The above Free Comic Book Day comic featured the debut of the Dell title "Tubby" in a publication by Drawn & Quarterly, a publisher that has taken upon itself to reprint everything John Stanley incuding "Melvin the Monster", "Nancy", "Thirteen Going on Eighteen", etc."Tubby" was a surprise as Dark Horse had been publishing "Little Lulu" reprints for years. This prompted comic artist extraordinaire Scott Shaw! to ask:
"Isn't it odd that Dark Horse has the reprint rights to LITTLE LULU but D&Q has the reprint rights to TUBBY? It kinda reminds me of when Dell had the rights to do a ROY ROGERS funnybook while DC published the DALE EVANS comic!"
To which I answered:
"My speculation is that I think Classic Media might have sold the "Tubby" reprint rights to the highest bidder, since the series doesn't cross over, and Lulu barely appears in "Tubby", so there's no continuity. Also, until recently Dark Horse was just reprinting the Russ Cochran black and white reprints in paperback form, until they went to the color series. Dark Horse may have had to renegotiate for the color series and could have taken a pass on or lost on the bidding for doing "Tubby" at that time. If someone knows more, please let us all know."
Shaw! replied: "Calling David Scroggy...calling David Scroggy...calliing David Scroggy..."
So, what is the answer? Why is Drawn & Quarterly publishing "Tubby" and not "Dark Horse"?
6 comments:
And why is Tubby volume I reprinting issues 9-12 of the comic?
The plot thickens. Dark Horse IS producing a "Tubby" book that is due in the next 3 months. (see "Previews"). Their book reprints "Tubby" #1-8, while the Drawn & Quarterly book covers "Tubby" #9-12...
The Dark Horse site when I read it
http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/16-563/Little-Lulu-s-Pal-Tubby-Volume-1-The-Castaway-and-Other-Stories
said it was reprinting #1-6. It
also says that John Stanley drew
#1-9 in their entirety which would
imply I would think that he did not
draw #10-12 in their entirety so why would they be in the John Stanley library? Are experts in
disagreement?
I think Drawn & Quarterly is publishing John Stanley items that he only wrote like "13 Going on 18", whereas Dark Horse wants only the material Stanley wrote AND drew. That's just a guess, however.
I know, nobody leaves a comment on a stale thread but this seems like the right place to park this comment.
I just picked up Dark Horse's
Tubby Vol. 2 and it reprints issues 7-12. That means that it duplicates all the contents of the previously published Drawn and Quarterly book, except it prints them smaller and omits color for many of the 1-pagers.
The copyright page has the reference to issues #7-#12. The title page confusingly mentions #10-#12 but those are just the issues on which Lloyd White did finishes.
Oddly enough, I started reading one story and didn't even remember that I had read it in the D&Q book.
Our memories play tricks, and some people may "remember" the stories from their childhood instead of from another publisher!
Yes I did pick up the new Dark Horse book and noticed the duplication. I never purchased the D&Q book, because I felt that this might happen, and I was correct. D&Q's book also was a bit pricey for me considering that it might be (and turned out to be) duplications.
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