Jimmy! The Comic Art of James Swinnerton

James Swinnerton is one of the most creative, respected, and prolific comic artists from the first half of the 20th century. Yet to the disappointment of classic comics lovers, his work has seen little reproduction. Until now. This sumptuous volume covers Swinnerton's six-decade career in comics, from his beginnings as a sports/editorial cartoonist for William Randolph Hearst in San Francisco to his years in the America's Southwest desert, where his love for the land and its people came through in his comics and illustration. Swinnerton is an excellent storyteller offering a cinematic style with humor that is both slapstick and sophisticated. At the forefront is his long-running Little Jimmy comic strip. This namesake character began by mixing satire of New York society with stories of rural America. He then took the characters on the road to South America, Mexico, and then settling for many years in Swinnerton's beloved Southwest. Also included in this book are his early one-shots and series like the rakish Mr. Jack and the anthropomorphic Mt. Ararat, and his 1940s stylized comic of the modern West, Rocky Mason. Swinnerton was famous for more than just comics. He wrote and illustrated the charming feature 'The Canyon Kiddies' and similar titles for weekly magazines. In his later years he became known as a premier painter of desert landscapes. All of these are featured in this book. Jimmy! includes an illustrated biography by Paul C. Tumey and essays by co-editor Michael Tisserand, Eddie Campbell, and Donald Phelps. The comic strips in this volume are carefully restored to their original colors and printed at near-full size. As a bonus, the book also includes a set of four Swinnerton postcards featuring his main characters, facsimiles of the originals from 1906, ready for mailing. Swinnerton lovers will be delighted by the richness and variety of the works seen here. Those new to this uniquely American artist will likely join the growing numbers who appreciate his important role in the history of the comics.

This exhaustively researched and curated collection covers everything from his early sports and editorial illustrations for Hearst newspapers through his multiple comic-strip creations and fine-arts work, presenting a comprehensive look at a pioneering artist.-- "Cinema Sentries"
A tantalizing, long-overdue look at the life and work of one of newspaper comics' pioneers.-- "The Comics Journal"

Peter Maresca is the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of high-quality, full-sized collections of classic American newspaper strips. His Sunday Press books represent a high-water mark in the reproduction and preservation of American comic strips. Maresca changed the concept of comic reprints in 2005 with his original-sized Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, Winsor McCay's groundbreaking strip. He continued with Sundays with Walt & Skeezix (Frank King's Gasoline Alley), George Herriman's Krazy Kat, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, and a dozen others. Maresca lives a relatively non-virtual life in Palo Alto, CA. Michael Tisserand is the author of the Eisner Award-winning biography, Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White, one of The New York Times' one hundred notable books for 2017. His other award-winning books include The Kingdom of Zydeco, the Hurricane Katrina memoir Sugarcane Academy; and My Father When Young, a collection of his father's 1950s-era Kodachome photography. Tisserand's current projects include books about New Orleans cartoonist Bunny Matthews and the making of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. A long-time New Orleans resident, he now resides in Minnesota. His website is michaeltisserand.com. Paul C. Tumey is a writer and artist in Seattle, WA. He was nominated for an Eisner Award as co-editor of Foolish Questions & Other Odd Observations by Rube Goldberg, co-edited and wrote for The Art of Rube Goldberg, and wrote the introduction to LOAC Essentials: The Bungle Family and Thimble Theatre and the pre-Popeye Cartoons of E.C. Segar. He also currently writes a column for The Comics Journal. Eddie Campbell is best known for drawing and publishing From Hell (with writer Alan Moore). His various comic creations include the semi-autobiographical Alec, the Bacchus series, and the graphic novel The Lovely Horrible Stuff. Born in Scotland, he lives in Australia.

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