Felix the Cat, the wonderful wonderful cat! Felix's original artist, Otto Messmer, penned brilliant stories for Dell and Harvey during comic books' Golden Age. Well over two-hundred pages showcase Felix's magic carpet trips to surreal lands, time's past, and into Toy Land, as well as his hilarious domestic adventures, too. Felix the Cat's Greatest Comic Book Tails sports a fascinating foreword by Don Oriolo, son of Joe Oriolo, whose wonderful stories ran alongside Messmer's and are included in the book. Comic Historian Craig Yoe sets the stage in his introduction with revealing behind-the-scenes insight complemented by rare original art and ephemera. As with the entire line of Yoe Books, the reproduction techniques employed strive to preserve the look and feel of expensive vintage comics. Painstakingly remastered, enjoy the closest possible recreation of reading these comics when first released.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Brookslyn
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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Length:
2:01
Mins
This is a great book for any Felix the Cat or Golden Age Comic Book collector. If you know someone named Felix, you should also buy this book! I pre-ordered this book months ago when very little information was available, armed only with the knowledge that the two other books to deal with Felix The Cat, both now out of print, far exceeded my expectations and got me into collecting Felix the Cat comic books and news strips (Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat by John Canemaker and Nine Lives to Live (collection of comic strips) edited by David Gerstein). This book resembles neither of those and complements them well, providing some neat memorabilia (some of which I'd not seen previously) and words from Joe Oriolo and Craig Yoe, with the majority of the book reprinting classic stories from the Dell and Toby comics (sorry in the video review I list Harvey, but on second check that's incorrect). With these three books you'll have a nice history of Felix the Cat, a very good sampling of the Sunday's and dailies from the first half of the century and some nice reprints from the comic books.
The book is very sturdy and the spine does not buckle when the book is fully open. The cover is slightly different than the one posted on Amazon, but Felix is very prominent in glossy black with the title and authors in glossy white (the remainder of the cover is a matte white). The re-printed stories appear color-accurate to their originals and not touched up (ie they appear to be high quality color scans from printed comic books) to their originals (as opposed to the Harvey Classic reprints from the 90s which were re-colored and cleaned) and are about 10-20% larger in size than the Golden Age originals. The pages themselves are off-white (maybe light peach?) of heavier, matte (non-shiny) paper stock, perfect for re-reading! For collectors, the Dedication Page (page with ISBN number) includes a break down of page art by Joe Oriolo and Otto Messmer... helpful, since I have yet to see a comprehensive list of Felix the Cat stories/strips along with their publication date/writer/artist listing.
I really didn't know what to expect from this book, but after reading it, it just makes me want more! I guess I'm a true fan. Hopefully IDW, Craig Yoe and Don Oriolo continue the Felix revival.
Here are some things I look forward (hoping) to seeing in the future (print or on-line).
1. The complete comic strips in chronological order!
2. A cross-reference of comic strips/comic stories (because the strips were syndicated in many different newspapers, then reprinted in some comics).
3. An "art of" book with production and pre-production art (like the ink w/blue line on the last page of this book).
4. More reprints of the comic books (in chronological order), maybe like the Gladstone Carl Barks Library or like the Hailton Felix Keeps On Walking publication.
Now hurry up and ADD THIS TO YOUR CART!
The book is very sturdy and the spine does not buckle when the book is fully open. The cover is slightly different than the one posted on Amazon, but Felix is very prominent in glossy black with the title and authors in glossy white (the remainder of the cover is a matte white). The re-printed stories appear color-accurate to their originals and not touched up (ie they appear to be high quality color scans from printed comic books) to their originals (as opposed to the Harvey Classic reprints from the 90s which were re-colored and cleaned) and are about 10-20% larger in size than the Golden Age originals. The pages themselves are off-white (maybe light peach?) of heavier, matte (non-shiny) paper stock, perfect for re-reading! For collectors, the Dedication Page (page with ISBN number) includes a break down of page art by Joe Oriolo and Otto Messmer... helpful, since I have yet to see a comprehensive list of Felix the Cat stories/strips along with their publication date/writer/artist listing.
I really didn't know what to expect from this book, but after reading it, it just makes me want more! I guess I'm a true fan. Hopefully IDW, Craig Yoe and Don Oriolo continue the Felix revival.
Here are some things I look forward (hoping) to seeing in the future (print or on-line).
