During interviews, at conventions, via e-mail, or sometimes even in face-to-face discussions I’ve been asked, “With so many LOAC books that have been produced since 2007, what’s your favorite?” I rely on old stand-by as my answer: “That’s like asking a father to pick his favorite child!”
If pressed, however, I do discuss reasons why certain books hold a special meaning for me. Our original Terry and the Pirates Volume 1, the very first LOAC release, sent me to San Diego and put me on stage as part of a Comic-Con panel devoted to comic strips … King Aroo Volumes 1 and 2 helped us bring back a beloved-but-obscure series and allowed me to learn so much about creator Jack Kent in the process, some it gleaned through communication with his son, Jack Jr. … Amazing Spider-Man provided me one final chance to interview both John Romita Sr. and Stan Lee, the team producing the wall-crawler’s comic book exploits when I started reading the series (effective with Volume 1, issue # 63, if you can believe it!).
My “special meaning” books tend to vary each time this discussion arises, but one book that always appears on the list is our sprawling Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles. It remains one of our most ambitious releases, it marked Dean’s and my first in-person interaction with the fine folks at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, and it allowed me to find online newspaper sources that yielded a wealth of information in articles about Bud Sickles, even as we pored over hundreds of pieces of beautiful artwork and made decisions about what we should, could, and would include in the book. Sixteen years later, across the Atlantic in France, Editions Barbier — in conjunction with the Centre National du Livre (the French government’s National Book Center) – have used our Scorchy to produce the first of a two-book set, Scorchy Smith et le Genie de Noel Sickles. This Scorchy Smith and the Genius of Noel Sickles edition (as we’d translate their title) is a product of Gallerie Barbier, 10, rue Choron in Paris. The Gallerie focuses on comics art and has produced a wide range of editions and products. The limited edition Frank Miller Sin City skateboard is listed on their site for five hundred ninety Euro, but le Genie de Noel Sickles‘s cover price is less than a tenth of that amount. You can see the front and back covers of the book here (click on images throughout for an isolated view) …
… At lower left, le Genie de Noel Sickles rests atop our Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles to give you an idea of the dimensions of the two books; you can see le Genie is wider than Art of, though the LOAC edition is taller than the new French volume.
Below you can see the new Table of Contents (the bibliography referenced here is the product of old pal Francisco san Milan), followed by the first pages of the French translations of Jim Steranko’s Introduction from our volume and my biographical essay (herein titled, “The Protean Illustrator”).
Next you’ll see a familiar piece of artwork and a key photo, both of which were used in Art of. The breakout quote on the left, from Sickles, begins by saying, “When he retired, my father went through his life and drew and painted all the things he had done … “
… While Alex Toth’s breakout on the right-hand page above says:
We must remember from Sickles, besides cinematographic techniques, the proportions of the body, the attitudes, the articulations. If I had to choose between anatomical precision and attitude, I would take attitude. The body, the opposite of a mass of muscles, reflects thoughts and emotions.
Of course, artwork and Scorchy Smith comic strips are at the heart of the book. Here is a Sickles Christmas scene, as well as a page from his 1942 “Enemy Tanks are Vulnerable” series for the military’s Newsmap publication. The Scorchys in the book span the period from November 1933 to August 1935 (with the rest of Sickles’s run to be included in the forthcoming Volume Two).
One delightful original extra contained in le Genie: homages to select Scorchy Smith dailies by three fine French artists. We’ll give you a taste of each person’s interpretation, followed by the Sickles original strip that inspired it. First, the May 7, 1934 Scorchy as interpreted by Chronokids co-creator and gallery favorite, Vince:
From six months later in the series’s run, here’s an excerpt of French cartoonist Dominique Bertail’s version of the November 6, 1934 Scorchy, with just a hint of his take on another daily at lower right):
Finally, leaping ahead to a strip that will not appear until le Genie Book Two, Christian Hincker – who works under the name “Blutch” and is the 2009 recipient of the Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême (the Angoulême Comics Festival’s lifetime achievement award) – approached the March 26, 1936 Scorchy in a way Sickles would never have submitted to his editors at the Associated Press …
Here at LOAC, we say, “Vive Editions Barbier! Vive Scorchy!” as we applaud having Noel Sickles’s seminal comic strip run once again collected in hardcover. For those on Instagram, the publishers have a video related to the book available for viewing at this location. We eagerly await the second volume’s release —
