JoltVib

Walking around at San Diego Comic-Con, the booth for a small publisher known as Sunday Press stands out in the quieter half of the convention. Standing amidst retailers hawking bagged rarities and boxes of superhero comics, the books on display are distinctive: they’re massive — almost two feet to a side — and they bear names like Dick Tracy: Colorful Cases of the 1930s, White Boy in Skull Valley, Society Is Nix, Gleeful Anarchy at the Dawn of the American Comic Strip, and others. The outfit is run by Peter Maresca, a comic collector-turned publisher who describes himself as a “discount archivist,” and who has earned recognition from the broader comic community for his efforts producing amazingly beautiful restorations of the comics that kicked off the entire industry.

As con-goers pass by the booth, Maresca talks to the one or two who stop by, providing a detailed history lesson behind some of the books on display. He explains that he has been collecting classic comics since he was in his 20s, acquiring complete runs of some of the stories, including a strip called Little Nemo in Slumberland, illustrated by Winsor McCay. That strip debuted in 1905 in the New York Herald, and it’s been held up as an influential story by numerous creators, including Maurice Sendak, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnam9fbHxzfI5qbHJvZmeEc3vSmqVmnJmatLB5wqikoptdmLyvec%2BapZ6ko2LBs63IpZyrq12qvaWt056qZquUmLBufo9qbg%3D%3D