Killer Serials: Comic Strips For Comic Fans
Oct 29, 2015
During the pre-Golden Age era of the comics industry, collected runs of popular newspaper comic strips were the stuff that made up the contents of the earliest comic books. This repurposing of the comic strips eventually lead to the development of new material to support the fledgling format, soon after growing to dominate the market for decades to come. But there will always be a connection to the newspaper comic strips of yesterday amongst many comic book fans, especially those special strips based on the popular comic book characters that replaced the comic strip reprints; it’s kind of like a comic circle of life.
So here are some of our recommendations for comic strip collections that will appeal to comic book fans; collections of daily and Sunday newspaper comic strips starring some of our favorite comic book heroes, from the 1940s to today!
 |
CONAN: THE NEWSPAPER STRIPS VOLUME 1 HC
Dark Horse
By Crom! Conan the Barbarian ran as a daily comic strip from Sep. 4, 1978 until Apr. 12, 1981, written by his comic book “father” Roy Thomas and Doug Moench, and featuring a Who’s Who of Conan’s most elite artists: John Buscema, Ernie Chan, Alfredo Alcala, Rudy Nebres, Pablo Marcos, and more! THIS is what is best in life!
MAY100028 $34.99
 |
STAR TREK: THE NEWSPAPER STRIPS
IDW Publishing
On December 2nd, 1979, five days before the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in theaters, Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise went where they had never gone before: your local newspaper! The series ran until Oct. 25th, 1981, and featured work by Ron Harris and more. Alas, it did not “Live Long, and Prosper”, but IDW has collected the entire series in two hardcover collections!
V1/ AUG120371 $49.99
V2/ JUL130345 $49.99
 |
BATMAN: SILVER AGE NEWSPAPER COMICS
IDW Publishing
The Batman comic strip debuted in May of 1966 during the “Batmania” craze surrounding the hit TV series, and featured stories by longtime editor Whitney Ellsworth, with art by DC stalwarts Shelly Moldoff, Joe Giella, and Carmine Infantino. Plenty of Batman and Robin’s Rogues Gallery were featured, along with appearances by Batgirl! IDW plans to collect the entire run in three volumes, two of which are referenced here.
V1/ NOV130336 $49.99
V2/ AUG140503 $49.99
 |
SUPERMAN: THE GOLDEN AGE SUNDAYS / THE SILVER AGE DAILIES
IDW Publishing
The Man of Steel was one of the first comic book heroes to make the leap to the daily funny pages, and IDW will be collecting comic strips from three major publishing periods for Superman: the Golden Age, Atomic Age, and Silver Age. Their Golden Age Sundays volume is a separate series, collecting the color Sundays from the 1940s. Currently, IDW is restoring and collecting the Superman strips from the Silver Age, with the Atomic and Golden ages to follow. The Silver Age Dailies feature art by the legendary Curt Swan, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye, with scripts by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and stories by Otto Binder, Robert Bender, Jerry Coleman!
GAS1/ OCT130430 $49.99
GAS2/ JUL140419 $49.99
SAV1/ APR130308 $49.99
SAV2/ JAN140494 $49.99
SAV3/ OCT140549 $49.99
 |
WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER STRIP: 1943-1944 HC
IDW Publishing
Just a few years after her comic book debut, the world's most famous female superhero starred in her own daily newspaper strip written and drawn by the same creative team that produced the comic book: William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peters. Featuring strips from 1943 to 1944, the series retells the origin story of the Amazon princess and her first encounter with the world of men: Steve Trevor, a wounded American soldier, who washes up on their shores!
JUN140444 $49.99
 |
FLASH GORDON AND JUNGLE JIM
IDW Publishing
The incomparable Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon in 1933 to compete with Buck Rogers… and soon eclipsed the latter with his stunning artwork, faster-paced stories, and incredible characters, making it arguably the most famous sci-fi comic strip of all time. While also working concurrently on Secret Agent X-9, Raymond also developed the adventure strip, Jungle Jim, which was often used as a “capper” positioned over the Flash Gordon strip. Both strips are collected as they appeared in many newspapers, stacked, and have been meticulously remastered and restored, and presented in Raymond's original format that includes the Jungle Jim topper. These adventures have no equal!
V1/ JUL110384 $75.00
V2/ APR120400 $75.00
V3/ JAN130462 $75.00
V4/ JAN140522 $75.00
 |
TARZAN: THE COMPLETE RUSS MANNING NEWSPAPER STRIPS
IDW Publishing
In 1967, Russ Manning (creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter) was selected by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate to take over the Tarzan daily strip and bring it back to Burroughs’ original vision. With assists by Bill Stout, Mike Royer, and Dave Stevens, Manning created 26 original Sunday storylines and 7 daily stories from 1967 to June 24, 1979. Each volume collects over 700 sequential daily strips, all reproduced from the Edgar Rice Burroughs file copies. A must-have quartet of strip collections for fans of Manning or Tarzan himself!
V1/ MAR130427 $49.99
V2/ SEP130460 $49.99
V3/ APR140441 $49.99
V4/ NOV140522 $49.99
 |
BUCK ROGERS: THE COMPLETE MURPHY ANDERSON SUNDAYS—1958-59 HC
Hermes Press
Murphy Anderson was one of the seminal comic book storytellers who defined the Silver Age with his work on DC’s Superman and Action Comics, as well as Adam Strange, The Spectre and the Atomic Knights. In addition to his work on the Buck Rogers daily strip, Anderson also wrote and drew the Sunday version of the Buck Rogers feature from 1958 to 1959, spinning three story arcs. These stories were previously never before collected, and Hermes Press has collected all of Anderson’s Sunday strips in one beautiful collection!
FEB141311 $40.00
 |
JUDGE DREDD: THE DAILY Dredds VOL. 1—1981-1986 HC
Rebellion/2000AD
(W) John Wagner, Alan Grant (A/CA) Ronald Smith
While most of our featured strip collections fare from these shores, our final entry hails from the UK. Published in the Daily Star from 1981 until 1986, the Judge Dredd comic strip — written by John Wagner and Alan Grant — took British readers where perhaps only their kids had once gone via the 2000AD weekly comic magazine: the post-apocalyptic metropolis known as Mega-City One, protected by the no-nonsense lawkeeper, Judge Dredd. Illustrated 2000AD stalwarts Ron Smith, Ian Gibson, Mick McMahon, John Higgins, Steve Dillon, and Brett Ewins, this was future shock at its daily finest!
SEP141584 $52.99
