Harold Gray's stories in Annie would sometimes last an entire YEAR, and as stated in the intro for this reprint, at the least 8 months! Gray could take you into a new year with Annie at the top of the world (following her triumph at the end of the previous story) and follow her sinking into a crisis of some sort and finally bring her back out on top and never make it feel drawn out. The stories were told like they happen to me and you in real life...one day at a time.
A unique quality to Gray's storytelling was, the strip was told in real time (even though Annie never ages) and one days strip represented a day in Annie's world, then the next day would be...well...the next day. No drawn out sequences in which it would take 3 weeks to cover a ten minute piece of business.
This story that Nemo reprints is an Annie story from 1929 that was reprinted back in the day in hard cover and edited by Gray himself (see full story in the article) and is truncated from the actual strip length. For you comic "book" readers, it's still a little different than a standard comic book story as each page represents 5 Annie comic "strips" or 5 days of a newspaper run. They don't read like a comic book, but are just as smooth once you get into the proper rhythm.
I've read a few complete reprints of the Little Orphan Annie strips as published by Kitchen Sink Press and they read like a fine novel.
You're in for a treat.
There...now don't you feel like you've just had a satisfying meal? Great stuff!
Coming Attractions for the next issue of Nemo featuring even more great stuff!
I'm glad so many of you are enjoying my posting of the "Nemo" issues. It's afforded me to lay back for a few weeks and let my scanner do the talking as well as forced me to finally digitize this great magazine and make it much more searchable for myself when I want to reference something.
I'm glad so many of you are enjoying my posting of the "Nemo" issues. It's afforded me to lay back for a few weeks and let my scanner do the talking as well as forced me to finally digitize this great magazine and make it much more searchable for myself when I want to reference something.
While Nemo is rich and diverse in it's coverage of "things worthwhile" which is a HUGE part of why I started this blog, another reason was to keep my creativity flowing and force myself to pick up my own drawing pen on a regular basis. Nemo is wonderful inspiration and my drawing hand is itching.
So rather than my posting piece-meal portions of this great magazine every day, I'll be switching to full issues posted on Sundays beginning next week (July 11) with issue #9. That should keep the scanner humming for another 22 weeks or so and give me freedom to let my meandering mind meander here.
I hope to see you all back for the next issue of Nemo, and hope you check in to see what else I may come up with in the weeks in between.
Talk to you soon!
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