"An impeccably researched and well-presented collection" - Richard Pound, The Comics Journal "A fascinating close-up of a master developing a visual language for comedy and storytelling." - Steve Smith, Panels & Prose “Before we read the strips, we are already laughing: they are funny on sight.” - Ivan Brunetti “One of the great original and inimitably individual talents in the strip field.” - Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams "Tan rizzons how it should be socksassful cotoons. Rizzon No. 1— Be funny tan times." -Milt Gross, Editor & Publisher (February 27, 1926) Step back into the roaring 1920s and rediscover one of American comics’ lost geniuses. The Art of Milt Gross Volume One , the first in a major new series, presents a trove of rare and fully restored comics unseen for over a century. In 1923, while reestablishing himself on the staff of The New York World , Milt Gross quietly broke into the slick weekly humor magazines—and produced dozens of superb, densely-packed, wildly inventive pages for Judge . During this period, he set himself a bold challenge: mastering the demanding craft of pantomime comics. As Paul C. Tumey argues in the accompanying essay, “Gradually, Milt Gross,” this short but explosive era played a crucial role in Gross’s evolution and paved the way for his breakthrough hits just a few years later. Before Nize Baby , before Count Screwloose , before He Done Her Wrong —Milt Gross was already revolutionizing humor on the printed page. Many of his funniest ideas first appeared in these Judge pages, only to be reimagined later in his newspaper work and key sequences of his celebrated 1930 graphic novel. These early comics reveal the birth of his unmistakable style: big-hearted, kinetic, and brilliantly composed—yet intriguingly tighter and more controlled than his later, wilder work. For the first time, this volume collects every Milt Gross page published in Judge from 1923–24, restored from archival sources and presented with full annotations and a deeply researched illustrated essay by Eisner-nominated comics historian Paul C. Tumey ( Screwball! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny ). With a foreword by Drew Lerman ( Snake Creek ) and a specially colored Milt Gross strip by Noah Van Sciver ( Fante Bukowski ), this book is both a feast for fans and a vital contribution to comics history. An extensive 60+ page Supplements section includes rare art, essays, contextual material, and a complete six-week continuity of Gross’s long-lost 1923 newspaper strip Hitz and Mrs . If you love early American comics, vintage illustration, forgotten creators, or the roots of cartoon comedy, this is the truly Gross stuff you didn’t know you were missing.