Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 [Hardcover]

Dan Nadel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

Before the rise of underground comics in the late 1960s, there was no place for eccentric talent in the comics industry. Rather than creating super heroes like Superman and Spider-Man, or comic strips like Peanuts, the artists represented in "Art Out of Time" created their own "ingenious" versions of the super hero, western, romance, humour, and horror genres that dominated the comics of their day. All of them were unappreciated in their lifetimes, and all of them remain outside the usual narratives of comic book history. "Art out of Time" reprints complete comic book and comic strip stories. In five thematic sections, this anthology is a counter history of comics, containing nearly thirty undiscovered visionary American cartoonists from 1900 to 1969. These artists, including Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, and Ben Katchor, foreshadowed and influenced the comics medium of today. Together for the first time, these oddballs and obsessives truly constitute an art that is out of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. There are lots of anthologies of the work of the past century's famous cartoonists, but Nadel has done a real service in putting together this collection of 29 marvelous nearly unknown comic strip and comic book artists. Many are reprinted from yellowing newsprint—in a few cases, like Walter Quermann's late-'30s newspaper strip Hickory Hollow Folks, from the only copies of their work still extant. Only a few, like Ogden Whitney's poker-faced '60s comic book Herbie, have ever been reprinted before. Nadel's five categories, "Exercises in Exploration," "Slapstick," "Acts of Drawing," "Words in Pictures" and "Form and Style," sometimes seem arbitrary; the biographical notes at the back are informative but all too brief. Still, it's hard to argue with the comics themselves. Charles Forbell's 1913 newspaper strip Naughty Pete looks like it had a huge influence on Chris Ware; Gustave Verbeek's bonkers formal experiment The Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo, from 1904, is still hilarious and sui generis; Rory Hayes's crude but meticulous horror stories from 1969's Bogeyman Comics, the most recent pieces here, were decades ahead of their time. Contemporary cartoonists—and their fans—have a lot to learn from the freewheeling, witty, try-anything-twice artistic attitude of the pieces Nadel's assembled. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Most comics, the earliest in particular, haven't been seen since their original newspaper and comic-book publications. In this eye-popping full-color volume, editor Nadel resurrects whole Sunday strips, strip story arcs, and comic-book stories by 29 creators he thinks are too good to be left moldering in archives. He groups his picks under section titles denoting their particular distinctions; for instance, those corralled as "Exercises in Exploration" show their protagonists on the move through locales familiar and exotic. A few creators--Jewish humorists Milt Gross and Harry Hershfeld, influential animated cartoonist Gene Deitch (Mister Magoo, Tom Terrific), cartoonist-turned-TV-writer Jack Mendelsohn (The Carol Burnett Show, Three's Company)----haven't been utterly forgotten, but the outstanding, if not always masterly, quality of the drawing, in particular, in all the selections argues that those who are have been wronged. The book would be the comics-revival event of the year if only it were more oversize than it is, for in the earliest Sunday-page reproductions, the words are near-unreadably tiny. Nadel's prose should have been tidied, too. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Abrams; First Edition edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810958384
• ISBN-13: 978-0810958388
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > History & Price Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair Warning, September 4, 2007

By 

BigBadBabyBoomer "Harry-K" (Next Planet Over) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 (Hardcover)

Yes...it is a great compliation of some of the forgotten Golden Age cartoon work...like the wonderful "Explorigator"...but, and this is a Big BUT...

Those great old full-sheet Sunday Comics have been reduced to 8 x 11...can't even read the type-face with a good glass magnifier. And while the art work has some fabulous color it too is reduced to the point of....well you think about it!

The good news is the Intro, the Bibliography and the Resources are excellent for your further research.

P.S. My "mint" copy will be available on eBay shortly

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readers involved in comic history, evolution and art simply must have, July 24, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 (Hardcover)

Any involved in the comics must have ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMICS VISIONARIES, 1900-1969: it celebrates the lesser-known work of Bob Powell, Astan MacGovern, Boody Rogers and others who proved eccentric but influential comic visionaries before the rose of underground comics in the late 1960s. These artists created their own versions of western, romance, humor and horror genres and worked within the confines of popular comics of their times to provide visionary works. Some became famous, others remained obscure. ART OUT OF TIME reprints complete comic book and strip stories: many appear here for the first time since their first appearance. A thematic organization allows for quick access while surveys of pre-underground stars makes for a winning collection. Another big plus: the strips appear in full color, capturing all the nuances of the originals and losing nothing in translation. Readers involved in comic history, evolution and art simply must have ART OUT OF TIME.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comic Art Supreme, March 8, 2007

By 

L. M. Moorcock "Old Crone" (Bastrop, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 (Hardcover)

I bought this book for my husband for Christmas on the recommendation of one of his friends who knows his taste. A comics afficiado from way back, he has been over the moon about the book to the extent that we have given copies to various other of his friends as well. Everyone who has received it RAVES about it ... its coverage, thoroughness, graphics, etc. So no doubt that this book is da bomb! If you're even vaguely interested in the subject area, this is definitely the book for you.