The Sunday strips are reproduced in glorious full color, many of them stunningly restored. It's too bad this book apparently didn't sell. It really highlights how much we've lost with the fracturing of entertainment media and the reduction of the comics to stamp-sized insipid talking heads. With the shrinkage of newspapers, we have lost something brilliant and uniquely American, and this informative and fascinating book brings it back.