1. The complete comic strips in chronological order!
2. A cross-reference of comic strips/comic stories (because the strips were syndicated in many different newspapers, then reprinted in some comics).
3. An "art of" book with production and pre-production art (like the ink w/blue line on the last page of this book).
4. More reprints of the comic books (in chronological order), maybe like the Gladstone Carl Barks Library or like the Hailton Felix Keeps On Walking publication.
Now hurry up and ADD THIS TO YOUR CART!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By David Burd
Format:Hardcover
Felix the Cat has been around now for nearly a hundred years. You don't last that long without changing to fit the audience. The earliest Felix animated cartoons were shown in movie theaters and intended for adults. My generation remembers the Felix TV cartoons that were clearly aimed at kids. The Felix the Cat comic books, however, appear to have been created for people on LSD. Except, since LSD hadn't been developed yet, perhaps they were created for the kids who would later grow up and invent LSD. (I'll bet Timothy Leary read Felix comics. Can you prove that he didn't?)
No, I'm not condoning drug use. In fact, psychedelics are completely unnecessary when you read these stories. They are wild flights of fantasy that leap off the page and worm their way directly into the subconscious mind; they are dreams on paper. Flying carpets, walking fish, talking vegetables - anything can happen in these stories and always does. And Felix is right there in the thick of the action, enjoying the ride, whether it's a visit to Candy Land or the moon. "Fantastic" in the truest sense.
Editor Craig Yoe and Felix honcho Don Oriolo have collected these vintage comic books and presented them in a gorgeous volume that belongs on every coffee table and bookshelf. The comic pages are reproduced as is, not doctored, re-colored and "improved" like in so many inferior collections. This is as close as you can get to reading the original vintage comic books. As usual with Yoe Books, it's beautifully designed and printed, with full-color endpapers, sturdy binding (unlike the flimsy comic books) and a very cool cover. Reminiscent of the Beatles so-called "White Album," the cover is white with the title printed in a clear varnish. When you're as famous as Felix, you don't need a name to let people know who you are.
In addition to the comic books from the `40s and `50s, the book contains 30-some pages of introductory material and rare, vintage artwork, nicely rounding out the package.
Yoe has set the standard for books of this ilk. Anyone else attempting to collect and reprint comics has to match this quality just to get in the game.
No, I'm not condoning drug use. In fact, psychedelics are completely unnecessary when you read these stories. They are wild flights of fantasy that leap off the page and worm their way directly into the subconscious mind; they are dreams on paper. Flying carpets, walking fish, talking vegetables - anything can happen in these stories and always does. And Felix is right there in the thick of the action, enjoying the ride, whether it's a visit to Candy Land or the moon. "Fantastic" in the truest sense.
Editor Craig Yoe and Felix honcho Don Oriolo have collected these vintage comic books and presented them in a gorgeous volume that belongs on every coffee table and bookshelf. The comic pages are reproduced as is, not doctored, re-colored and "improved" like in so many inferior collections. This is as close as you can get to reading the original vintage comic books. As usual with Yoe Books, it's beautifully designed and printed, with full-color endpapers, sturdy binding (unlike the flimsy comic books) and a very cool cover. Reminiscent of the Beatles so-called "White Album," the cover is white with the title printed in a clear varnish. When you're as famous as Felix, you don't need a name to let people know who you are.
In addition to the comic books from the `40s and `50s, the book contains 30-some pages of introductory material and rare, vintage artwork, nicely rounding out the package.
Yoe has set the standard for books of this ilk. Anyone else attempting to collect and reprint comics has to match this quality just to get in the game.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A. Miller
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a must have for the general reader and the serious collector of comic art. The excellent content is beautifully reproduced and the over all book design is superb. Craig Yoe just keeps topping himself!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Felix the Cat does it again!
This book is a great collection of Felix the Cat stories from days past. Also, the book is a work library!of art in itself. Read more
Published 4 months ago by fastedie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
I watched this cartoon when I was a kid. This book is everything I loved about the show plus some background information on the creator and the start of the comic.
Published 6 months ago by S. H. Brandt
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delivers Plenty of Laughs
Felix the Cat had his heyday in black-and-white silent cartoons in the 1920s, but that was just the beginning. Read more
Published 23 months ago by GraphicNovelReporter.com
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another amazing book by Craig Yoe!
As with all of Craig Yoe's books for IDW Publishing, "Felix the Cat: The Great Comic Book Tails" is beautifully done. Read more
Published on September 15, 2010 by M. Dog
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