In December IDW and Yoe Books will publish Milt Gross’ New York ($24.99), a lost graphic novel by a man who created one of the first, He Done Her Wrong, a 300-page wordless graphic novel that came out in 1930, a year after Lynd Ward’s God’s Man, the first American purely visual graphic novel (though Ward used woodcuts rather than conventional drawings for his illustrations), which it parodies. 
 
Though largely forgotten today, Gross was a very influential cartoonist, a key creator/participant in the zeitgeist of the 1930s and 1940s—his exclamation “Banana Oil!" served the same function then that the less genteel "B___S____" does today, and his character Count Screwloose’s admonition to his sidekick, "Iggy, keep an eye on me," also became a national catchphrase.  Gross, who was born in the Bronx in 1895, was known for his wit, and the brilliant Yiddish-inflected New York dialect he gave his characters.
 
There is certainly no better guide to New York of his era (with the possible exception of Damon Runyan) than Gross, so it’s a true delight to wander the streets of the 20th Century metropolis with Gross’ demented father and son duo, who manage to visit such enduring NYC landmarks as Coney Island, The New York Public Library, Yankee Stadium, Harlem, Chinatown, and the lower East Side in an hilarious tour of a city that was rougher, more vital, and more than a tad less sophisticated than it is today.
 
The 104-page full color hardcover Milt Gross’ New York features an introduction by long time Milt Gross admirer Jim Steranko and is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the history of the graphic novel and American humor.  The "lost" graphic novel makes an excellent companion to Yoe Books’ previous collection of Milt Gross’ comics, The Complete Milt Gross Life Story and Comics (see "Craig Yoe Gets Imprint at IDW").