Lulu Book Three

The third and final (for now) volume of Drawn + Quarterly's full-color hardcover Little Lulu books has been out for a bit. I'm sad that the series has been put on hiatus just as it was picking up some steam. 

Alas, the current copyright holder of the Lulu entity, who has no plans to do anything with this property, declined to renew the license. Their reasons are unconvincing and a lot of hard work done on the fourth, fifth and sixth book has bitten the dust.

There's a chance the tide may turn back in our favor, but once a property is in the hands of a mega-corp owner who just regards it as a thing (like Charles Foster Kane with his warehouse of unseen art treasures) rather than something that makes the world a better place, like these classic Lulu stories, it's not looking too rosy that this series will continue.

If you've not picked up this third volume, please consider getting it. I think the story selection is outstanding, with some of my top favorites from the 14-year run of the John Stanley-written iteration. When and if said megacorp decides to allow the renewal of the license, we hope to finish the six-book series. If not, well, it's been fun and at least we got the original, un-traced versions of some of the best stories from the first six years of the title back into print.

Little Lulu Book Two: "The Fuzzythingus Poopi"

 

It took me awhile to get my copies of this book, which premiered on September 1st, but  I'm happy to say the Drawn and Quarterly production team did a splendid job on this volume.

The book has not received much publicity, but is handsomely mounted. Choosing the stories for this book, which span issues 7-26 of the original comic book series, was a challenge, because there are so many fine stories. I think we got a good mix of story types.

Here are the contents of this volume:

Introduction by Eileen Myles

“The Snowball War” (Marge’s Little Lulu #7, 1/1949)

“Tubby Takes Care of Things” (Lulu #7)

“Beautiful Lulu” (Lulu #8, 2/49)

“The Cloud that Ran Away” (Lulu #9, 3/49)

“Bank Robbery” (Lulu #10, 4/49)

“The Musician” (Lulu #10)

“Lulus Diry” (Lulu #10)

“Housekeeper Wanted” (Lulu #11, 5/49)

“The Sea Dogs” (Lulu #12, 6/49)

Untitled story: Lulu crashes the boys’ soapbox derby (Lulu #13, 7/49)

Untitled story: Lulu has an epic desert nightmare (Lulu #13)

Untitled story: Lulu saves the day with her police whistle (Lulu #14, 8/49)

Untitled story: Lulu helps a homeless ghost (Lulu #15, 9/49)

“Lulus Diry” (Lulu #15)

Untitled story: Lulu foils the boys’ beauty contest (Lulu #16, 10/49)

“The Deep Black River” (Lulu #17, 11/49)

Untitled story: Lulu foils a cat burglar (Lulu #17)

Untitled story: Lulu makes a poor girl’s Christmas special (Lulu  #18, 12/49)

“Little Lulu” (half-page pantomime gag, Lulu #10, 4/49)

“The Hairbrush Mystery”  (Lulu #19, 1/1950)

“The Little Girl with No Name” (Lulu #20, 2/50)

“Lulus Diry” (Lulu #20)

“Frog’s Legs” (Lulu #21, 3/50)

“Alvinsitting” (Lulu #22, 4/50)

“Junior Detective Tubby” (Lulu #23, 5/50)

“Great Day” (Lulu #23)

“Rainy Day” (Lulu #24, 6/50)

“The Old Master” (Lulu #24)

“Tubby” (half-page pantomime gag, Lulu #12, 6/49)

“The Fuzzythingus Poopi” (Lulu #25, 7/50)

“Friends and Enemies” (Lulu #26, 8/50)

“Tubby” (half-page pantomime gag, Lulu #10, 4/49)

Cover Gallery, issues 7-26

Afterword: “Sweat Equity: John Stanley’s Little Lulu Comes Together” by Frank M. Young

The third book is in production and promises to be the best volume in the series. I hope this information is helpful and that you'll pick up a copy of this book if you've not already.

All John Stanley Books Available as E-Books!

I know I'm a bit late to the game, but my four books on John Stanley are now available as full-color e-books that contain all the content of the print editions, and are priced at $9.99 each.

THE TAO OF YOW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SGRCX1

1940s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086T5QKL5

1950s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SFTYKY

1960s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SFJJ3Y

Since Amazon may not be able to fulfill print-on-demand orders due to the apocalypse, this is an immediate way to access these four books. Thanks for your indulgence of this commercial.

In other news, the second volume in Drawn + Quarterly's hardcover, full-color Little Lulu books, The Fuzzythingus Poopi, is headed to the printers. I selected the stories, which are some of the best in Stanley's career, and wrote a long-ish afterword, entitled "Sweat Equity." The color reproduction is even better than the first volume, and this handsome book will be a gift of joy and laughter to a world that needs these things!

Book Revue

Just a couple of recent developments you folks might find of interest...

I spent the past two years restoring Cecil Jensen's indescribably droll, dark and whacked-out newspaper comic strip Elmo. It ran from 1946 to 1948, and it defines the notion of a concept that came before its time.

