Uncle Remus Brer Rabbit Sundays is getting collected edit!

[dinnerdone]

It seems like someone has heard our pleas and wishes for a collected edition of the Brer Rabbit Sunday pages, and that very one is Fantagraphics! The first volume will cover 1945-1948 spread over about 200 pages in a fine hardcover version of the format 305 mm x 229 mm (12 inches x 9 inches) Expected to hit the shelves in April/May 2021 [? - or 2022 it seems after amazon updated after this post]. FULL COLOR     Finally, this is great! Let us all purchase this so that FB may finish and complete this reprint series!   vol 1 ISBN: 9781683964193  amazon listing: Tales of Brer Rabbit - Sunday Adventures (brazil) Same link as prior but Amazon US

[RobbK1]

The Brasilian already has a price listed. But the English US version doesn't. And it seems that it can't be pre-ordered yet. But.I'm glad to see the announcement.

[Mesterius]

Very interesting news! But... April 27, 2022? I hope this is just a temporary placeholder date.

[dinnerdone]

Jul 2, 2020 17:43:07 GMT Mesterius said:

Very interesting news! But... April 27, 2022? I hope this is just a temporary placeholder date.

the brasil site states 2021 so I guess 2022 is a typo at the US site, since fantagraphics usually don't list upcoming titles so far into the future as April 2022 would be.     Also when checking other book retailers online all of them shows the same date as amazon brasil (if they have the title listed) - edit: now both seem to state 2022

[RobbK1]

Jul 2, 2020 17:43:07 GMT Mesterius said:

Very interesting news! But... April 27, 2022? I hope this is just a temporary placeholder date.

It HAS to be a placeholder date because USPS package delivery is a disaster right now, and Amazon uses them for local delivery.  So the arrival date changes by weeks, anyway.  But, in terms of Fantographics official release date, it MAY be a good rough estimate.  They may have not yet located all the originals they need for copying, and it may take a fair amount of time to assemble them, and adjust those from non-perfect sources, IF Disney doesn't have all that are needed in adequate condition.  We had a conversation about this some months ago.  Maybe David, or someone else who worked closely with editing and production in one of the Disney Comics franchises can tell us whether or not all the English language originals are readily available in good condition.  Most of my Danish and Norwegian friends who collected that strip were collecting Scandinavian versions of all pages individually, and told me that one of the reasons why IDW had not announced an "Uncle Remus" strip anthology along with their "Silly Symphonies" series was that some of the English language originals were not currently available in good condition, and work would need to be done to replace them.

[dinnerdone]

Jul 2, 2020 18:14:29 GMT RobbK1 said:

Jul 2, 2020 17:43:07 GMT Mesterius said:

Very interesting news! But... April 27, 2022? I hope this is just a temporary placeholder date.

It HAS to be a placeholder date because USPS package delivery is a disaster right now, and Amazon uses them for local delivery.  So the arrival date changes by weeks, anyway.  But, in terms of Fantographics official release date, it MAY be a good rough estimate.  They may have not yet located all the originals they need for copying, and it may take a fair amount of time to assemble them, and adjust those from non-perfect sources, IF Disney doesn't have all that are needed in adequate condition.  We had a conversation about this some months ago.  Maybe David, or someone else who worked closely with editing and production in one of the Disney Comics franchises can tell us whether or not all the English language originals are readily available in good condition.  Most of my Danish and Norwegian friends who collected that strip were collecting Scandinavian versions of all pages individually, and told me that one of the reasons why IDW had not announced an "Uncle Remus" strip anthology along with their "Silly Symphonies" series was that some of the English language originals were not currently available in good condition, and work would need to be done to replace them.

Yeah much of the listing can claim it as a placeholder. The amazon cover image of the title is in a portrait orientation and design while the measurement info state 12 x9 inches which would be a landscape orientation just as IDW's Library of american comics' Disney collections were. also the cover text of this same image at amazon says the title collects 1945-1949 of the strip, while the title of the amazon product page itself has the years 1945-1948 stated. The longer product text at amazon does state 1945-1949. I guees both years could be accurate depending on how the book is arranged. I don't know how many strips pages the ''UR BR'' sunday had those years in total, if they would fit into the page count of this book or not; this depends on where the publisher decide to break up 1949 to continue it in the next volume.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Kind of odd that Disney greenlit this at almost the same time they decided to do away with the old Splash Mountain? Of course, if, rather than a sheer coincidence, it's a "throw something at the Song of the South fandom which they'll love even though it's relatively low profile, in exchange for robbing that small hardcore fandom of Splash Mountain" gambit, then I'm happy with that. Clever move, and, for my money, a perfectly good bargain. (Not that I'm an especially fervent Brer Rabbit fan in the grand scheme of things, but yknow.)

