Footrot Flats books and memorabilia

Chronology of first printings of Footrot Flats editions (Australia)

1978	September	Footrot Flats # 1	All the printings of Footrot Flats # 1, up until the release of Footrot Flats # 3, are not numbered. They are merely titled 'Footrot Flats'. If you see one of these, it might be worth grabbing, as they're quite scarce.
1979	August	Footrot Flats # 2	Again, the first few editions are un-numbered.This book only became 'Footrot Flats 2' after #3 was published.Again, un-numbered ones are relatively scarce.
1980	June	Footrot Flats Colouring Book	(not reprinted, as far as I know)
	July	Footrot Flats #3
1981	April	Footrot Flats 4
	August	Footrot Flats 5
1982	April	Footrot Flats 6
	September	Footrot Flats 7	By now Foorot Flats mania was well underway in Australasia. All of the early books had already been massively re-printed, sometimes every few months, and this continued through most of the 80's. Consequently first editions of early Footrot Flats books (say, the first 6 or 8) are relatively rare, and the earlier they are the rarer. On the other hand, because the late ones (say from 18 onwards) did not sell as well, it probably balances out. Later volumes ones are harder to find, but are quite likely to be first editions (hence, condition is the only significant criteria in the later ones.)
1983	March	They've Put Custard With My Bone	(The first Pocket Footrot Flats)
	September	Footrot Flats 8
1984	March	The Cry of the Grey Ghost
	May	The Mini Footrot Flats	(Uncertain if re-printed. Rare, in any event.)
	October	Footrot Flats 9
1985	April	I'm Warning You, Horse...
	July	The Footrot Flats Weekender	(First of the larger format FF's from the Sunday editions of the newspapers. There was quite a long gap between the first and second, then they became more frequent.)
	September	Footrot Flats 10
1986	August	Footrot Flats 11
	?	Footrot Flats - The Making of the Movie	So far as I know, only published in New Zealand. Rare. Note: not the same as the book of the movie, which is also rare, though somewhat less so, and came out in 1987 (I think).
1987	June	The Footrot Flats Collectors Edition (Hardcover compilation of vols 1-4)	These are quite hard to come by now. There were two subsequent hardcover volumes in this series, after which I think the publishers gave up, because they weren't selling well, They were expensive, and contained no new strips.Of course, that makes them collectable now. I don't have a Collector's Edition 2 or 3, and I don't know anyone who bought one :/
	September	Footrot Flats 12

The book of the film also came out around this time. The release of the Footrot Flats movie arguably marked the high watermark of Footrot Flats mania. The gradual decline in sales began in the very late 80's and early 90's. This was a real shame, as MB was really producing arguably his best material now.

The Merchandising Explosion: a trickle of Footrot Flats merchandise had been available in the early 80's, but in 1986-87, perhaps in response to unlicensed merchandise appearing on the market, and certainly to help promote/(underwrite?) the movie, Murray Ball opened the floodgates, and the Footrot Flats merchandising machine went into overdrive. Nearly every piece of Footrot Flats paraphrenalia which exists was designed and/or released in 1986/87. This included plush toys, beer coasters, t-shirts, mugs, beer glasses, BBQ aprons, Drink coasters, stickers, fridge magnets, activity books, lapel pins, soap, shampoo, bubble-bath, toiletries sets, stationery, silver-plated spoons, beach towels, greeting cards, notepads, pens, posters, key-rings, placemats, shopping bags, paper plates, and, if I remember correctly - though this does seem like some sort of drug-induced hallucination - I think I remember eating a Footrot Flats ice-cream. This would, I am absolutely sure, be the single most collectable Footrot Flats item ever made. I shudder to contemplate what a mint condition, un-eaten, never-been-defrosted Footrot Flats Ice-cream might be worth. The truly awful things is, if someone found one of the bloody things, I'd want it.

I am sure this does not exhaust the list of Footrot Flats items that came out in the mid-80's.

This was also the period during which, at one point there was a choice of three different Footrot Flats calenders in the same year.

The merchandising boom lasted for a few years, but tailed off by the end of the 80's. By the early 90's Footrot Flats stuff was getting hard to find (other than the books.) At some stage hereabouts, Murray Ball, who apparently claims a deep loathing of merchandising, presumably decided the bootleggers had been licked, and pulled everything off the market except the books. Consequently, any non-literary Footrot Flats memorabilia almost certainly dates from the mid 80's, and is rarely seen. If you see anything that isn't a book, (other than the video of the film) it's rare. You might not see it again .

The video of the movie is, BTW, and to the best of my knowledge, presently available in PAL format, quite cheaply (around $15 AU) - never mind that it cost me over $100 when it first came out!

