Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice is well known for her colorful adventures in Wonderland. But it wasn’t until she graced the pages of comic books that her experiences became truly bizarre.

Archie was created by Bob Montana, but Dan DiCarlo gave Archie and his pals the looks and personalities we are familiar with. Someone at Walt Disney Studios created Donald Duck, but it took cartoonist Carl Barks to transform the sailor-suited waterfowl from a screechy ill-tempered time bomb into a scheming, but good-hearted uncle to three industrious ducklings. And E.C. Segar created Popeye, J. Wellington Wimpy, Olive Oyl, Sweepea, and Bluto, but Bud Sagendorf's incredibly entertaining comic books about the one-eye sailor are the canonical Popeye (at least to me), on par with Little Lulu (created by Marjorie Henderson Buell and brought to life by John Stanley) and Barks' Uncle Scrooge.

My friend and cartoon historian Craig Yoe has been editing collections of Sagendorf's Popeye comics books, published as reasonably-priced hardcovers by IDW. Popeye Classics Volume 1 came out earlier this year, and Volume 2 is forthcoming. Like Uncle Scrooge and Little Lulu, these are great comics to read with your kids. Below, a couple of sample spreads. Read the rest

[Video Link] My pal Craig Yoe (Listen to my Gweek podcast interview with him) has a new book out: Zombies: The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics Vol. 3

From the banned 1950s horror comics that Dr. Fredric Wertham, the U.S. Senate, and mothers everywhere didn't want their innocent children to devour, comes a terrifying and timely anthology of comics of the undead, "Zombies." These nightmarish stories of the unstoppable living dead will make your spine freeze in terror! You'll thrill to ghoulish artwork by masters like Jack Cole, Bob Powell, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Lou Cameron, Reed Crandall, Rudy Palais, Frank Frazetta, Basil Worverton, and more!

Co-edited and designed by Eisner winner Craig Yoe with an introduction by the host of the popular "The Horror of It All" blog, Steve "Kaerwell" Banes.

Buy Zombies: The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics Vol. 3 on Amazon Read the rest

My friend Craig Yoe (a designer and comic book historian whom I interviewed on Gweek a while back) has has edited over 30 books about comic books and illustration, including Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman, Amazing 3-D Comics, Archie: A Celebration Of America's Favorite Teenagers, The Golden Collection Of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics, Dan DeCarlo's Jetta, The Art Of Ditko, Boody: The Bizarre Comics Of Boody Rogers, And Secret Identity: The Fetish Art Of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster.

Craig's latest book is a 220-page deluxe hardcover anthology of Carl Barks' Barney Bear comics, which Barks drew before working on the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics he became rightfully famous for. Barks is considered by many people (including me) to be one of the top 10 comic book artists of all time. It's a lot of fun to read these Barney Bear comics and see the same style of Barksian plotting, characters, humor, and drawing style that my kids and I love so much in the duck comics.

Carl barks drew Barney Bear and Benny Burro comics from 1944 to 1947. In the introduction to his anthology, Craig says:

Of his comic booking in general, Barks stated, “I worked hard at trying to make something as good as I could make it. When I took the finished art into the office and turned it over to the editor, I was satisfied that I had done it the very best I could.

Read the rest