Lo Scaffale” (The Shelf) goes to States to discover what Joe Matt has to recommend among his latest readings.
Li’l Abner, Volume 1, by Al Capp (IDW)
It contains the very first Li’l Abner strips by Al Capp, comprised on 1934-1936. And I’m FORCING myself to read it because volumes 1-8 have been staring at me from my shelf for too many years. I’ll be excited when Volume 9 comes out later this year, as I feel it’ll be the start of the strip’s true greatness. Also, Li’l Abner (along with Peanuts) was my favorite strip as a child and I faithfully trimmed (and saved) it from my local newspaper from 1971-1975. (Ages 8-11 years old.) Unbeknownst to me, it was the near end of the strip, but I didn’t care. I loved Capp’s (or his assistant’s) line quality and the fact that one strip led to another. It seemed like a never-ending, infinite story to me…and the only continuity strip that I ever truly cared for. I love Li’l Abner..although part of me doesn’t hold it in the highest esteem, like I would a strip like say, Segar’s POPEYE.
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
There are a few collections of Dick’s short stories, but this particular one was GOLD, if you ask me. I enjoyed every single story, as well as the natural way Dick writes. It’s hard to explain, but I simply love his voice. It’s economical, while remaining natural sounding. And up next, I have all 3 volumes of this collection waiting to be read…
The Jack Kirby Collector. Issues #1-57
I recently bought a near complete run of this from TwoMorrows Publishing, during a half price sale. I’ve got the first 7 paperback collections, followed by all the tabloid sized issues. They sit directly to my left at my table, and I’ll often randomly pull one out and peruse it. They give me tremendous joy. I love Kirby to death and his insane output is always inspiring. The guy just loved to draw and it shows in everything he did. Also, the large tabloid issues are just so much fun to hold and look at. Kirby’s pencils at that size are even more powerful than usual.
Johnny Craig’s Fall Guy for Murder e Voodoo Vengeance, by Johnny Craig (Fantagraphics)
Two collections of this EC great from Fantagraphics. I love Craig’s EC stories second only to Kurtzman’s vast EC output. Craig’s clean line, as well as his writing really appeal to me. The extraneous narration that mars the majority of EC stories is usually lacking from a Craig story and that’s a good thing. But of course, my all-time #1 favorite EC artist will always be Will Elder and his work for MAD.
Jason’s books (Fantagraphics)
There’s a lot of them…and most were collected hardcovers. But, the handful that haven’t been collected yet are: 1) Why Are You Doing This? 2) The Left Bank Gang 3) I Killed Adolph Hitler 4) The Last Musketeer 5) Isle of 100,00 Graves. And it was these 5 books that I recently reread. And I was appalled to realize how much I’d forgotten since first reading them. Also, these 5 books tend to have more panels per page than his previous collections….3 or 4 tiers per page, as opposed to his usual 4 paneled pages. Anyway, I love ALL of Jason’s books and his clean line and natural sense of storytelling all thrill me every time I revisit his work.