Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays, Vol. 1: 1934-1936

Head for the hills with The Library of American Comics! Next stop: Dogpatch, the sleepy little home of Pansy and Lucifer Ornamental Yokum and their 19-year-old son, Li'l Abner! Eisner Award-winning editor/designer Dean Mullaney and biographical writer Bruce Canwell return to Dogpatch's roots in Volume 1 of The Complete Li'l Abner, containing Al Capp's comedy masterpiece from 1934-1936, including full-color Sunday pages never before collected in book form. Li'l Abner moves to New York to live with his rich aunt and has to dodge both kidnappers and grasping socialites! Back home in Dogpatch, Marrying Sam works to get Abner and gorgeous Daisy Mae to the altar, while shiftless Hannibal Hoops schemes to split them apart! Then it's a classic case of mistaken identity when Li'l Abner's evil twin, the ruthless criminal Gat Garson, comes to town... -The Library of American Comics is the world's #1 publisher of classic newspaper comic strips, with 14 Eisner Award nominations and three wins for best book. LOAC has become "the gold standard for archival comic strip reprints... The research and articles provide insight and context, and most importantly the glorious reproduction of the material has preserved these strips for those who knew them and offers a new gateway to adventure for those discovering them for the first time." - Scoop

Customer Reviews:

SPLENDID, WELL WORTH THE UPGRADE...

By Mike Fontanelli - April 14, 2010

The never-before reprinted, full-color Sundays make this a no-brainer, really. With all due respect to Denis Kitchen, this IDW LI'L ABNER series promises to be THE definitive edition of what is arguably the greatest American comic strip of all time. The Sunday pages are big and bold, and feature vivid color reproduction, (MUCH better than the limited Dark Horse series). Each panel was meticulously restored by editor Dean Mullaney. The dailies are printed slightly smaller than the old Kitchen Sink volumes - but they're perfectly sharp, crisp and detailed, sourced from original syndicate proofs. Plus an informative, comprehensive essay by the invaluable Bruce Canwell (including excerpts from a newly-discovered manuscript written by Capp's father) make this a superb job all around.

The material itself surely needs no introduction by now. Capp painted with broad strokes of genius, and LI'L ABNER is a bona fide, 100% authentic American masterpiece. It's fascinating to see... read more

sundays *** - dailies *

By A. Grossman - April 16, 2010

A very mixed bag. The Sundays are great but the dailies are too small. There are five to a page, very small and hard to read. Having the wonderful Kitchen Sink dailes - which are about twice as large with two to a page - I will only use this volume for the wonderful Abner Sunday strips. If you don't have the KS volumes this is for you.

awesomeness

By Lonnie L. Anixt "ny lonnie" - April 28, 2010

american culture has many instances of pure genius. Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners, Martin and Lewis, Mad Magazine in its prime to name a few and right there holding its own if not jumping out front is Al Capps Li'l Abner. I was so happy to hear that the whole strip including the Sunday strip would be reproduced, that i ordered this book as soon as it came available.
Capps strip would hit its creative zenith after 1946, in terms of art humour and suspense, but even here right from the start in its shake down period Capp shows his genius to string reader along, to keep them guessing what will happen next, its instant gratification to be able to skip a couple of pages along to see how the story turns out.
compared to a strip like Dick Tracy or Little Orphan Annie which took years to really find thier way, Lil Abner is going full steam by the third week of the strip with Abner in New York spending time with his Aunt Bessie and almost getting himself married ( a constant... read more