Below are some comic strip and cartoon books scheduled for January 2024 release.
Images and links from a variety of publishers and outlets,
though ordering through your local comic shop or independent book store is a good idea.
John Romita’s Amazing Spider-Man: The Daily Strips Artist’s Edition By John Romita (preview)
An Artist’s Edition is a book that reproduces classic comic book art from the actual hand-drawn originals. Each page is meticulously scanned at high resolution and reproduced at the same size they were drawn. And while each page appears to be in black and white, these pages have been scanned in color to enable the reader to truly see them as created by John Romita. All the subtle nuances that make original art unique are clearly visible in these pages: gradients in the line art, blue pencils under the inks, corrections.
Lost Literacies: Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip by Alex Beringer
Lost Literacies is the first full-length study of US comic strips from the period prior to the rise of Sunday newspaper comics…Over the course of the nineteenth century, figures such as artist Frank Bellew and editor T.?W. Strong introduced sequential comic strips into humor magazines and precursors to graphic novels known as “graphic albums.”
CLAPTRAP by Desmond Devlin and Tom Richmond
CLAPTRAP is a hardcover, full color collection of twelve movie parodies by two longtime members of MAD Magazine’s “Usual Gang of Idiots” … Plus other film related features and surprises!
The Complete Funky Winkerbean, Volume 13, 2008–2010 by Tom Batiuk
This latest installment of The Complete Funky Winkerbean presents the comic strips from 2008, 2009, and 2010 and ushers the original Funky characters into middle age. In true Funky fashion, the characters have to grapple with very serious issues: nearly
Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2023 edited by Tim Benson
This collection features the work of Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Morten Morland, Nicola Jennings, Christian Adams, Dave Brown, Brian Adcock and many more, alongside captions from Britain’s leading cartoon expert.
Alottabotz by Lynn Johnston Book 1: The Botshop Book 2: Marvellous Things Book 3: A Dog With No Name
Everyone loves robots, especially Lynn! Just for the heck of it, Lynn has written and illustrated a new series of children’s books. The stories revolve around Timothy Bot—a robot boy who has just moved to a new town. Charming characters, sweet gestures, funny faces, interesting inventions, vibrant colours and spaceships galore!
Bill Ward: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition edited by Alex Chun
Bill Ward’s glamour girls were the staples of countless men’s and humor magazines … This Fantagraphics Studio edition showcases the best of Ward’s Humorama work and includes a healthy number of what became known as his “telephone girls.” Tame by today’s standards, Ward’s telephone girls were always caught in candid moments when they just happened to be talking on the phone dressed in gossamer lingerie in innocently provocative poses.
Lauren Ipsum Throws the Book At You by Charles Brubaker
Rabbits and foxes and mermaids… Oh my! Join Lauren Ipsum and her friends (and enemies) running the St. Paws Library in her new book! Contains a bonus story “The Chosen One”.
The Art and Humor of Johnny Hart
Back in 1958 Hart created and drew B.C., followed in 1964 by writing The Wizard of Id, and the two series have been beloved by the nation and the world ever since. This exciting art book will detail Hart’s life and his work, both of which were totally intertwined. The book will feature all original art from the strips, as well as original photographs of Hart supplied by his family, and other amazing, never-before-seen material from behind the scenes.
Beak & Ally #4: Snow Birds by Norm Feuti
When noisy neighbors move in for the winter, will Beak & Ally ever find peace and quiet?
Evil Inc: Under New Management by Brad Guigar
After ending the popular Evil Inc comic strip, webcomics pioneer Brad Guigar relaunches the series as a graphic novel. Familiar characters like Lightning Lady and Miss Match now operate out of a branch office, and old relationships (like Miss Match’s marriage to Captain Heroic) are dissolved.
Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies 1935-1939: Starring Donald Duck and the Big Bad Wolf (revised/updated)
… the heyday of Disney’s second-ever newspaper comics feature: the full-color weekly Silly Symphonies! Fantagraphics’ latest volume showcases Donald Duck’s extended run as star of the strip: from his pranks on Goofy to his battles with Mickey’s naughty nephews—and the unforgettable debut of Donald’s own riotous relatives, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, first created for this strip by artist Al Taliaferro! Also in this volume: the perilous pork pursuits of Zeke the Big Bad Wolf, who with the Three Little Pigs also made his comics debut in Silly Symphonies! Plus dog tales with Pluto… and two tales of Elmer Elephant, one plotted by comics maestros Carl Barks and Walt Kelly!
Alley Oop and The Fountain of Youth by V.T. Hamlin
Alley Oop finds the Fountain of Youth… but can he keep his precious discovery safe? Also featuring Oxy the Moonman’s robotic trip home, a cute young scientist goes with Alley back to prehistoric times, Alley and Oola go to Pike’s Peak in the old west, another visit with Brunnhilde, and a diplodocus on the loose! Reprinting all the daily strips from 1960.
feature image by Alex Hallett
I’m disappointed. With your lead image by Gluyas Williams, I was hoping there was a new collection of his work coming.
Sorry about the head fake. The feature image and the opening image of these posts are cartoons dealing with books but not (usually) books on the following list.
A Gluyas Williams book would be an illustrative gift but only to a niche audience, even among comics fans. But hey, so was that T. S. Sullivant book I got. Hope springs…
I’ve been waiting for the Johnny Hart book for several years. How nice to hear that it is finally a reality. I’ve seen advance copies of all three Alottobotz books by Lynn Johnston and they are delightful.
Congratulations to Charles Brubaker on the new collection of his charming, funny and literate Lauren Ipsum comics.
The Silly Symphonies book is another must-have. I prefer Al Taliaferro’s comics to Carl Barks’.
That should be Alottabotz. I can’t edit this comment, I apologize for the typo.
Yeah, about the Johnny Hart book … as stated in the introduction these books “are scheduled to be released” in January and with Hermes Press we have to take that with a salt shaker’s worth of salt.
Their website still has “coming soon” instead of a release date.
https://hermes-press.myshopify.com/products/the-art-and-humor-of-johnny-hart-pre-order
The Art and Humor of Johnny Hart was originally scheduled for mid-2017.
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/35372/relive-b-c-wizard-id
There is another Hermes Press book “scheduled” for this month, but I’m holding back with that one.
Fantagraphics regularly misses their first announced publication date, Hermes ALWAYS does.
I pre-ordered the BC book from Hermes back in 2020. I’ve had several correspondences with them since that time. The latest I had, I mentioned I saw the Jan 22 release date on Amazon. I was told, “No, not being released until at least Spring 2024, but most likely not until the end of the year, 2024.” Make of that what you will.
BTW…is Popeye the other Hermes Press book you are referring to? I got a similar response from Hermes on that one, too! Popeye not before the end of the year, 2024.
The Art of Popeye was the HP book I didn’t list.
https://www.budsartbooks.com/product/the-art-of-popeye-a-masterwork-of-the-medium/
It is only three years late, unlike the seven years for the Johnny Hart book.
https://popeye.com/2021/01/25/popeye-partners-with-hermes-press-for-exciting-new-book/
I think I will hold off on listing Hermes books until Bud Plant lists them as “in stock.”