Several years ago we took some time in this space to show you what my LOAC bookshelf looked like. I shelve my books in alphabetical order by author, or by publisher where that makes more sense — for instance, while my William Saroyans are under “S”, my Fantastic Fours are under “M”, with the rest of my Marvel Comics collections. My Library of American Comics titles are therefore under “L,” and then shelved alphabetically in a logical way (well, logical to me, anyway), as you can see:
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
One of the things you may notice in these two “overview” shots is how much the line has grown since our first such feature. The line now practically fills one “short” five-foot shelf and a full seven-footer in my living room. Here are a series of close-up shots, with notes provided as appropriate:
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Berkeley Breathed’s contributions to the Library sit at the top of my five-foot shelf — in my filing system, LE (Jonathan Lethem) comes before LI (Library of American Comics).
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Working bottom-right to top-left: [1] Notice I can stack LOAC Essentials in two tiers that stand as tall as one of our “normal” releases. [2] The “Disney” line comes before Essentials, and are shelved in alphabetical order, from Christmas Classics to Treasury of Classic Tales. [3] I’ll eventually shift Batman to the front of my “DC Comics” section, but while both Bats and Wonder Woman have completed their run (for now, anyway), there are more Superman releases in our future! [4] You may ask, “What’s with those multiple Terry Volume 1s and the shorter edition of Canyon Volume 1?” They represent our initial release, Terry Volume 1, in both first and second printing, plus a French edition of that release. Canyon Volume 1 is also represented by its own handsome French edition. Note that I’ve left some amount of room on many shelves to accommodate future releases!
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Did you notice, at far right, the one-and-only LOAC paperback book, Best of Dick Tracy? I’ve always thought Dean did a masterful job of capturing so many classic Tracy storylines between these two covers.
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How I love looking at that array of Little Orphan Annies! In many ways Harold Gray’s opus is “the Great American Comic Strip,” and I’m proud to have helped bring back into print this amazing body of work. On the lower shelf, you’ll notice an extra King Aroo — that’s because I have a copy of the German edition of Volume 1. It tasks my four years of high school German to attempt to translate, but it’s great fun to look at!
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Why not Archie under “A”? I view the strip as an “M”, for the talented Bob Montana. At the other end, one could consider Secret Agent Corrigan correctly shelved whether you view it as “X-9” (our prefix for this series of reprints) or “W” to reflect the work of Al Williamson, the primary artist of the run.
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Finally on this little cook’s tour, my “Oversized Shelf,” which contains the Bravo For Adventure Artist’s Edition, our “Champagne Edition” Flash Gordon/Jungle Jims and Polly and Her Pals, the nine Li’l Abners of which I’m so proud, plus Superman Sundays, the two Miss Furys, and our King of the Comics and Beyond Mars one-shots. Hidden away at the far left is my copy of the Kitchen Sink Press edition of Will Eisner’s Hawks of the Sea and Lucy Caswell’s excellent retrospective on Billy Ireland.
That’s what my LOAC bookshelves look like — how about yours? We’d love to see them — feel free to send us pictures of your shelves and you may just see them in future postings on our social media platforms!