Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World

by Seth

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781896597935
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	12/13/2005
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 8.14(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Seth is the cartoonist behind the graphic novel Clyde Fans. His comics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeney's Quarterly. His illustrations have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, The Walrus, and Canadian Notes & Queries. He designs collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright, and was the subject of a National Film Board documentary entitled Seth's Dominion. Seth lives in Guelph, Canada in a house he has named Inkwell's End.

Editorial Reviews

This "sketchbook story" continues Seth's impressive run of side projects, a densely packed, quirky novel that is some of his most compelling work yet. Wimbledon Green uses multiple comic strip formats and dozens of characters and points of view to tell the story of the title character, a mysterious comic book collector generally regarded, as the subtitle suggests, as the best around. Through the memories of Wimbledon's associates, enemies and friends, Seth recounts the rise of Wimbledon and key events in the Green legend: the discovery of the priceless Wilber Webb collection and the hunt for the mythical comic book The Green Ghost #1. All of this is both a loving satire of the milieu the author himself inhabits and also a kind of fictional history of comic book collectors. Free from the graphic atmospherics and demanding literary motifs of his more literary work, Seth is able to stretch out and create a world and a story that is light and funny while still deeply felt and finely crafted. Wimbledon Green is an excellent comic romp, and will seem all too familiar to collectors and the people that love (or loath) them. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

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