With the recent increase in comics scholarship, comics anthologies have experienced a resurgence. Yale University Press’s 2-volume An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories is a great introduction to alternative cartoonists after about the mid-1950s. However, even those early pieces show only half the lineage of Western comics, leaving out the experimentalism of early practitioners of the art. Dan Nadel has taken it upon himself to recapture these hidden experiments for modern consumption.His first volume, Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969, was published in 2006. Despite the title, the book is heavy on the first thirty years of the 20^th century, with Gustave Verbeek’s 1904 series “The Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo” representing one of the earliest (and still most interesting) inclusions. The book also spotlight Charles Forbell’s 1913 strip “Naughty Pete,” along with humorists like Milt Gross and Harry Hershfeld. With 29 creators divided across five different categories and 320 pages, this book is a treasure for anyone interested in early pop-cultural art, as well as for modern comics fans interested in where artists like Chris Ware got their inspiration.Nadel’s second anthology, Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980, isn’t exactly a sequel. As you can see, its time period overlaps with the earlier collection. Instead of unknown artists, many in this collection are well-known in comic book history. There’s H.G. Peter (Wonder Woman), John Stanley (Little Lulu), Jesse Marsh (Tarzan), and more. However, the pieces of their work shown here are forgotten forays into other genres, like John Stanley’s horror stories. The rest of the book showcases the burgeoning underground and psychedelic artists of the era. The task of choosing between either of these volumes is just too difficult, so we recommend checking them both out as soon as possible.