Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!
Today's spotlight features a great collection of classic comics starring an all-time beloved cartoon character, as drawn by his original creator, Otto Messmer.
Nine Lives to Live: A Classic Felix Celebration
Best known as an animated cartoon character, Felix the Cat has also had a tremendously successful run in his own newspaper comic strip. Now, gathered here is a generous sampling of many of his most important and entertaining adventures. Felix was created in 1919 by Otto Messmer for the cartoon Feline Follies (first named Master Tom, he was given a new, lasting name when he headlined his third cartoon, Adventures of Felix) and it wasn't long until Felix became the most popular cartoon character of the silent era. Wildly popular in the U.S. and England for years, well over 150 cartoons have been documented as being produced in the original series (and perhaps many more of which we have no record). Hesitating to make the jump to sound, the cartoons began to experience distribution problems and a decline in popularity. The original series ended its run in 1931. Begun in 1923, the comic strip outlasted Felix's screen career. Although credited to Pat Sullivan (as was everything else regarding the cat), the strip was produced under the constantly inventive direction of Messmer who did most of the pencils and inks on the strip until 1954. The strip began fading in popularity in the late 30's, but comic books revived public interest in the 1940's. Seeing several ups and downs from the 50's on — a TV series, various comic book original and reprint series — Felix's popularity endures to this day.
144-page full-color 9" x 11" hardcover
regularly $39.95 • ON SALE $29.96
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