Noel Sickles, along with his lifelong friend, Milton Caniff, changed the face of comics in the 1930s, when they invented a new form of graphic storytelling. They moved away from the simple outline approach then popular, and created a chiaroscuro style that still influences comics artists today. Having blazed a trail through the comics world, Sickles left the medium in favor of a 40-year career as one of America's most successful magazine illustrators. A regular at Life magazine, his work also appeared in Look, Reader's Digest, National Geographic, and The Saturday Evening Post.
A massive, comprehensive, oversized 392-page volume that collects, for the first time, every Sickles Scorchy Smith strip, from December 1933 through November 1936. It also features, in a 140-page biography, an extensive examination of Sickles's life and the decades-long influence of his work, while also showcasing the full breadth of his career as one of America's foremost magazine illustrators.