Monday, April 10, 2017

The Definitive Sgt. Kirk Reprint Edition Vol. 1

Today I imagined the design of my Sgt. Kirk reprint edition. It will be hardcover, it will have a cloth spine, and the reprint paper will be slightly beige. It will have the approximate Misterix dimensions: 9 x 6 inches.




5 comments:

Diego Cordoba said...

It would be wonderful to see this with the actual text by Oesterheld and the panels as they were done. The recent Spanish editions are translations of the Italian text with the panels remounted by Pratt to "eliminate the superfluous text" (according to the Italian translation).

Along with Del Castillo's Randall it would be a great series to see reprinted. Randall has been reprinted in Italian, but with the panels placed in such a way as to make it a long continuous story and ignoring the introduction panel from every week. By removing that panel, they've had to change other panels around to fit the page, destroying some of the art along the way. The artwork, however, looks much better than in the Argentinean comic prints.

Anyway, good work with what you've done.

Isabelinho said...

Oesterheld deserves the Oesterheld Library treatment, but unfortunately he wasn't born in the United States, so no dice. He is the greatest comics writer that ever lived (he was better than Alan Moore, if you are wondering...).

What Randall Italian edition are you refering to? Maybe you know this already, but there are four long Randall story arcs published in Hora Cero Suplemento Semanal. Apart from those masterpieces Oesterheld and Del Castillo published a few (I need to check my database to know how many) short stories more. Randall may be confused with other series drawn by Castillo like Dan Dakota, Garrett or Ralph Kendall. If you want the four long story arcs as they were originally published ask Manlio Bonati: manlio.bonati@libero.it

Isabelinho said...

There are 12 short stories drawn by Castillo in Hora Cero Extra!. Cirilo Muñoz drew Randall in another 5 issues (he also drew a cover), but I can't remember if it's a "to be continued" story arc or 5 short stories, or what?...

Diego Cordoba said...

It was "El Valle del Fantasma" or "Fantome Valley" as it was known in the original Hora Cero comics. I have some episodes from Hora Cero, where it was serialized at two pages weekly. This book was reprinted in Italy many years ago as a whole story (minus the introduction panels), and the artwork looks better than in my Hora Cero comics, although panels have been remounted to have a longer story arc with no interruptions.

According to Oesterheld, Randall was translated as Ringo in the UK, but other sources say it was Ralph Kendall, and yet others that it was an original work by Del Castillo. I've seem some samples of Ringo and it doesn't look like Randall.

And no doubt, Hector Germán Oesterheld is the best comic book writer of all time, bar none. BTW, the Fantagraphics version of The Eternaut is really good (obviously they don't mention that I gave them all the indications as to where get the best source available, and why their original title of The Eternonaut was so stupid). The book has been a bestseller, though I know you aren't a fan of El Eternauta.

Hopefully more of HGO's work will appear abroad, as the Argentinean reprints are simply horrible. That's why I was hoping you would go ahead with your Sgt. Kirk restoration and eventually, reprint.

Isabelinho said...

It's very possible that Ringo (I've never seen it) is Ralph Kendall instead of Randall because Roy D'Ami (aka Rinaldo Dami) was the writer and Dami was, precisely, the head of the art agency that put all the South Americans and Italians working for Fleetway.

I own a copy of the Italian version of El Valle del Fantasma and it looks like they reproduced the art directly from the original art or from very good stats.

I love El Eternauta; what I don't do is to put it at the top of Oesterheld's creations (that honor, to me, goes to "Amapola Negra" and "Ernie Pike"). That said, I understand that the extra comics implications of the story are simply too overwhelming to ignore.

Those 4 Randall story arcs that I mentioned (two of them, by the way, are simply among Oesterheld's best creations: I mean "Cuatro Jinetes", which changed it's title to "Jinetes Vengadores" at some point and "Diligencia al Infierno") were published between issues # 1 and # 65 of Hora Cero Suplemento Semanal.

You are right: the Argentinian reprints, El Eternauta excluded, are simply horrendous.