Part one
The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, edited by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams, was published in 1977; it has influenced several generations of comics creators (such as Chris Ware), publishers (such as Kim Thompson), critics (such as Jeet Heer) and fans [1]. An anthology of American newspaper strips that range in date from the late 19th century until the mid-1970s, it contains an astonishing breadth of comics (maintaining continuity when possible) in beautifully reproduced color and crisp black and white [2]. In addition to the usual Masters of American Comics suspects, it contains strips from virtual unknowns (such as Charles Fink's
Slim Jim) and some famous cartoonists' lesser-known works, like
Merely Margy by John Held, Jr. Blackbeard and Williams' accessible-yet-scholarly essays provide historical context and biographical information, while putting forth a thesis that the newspaper strips themselves prove: comics are an art form, worthy of critical investigation. For those who had only been exposed to domestic, gag-a-day strips fighting for space on increasingly cramped newspaper pages, the action-adventure serials, fantasy full-pagers, and licensed characters engaging in genuinely entertaining shenanigans were (and still are) a revelation: a revelation made possible by Blackbeard's archives.
According to Blackbeard, "The Smithsonian had no collection of comics whatever, that is to say, comic strips. I mean, they had some original cartoon art that various cartoonists had donated to them, but they had no functional form comic strips whatsoever, not a single page of
Bringing Up Father, or a single page of
Mutt and Jeff or a single page of
Krazy Kat. That was just not in their area of interest.
"However, the Smithsonian did have […] the Smithsonian Press. And one of the officials, one of the individuals that worked with this press was named martin Williams. And he was a comics fan, and he'd heard about what I'd done with the Academy, so he thought, "Why don't we put out a book out through the Smithsonian Press?" So he contacted me, and we both picked comic strips for that, and lo and behold, there was a book called
The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics.
"Of course, that led to a nationwide error, because quite suddenly the Smithsonian found that its phones were ringing off their bells with people who wanted to come and look at the Smithsonian collection of newspaper comics. Of course, there was no such thing. The only collection they had was the one that we had put together and photographed and published in the book. […] The only such collection was mine."
Blackbeard has worked on more than 200 books on comics since then: he continues to write and edit. He takes pride in the growing market for newspaper-strip reprints, one he very much helped create. He told me: "Ten or 15 years ago, you wouldn't have had that sort of sales success, but a new generation of kids developed an interest in the classic comics, and now you can probably sell most anything. Currently, we have the complete run of
Terry and the Pirates and
Krazy Kat and
Popeye and other strips that are moving off the bookshelves about as fast as they can be put there. So that, of course, is very good news."
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Bill Blackbeard, part one"
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Randy Chang and Bodega, part one
1 - See my Full Disclosure in Part 1 regarding Bill Blackbeard's work with my employer Fantagraphics Books.
2 - One of the questions I wanted to ask Mr. Blackbeard was how he was able to manage the high production value, but was unable to do so due to a bad phone connection. Drat. The copy I have is the third printing: it was printed in Japan and designed by Elizabeth Sur, so there are some clues, perhaps.
Image credit:
Mostly Margy by John Held Jr. 13 July 1930 [©1930 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Bibliography:
Bill Blackbeard. Personal Interview. 3 Dec. 2007.
Blackbeard, Bill and Martin Williams, ed. The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1977.
"Biography of the Collector." http://cartoons.osu.edu/finding_aids/sfaca/
"Family business: the bittersweet story of fathers, sons, and comics" by Jeet Heer. Boston Globe. 12 June 2005.
Kim Thompson. Personal Interview. 17 Dec. 2007.
Jeet Heer. Interview with Tom Spurgeon. Comicsreporter.com. 7 July 2007.
Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2008
