Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World - Hardcover

Seth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1896597939 ISBN 13: 9781896597935

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly, 2005

Synopsis

From the critically acclaimed cartoonist of Clyde Fans and It's A Good Life comes a humorous graphic novel on the obsession of comic-book collecting.

Taking a break from the serialization of his saga Clyde Fans and the design of The Complete Peanuts, critically acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator Seth creates a farcical world of the people whose passion lies in the need to own comic books and only in pristine, mint condition.

Meet Wimbledon Green, the self-proclaimed world's greatest comic-book collector who brokered the world's best comic-book deal in the history of collecting. Comic-book retailers, auctioneers, and conventioneers from around North America, as well as Green's collecting rivals, weigh in on the man and his vast collection of comic books. Are Green's intentions honorable? Does he truly love comics or is he driven by the need to conquer? Lastly, is he really even Wimbledon Green?

A charming and amusing caper where comic-book collecting is a world of intrigue and high finance. Part riotous chase, part whimsical character sketch, Wimbledon Green looks at the need to collect and the need to reinvent oneself.

About this title

About the Author

Seth's comic-book series, Palookaville, has been collected into It's a Good Life and Clyde Fans. He is an illustrator for The New Yorker and the designer of the bestselling The Complete Peanuts.

Review

How did the world's greatest comic collector get to be so great? And what's with the hats? This whimsical creation from one-name cartoonist Seth works as both celebration and satire of the world of comic collectors. The titular Wimbledon Green is a roly-poly, mustached and bespectacled aesthete given to wearing suit and tie, a dandyish little cape, a small hat (he reportedly has boxes full) and carrying a cane. Described by many as the greatest comic book collector in the world (a label he can't dispute, thanks very much), he's alternately respected and hated by those in the world he inhabits. Seth sets up the story in documentary style, with talking heads given a page or two each to offer their version of what makes Green tick, how he came to have so much money that he could have such a massive collection and the possibly immoral means by which he obtained it. The world that Seth establishes here is hardly a realistic one, with Green residing in a house of castle-like proportions and shooting off to find rare editions in his personal gyrocopter. The cast of characters is small but colorful, mostly other collectors and some comic-store owners, all of whom have bones to pick with Wimbledon, who strides implacably through the whole controversy (stoked to hurricane-proportions by the passions of this small, insular community). Besides the satire which runs thickly behind each smartly rendered frame-there are a few jabs taken at the expense of nostalgists like Chris Ware and R. Crumb-there's a jaunty sense of adventure here, as Seth lays out his netherworld of collectors indulging in their ludicrous passions and intrigues. A humble hobby is pursued with Indiana Jones-style vigor. (Kirkus Reviews)

About this edition

• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1896597939
• ISBN 13: 9781896597935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128