New Comics Day 4/25/12: Spain, Friedmans, Folly, Popeye

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Cruisin' with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Tooté
by Spain Rodriguez

136-page black & white 7.5" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-461-0

"…[T]here are a lot of good books out this week, mostly from Fantagraphics. My first pick would be Cruisin’ with the Hound, a collection of autobiographical strips by the great Spain Rodriguez centering mostly on his misspent teen and young adult years. A lot of this stuff was serialized in Blab! years ago and it’s all killer material." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"Cruisin' with the Hound now in stock. A collection of my favorite comics by Spain (or anyone for that matter)." – Jason Leivian, Floating World

Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental [New Edition]
by Drew Friedman & Josh Alan Friedman

88-page black & white 9.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-521-1

"There’s also the rerelease of Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental, Drew Friedman’s very first collection of scabrous caricatures, first released way back in the heady days of the early 1980s. Ah, good times …" – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"One of the foundational books of any arts/alt comics library, and a fine printing endorsed as such by the creator. If there's a funnier five minutes to be had than reading that Andy Griffith story, please tell me about it." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion
by Hans Rickheit

144-page black & white/color 7" x 10" softcover • $18.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-509-9

"There’s also Folly: Consequences of Indescretion, a collection of short pieces by Hans Rickheit, author of The Squirrel Machine." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"If you go to the comics shop to buy work from voices with which you're not entirely familiar — and you are a fine person if this is your primary reason for heading into comics shops — I can't imagine a better buy for more people than a Hans Rickheit book." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"Rickheit is one of the finest and most interesting illustrators putting ink to paper today. This book collects his early, self-published books." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy

 

Popeye Vol. 6: "Me Li'l Swee'Pea"
by E.C. Segar

188-page black & white/color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-483-2

"If I were splurging, I’d pick… the sixth and final Popeye volume from Fantagraphics. Let’s face it, there’s only one place to go to get pure, wonderful, unadulterated Popeye, and that’s from its creator, E.C. Segar. I’ve made no secret about my pure and utterly devout love for Segar’s strip and that love continues into this final volume, where Segar tragically died all too soon from leukemia. …[I]f you’re really, seriously interested in wanting to delve into Popeye, this is where you go." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"Finally, my Nerd OCD prevents me from starting with volume 6, but Chris M has convinced me that I should check out Segar’s Popeye stuff. It’s out of bounds for this list, but if I had some extra money, I’d grab the first volume of that collection." – Michael May, Robot 6

"The final year-or-so worth of E.C. Segar's run on 'Thimble Theatre' is collected in another big, punchy hardcover, wrapping up the Fantagraphics reprint series."  – Douglas Wolk, ComicsAlliance

"One of the great strips, and an archival project that's kind of been forgotten a bit. These are magnificent comics, and I read them in a semi-swoon." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: There are a lot of pretty huge Fantagraphics releases this week, including some original sailor man stuff via Popeye Vol. 6 (of 6): Me Li’l Swee’Pea, the final hardcover compilation of Segar’s content; $29.99. Then there’s Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion, a 144-page selection of short stories by Hans Rickheit from the pages of Kramers Ergot, various minicomics and other places; $18.99. Then there’s Cruisin’ with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Toote, a 136-page collection of ’50s period tales by Spain Rodriguez, seen in Blab! and elsewhere; $19.99. AND THEN there’s a new edition of the 1985 Drew & Josh Alan Friedman collection Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental, a prime volume in many home libraries; $19.99." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal