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For me, and I admit I have specialized taste, the best news coming out San Diego was the announcement that Fantagraphics is going to reprinting Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comic strips, which really was during the 1930s one of the great adventure strips. This will be hard for anyone who hasn’t read Gottfredson’s work to believe, but his Mickey Mouse was as rousing as Roy Crane’s Captain Easy and as rich in invention as Barks’ longer Duck stories.

Given the track record of Fanta’s excellent design and editorial team, I’m confident that Gottfredson is in good hands. A word of advice: I’d suggest that Fanta recruit Kevin Huizenga to write an intro for one of these books. Huizenga has a keen appreciation for Gottfredson’s cartooning, as can be seen in this tribute page from Or Else #3. Huizenga, by the way, is completely right about Gottfredson’s profusive use of sweat drops. Gottfredson must have been the sweatiest cartoonist ever (close second: Dan Clowes).

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Here’s a few Halloween reading suggestions.

Bonus: Kelly Link recommends Lynda Barry‘s Cruddy for the holiday, a book I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read, even though my wife recommended it to me years ago when we first started dating. I might give it a try tonight. Why am I more willing to take advice from a stranger on the Internet than from someone whose tastes I know and trust? That is a recurring thing with me, and it is seriously messed up.

Not recommended: The Nightmare Factory, a new collection of comics based on the work of horror writer Thomas Ligotti. Most of the art here is seriously ugly (and not in a good way). This recent interview with Ligotti is somewhat alarming Halloween reading, though. I think he needs to watch some Laurel & Hardy movies or something.