IDW Publishing; $49.99

With more than 800 comics from June 8, 1959 to February 10, 1962, the sixth volume in The Library of American Comics’ (LOAC) Rip Kirby archival series hits a period of fundamental change. The previous volume was the first collecting the work of artist John Prentice, who took over Rip Kirby upon the death of Alex Raymond, who was a legend and would have been a tough act to follow. In this volume, though, it becomes clear that Prentice was more than up to the task. In fact, by this point, he had made the strip his own.

It wasn’t that he was eschewing the storytelling or characters or style of the Raymond years. Working with writer Fred Dickenson, who had written the strip with Raymond, it just seems that he must have been very comfortable with his own approach by this point. His art was always very good, but here it begins to really groove.

The quality of the reproduction is hard to match since the strips are scanned from the original King Features Syndicate proofs, leading to another beautiful package from LOAC and IDW Publishing.