Fantagraphics is doing a second volume of Walt Kelly's Our Gang comics from the 1940s.  The first collection was a pretty straight forward adaptation of the  short films in terms of setting and characters. This one has Kelly starting to take control; Spanky has been replaced by Happy (essentially Spanky with freckles at this stage), and the gang has a multi-part adventure on the high seas when they are accidentally marooned aboard a floating movie-prop pirate ship.

Above is the rough sketch I made for the cover of Our Gang vol.2. Froggy & Buckwheat are in the rigging, with Happy, Janet, and Petey looking out over the rail. I still want to add Mickey in there somewhere. I’ll update this once I tighten the pencils.  Designer Jacob Covey needs this by the end of the month, so I’d better get a move on (why do I always wait until the last minute?).

The first volume got a number of good reviews in Booklist and Publishers Weekly (both of which you can read at Amazon.com.), as well as in The Onion A.V. Club , IGN , and Comic Book Resources , just to name a few. Click here to see the blog entry I made when Our Gang vol. 1 shipped.

And raise a glass to Walt – - my favorite cartoonist was born on August 25, 1913.  Happy Birthday, Walt Kelly! Cartoonists the world over miss you.  Now there was a man who could draw a pig. Or a world leader as a pig.