The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

From the dust jacket: "The American newspaper comic strip (like jazz and the movies) is a major innovative and creative cultural accomplishment of The United States, one that has spread around the world....Included in this Smithsonian Collection are some of the most accomplished and critically notable strips from the Yellow Kid of 1896 - the first to attain definitive form - to contemporary works such as Peanuts, B.C. and Doonesbury....Most of the works chosen for this volume have intrinsic excellence and were popular with the readers of their time. They are also fun to read - and are meant to be enjoyed."