"Alley Oop, v.1: The Adventures Of A Time-Traveling Caveman"
Written and Illustrated by V. T. Hamlin
(Kitchen Sink, 1990)
Although perennially out-of-print, and a little far afield, Alley Oop is one of my favorite classic newspaper strips, and a delightful fantasy/sci-fi romp for older (tween-to-teenage) readers. The story involves a macho, heroic caveman named Alley Oop, an ill-tempered, super-strong, rough-and-tumble big lug who tames a pet dinosaur and becomes the champion of his tribe. The series ran from 1932-1973 and was one of the most popular newspaper comics of its time. Unlike other newspaper strips, Alley Oop moved along at a fast clip -- like its hero, the cartoon was all action (and a lot of humor) and because it was set in a different time period, it also isn't as stuck in the past -- modern readers can jump on board right away. The artwork is fantastic: creator V. T. Hamlin was one of the finest draftsmen in the newspaper business, penning mysterious jungles and other densely-layered backgrounds, while giving his characters a fine comedic touch. At first, the series centered on the prehistoric caveman world, with Oop either protecting his tribe from their enemies (and being the big hero) or him opening his big mouth and ticking off King Guzzle, the leader of the Kingdom of Moo (and becoming an outlaw). In 1939, "Alley Oop" busted wide open when Hamlin introduced Dr. Elbert Wonmug, a 20th Century scientist with a time machine, who befriends Oop and sends him on adventures throughout the centuries. Other sci-fi elements were introduced, including space travel, making "Alley Oop" one of the most unique, cross-genre cartoon strips ever published. Most of all, it's a lot of fun... Only a few archival collections of these great strips have come out, and they're all kind of hard to find, but well worth the search; this book includes a year's worth of stories from 1946-47, when the strip was in a rock-solid groove. Highly recommended!
(A+)
"Alley Oop, v.2: The Sphinx And Alley Oop"
Written and Illustrated by V. T. Hamlin
(Kitchen Sink, 1991)
This volume, which covers about a year's worth of strips from 1947-48, has Oop traveling in time to ancient Egypt in the time of the pharaohs, where of course he gets in all kinds of trouble and mix-ups. Great stuff, with cartoonist V. T. Hamlin at the peak of his powers.
(A+)
"Alley Oop, v.3: First Trip To The Moon"
Written and Illustrated by V. T. Hamlin
(Kitchen Sink, 1995)
Another high point, a 1948-49 science-fiction epic where Oops and his pals blast off for the moon. Fabulous artwork and some interesting, old-fashioned concepts about the technology involved in a space flight.
(A+)
"Alley Oop, Book 4"
Written and Illustrated by V. T. Hamlin
(Manuscript Press, 2003)
Picking up where the earlier Kitchen Sink Press series left off, this volume is the same size and length, and also covers the same general time period, reprinting strips from the same era. Also highly recommended!
(A+)
"The Amazing Spider-Man" -- see: Spider-Man
"Amelia Rules, v.1: The Whole World's Crazy"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2007)
In this volume we are introduced -- rather abruptly -- to nine year-old Amelia McBride, a feisty young girl who has recently moved, along with her divorced mother, from New York City to the far-off suburbs, moving in with her Zen-cool aunt while her mom gets back on her feet. In a new town with a new school, Amelia sets out to conquer her surroundings, making friends with three fellow outcasts who form a goofy "super-hero" club and share in life's bickering and blunders. The series is well-written and appealing, although it has the adults-looking-back-at-childhood feel of TV shows such as "The Wonder Years" and "Malcolm In The Middle," etc. that imposes a more mature, irony-laden viewpoint onto the characters. Although the artwork is cartoony and Peanuts-esque, the themes and editorial viewpoint is pitched more to the older end of the "kids" bracket, junior high age and above. Adults will like it, too (in fact, I would say this may be more aimed at adults than one might imagine...) and whether you're actually going through the days of childhood restlessness and angst, or looking back at it all and laughing, these are funny, engaging stories, with kid characters whose wiliness and mischievousness seem totally real. The cover sports a quote saying this is "Peanuts for the 21st Century," but I'd peg it more as "Calvin And Hobbes" with an all-star cast, touching on the imaginative flights of young kids, and the points where those imaginations smoosh up against the gigantic, indifferent thumb of reality. Good reading.
