Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips

The grandest adventure strip of all time gets the deluxe treatment! Roy Crane is one of America’s greatest cartoonists and Fantagraphics is embarking upon an ambitious reprinting of his best work, beginning with his gorgeous adventure strip—Captain Easy. Crane created the first American adventure strip — before Hal Foster’s Tarzan and Prince Valiant, before Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, before Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon—and quickly established himself as a master of the comic strip. Begun in 1924 under the title Wash Tubbs, within four months it moved from a gag-a-day strip about a girl-crazy young grocery store clerk to an adventure strip when Wash Tubbs embarks on a treasure hunt. Captain Easy was introduced in 1929 and began starring in his own Sunday page in 1933, which begins our first volume of Captain Easy. The first of six volumes contains the earliest Sunday pages from 1933 to 1935. In his first adventure, Captain Easy visits a lost city, battles pirates, dons a deep-sea diving suit to explore a sunken ruin in search of treasure, and everywhere he goes, he finds beautiful women — a lost princess, a pirate queen, a savage woman in need of “taming.” A romantic adventurer from a less politically correct age, Captain Easy is a Soldier of Fortune whose bravery and daring are exceeded only by his Southern gallantry. Crane created the template for the adventure strip, combining adventure and humor in a Bigfoot cartooning style that perfectly conveyed the tongue-in-check tone and light-hearted thrills that kept readers on the edge of their seats. As comics historian Brian Walker put it, “the artist’s patented visual storytelling technique blended humor, drama, heroics, and pretty girls.” Crane’s Captain Easy influenced virtually every cartoonist who followed him—from Chester Gould (Dick Tracy) to Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates)—and even Hollywood’s adventure movies starring the likes of Cary Grant or Errol Flynn adopted Crane’s tone of two-fisted, good-natured derring-do. Citing Crane’s influence on comics, the artist Gil Kane once said, “Superman was Captain Easy; Batman was Captain Easy.” According to comic strip historian Richard Marschall, Crane was “a master not only of storytelling but of the art form, developing expressive techniques and a whole dictionary of conventions and signs for future comic strip artists.” The first volume of Captain Easy also features some of the best and rarest art that Roy Crane created for special occasions, as well as illustrations from the sketchbooks he draw when he traveled to exotic locales to gather inspiration for Captain Easy’s adventures, as well as biographical and critical introductions to Crane and his work. 160 color comics and illustrations.
Volume 1 reprints Sundays from 1933-1935. Hardcover, 15x11, 144 full color pages. $39.99
Volume 2 reprints Sundays from 1936-1937. Hardcover, 15x11, 144 full color pages. $39.99

Buz Sawyer: War in the Pacific

War in the Pacific. Roy Crane created the adventure comic strip with Wash Tubbs, and many a superhero owes a debt to Crane’s square-jawed, hard-hitting adventurer Captain Easy. But during World War II, he left the Captain Easy strip to create a more realistic fighting man, a Navy pilot named John Singer Sawyer, who fought in the Pacific Theater from 1943 until V-J Day in 1945. This book, the first in a series reprinting the Buz Sawyer strip, reprints all of the daily strips published during World War II. Buz serves aboard an aircraft carrier, flies combat missions against the notorious Japanese Zeros, crash lands behind enemy lines, and is captured by a Japanese submarine. The book also includes a selection of the best of the Sunday strips, which featured Buz Sawyer’s pal and gunner, Rosco Sweeney, presented as full-color fold-out pages. Everywhere Buz goes, he finds high adventure and beautiful women — in fact, his fellow flyers kid him about his ability to find romance on even the most hostile Pacific island, where he meets a dangerous spy named Sultry (!). And when he goes home on leave, it is only to be caught up in a rivalry between rich heiress Tot Winter and girl-next-door Christy Jameson. It features some of Crane’s most atmospheric drawing, aided by his expert use of Craftint tones, luscious romance, and exciting action scenes. These stories amply illustrate why Peanuts artist Charles Schulz called Roy Crane “a treasure.” Also featured in this handsome archival volume: an introductory essay by comics historian Jeet Heer and a selection letters to and from Roy Crane (including one from "Al Toth").
Buz Sawyer Vol.1: War in the Pacific 9x9, 240 mostly black & white pages (some color), hardcover ....$35.00

Buz Sawyer: Sultry's Tiger

Sultry's Tiger reprints Roy Crane's classic comic strip from 1/1/45-4/16/46. Crane left the newspaper strip Wash Tubbs in 1943 to depict the exploits of World War II fighter pilot Buz Sawyer. In these episodes, Buz and gunner Roscoe Sweeney crash-land at sea and are taken prisoner by a Japanese submarine crew. Later at home on leave, Buz faces girl trouble--soap operatics that Crane handles as adroitly as the battlefront action. Postwar, Buz becomes a troubleshooter for a global airline, enabling the derring-do to continue unabated. Crane is noted for his simple yet bold cartooning and distinctive use of doubletone shading, both in full evidence here.
11x8, 200 black & white pages, squarebound paperback, ....$25.00