A Stanley Surprise for The New Year: Lost LITTLE LULU Stories Discovered!

https://www.tcj.com/john-stanleys-lost-little-lulu-stories-a-significant-find/

Tom Devlin of Drawn + Quarterly made a remarkable find in the papers of cartoonist Irving Tripp. See the results of this hitherto-unknown final team-up with John Stanley on a one-off 1970 issue of Marge's Little Lulu and read my short piece about it all at the link above.

As a bonus, here are the other stories from this issue--not featured on TCJ's site due to ethnic humor that isn't intended as malicious but didn't pass muster for widespread use:

As said in the essay, in Stanley's world, anyone who's pretending to be what they're not (or 'putting on airs') is risible. Male hubris is the endless font of Stanley's human comedy, and these boys acting out their weird masculine frontier fantasy (in an area when the cultural harm done to Native Americans wasn't discussed or acknowledged) set themselves up for the proverbial pie in face. ("Pass the peace banana" is a sublime line of dialogue, IMHO.) No offense is meant in any way with the presentation of this story; it's a part of this discovery and of historial importance.

Two harm-free one-pagers round out Stanley and Tripp's work for this last waltz with the LULU gang:

I hope you enjoy seeing these hidden-in-plain-sight stories that evaded notice for half a century plus! I hope to have some good news concerning the future of John Stanley's work in reprint editions sometime soon. Thank you as always for your interest in this blog!

All John Stanley Books Available as E-Books!

I know I'm a bit late to the game, but my four books on John Stanley are now available as full-color e-books that contain all the content of the print editions, and are priced at $9.99 each.

THE TAO OF YOW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SGRCX1

1940s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086T5QKL5

1950s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SFTYKY

1960s COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SFJJ3Y

Since Amazon may not be able to fulfill print-on-demand orders due to the apocalypse, this is an immediate way to access these four books. Thanks for your indulgence of this commercial.

In other news, the second volume in Drawn + Quarterly's hardcover, full-color Little Lulu books, The Fuzzythingus Poopi, is headed to the printers. I selected the stories, which are some of the best in Stanley's career, and wrote a long-ish afterword, entitled "Sweat Equity." The color reproduction is even better than the first volume, and this handsome book will be a gift of joy and laughter to a world that needs these things!

All John Stanley Bibliography Books Updated and Redesigned!

If you have been holding off on purchasing these three volumes, I'm happy to announce that I've completely refurbished them all, with more competent and appealing layouts and graphics than earlier versions. This is the last revision I'll make on the series. Unless important new information on Stanley's comics career appears in the future, or someone offers firm proof that I've mis-credited anyone (Stanley included), I won't change them again.

These are available on amazon.com and createspace.com... but if you're interested in purchasing them from me, at a lower price than either site offers them, please contact me at eubiecat at gmail dot com with your zip code and I'll calculate the cost for you. These books will be shipped to you directly from the printer.

At left are the new covers for the three volumes. I've substantially slimmed down their page counts by the use of smaller type and more workable layouts. 

The 1940s book has 128 pp., the 1950s book 156 pp. and the 1960s book 104 pp. The interiors are full color, and still contain the superb cover scans done by Dell Comics expert Alan Hutchinson.

You can preview the innards of these new editions HERE, HERE and HERE. I think they're much improved, and I hope they meet with your liking.

Meanwhile, work continues on the forthcoming first volume of the Drawn & Quarterly-published Complete Little Lulu hardcover series. I'm excited about this series, and feel they will contribute enormously to getting adult readers to read John Stanley's greatest work.

More news on that project as it moves along. 

That's all for now...

Frank M. Young on John Stanley in the Drawn + Quarterly Super-Special!

I just received my contributor's copy yet, and I await the opportunity to spend some quality time with Drawn & Quarterly: 25 Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics and Graphic Novels. Four of its nearly 800 pages contain an original essay I wrote on John Stanley.

This is a phone-cam photo of the first two pages of the piece, which I wrote last fall, right before my life-saving move to Portland, Oregon.

The book appears to offer hours of engrossing reading, in interviews, comics, essays and other good stuff.


The book also reprints selections from Tubby and Thirteen Going on Eighteen, to provide the new-to-Stanley reader with a notion of what I'm talking about here.

After all my work on Stanley, it seems ironic to me that this is my first published piece on the man and his work. Truth told, I'm glad to have waited until 2014 to write this. Working on this blog has helped me to shape an understanding of John Stanley's life and work, and I think this essay is as good as anything I could ever write on the topic.

I have had the pleasure of briefly browsing the book, twice, in stores, and if you care about the state of the art of comics (and I'll bet you do!), this book is a sight-unseen must-buy. I'm truly honored to be a part of this epic celebration.

The John Stanley Comics Bibliographies: Don't Forget About 'em!

Just a reminder that Frank M. Young has just published a three volume bibliography of the comics work of John Stanley, the mastermind of Dell Comics' Little Lulu series from 1945 to 1959. These volumes offer a total of 470 pages of information and images.

Based on years of research, these three volumes purport to chronicle every comic book story John Stanley wrote (and sometimes drew). The cover of every comic book listed is reproduced in color, as are sample pages from stories, in-house ads and original art.

Here are some sample spreads from the three volumes:

Click on each image to enlarge it. Each book is 8 x 10 inches, professionally printed and bound in matte-finish softcover. Each book offers bonus materials. The 1940s and '60s books contain a selection of rare John Stanley stories--none of them ever presented here on  Stanley Stories. Large images of Stanley's distinctive cover drawings grace the 1940s and 1950s books.

These books are the definitive resource for a study and appreciation of the work of John Stanley. They can be purchased from amazon.com.

For the 1940s edition, click HERE.

For the 1950s edition, click HERE.

For the 1960s edition, click HERE.

You can look inside all three books on amazon, where they're affordably priced. Take a look! These could make a perfect holiday gift for the comics lover in your life--or for yourself!