This 190 page horizontally formatted volume rescues from obscurity a comic strip that is after the heart of the long suffering fans of the daily newspaper comic strip.  Originally published from 1961 through 1963, Sam's Strip takes the standard form of the three - four panel gag strip, but it adds to this another layer.  This layer consists of references to the medium of comics, both the content -- primarily that of the characters that populate the strips which  fill our daily papers and takes the form of walk-on appearances by the likes of Dick Tracy, Charlie Brown, Jiggs, The Yellow Kid and many others -- and the form -- in the taking apart of the mechanics of comics communication.  While this sort of thing is relatively commonplace in the comics pages of today, and has, of course, a precursor in Harvey Kurtzman & Co's work in the original Mad that predates Sam's Strip by a full decade, this work was unique in the funny pages of it's day, and it is collected in its entirety here.  Take a sneak peek, by downloading a hefty 30-strip preview here .

FROM THE ARCHIVES

ONE COPY

Epic, career-spanning, 70-page interview with Beetle Bailey creator, Mort Walker by R.C. Harvey

Emmanuel Guibert interviewed by Matthias Wivel

3-page "cartoon interview" (i.e., in comics) with Frank Stack by Noah Van Sciver

Classic Comics Reprint:  This time around it's a two-fer – Over twenty pages of illustrations by late-18th Century proto-cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson, accmpanied by a twenty-page, illustrated, archival essay by early 20th-centuy socialist cartoonist, Art Young!

more!

NOTE: TCJ cover sticker removed