Comics in Wisconsin, a history of the comics medium in this unlikely setting by long-time editor and writer Paul Buhle, will be released by University of Wisconsin Press on October 2nd.  It includes over 200 reproductions, ranging from The Gumps and Gasoline Alley to alternate histories that fostered talents like Lynda Barry and James Sturm.

The cover by Robert Crumb illustrates the importance of underground comic publishing in the state, a movement led by Denis Kitchen and Kitchen Sink Press.    

Other artists with work in the book include Art Young, Frank O. King, Sidney Smith, Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Griffith, Sharon Rudahl, Gilbert Shelton, Howard Cruse, Alison Bechdel, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman, and Mike Konopacki. 

The 120-page trade paperback will carry a cover price of $21.95. 

Harvey Pekar's jacket blurb says it "...offers readers a four-color glimpse at the richness of a neglected political and artistic counterculture."