ANOTHER GEM FROM MARESCA

  From Pete Maresca’s Sunday Press Books comes another in Maresca’s exacting reproductions of the Sunday funnies of yore — a complete run of Gustave Verbeek's famed Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo (1903-1905), digitally restored and presented in their original size and colors (120 11x16-inch pages, $80).

Also featured (from the press release) “are a complete run of Verbeek's Loony Lyrics of Lulu (1910) and a sampling of his long-running Terrors of the Tiny Tads (1906-1914). A compilation of 25 early cartoons and paintings by Verbeek for magazines and illustrated books (1900-1915) fills out this large hard-bound volume.

For collectors, there is an insert sheet of 12 Tiny Tads postcards, reprinting a 1907 promotional set.”

Verbeek’s ingenuity in constructing actual stories, half of which are upside down repeats of the rightside up versions, is stunning. Amazing.

More on this in the Usual Place, Rants & Raves, Opus 252.