[That Duckfan]

A quick look at Inducks reveals that Br'er Rabbit Sundays formed short stories of about 3 to 10 weeks from '45 to '48-49, which would be pretty much exactly fit the era described on Amazon (note how the mock-up cover says 1949, while the title says 1948).
Single week stories appeared from 1949 to 1972, although it should be noted that the series cycled through a number of artists.

1945-46: story by Bill Walsh, art by Paul Murry, Dick Moores or Bill Wright
1946-51: story by George Stallings, art by Dick Moores
1951-59: story by George Stallings, art by Riley Thomson
1959-62: story by George Stallings, art by Bill Wright
1962-72: story by Jack Boyd, art by John Ushler

The early Br'er Rabbit stories saw a lot of print in the Netherlands, but they never went past 1954. Inducks doesn't even have character indexes for much of the Boyd/Ushler era, so I'm very skeptical we'll see any of that in print. I hope a second volume will at least be viable, though.

When the Dutch publisher printed these stories back in the '80s, they created their own Br'er Rabbit title panel, removing references to Uncle Remus. Given Disney's policy on Song of the South, I wonder if we'll get to see him or if they'll do something similar. The cover on Amazon boasts an introduction from Floyd Norman -- he'll probably smooth over some of the historical rough edges.

[That Duckfan]

Jul 2, 2020 19:58:21 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Kind of odd that Disney greenlit this at almost the same time they decided to do away with the old Splash Mountain? Of course, if, rather than a sheer coincidence, it's a "throw something at the Song of the South fandom which they'll love even though it's relatively low profile, in exchange for robbing that small hardcore fandom of Splash Mountain" gambit, then I'm happy with that. Clever move, and, for my money, a perfectly good bargain. (Not that I'm an especially fervent Brer Rabbit fan in the grand scheme of things, but yknow.)

I'm even more surprised to see this greenlit with the current level of racial tensions in the USA. You'd think this is the prime time for Disney to bury their Song of the South heritage deeper than ever before.

I'm not sure anyone's a fervent Br'er Rabbit comics fan, but it'll be nice to have the materials collected and available in print.

[RobbK1]

Jul 2, 2020 20:25:01 GMT That Duckfan said:

Jul 2, 2020 19:58:21 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Kind of odd that Disney greenlit this at almost the same time they decided to do away with the old Splash Mountain? Of course, if, rather than a sheer coincidence, it's a "throw something at the Song of the South fandom which they'll love even though it's relatively low profile, in exchange for robbing that small hardcore fandom of Splash Mountain" gambit, then I'm happy with that. Clever move, and, for my money, a perfectly good bargain. (Not that I'm an especially fervent Brer Rabbit fan in the grand scheme of things, but yknow.)

I'm even more surprised to see this greenlit with the current level of racial tensions in the USA. You'd think this is the prime time for Disney to bury their Song of the South heritage deeper than ever before.

I'm not sure anyone's a fervent Br'er Rabbit comics fan, but it'll be nice to have the materials collected and available in print.

We oldies from the 1940s and '50s, who read the strips in the newspapers like it.  I liked it both in USA and Canada, and in The Netherlands, too.  We have many Broer Konijn fans in The Netherlands, and some in Scandinavia, that I know will want to have a collection of his stories in English, their original language.  We all will buy the books, in addition to several American and Canadian hard core Disney Comics collectors (and maybe a few German and Italian Disney Comics collectors will, as well.  Speaking of Dutch Broer Konijn, a 9-page Bre'r Rabbit story of mine (in the style of Paul Murray's original short stories) is being drawn right now.  I hope it will be printed in Donald Duck Weekblad a few months from now.  I have a second one, (8 pages) ready to go after that.

[Mesterius]

As I said, I'm excited about this news. I've already read some Brer Rabbit Sunday strips by George Stallings and Dick Moores in Moores' Norwegian Hall of Fame book, and they were surprisingly good -- well-written and beautifully drawn. But there are a few things I'm wondering about regarding this book...

