Liberty Meadows

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Liberty Meadows
Publication information
Publisher Creators Syndicate (when syndicated)
Insight Studios (#1–26, Wedding Special)
Image Comics (#27–present, Sourcebook)
ScheduleBimonthly (#1–3, #19–36)
Monthly (#4–18)
Irregular (#37–>)
Format Comic strip
Ongoing comic book
Publication dateSyndicated comic strip: March 30, 1997 to December 31, 2001
Comic book: 1999–2004, 2006
No. of issues37 + 2 specials
Creative team
Created by Frank Cho
Written byFrank Cho
Artist(s)Frank Cho
Collected editions
Book 1: Eden ISBN   1-58240-301-5

Liberty Meadows is an American comic strip and comic book series created, written and illustrated by Frank Cho. It relates the comedic activities of the staff and denizens of the eponymous animal sanctuary/rehabilitation clinic. The comic strip launched on March 31, 1997, and ran until December 30, 2001. [1]

Contents

Publication history

Liberty Meadows is the evolution of University² (University Squared), a strip Cho wrote during his college years for The Diamondback , the student newspaper at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Originally, it was syndicated and appeared in many newspapers, while also being collected in comic books produced by Insight Studios. At the end of 2001, Cho ceased syndication, partly because editors kept censoring it, and announced he would publish it directly in comic book format.

Cho self-published the comic book at first, with Image Comics taking over printing and distribution with issue #27. The comic book went on a hiatus in early 2004, after issue #36. June 2006 saw the publication of issue #37, and Cho commented at the time that he would be "trying to have couple of issues of Liberty Meadows out per year". [2] Issue #37 was the first issue that did not contain material previously published in newspapers, also being the last issue published to date.

From around 2008 until May 2011, the rights to Liberty Meadows were in the hands of Sony Pictures Digital which wanted to develop it as a downloadable series, and then Sony Pictures Television which wanted to develop it as an animated television series. After a change in executives at Sony the projects went inactive, and the rights reverted to Cho, who in May 2011 announced plans to publish issue #38. [3] [4] On February 5, 2012, Frank Cho stated that work on Liberty Meadows had effectively stopped due to other commitments. "I thought I could do Liberty Meadows and my Marvel and outside work but I can't. I have a mortgage and child support that I have to pay each month. As much as I want to do Liberty Meadows (believe me I want to), the other jobs pay better". [5]

Style

Cho makes references to and parodies other comic strips, such as Dilbert , Cathy and Peanuts . [6]

Characters

The humans

A Liberty Meadows gallery
Liberty Meadows Gallery.jpg
TonyRalphDeanJuliusLeslieJenTruman  Oscar

The animals

The author

Collected editions

The comics collecting the daily strips have themselves been collected into a series of books:

ISG HardcoverCollectsDeluxe SignedUnsigned Trade
Liberty Meadows: Big Book of Love# 1 – 5 1-889317-15-2 1-889317-14-4
Image Comics CollectsHardcoverSoftcover
Liberty Meadows Book 1: Eden# 1 – 9 1-58240-301-5 1-58240-390-2
Liberty Meadows Book 2: Creature Comforts #10–18 1-58240-333-3 1-58240-432-1
Liberty Meadows Book 3: Summer of Love#19–27 1-58240-401-1 1-58240-534-4
Liberty Meadows Book 4: Cold, Cold Heart#28–36 1-58240-502-6 1-58240-720-7
Liberty Meadows: Cover Girl#1–37 (covers) 1-58240-640-5
Liberty Meadows 10th Anniversary Edition# 1 – 9 1-58240-929-3
Liberty Meadows Sunday Strips, vol. 1 1-60706-132-5
Liberty Meadows Sunday Strips, vol. 2 1-60706-150-3
Big Book of Love included an all new introduction piece and the Sunday strips, both in color.
Eden also included the intro piece (in black and white), but did not include the Sunday strips.

Awards

Frank Cho has won many awards, including: the prestigious National Cartoonists Society’s Awards for Best Book Illustration (2001) and Best Comic Book (2001), [8] the 2008 Eagle Award, [9] the 1994 Charles M. Schulz Award for Excellence in Cartooning, [10] College Media Association for Cartooning,[ citation needed ] and Germany’s Max & Moritz Prize for Best International Comic Strip. [11] He was also nominated for the coveted Harvey and Eisner Awards. [12] [13]

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References

  1. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 234. ISBN   9780472117567.
  2. Ong Pang Kean, Benjamin (April 17, 2006). "Returning to the Meadow: Frank Cho on Liberty Meadows". Newsarama . Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  3. Cho, Frank (May 16, 2011). "Frank Cho announces: Liberty Meadows Is Coming Back!". Apes and Babes.
  4. Cavna, Michael (May 17, 2011). "Frank Cho's 'Liberty Meadows' to return in new collection". The Washington Post.
  5. Cho, Frank (February 5, 2012). "Apes and Babes forum". Apes and Babes. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Shin, Annys (August 29, 2010). "Personal Liberties: Comic book artist Frank Cho has made a career of being bawdy and bold". The Washington Post .
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Cho, Frank, "Liberty Meadows", Apes and Babes, archived from the original on 2015-08-10, retrieved January 15, 2012.
  8. "National Cartoonists Society's Awards". National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original on 2010-12-31. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
  9. "Previous Winners 2008". Eagle Awards. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
  10. "Previous Winners" (PDF). Scripps Howard Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
  11. "Max und Moritz - Nominees and Winners since 1988". Comic Salon . Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  12. "2000 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees Winners". Comic Book Awards Almanac . Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  13. "2009 Harvey Awards". Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2015-07-19.