Fantagraphics Posts Error Page Correction for Barnaby

I’m calling this out not to say the publisher shouldn’t have made a mistake — with two years’ worth of daily strips, all of which had to be sourced, sometimes from multiple locations, and restored, I’m surprised there was only one glitch — but because I hope more publishers will take this approach with errors.

I noted, while reading the first volume of the excellent Barnaby, that the September 30, 1943, strip had the same two first panels. After checking with the publisher that this was actually an error (instead of some weird artistic statement by Crockett Johnson, perhaps, since the strip was about blowhard politicians), I found out that they intended to fix the problem if/when the book is reprinted. However, in the meantime, you can download a corrected page.

Fantagraphics isn’t the only publisher to take this approach — IDW had a similar problem in their Superman Silver Age Dailies volume. In both cases, I’ve simply printed out the corrected page and included them in my copies.

When I was younger, this kind of thing really upset me. I hated the idea that someone who waited later to buy the book would get a “better”, more correct copy. Now, though, I like my imperfect first printings. I’ve come to better terms with compromise, and nothing is perfect, so slightly flawed books are more approachable to me, and I love them all the more for it.