Comic News: IDW Announces New Polly and Her Pals Series

Oversized, "Champagne Edition" hardcover edition coming in August 2010

Coming this August, IDW Publishing and its imprint, the Library of American Comics, will launch a new oversized hardcover series with what historians and critics consider one of the essential masterpieces of comics strip art, Cliff Sterrett's Polly and Her Pals. Polly and Her Pals: Complete Sunday Comics, 1925-1927, a 176 page hard cover "Champagne edition" reproduces present every one of Sterrett's dynamic full-color Sunday pages from 1925 to 1927, in an extra large 12" x 16" format so that each can be fully appreciated.



Debuting 1912, Polly and Her Pals was one of the first "pretty girl" strips, but it was in 1925 that Sterrett's magnificent Sunday pages entered their peak period, as he developed a style with distinctive surreal perspectives, abstract backgrounds and bold, vibrant use of color. Art Spiegelman has written, "Polly and Her Pals is a glorious composition...a happy pop synthesis of Art Deco, Futurism, Surrealism, Dada, and Pure Cartoon."

"Some strips, such as Polly, need to be seen large," says Dean Mullaney, Creative Director of the Library of American Comics. "We've created the oversized Champagne Edition format specifically for these Sunday pages."

In Polly and Her Pals, things are never dull at the Perkins household. Pretty blonde Polly flits from the city to the beach with her many friends, but her life is a sea of tranquility compared to the many mishaps of her "Paw," Sam Perkins. Despite "Maw's" best efforts, trouble has a way of finding Paw, and towed along in his wake are Polly's cousin Ashur; Neewah, the family retainer who often fractures the English language; and Paw's cat, Kitty, whose pantomime antics, angular posture, and priceless expressions carry the strip to the apex of hilarity.



Edited by the award-winning Mullaney, Polly and Her Pals: Complete Sunday Comics, 1925-1927 contains the detailed background and biographic material that helped earn The Library of American Comics the prestigious Eisner Award. The collection also include Sterrett's topper strips, Damon and Pythias, Dot and Dash, Sweethearts and Wives, and Belles and Wedding Bells, while a companion series reprinting the daily strips, will follow. The cover design is by two-time Emmy winner Lorraine Turner, who teams up with Mullaney on the overall book design.

The series will continue with three full years of Sundays per volume, and a companion series, reprinting the daily strips, is also in production.

Polly and Her Pals: Complete Sunday Comics, 1925-1927 (hardcover, 12" x 16" Champagne Edition, 176 pages, $75) debuts in August 2010. ISBN 978-1600107115.