Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays, Vol. 2: 1937-1938

"Lil Abner Volume 2".

Customer Reviews:

Golden period not yet reached, but visible in the horizon...

By Snorre Smari Mathiesen "Snorri Smari" - February 2, 2011

The tone is set, and so are the main characters. By 1937-38, Li'l Abner had begun to manifest itself in public consciousness for real, having made it into a couple of compilations in book form and steadily increasing in newspaper readership. However, the strip has not yet reached what is often considered to be its golden period; creator Al Capp still has a tendency of displaying elements of time-typical melodrama which, at times, might appear somewhat "over-the-top" by today's standards. This is particularly true of 1938, which in the introduction is described as perhaps the oddest year in Li'l Abner's long run; in one story, Daisy Mae is deprived of her sight, which makes for an atmosphere far from amusing. These heavy touches of pathos may very well have been a conscious effort on Capp's part to assure himself the loyalty of readers, before eventually allowing the outrageous satire and burlesque situations of which he later became famous to moreover characterize the strip. After... read more

High Quality!

By Ms. Pen Name - July 14, 2011

This was purchased for my father who has fond memories of Li'l Abner. Li'l Abner was before my time but I can tell you that not only was it a great trip down memory lane for my Dad but that this book is very well made. It's a large and weighty hardcover and the print is just outstanding--very vivid colors, very high quality replication of the old comics. The comics are poster quality and much better than they would appear in newspaper print. If you were a fan of Li'l Abner, you won't be disappointed with this.

half the book contains the Sunday strips, needs to be expanded

By S M - January 19, 2012

Half the book contains the Sunday strips.

The big problem with this and other editions by this publisher of the same size is mentioned in the forward of this edition

That is Al Capp loved to draw faces and such terrific artistry whether in the beautiful or exagerated comic form is lost on the dailys and sometimes even on the Sunday pages.

The Kitchen Sink dailies that contained 2 weeks/page beautifily showed such artwork.

The daily strips containing five weeks/page, are too short to appreciate this artistry, along with the often comical off the side goings-on in the strip that Capp did which pre-dates such artwork in Mad Magazin

It would help if Lil Abner was expanded to be just as wide as long, I would even pay extra for it to see such artistry by Capp better