Buzz Sawyer - Selected Sundays

Royston Campbell Crane, or simply Roy Crane was born 22nd November 1901 in Abilene,Texas. He did not graduate college, but lived a knockabout life, working as a hand on a cargo ship and riding the rails. In 1922, he began his career as a newspaper cartoonist, working for the 'New York World' and later for the NEA Syndicate and King Features Syndicate. In 1928 he married long-time sweetheart Evelyn Hatcher. In 1950, he won the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award as 'Cartoonist of the Year'.  

Buzz Sawyer - Selected Sundays

One recurring problem Crane had in the early days of Buz Sayer was the lack of a good assistant. Because of his high standards, Crane had trouble doing both the dailies and the Sundays. Roy Crane took a great risk in launching Buz Sayer. Buz made its debut at the worst possible time for newspaper features since the depression of 1929.

From out of hundreds of sketches like these
came entertainment for millions....

But Buz Sayer sales went strong in the postwar years - from 153 clients of the daily in 1946, to 295 clients in 1951. The Sundays sale was also climbed from 81 in 1946, to 154 in 1951. By 1951 Crane was getting more than $1500 a week, a hefty addition to the minimal guarantee he had asked for. Buz Sayer was a gamble that eventually well paid off... 

Read here a selection of the best of the Sunday strips, which featured Buz Sawyer's pal and gunner, Roscoe Sweeny. 

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Buzz - Selected Sundays 
(Size: 20.7 MB)

PS: This is going to be my last post for this year as I will be on a l-o-n-g vacation soon - taa daa !!

The Comics Revue #174 & 175

With summer past, it’s time for an annual tradition here at many of the local libraries, the 'Annual Book Sale' event. I love books, though nowadays I'm no longer an avid book reader. Some of my friends' family members do participate in either adult or children’s summer reading programs, but I never did. 

Sunny Library Book Sale Event - Nov 21-22, 2015

Last Saturday I went to library to return few books & DVDs and by chance noticed a book sale event was going on there. I do buy books time to time, but I never bought books from Library's Book Sale event. So, I just casually stopped by there to see how it goes... and, many thanks to God Almighty, He made me to stop there !!

One bag of books (~ 20 books) cost only $5 !!!

On a big floor there are so many bin of books from so many categories - Fictions, Novels, Short stories, Puzzles, Comics, Magazines, Travels, Hobbies, Science, Math, Competitive Exams, Arts, Films, Music, Educations, Kids Books, Do-by-yourself stuff, Cooking, and so on and on... Most of the books are there in 'Very Good' to 'Near Mint' condition !!

On Saturday they were selling most of the books (any size) for $1 and Sunday's promotion was, a full bag of books (any size) for $5 !!! Roughly 20-25 big/medium size books can be put in one big bag !!

Comics & Graphic Arts section - all books are already sold !!

I grabbed couple of James Patterson's 'Large Print' novels - I love thrillers, mysteries and detective plots. Then I visited the 'Comics and Graphic Arts' area. Two big tables were full of various comics magazines & books - mostly from DC comics. On one side there was lying a bunch of old "Comics Revue" magazines - each for just 25 cents. I grabbed a bunch of them too.

All for just $6.50 !!

"Friends of the Library" is a group of volunteers in Northern California dedicated to supporting the Sunnyvale Public Library. Most of the libraries here does not receives a penny in the annual city budget, outside of staff payroll to support of programs. The municipal budget provides for buildings with books and other materials, and the people to handle them. 

Inside  Sunnyvale Public Library....

The Friends organization, however, transforms those buildings into rich and active community destinations.

Now let's come to the most interesting section of this post - "Comics Revue" magazine. 'Comics Revue' was a bi-monthly anthology magazine for classic comic strips, adventures as well as humor strips, published by Manuscript Press.

No. 174

It featured full color Sunday comic strips including "The Phantom by Lee Falk, Flash Gordon by Dan Barry, Buz Sawyer by Roy Crane, Tarzan by Russ Manning, Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff, Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, Krazy Kat by George Herriman, Alley Oop by V.T. Hamlim, Casey Ruggles by Warren Tufts, Gasoline Alley by Dick Moores". Daily strips would include "Alley Oop, Sir Bagby, Krazy Kat, Buz Sawyer, Rick O'Shay, and Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell". Most of these are serials, but in every issue a full story is presented. Old, reddish pages immediately bring back great memories and smells of my childhood!

Next day I also went there to buy a 'bag of books' - but I was late - most of the good books were already gone!  On next book sale events I'll not do this same mistake again !!

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"Out To Lunch" by J. Seward Johnson Jr. is a famed local statue purchased by the Sunnyvale Public Library in 1985. It is a favorite of the library patrons as they enter the library, as many people have taken their pictures with the statue of the man eating a sandwich.

A Book and a Bite - "Out to Lunch" - Sunnyvale Library's Sculpture 

The sculpture was purchased in 1985 for $40,000 at former Sunnyvale Mayor John Mercer's urging after he saw a similar piece on display in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC while on a business trip. The city council, in meetings prior to February 1985, already had decided the sculpture should be a human form rather than an abstract one.

Sunnyvale Library Campus

Read here one of the vintage Comic Revue magazines... 

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The Comics Revue #174
(Size: 31.6 MB)

  
The Comics Revue #175
(Size: 43.6 MB)

Buz Sawyer - The War in the Pacific

Buz Sawyer was a popular comic strip created by Roy Crane, one of the innovators of the adventure comic strip. The strip, which originated in 1943 and ran in syndication until 1989, features the globe-spanning adventures of John Buz Sawyer. A chivalrous adventurer, Buz Sawyer was initially a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. When the war ended, Buz became a troubleshooter for an oil company. However, civilian life didn’t suit Buz Sawyer all that much, so he re-enlisted in the Navy as a jet pilot in the 1950s, leading to many exciting Cold-War adventures.

 

This book reprints all of the daily strips published during World War-II. Buz serves aboard an aircraft carrier, flies combat missions against the notorious Japanese Zeros, crash lands behind enemy lines, and is captured by a Japanese submarine. Buz fights the Japanese and romances beautiful island dames in this first year of Roy Crane's classic comic strip. The book will include all of the daily Buz Sawyer strips from 1943 and 1944. (Manuscript Press)

The quality of the reprinted strips varies a lot in this book. Most of them are muddy. Both as a result of bad source material and too low resolution when scanned. On the other hand there are a few pages that looks as if they are scanned straight from proofs. Other seems to be scanned in high resolution but from bad sources.  

The book also includes a selection of the best of the Sunday strips, which featured Buz Sawyer's pal and gunner, Roscoe Sweeny. 

As a great comic strip artists/writers, Roy Crane was largely overlooked. He was a master storyteller and his work still continues to inspire cartoonists, even today...

Read here one of the vintage Buz Sawyer comics... 

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The War in the Pacific (First 32 pages, Size: 15.3 MB)
The War in the Pacific - II (Next 33 pages, Size: 25.3 MB)