LONDON GOES TO POPEYE

When I started Strip Search, the earliest updates tended towards collections of newspaper strips rather than comic books. Recently the emphasis seems to have shifted the other way, but today I'm going back to the strip reprints for  a quick note about a book that has somehow slipped under my radar.
In 1986, cartoonist Bobby London took over the Popeye newspaper strip. Up to then London was known for his work for National Lampoon and Playboy, and most notoriously the underground comic "Air Pirate Funnies" which led to a lawsuit by the Walt Disney corporation over a Mickey Mouse satire.
London was the perfect choice for the strip, both updating the strip but staying true to the spirit of the strip's original creator E.C. Segar. He lasted 6 years before a controversial storyline allegedly about abortion found him removed from the strip.
IDW have now published a hardcover book collecting the first three years of London's run, with a second volume due, I believe, in November.
I haven't yet seen the book, but IDW's track record in strip reprints is exemplary, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. When I do, I'll give it a more detailed review.
I'll be back with more later in the week, including the next Fourth World Thursday.
Be seeing you,
Steve