The strip was scorned by the public-at-large, badly printed in the few newspapers that carried it, and destined to be a forgotten treasure of 20th-century American pop culture.

No longer. This 206-page 8.5" square trade paperback contains the entirety of the original run of Elmo, augmented with a biographical introduction by myself (which contains several examples of Jensen's editorial cartooning, for which he was best-known).

The comic strips have been painstakingly restored from the best sources I could locate, and it took a lot of hard work to bring this book to fruition.

As with my four books on John Stanley, Elmo is self-published, and can be purchased HERE for $14.99 USD. You may preview the book at this link. If you appreciate the humor of John Stanley, I think you'll cotton to Elmo.

And, of course, coming on November 26th is this book--the first in a six-volume series that collects my favorite Little Lulu stories and reprints them accurately for the first time at full comic-book size and in color. The first volume, Working Girl, features the three debut Lulu comics, which were John Stanley's work from cover to cover, art and story. A selection of stories from the next seven one-shot trial issues and the first six issues of the regular series rounds out the first volume.

Prior reprints of these three comics were done from amateurish tracings which Bruce Hamilton commissioned in the 1980s. Those impostors are a vulgarity, and can be discarded. This is the real deal. The production staff at Drawn + Quarterly have done these stories proud. All but one issue used in this volume comes from my personal collection--as will the bulk of the stories in subsequent books.

Each book has an afterword by me discussing John Stanley's career and spotlighting a handful of exceptional stories--kind of a fancy, tangible version of this blog in its heyday.
Little Lulu: Working Girl may be pre-ordered HERE. These books will come out on a regular schedule. I'm working on the scans for the fifth book in the series at present. It's my hope that these books will establish an adult readership for Little Lulu. I am honored to be the co-editor of this book series. 

"The Bogyman"—John Stanley's Forbidden Little Lulu Story In Color; Farewell To This Blog

This blog is a decade old. It's a done deal, for the most part. I wanted to mark its 10 years of existence with one last special post.

In addition to revising, redesigning and updating my three volume bibliography of the published works of John Stanley, I also revamped The Tao of Yow, my book of essays on Stanley's work. This new edition is available HERE, or can be had at a discount by contacting me directly at eubiecat at gmail dot com.

The original edition was poorly laid out, and never sat well with me. Not many people have bought the book, so I didn't think I'd upset anyone by improving it. Now, I feel it's as good as it can ever be. As with the bibliographies, these new edition are final. I will not change them unless an avalanche of new information turns up (which could happen, but is not likely).

The final section of the first edition of the book featured my colored version of "The Bogeyman," the infamous banned 1950 Little Lulu story. I've decided to remove it from the book, so this first-ever color version, which few people have seen, is my last posting of substance on Stanley Stories. I hope you enjoy seeing the story in color.

Preceding it is the text from the former version of the book that accompanied the story. This feels like an apt sunset for Stanley Stories. This blog, and all its content, will remain on the Web as long as Blogger will tolerate it. I hope it will continue to be a source of entertainment, information and interest in the coming years.

All John Stanley Bibliography Books Updated and Redesigned!

If you have been holding off on purchasing these three volumes, I'm happy to announce that I've completely refurbished them all, with more competent and appealing layouts and graphics than earlier versions. This is the last revision I'll make on the series. Unless important new information on Stanley's comics career appears in the future, or someone offers firm proof that I've mis-credited anyone (Stanley included), I won't change them again.

These are available on amazon.com and createspace.com... but if you're interested in purchasing them from me, at a lower price than either site offers them, please contact me at eubiecat at gmail dot com with your zip code and I'll calculate the cost for you. These books will be shipped to you directly from the printer.

At left are the new covers for the three volumes. I've substantially slimmed down their page counts by the use of smaller type and more workable layouts. 

The 1940s book has 128 pp., the 1950s book 156 pp. and the 1960s book 104 pp. The interiors are full color, and still contain the superb cover scans done by Dell Comics expert Alan Hutchinson.

You can preview the innards of these new editions HERE, HERE and HERE. I think they're much improved, and I hope they meet with your liking.

Meanwhile, work continues on the forthcoming first volume of the Drawn & Quarterly-published Complete Little Lulu hardcover series. I'm excited about this series, and feel they will contribute enormously to getting adult readers to read John Stanley's greatest work.

More news on that project as it moves along. 

That's all for now...

Here's That Big News: Drawn + Quarterly to Reprint Little Lulu The Right Way!

HERE is the official announcement from Drawn + Quarterly... the first volume in this series, which will reprint selections from the 10 one-shot issues of Little Lulu (and the first six regular series issues) in color, not traced, and in a comic book-size version, as they were meant to be seen, with editorial material written by myself (story notes, short essays on various aspects of John Stanley's work).

Donate those Dark Horse paperbacks to Goodwill. You won't need them anymore. More details as the first volume comes to fruition.