By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/3/2016
Dover Publications is mostly known for two things: papercraft books (including coloring books back before they were cool), and reprinting lost literary treasures, mostly in the public domain. That reprint model changed a few years ago, when Drew Ford, then an editor at Dover, started a graphic novel line, reprinting many forgotten classics from the […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/9/2014
The other day I mentioned how Dover Books is bringing back a bunch of out of print graphic novels including Puma Blues and A Sailor’s Story.
Well, you can add one more book to that list.
I’m thrilled to be able to announce that Dover is reprinting a new edition of Secret Teachings of a Comic Book Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala by myself and Philip Yeh. The original edition, published in 1994 by IHAC, including Phil’s tales of his friendship with Alfredo and learning about the tradition of Filipino comics from him. My part of the book was a lengthy interview with Alfredo in which he analyzed pages from his incredible Voltar project, talking about storytelling, art history, philosophy and much more. Doing the interviews for the book was an amazing experience, and one that I think of often. Alfredo was a truly memorable person with an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of art and music, and he lived a life that could have been a comic book all in itself from his boyhood during World War II (he did some spying for the US thanks to his photographic memory), to his part in the “Filipino Invasion” in comics of the 70s.
This new edition is being done with the full cooperation of the Alcala family, Phil Yeh and myself. We’re discussing the possibility of updating it with some new material, and I’ll keep everyone posted on that.
This is actually the only book I’ve ever written, and I’m excited to see it back in print for that reason, But even more so, it’s so gratifying to know that the story of Alfredo Alcala and his art will be available to the new generation of comics artists and enthusiasts. The Pinoy Komiks tradition isn’t as well known as it should be, and hopefully this book will help change that a little. And also remind people of Alfredo’s mind boggling talent. 
Dover’s got great tastes in getting books back in print (and WANDERING STAR is a shining example), but they seem to be deadly terrible at KEEPING THOSE BOOKS available — of the recent “new wave” of Dover comics reprints (BOZZ CHRONICLES, MERCY, MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL, NIGHT AND THE ENEMY, PRIVATE BEACH, PUMA BLUES, A SAILOR”S STORY… and, yeah, WANDERING STAR), there are no copies available from Diamond (big shock), nor from Baker & Taylor (who only will take backorders for these books now, usually a sign of OOP, not merely OOS)
Being “back in print” doesn’t *really* help if books are not actually available to booksellers, and actually scare me because it might tie up newer printings of some of this stuff for a few more years — I could easily have sold another 10+ copies of PUMA BLUES in particular, if I could actually order them from a distributor…
“Ms. Wood has been absent from comics since the completion of this series, ”
Except the (unfinished) DARKLIGHT from 2000.
I’m sorry to hear that Dover hasn’t been able to keep the books readily available to retailers. There’s some great stuff there, hopefully whatever the logjam is can be cleared up (though I guess with Ford having left the company the question of whether it’s going to continue to be an active imprint beyond the stuff already in the pipeline from Ford’s tenure is open).
I really liked this series. Such a unique, personal voice. Glad to see things like this survive.
All of these titles are in stock at http://www.doverpublications.com
I’d always intended to read this series, but had difficulty locating sequential issues at the time (I’d find, say, issue 4, but not 1, 2 or 3 on the shelves.) After reading this review I did something I haven’t done for years; I went down to the bookstore, bought the book, and sat down and read it cover to cover in a single sitting. A very unique and compelling work. Typically Sci-fi tends to see-saw between hard science and action, but this was a very character based story whose style was endearing. Millions die, yet most of the blood letting was off-panel so it remained firmly in the YA story space. Like so many small press works of that era you can literally see the cartoonist growing in their skills, chapter to chapter. The early chapters are a bit clunky, the story slow to take off, but once it does she manages some really powerful moments. Thank you for the recommendation. I really enjoyed it.