Noel Sickles,
along with his lifelong friend, Milton Caniff, changed the face of
comics in the 1930s, when they invented a new form of graphic
storytelling. They moved away from the simple outline approach then
popular, and created a chiaroscuro style that still influences
comics artists today. Having blazed a trail through the comics
world, Sickles left the medium in favor of a 40-year career as one
of America's most successful magazine illustrators. A regular at
Life magazine, his work also appeared in Look,
Reader's Digest, National Geographic, and The
Saturday Evening Post.
Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles
Edited & Designed by Dean Mullaney, Biography by Bruce Canwell Introduction by Jim Steranko.
A massive, comprehensive, oversized 392-page volume that collects, for the first time, every Sickles Scorchy Smith strip, from December 1933 through November 1936. It also features, in a 140-page biography, an extensive examination of Sickles's life and the decades-long influence of his work, while also showcasing the full breadth of his career as one of America's foremost magazine illustrators.
Oversized 11" x 11"
hardcover-with-dustjacket, 392 pp. with foldouts and index,
$49.99. ISBN: 978-1-60010-206-6.
Born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1912, Noel Sickles was working as a staff artist at the Associated Press when he was assigned to take over the 1930s aviation adventure series Scorchy Smith. Although he only drew it for three brief years, the innovation he brought to the artform is a milestone in the history of newspaper comic strips. Sickles won the National Cartoonist Society’s Advertising and Illustration Award in both 1960 and 1962.
"From the endpapers
to the foldouts, Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles
is a glorious tribute to a 20th century cartoonist and 21st century
bookmaking. Dean Mullaney...has designed and edited a book that is
almost as impressive as the work of its subject, the great Noel
Sickles."
-Steve Duin, The (Portland) Oregonian
"This massive
volume is comprised of two sections, each of which could be a
separate book: a detailed biography of the artist by Bruce Canwell,
accompanied by copious examples of his various kinds of work; and
the complete run of Scorchy Smith, here appearing between
covers for the first time. Such lovingly lavish treatment has been
accorded few cartoonists, but Sickles, despite his lack of renown,
thoroughly warrants it."
-Booklist
"[An] almost
embarrassing amount of riches...in the arts section: paintings,
commercial art, war-related efforts, commissioned work, personal
items such as birthday cards, and abortive syndicated newspaper
comics efforts like a mid-'70s Bruce Lee strip. Scorchy
Smith is really two separate books, and that's not just a
facile slogan here; there's simply that much material."
-The Comics Reporter