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Author: [Gaines, M.C.]
Title: PRINT: A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS. Volume III, Numbers 2 and 3 * Lot of Two Periodicals
Place Published: Woodstock, VT
Publisher:William Edwin Rudge
Date Published: Summer, 1942 & [Fall], 1943
Description: Vol. III, No. 2: vii, [1], 1-87 pp., plus unpaginated inserts. Pictorial wrappers. Illustrated in duotone and color. (8vo) 10x7¼". First printing. Very fine condition, mild reading crease to spine, spine crown lightly frayed.

Vol. III, No. 3: vi, [2], 1-51 pp, plus unpaginated inserts and 12 ad pp. Printed wrappers. Illustrated in duotone and color. (8vo) 10x7¼". First printing. Very fine condition, bindery wrinkles to spine, tipped-in frontispiece and one tipped-in plate loose but present. Includes laid-in publisher's note to the reader.

Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.First appearance of M.C. Gaines' "Narrative Illustration: The Story of the Comics"

Print: A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts was an academic journal dedicated to the promotion and advancement of the printers' arts, both fine and commercial. In addition to articles dealing with a range of print-related topics, each issue is interleaved with actual print samples from different sources. Vol. III, No. 2 contains the first appearance of M.C. Gaines' "Narrative Illustration: The Story of the Comics," which was published as a standalone offprint shortly after the release of this journal. The article comprises 15 pages of text with black & white illustrations, as well as two full-color insert examples on newsprint of comic book stories published by Gaines ("The Minute Man Answers the Call" and "The Story of Jonah and the Whale"). The feature concludes with a B&W reproduction of the cover of All-American's Wonder Woman #1 (Summer, 1942), released contemporaneously with this journal, making this almost certainly the first non-comic book appearance of the character ("The new book is devoted entirely to hitherto unpublished episodes in the career of a daring, death-defying heroine named Wonder Woman.")

Comic books were a fairly new innovation at the time of this journal's release, and Gaines is eager to advance the fledgling medium's reputation by claiming lofty antecedents for the artform ("It seems that Little Orphan Annie isn't an orphan after all. Her ancestors include the Sumerian army men whose exploits are celebrated in tablets long buried under desert sands, and Nile women of far-off centuries whose daily lives are enshrined in ancient picture tale.") Gaines goes on to invoke Japanese Kôzanji scrolls of the 11th century and the caricatures of Hogarth, Daumier, and Doré before pivoting to Rodolphe Toepffler's "Max und Moritz" and thence to Outcault's Yellow Kid and his four-color progeny.

Perhaps responding to Sterling North's seminal anti-comics article "A National Disgrace" (Chicago Daily News, May 8, 1940) and Paul Witty's "Those Troublesome Comics" (National Parent-Teacher magazine, January, 1942), Gaines addresses the incipient controversy that would eventually prove to be the comics industry's undoing by offering the following defense: "The comics may be said to offer the same type of mental catharsis to its readers that Aristotle claimed was an attribute of the drama.... Well-balanced children are not upset by even the more horrible scenes in the comics as long as the reason for the threat of torture is clear and the issues are well stated."

Gaines concludes his panegyric with an admission of the propaganda and mass-manipulation potential of comic books ("Their method of approach has been recognized and adapted to purposes of propaganda and advertising"), and admits to aesthetic shortfalls while optimistically positing future greatness for the medium — a promise that his son Bill Gaines would fulfill, with wonderful irony, by violating his father's publishing strictures with his lurid line of EC horror mags ("Perhaps the next chapter in their history will record how beauty, in layout and design, was heightened without estranging the people who loved them as they were.")

In Vol. III, No. 3, Max Gaines expands upon his previous essay, with an in-depth exploration of the production process required to bring funnybooks to fruition, from penciling and inking to engraving, printing, binding, trimming, and distribution. Together, these two seldom-seen trade publications may represent the first treatment of comic books as a medium worthy of serious attention, with special focus on the technical aspects of production.****************************************
The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION comprises over 40,000 comic books, encompassing every single DC comic published for retail sale from 1934 to 2014. The collection was amassed by British music producer Ian Levine over the course of several decades, and it's been hailed as the single greatest collecting accomplishment in comic book history. This collection served as the basis for former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's monumental book 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, published by Taschen in 2017. PBA is proud to present this epic collection in a series of themed sales, including The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION Part 3: The GOLDEN AGE, coming this summer. To join the DC Universe Collection notifications list, contact pba@pbagalleries.com.

Enjoying PBA's DC Universe Collection: Pre-Hero, Ashcans and Oddities sale? A very small number of softcover and limited edition hardcover auction catalogues are available for purchase. The catalogues are fully illustrated, thoroughly researched, and make excellent reference works for DC diehards. To order a copy, or to inquire about consignment opportunities, contact Ivan Briggs, PBA's Director of Comics: ivan@pbagalleries.com.