The Library of American Comics

The Library of American Comics
Parent company	IDW Publishing
Status	Active
Founded	2007
Founder	Dean Mullaney; Bruce Canwell
Country of origin	United States
Headquarters location	San Diego, California
Distribution	Diamond Book Distributors[1][2]; Penguin Random House
Key people	Dean Mullaney (Creative Director); Lorraine Turner (Art Director); Bruce Canwell (Associate Director) ; Kurtis Findlay (Online Communications Coordinator)
Publication types	Books
Fiction genres	American comic strips
Imprints	EuroComics
Official website	libraryofamericancomics.com

The Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. The company is an imprint of IDW Publishing.

History

Background

Dean Mullaney, the founder of The Library of American Comics, developed his interest for comics in his early youth and by the 1970s he was a so-called letterhack, regularly sending in letters of comment to the Marvel comic books' letter pages. His career in comics began in 1977 when he, together with his brother Jan Mullaney[3] as well as Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, launched the publishing company Eclipse Comics,[4] famous for publishing the graphic novel Sabre. After some time at Eclipse Comics, Mullaney left the comics industry.

In 2006, Mullaney was thinking about making a return to comics, and he found an online article about Sabre written by Bruce Canwell, a former DC Comics and Marvel Comics employee. The article mentioned that Canwell remembered Mullaney as a once frequent letter writer to the Marvel comic books' reader pages which he read growing up, just as Canwell himself was. Mullaney contacted Canwell, and after discussing their future plans, they realized that their visions and ideas were aligned. They discussed going into business together, with the initial goal of bringing a complete hardcover collection of Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates to the public.[5]

Mullaney and Canwell launched The Library of American Comics in summer 2007, beginning publication of a definitive collection The Complete Terry and the Pirates.[6]

Publications

The goal of all The Library of American Comics collections is to preserve classic American newspaper comics in definitive archival editions. Each frames a comic-strip series with informative essays to provide historical context, both in relation to other comic strips and to the historical events of their time.[4] Unfortunately, however, IDW discontinued publishing many of the titles before being complete.

In April 2018 the number of titles published by The Library of American Comics was above 180.

Format

All the books The Library of American Comics publish are of the hardcover kind with sewn binding, the large majority also comes with a dust jacket and sewn linen bookmark. Book size and reproduction color depend on each series.

Recognition

Nominations

Eisner Award nominations

2012[7]
- "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim, Vol. 1
- "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Tarpe Mills' Miss Fury - Sensational Sundays 1944-1949
- "Best Comics-Related Book" — Caniff: A Visual Biography
- "Best Comics-Related Book" — Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
- "Best Publication Design" — Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
2013[8]
- "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim, Vol. 2
- "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Percy Crosby's Skippy Daily Comics, Vol. 1
2014 — "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Percy Crosby's Skippy Daily Comics, Vol. 2[9]
2015 — "Best Comics-Related Book" — What Fools These Mortals Be: The Story of Puck[10]
2016[11]
- "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" — Beyond Mars by Jack Williamson and Lee Elias
- "Best Comics-Related Book" — King of the Comics: One Hundred Years of King Features Syndicate
- "Best Publication Design" — King of the Comics: One Hundred Years of King Features Syndicate
2018 — "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips — Star Wars: The Complete Classic Newspaper Comics Vol. 1[12]

Harvey Award nominations

2008 — "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — The Complete Terry and the Pirates[13]
2009
- "Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation" — Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles
- "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — The Complete Terry and the Pirates
- "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles[14]
2010 — "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — Rip Kirby[15]
2011 — "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies & Color Sundays[16]
2012 — "Best Domestic Reprint Project" — Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim[17]

Awards

Eisner Awards[18][19]

2008 – "Best Archival Collection" – The Complete Terry and the Pirates - Vol. 1
2010 – "Best Archival Collection" – Bloom County: The Complete Library - Vol. 1
2011 – "Best Archival Collection" – Archie Dailies Vol. 1
2014 – "Best Archival Collection" – Tarzan: The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips Vol. 1
2014 – "Best comics related book" – Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
2014 – "Best publication design" – Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
2015 – "Best comics related book" – Genius, Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth
2019 – "Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips" – Star Wars: The Complete Classic Newspaper Comics - Vol. 3"

Harvey Awards[20]

2012 – "Best biographical, historical or journalistic presentation" – Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth

Imprints

Publications of EuroComics

Harvey Award

Nominations

2015 — "Best American Edition of Foreign Material" — Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of the Capricon by Hugo Pratt[21]
2016 — "Best American Edition of Foreign Material" — Corto Maltese: Beyond the Windy Isles by Hugo Pratt[22]
2018 — "Best European Book" — Flight of the Raven by Jean-Pierre Gibrat[23]
2019 — "Best European Book" — Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt[24]

Eisner Award