A Poll
by Dan Nadel
Monday, February 25, 2008
Frank’s love letter to Ogden Whitney (I could almost see the tear stains on my monitor) revived my dream (shared by Frank, as well as Bill Boichel) of releasing a “best of Ogden Whitney” book through PictureBox. Yes, it is a grand fantasy. And, in this day and age of newfound celebrity for Fletcher Hanks, perhaps it’s possible. Maybe. So, I put it to you, dear readers, would you buy a $25, 144 page full color collection of the best of Ogden? 50 pages or Romance, 30 pages of Sci-Fi, 50 pages of Herbie and maybe some super hero and crime stuff thrown in for good measure? Hmm? Take this poll and let us know. Why, this could be a Comics Comics brand book for all we know! Imagine that!
Also, an original art dealer recently told me that he heard from Ogden Whitney’s son. He has since lost the contact info. Now, as far as I know Whitney didn’t have any children. But, if you know different, or, if you’re related to him, please email me: dan (at) pictureboxinc.com.
Thanks.
Labels: Bill Boichel, Fletcher Hanks, Frank Santoro, Ogden Whitney, PictureBox
hell yes i would pick that up!
Emboss the mutha, foil stamping, gold leaf, and one of those little silken book strings to keep me in my proper page. I would prefer even more arts than 144 and would pay up to and including s and h…
50 american dollars.
Due to an intense, some might say unhealthy, love of the Herbie strips, I would say absolutely print it up. I can’t actually admit to having thought very much about the art in the Herbie strips (more the jokes) but I would welcome the opportunity to read a huge shock of them while at the same time investigating Whitney as an artist and coming to some new understanding of his work.
well, I know I’d like the Herbie stuff. I’m completely unfamiliar with his other work. I think it would be a great book though, based on the quality of the Herbie stuff alone.
Absolutely. I’d prefer to see a separate (complete – like the EC library?) Herbie book, though, and only have a token Herbie story appear in a “Best of” compilation. Selection of stories would be key – I would expect to enjoy the sf stories (I’m thinking of the ACG stories here) more than I would even the most beautifully drawn romance story UNLESS the plot/writign of the romance story itself was v3ery good.
But yeah, I’d probably buy it no matter what.
More than 144 pages. Print some in black and white if it helps with the cost.
Yeah, I’m with Jim.
The colouring on those old Herbies was nothing special, make this a big fat b&w collection, and I’m sure I’ll be able to sell a few of them.
We NEED this and a Boody Rodgers book.
YES YES AND MORE YES.
PS- yes to more pages, no to b&w.
The dream is:
More pages, more Herbie and re-colored!
But I’d buy it in any form described above.
re-colored?
never.
Only to make the colors look the way they were meant to look, rather than the they were printed or have deteriorated.
But that’s just my preference.
Of course, the few stories of his I’ve seen were in pretty good shape anyway, so it’s not a big deal.
yup, I’d buy.
I’d gladly buy some complete Herbie, and called for such a thing in my Reprint This! series. If I needed to buy a “Best Of” Whitney book to convince somebody to get me more Herbie, then so be it.
I can’t promise I would purchase the book, but I would be interested in reading it, perhaps from a public library.
I agree with what Scott says (though I prefer romance to science fiction). Herbie should have his own, complete book. I would be very interested in a book of Whitney’s other work, maybe incorporated into a “best of ACG” type of collection.
Hey “Anonymous”– Boody Rodgers book coming up next season from Fantagraphics. I haven’t seen all the work for it yet but it’s sure to be pure, battering sweetness.
Another book worth noting here is one that Dan Nadel himself is doing with Fanta– a collection of Rory Hayes going to press shortly.
No wayyy! I had no idea about the Boody Rogers book but was thinking about how that would be great. (I think it should have an intro by Matt Thurber but maybe I’m the only person who sees a correllation there.)
Didn’t I also hear something about Dan editing a Bungle Family book, or has that been put on the backburner?
I would definitely purchase the book.
FUCK
YES
I cast another vote for letting the color repro stand as is, like the Fletcher hanks book and Art out of Time. Oh yeah, I also vote for less herbie, with a separate herbie book chock a block with fat fury.
FYI, Dark Horse will be reprinting Herbie. From Comic Book REsources list of new DH solicitations:
HERBIE ARCHIVE VOLUME 1
Shane O’Shea (W) and Ogden Whitney (A)
On sale Aug 20
FC, 224 pages
$49.95
HC, 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″
Make way for the Fat Fury! The unlikeliest superhero of all time makes his mark in this new Dark Horse archival series. Coming from the strange, wry imagination of classic comics scribe Richard Hughes (writing as Shane O’Shea) and artist Odgen Whitney, Herbie Popnecker looks like a plump lump, but with his collection of supernatural lollipops, there is pretty much nothing that he can’t do.
• Herbie Archives Volume One is the first of a new archive series collecting the finest works of 1960s comics publisher ACG.
• Herbie Archives Volume 1 collects the earliest appearances of Herbie, as he battles monsters, bends time and space, and gets the better of Fidel Castro! Herbie is a delightfully weird, all-ages barrel of laughs!
50 bucks? Fuck that.
You know, I’m stoked that anyone is doing this, so go Dark Horse, but I’m sort of with Frank about the price… Who decided that all of DC and Dark Horse’s Archive books had to be $50?! There’s a lot of material collected in this form that I would love to have in a cheaper format. But I don’t know if I really need a high-end hardcover format of Ramona Fradon’s Aquaman, as much as I love the stuff. Why are the only options for this stuff either shitty, underproduced B&W newsprint (a la the Essential collections) or overproduced and overpriced material in a generic hardcover design? Can’t I just get like a fat, color, paperback of some of this stuff? There was some talk here at the time of doing the Fletcher Hanks book in hardcover and I’m all the more glad we didn’t, even though he would’ve been more worthy than a lot of material in that format.
Herbie Archives? NO!
I want
ABSOLUTE HERBIE!
I have some original Whitney art & the detail of the drawings (which are hard to see when printed at regular comic size) is amazing.
Herbie is fat, the books should be too!
Popnecker Out!