For one thing, why a vertical format? Not that this will be unworkable, as the Uncle Remus and His Tales of Brer Rabbit Sundays were intended to work in both vertical and horizontal layout... but the strips were originally drawn in the horizontal layout, as seen below. For the vertical (tabloid) format to work, you'll have to drop one of the panels -- specifically panel 3 in the second tier here, which is deliberately written not to be crucial to the action. In other words, the horizontal layout offers the most complete versions of the strips. So why not do this book in a horizontal format like The Floyd Gottfredson Library and the Silly Symphonies series?


Also, I REALLY hope the cover seen on Amazon right now is a temp version. Because, I'm sorry, perspective just doesn't work that way. What we have here is a miniature Brer Bear walking right next to Brer Rabbit... followed by a miniature Brer Fox a metre or so behind him. I kinda doubt these guys will pose much of a threat.

[squeakyboots]

Jul 2, 2020 20:25:01 GMT That Duckfan said:

Jul 2, 2020 19:58:21 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Kind of odd that Disney greenlit this at almost the same time they decided to do away with the old Splash Mountain? Of course, if, rather than a sheer coincidence, it's a "throw something at the Song of the South fandom which they'll love even though it's relatively low profile, in exchange for robbing that small hardcore fandom of Splash Mountain" gambit, then I'm happy with that. Clever move, and, for my money, a perfectly good bargain. (Not that I'm an especially fervent Brer Rabbit fan in the grand scheme of things, but yknow.)

I'm even more surprised to see this greenlit with the current level of racial tensions in the USA. You'd think this is the prime time for Disney to bury their Song of the South heritage deeper than ever before.

I'm not sure anyone's a fervent Br'er Rabbit comics fan, but it'll be nice to have the materials collected and available in print.

My impression is that this book had been in the works before the recent protests had started and while the retheming of Splash Mountain had supposedly been in the planning stages since last year, I don't think anyone at Fantagraphics would've known about it before the official announcement of that.

The April 2022 release date is odd since I don't think any other Disney release from Fantagraphics had been unveiled that far ahead before so that has me inclined to think maybe they decided to push back the release date until things have hopefully cooled down and gotten better for everyone.

[Mesterius]

Jul 3, 2020 15:34:12 GMT squeakyboots said:

Jul 2, 2020 20:25:01 GMT That Duckfan said:

I'm even more surprised to see this greenlit with the current level of racial tensions in the USA. You'd think this is the prime time for Disney to bury their Song of the South heritage deeper than ever before.

I'm not sure anyone's a fervent Br'er Rabbit comics fan, but it'll be nice to have the materials collected and available in print.

My impression is that this book had been in the works before the recent protests had started and while the retheming of Splash Mountain had supposedly been in the planning stages since last year, I don't think anyone at Fantagraphics would've known about it before the official announcement of that.

The April 2022 release date is odd since I don't think any other Disney release from Fantagraphics had been unveiled that far ahead before so that has me inclined to think maybe they decided to push back the release date until things have hopefully cooled down and gotten better for everyone.

Many books have been initially listed on Amazon with a temporary date set several years into the future, before getting updated with the actual release date.I think that has to be the explanation here.

[niko]

Great news to hear that the brer rabbit comics will be reprinted. I think about buying them.
But what i don‘t understand is why they do not continue with the other, more popular character sundays, like
Mickey mouse from manuel gonzalez or Donald duck by al taliaferro? It‘s really sad fantagraphics/idw doesn‘t continue/stopped those projects.

[dinnerdone]

Jul 4, 2020 5:46:50 GMT niko said:

Great news to hear that the brer rabbit comics will be reprinted. I think about buying them.
But what i don‘t understand is why they do not continue with the other, more popular character sundays, like
Mickey mouse from manuel gonzalez or Donald duck by al taliaferro? It‘s really sad fantagraphics/idw doesn‘t continue/stopped those projects.

I don\t know anything about how or why that happend, but I guess they did not sell well enough. Either according to the publisher or Disney themselves. If they would continue with Gonzalez Mickey strips I think it is wise to have a break after the Gottfredson colloction in order to clear the shelf from those and sell out, and get the market longing for more Mickey a bit more before embarking on another Mickey reprint project. Regarding Donald strips from Loac, I have heard they did not sell well enough.