Friday, Aug 5th, 2011

Like You've Never Seen It Before!

I initially created the Library of American Comics in 2007 to publish my favorite comic strip of all time—Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates—in a definitive hardcover archival edition, with the uncropped dailies and the Sundays in color. Our six-volume series won the Eisner Award and reviewers have kindly stated that we set the standard for all future archival collections.

As everyone knows, Milton Caniff quit Terry in 1946 in order to create Steve Canyon, a strip which he owned completely. While valiant efforts have been made by others to collect the complete Canyon, none of them were complete. Equally important, each used the cropped dailies and reproduced the Sundays in black-and-white.

We're going to set the record straight by presenting Milton Caniff's biggest-selling strip in the definitive edition—complete uncropped dailies and Sundays in color, using Caniff's personal files of syndicate proofs (and in the few cases where proofs aren't available, his tearsheets). We're producing the series in a hardcover set to match Terry and the Pirates. As with Terry, Bruce Canwell is writing the historical essays, while I handle the edits and design. Each volume will contain two complete years. Everyone who enjoyed Terry won't want to miss this sequel—in some ways, Terry volume seven—in which the horizons are truly unlimited. The first volume will be on sale January 16, 2012.

Canyon1

Here are a few examples of the dailies as presented in previous collections—and what you'll see in our new series. I think you'll agree that the uncropped dailies best display Caniff's compositional talents. This really is Canyon like you've never seen it before!

cropped1