{"id":8048,"date":"2011-01-11T22:33:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T03:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=8048"},"modified":"2011-01-11T22:33:52","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T03:33:52","slug":"right-comics-wrong-format-sugar-and-spike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=8048","title":{"rendered":"Right Comics, Wrong Format: Sugar and Spike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/comicscomicsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SugarSpikeArch1.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8050\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/comicscomicsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SugarSpikeArch1.jpg?resize=203%2C270\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Normally I\u2019d be overjoyed at the news that DC comics is at long last doing a book reprinting Sugar and Spike, the delightful kids comics Sheldon Mayer started in 1956\u00a0 and continued working on till 1992. Chronicling the misadventures of two talking babies (who can communicate with each other and other kids but not adults), Sugar and Spike hasn\u2019t received the critical acclaim doled out to Carl Barks or John Stanley, but the series has a real sweetness to it that is worth cherishing.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Alas, DC is going to reprint the first 10 issues of Sugar and Spike in their dreadful \u201cArchives\u201d format. So the books are going to be overpriced, garishly colored, hideously designed and all-round ugly. It\u2019s a real shame and completely unnecessary because the Archive format is a dying one. In recent years DC has improved its reprint game, especially with the handsome Omnibus books devoted to Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Given this new flexibility in reprints, why stick with the \u201cArchives\u201d format? Why not hire out a good designer \u2013 there are many in comics right now \u2013 to do something handsome like the Moomin books or the John Stanley Library or the Toon Treasury. How often does this complaint need to be made?<\/p>\n<p>The mistreatment of Mayer\u2019s Sugar and Spike is especially galling because it\u2019s happening at the same time that Fantagraphics is set to do justice to Carl Barks. Sheldon Mayer devoted his life to working for DC comics and they treat his legacy with a slapdash, thoughtless\u00a0shoddiness.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, if you want to see Mayer\u2019s work treated right, read the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.powells.com\/biblio\/1-9780810957305-0\">Toon Treasury<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Normally I\u2019d be overjoyed at the news that DC comics is at long last doing a book reprinting Sugar and Spike, the delightful kids comics Sheldon Mayer started in 1956\u00a0 and continued working on till 1992. Chronicling the misadventures of two talking babies (who can communicate with each other and other kids but not adults), Sugar and Spike hasn\u2019t received the critical acclaim doled out to Carl Barks or John [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1199,1319],"class_list":["post-8048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-mayer","tag-toon-treasury"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}