Comic history

NEMO: The Classic Comics Library Returns!!

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D. D. Degg July 16, 2018 1 minute 2 comments

Fantastic news for fans of comics and cartooning – Rick Marschall is announcing the return of the highly revered comic strip and cartoonist history magazine of the 1980s. nemo: the classic comics library is returning with Rick Marschall as editor!

Rick’s full announcement as posted July 16, 2018 on the Yahoo Platinum Age Comics Group (with a few miscellaneous covers thrown in from the My Comic Shop site):

A brief announcement to share here. For 31 issues, nemo: the classic comics library was a magazine that pioneered the study and appreciation of vintage comics and cartoons, and related forms of art and culture. For some people, including working cartoonists of the day, it was more than study and appreciation… it was, by testimonies of letters, conversations, and response I still receive, a journal of DISCOVERY too.

This news flash is to let you know that NEMO is returning. I will be editor; Fantagraphics will be publisher; among the large editorial and creative team, many already on board, are John Adcock, who has piloted the splendid online magazine Yesterday’s Papers (and will continue); and Jon Barli, my partner at Rosebud Archives and Art Director of a recent Comics Journal monster.

I will be announcing more names; more about the contents; more details, in short order… including release date. We are preparing a “manifesto” — more than a call to prospective readers; also an invitation to contributors.

But some things I can say now:

* NEMO 2.0 (NOT its title, just its ID) will be annual or bi-annual;

* It will be oversized, printed on quality stock, with board covers;

* It will have substantial color sections;

* It is planned at approximately 200+ pages.

Nemo’s focus generally will be what the first incarnation’s was:

— the art of cartoons and art form of the comic strip;

— a general hew to the roots of comics; golden age as defined as late 1800s to 1940s and ’50s;

— enthusiastic examinations of cartoons, strips, animation, illustration, political cartoons, graphic satire, poster art and advertising, children’s books, licensing and merchandising, and related forms of movies and animated cartoons;

— running features like Penmen of the Past and Eyewitness to Comics History… and new features like Monographs and Annotated Portfolios.

The expanded page size, book-length expanse, and color will make the new Nemo an entirely new animal in this field.

It will be — take this as a description and promise, not a mere slogan — Scholarly but not Academic.

So. More to come. This is more than a news bulletin, however. Please consider joining the crew, as a Category specialist (editor? assignments?) or as a writer. We welcome writers and researchers from Europe, too — where many great scholars of vintage American comicana live; and whence we would like to trace the wellsprings and relationships of European and American cartoon art.

Nemo will be a SHOWCASE for great history, great art… great fun. Please come to the party!

Rick Marschall