(B+)
"Amelia Rules, v.2: What Makes You Happy"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2007)
In the second book, we delve more deeply into Amelia's family and inner life. One episode is devoted to her super-cool aunt Tanner, who we learn is a former rock star who walked away from it all, a Lilith Fair Tucker Crowe whose alluring past gets dredged up when a music magazine names her the top female rocker of the decade. We also see Amelia reconnecting with her dad, a schlumpy but sweet guy who lives in Manhattan and tries to include Amelia's friends in various outings. More importantly, we meet the nemeses of her superhero group, the Park View Terrace Ninjas, who feud with Amelia and her friends over control of a local park. With the characters and setting more firmly established, the series becomes more compelling and addictive... And are you read now to move onto Volume Three?
(B+)
"Amelia Rules, v.3: Superheroes"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2007)
This volume brings to full fruition the plot elements set up in the first two books: we delve deeper into several of the established characters and Amelia widens her social circle when she discovers that she really, really likes some of the kids in the neighborhood of a rival club, the Park View Terrace Ninjas. One girl, Trishia, writes creative fantasy stories that the other kids avidly read in a self-published 'zine, and Trishia and Amelia soon become fast friends. But for various reasons fate, as it often does, pulls the friendship apart and this subtle story arc proves to be one of the most bittersweet of the Amelia stories. The book ends on a strong note of closure and finality which adds to the poignancy of the Amelia-Trishia plot -- apparently it was meant to be the end of the series. Fortunately Gownley kept going (see below) but this is really where he comes into full force as a graphic novelist. Great stuff!
(B+)
"Amelia Rules, v.4: When The Past Is A Present"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2008)
This book starts with Amelia and her peeps moving up into fifth grade, while their problems and perspectives begin shifting along with them. It follows a delicious initial three-volume story arc that had an air of finality to it, and while we are glad to see Amelia and her friends again, cartoonist Jimmy Gownley has to do a little extra lifting to get the series started up again. A couple of the episodes seem a little forced, exploring big, boldly defined, occasionally dark themes that interrupt the soft, slow flow of the series. One story stands out, in which one girl's father, a captain in the Marines, is deployed abroad (to an unnamed country) and while the girl's heart breaks, the world still doesn't stop. It's a sentimental, self-consciously topical story, but in the end, emotionally resonant and doubtless appreciated by readers with connections to the military. Also of note is the title story, "When The Past Is A Present," in which Gownley shows off his skills as a graphic artist, mimicking various old newspaper strips -- "Gasoline Alley," "Brenda Starr," "Terry And The Pirates," "Peanuts" -- while telling Amelia's family history, then cleverly bringing it all together in a puzzle in the final pages. The artistic triumph is both intuitive and technical, and builds on the series' themes of nostalgic regret, bittersweet acceptance and playful adventurousness... Meanwhile, Amelia goes out on a date (with a boy! and dancing!) and slowly becomes more reflective about her life and her relationships t family and friends. Another fine volume in this classy comicbook series. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)
(B+)
"Amelia Rules, v.5: The Tweenage Guide To Not Being Unpopular"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2010)
This volume shows Amelia and her friends grappling with social pressures at school, mainly the pressure to not seem uncool... which is difficult since Amelia's clique are self-defined nerds, and have been for a long, long time. Teased by the cheerleader in-crowd, Amelia and her friends respond in different ways. Reggie, who still likes to dress up and play superhero, doesn't really care, but lanky-limbed, crazy-haired, sarcastic Rhonda, does. She's decided she doesn't want to move into her middleschool years still being an outcast, and makes a determined effort to change her course. She wants to pull her friends along, too, and forces them to read the same insidious, submit-to-peer-pressure self-help book ("The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular") that she's adopted as her road map. Gownley's self-help book parody isn't very subtle, but the decisions that the kids make are pretty interesting, particularly with Rhonda, who manages to successfully change her image and social status at school, and Amelia, who is urged to join her. Meanwhile, Amelia's home life has its ups and downs, and there's more drama with her too-cool aunt Tanner, who's had to move in with Amelia and her mom after the roof of her house collapsed. Various characters and their relationships are subtly modified, and while the series sometimes seems a little static, many of the slower-moving plot elements, with boy trouble and whatnot, do get tied up in the next volume... so stay tuned!) This is still one of the better, more thoughtful kids-level graphic novels out there... quite satisfying and highly readable, and still highly recommended!
