This is Volume 1 of IDW's The Library of American Comics Essentials, which plans to periodically reprint comic strips from the past of significant historical or artistic interest. The format is designed to match the proportions of a daily comic strip, one to a page, so as to mimic the experience newspaper readers had of reading the strips one day at a time. I'd prefer a larger book with more strips to a page, but at least this makes for a nice reproduction size. And this first choice is an excellent one. George Herriman is known, of course, for his iconic "Krazy Kat". But it was predated by "Baron Bean", a strip I'd only known of through a few articles and reprints in comic anthologies, and written off as not particularly significant. I stand corrected. Baron Bean is a pretender to a title (nobility was all the rage in the day), trying to trade off on his supposed barony for a free meal. When he is joined in the strip by Grimes, a gentleman's valet of sorts who is content to live off the leavings of the Baron's layabout life, I am reminded of "Mutt and Jeff", but better written and drawn, and funnier. If Herriman had never created "Krazy Kat", he probably would have still been held in high regard for "Baron Bean". ( )