1988	June	It's a Dog's Life
	August	Footrot Flats 13	The Collector's Edition 2 probably came out late in 1988
1989	March	Weekender 2
	August	Footrot Flats 14
1990	May	Footrot Flats 15
	August	Footrot Flats 16
1991	April	Footrot Flats 17
		Weekender 3
1992	March	Let Slip the Dogs of War	(Last of the pocket Footrot Flats, and definately the hardest to come by nowadays)
	June	Footrot Flats 18
	December	Weekender 4
1993	June	Footrot Flats 19	National survey finds that 2 most common names for dogs in Australia are 'Dog' and 'Jess'
1994	January	Footrot Flats 20
	April	The last Footrot Flats cartoon appears in the newspapers.	Murray Ball announces he has stopped drawing the strip. Australia/NZ go through type of low-key mourning, like the USA is going through as I write, over the end of Peanuts. update: Charles Schultz passed away the day after I wrote the above paragraph. I hope it doesn't seem in any way tasteless. I'm certainly not meaning to imply that the end of a comic strip is as tragic as the death of its creator. (Charles Schultz was a big Footrot Flats fan, BTW, and I imagine the admiration was mutual.) All the books from here on are effectively posthumous. Footrot Flats mania has waned (though FF remains well-known) and the books are selling in smaller quanitites to a smaller core of dedicated fans. Consequently, and ironically, the later ones are actually harder to find. MB tells me in a letter he thinks the final Footrot Flats book will be published in 2000.
	July	Footrot Flats 21	Collector's Edition 3 comes out around late 94. Probably the rarest of the lot.
	October	Footrot Flats Weekender Special	(This is a hardcover compilation of the first 4 weekenders. Small sales, Quickly remaindered.)
1995	March	Weekender 5
	April	Footrot Flats 22
1996	March	Weekender 6
	August	Footrot Flats 23
1997	June	Footrot Flats 24
1998	(unknown)	Footrot Flats 25
	(unknown)	The Ballad of Footrot Flats	Just when you thought Dog had made his swansong, MB comes out with this new, large-format, hardcover pictorial novel. The last original FF book to be written. Sadly, somewhat less of Dog in it than you'd prefer.
1999	March	Weekender 8	Last of the Weekenders
	March	Footrot Flats 26
	August	Footrot Flats 27	Last Footrot Flats book published.

2005 - Footrot Flats - The Movie "The Dog's Tale" (DVD)

2005 - Footrot Flats - Sports Collection

2005 - Footrot Flats - Gallery 1

2006 - Footrot Flats - Gallery 2

2006 - Footrot Flats - Gallery 3

2007 - Footrot Flats - The Dog Strips (HC)

2008 - Footrot Flats - The Long Weekender (HC)

Other items of interest:

There was a Japanese Footrot Flats edition, as well as various European language versions. Dates unknown.

Footrot Flats 4 was released in the USA as Footrot Flats, with a forward by Charles Schultz.

The pocket footrot flats were released at one stage as a boxed set.

Calenders:

The earliest Footrot Flats calender I have is 1983. I don't think there was an earlier one. There was one every year up until at least 1991, after which I didn't see another until 1998, and again in 2000. The Y2K Footrot Flats calender is actually technically the last Footrot Flats item.

Starting in 1986 or 87, and continuing up until 1990 there was also a Footrot Flats Sports Calender each year. This was a very large format affair, except for the 1990, which was smaller.

In 1987 or 88 there was also a Footrot Flats Astrological Calender, which was also large-format.

What are the rarest Footrot Flats items?

Well, nearly all of them would be non-literary. How many people still have an un-used 1986 Footrot Flats bubble-bath? But sticking to the books, here are some rules of thumb:

First editions are the exception not the rule. This is especially true of earlier editions, much less so of later ones. However the late ones were made in smaller numbers. Perhaps the appropriate response to a first edition of FF # 1 is "Wow!", to a first edition of FF # 3, "Nice!", and to a first edition of FF # 15, "So what?"

Personally I would probably not shell out extra money for a regular FF first edition, any later than maybe the first three to five, and it would have to be in good order. This may change over time.

Pocket Footrot Flats's are generally slightly harder to come by than regular ones.

The Collector's editions, Weekender Special, books of the film, Mini-Footrot Flats, and the original colouring book are all hard to get (there were at least three other colouring books released in the 1986-88 deluge, one by Ballantine, two by Budget books, which may be a little less hard to come by. The latter two were cheapo things mainly sold in supermarkets.)

The numbered FF's were also released in little, incomplete versions called 'puppydog' editions, during the 90's.

Other things which are out there somewhere must include posters of the movie and video, mobiles and stand-ups for the video, press kits and movie-related paraphrenalia, including a glossy prospectus for investors. There was also a soundtrack album to the movie, a single (Slice of Heaven, which came out as a picture sleeve 7", and later as a CD), and a musical stage show, for which there are programs and tickets and whatnot floating about. Don't quote me on this, but I'd be suprised if New Zealand didn't put out a Footrot Flats postage stamp at some point. Also, one picture of Murray Ball shows him posed before an absolutely collossal plushie of Dog (i.e., about 5 feet high) Whether this was a one-off, I don't know.

What's your favourite Footrot Flats?

Well, I think Murray's best drawings of Dog date from the early 80's. In the later ones his snout got progressively bigger, his body smaller, and by the 90's he looked less like a farm dog, and more like Snoopy.

OTOH, the quality of the writing probably improved with the later ones, and the last decade of Footrot Flats often showed a nuance and depth that exceeded the early years. By this stage it was getting obvious Murray Ball was chaffing at the bit to do some political cartooning (which was largely what he'd been doing before FF, after all) - and indeed his first non-FF project in nearly 25 years, 'The Sisterhood', was so explosively politically incorrect, that I think he's vaguely amazed he wasn't locked up over it.

It is, in my humble opinion, also a courageous, brilliant and hilarious book, but probably destined to be maligned.

Murray's latest book is the 1999 large-format graphic novel The Flowering of adam Budd. Unfortunately there are no dogs in it.