Why read The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics?

Book cover of The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

Book description

Selected comic treasures from American newspaper pages from 1896 to the 1970s display a range of graphic experimentation and imaginative storytelling

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Michael Tisserand

Author

Bill Blackbeard was the Harry Smith of comics. Just as Smith’s landmark Anthology of American Folk Music helped launch a folk music revival, so did Blackbeard’s massive volume of old newspaper comics spark a new generation of comics fandom and scholarship. This was also the first book of old newspaper funnies I ever read, during a childhood Saturday afternoon in the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana, when I discovered the magical “741.5” shelf that held books of comics. Other big, beautiful anthologies of old newspaper funnies have been compiled by comics creators like Jerry Robinson and Brian Walker, but Blackbeard…

From Michael's list on The best books for reading century-old newspaper funnies.