(B+)
"Amelia Rules, v.6: True Things Adults Don't Want Kids To Know"
Written and Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum, 2010)
(B+)
"American Born Chinese"
Written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang
(First Second Books, 2006)
A great one for older kids. This deft, fast-moving, semiautobiographical graphic novel is a multi-layered memoir in which an American-born Chinese man (Gene Luen Yang) examines his childhood as an Asian student in a white-dominated suburban school, bringing remarkable honesty and clarity to his inner struggles as he attempts to find himself and to assimilate. These goals are often at odds, and bookending the grade-school narrative is an enchanting retelling of the Chinese myth of the Monkey King (a symbol of potency and recklessness) and a parallel storyline about "Chin-Kee," a vicious amalgamation of centuries-old racial caricatures. The Chin-Kee character is both disturbing and laughable... Chin-Kee looks and talks funny -- buck-toothed, small, dressed a cartoonish "Asian" outfit, transposing his Ls and Rs, bowing low while lusting after "pletty" white women. That these stereotypes could persist to the current day is as surprising as the power they still hold. The Chin-Kee plotline is framed as a television sitcom (eerily similar to the CW's "Aliens In America") where an embarrassing Asian relative visits his white American cousin Danny and even attends his school, which shames the cousin and crushes his social life. It isn't until the end of the book, when Yang merges the three stories, that we realize that it is Danny who the narrator sees as an alter-ego, not Chin-Kee. Although this book has a strong sense of humor, Yang's exploration of ethnic identity, social pressure and self-loathing is powerful and rings true. He explores deep themes without hitting us over the head with a hammer -- this would be a great book to use in a classroom setting, and is sure to provoke good strong discussions.
(A)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Forties, v.1"
(Archie Comics, 1995)
I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about the Archie books, particularly the stuff from the 1940s, which isn't my favorite period for Archie art-wise, but still has some great stories. The main problem with Archie is the inherent sexism of the Betty-Archie-Veronica love triangle, to say nothing of secondary characters such as Big Ethel, a boy-crazy "ugly" girl who is always chasing the femme-phobic Jughead around. As the parent of a young girl, I'm sensitive to stereotyped and retrograde gender messaging... On the other hand, I really, really love the Archie books, mostly for the artwork (Dan De Carlo is god!) but also for the humor and the well-refined schtick. Archie comics are fun. They're also silly and generally nonviolent and unthreatening, a perfect option for little kids, if only they weren't perpetually reinforcing the idea that girls are shallow, catty, fashion-obsessed, and either submissive or manipulative when it comes to the opposite sex. Oh, well. I have my misgivings, but I still pick up old Archies whenever I can and give 'em to my kid to read on long trips in the car. What are you gonna do? If you're in the market for Archie graphic novels, this is a great series: the "Americana" books skim the old back catalogue of Archie, Jughead, Pep, Laugh and Betty & Veronica for representative stories from each era. The one from the '40s are okay -- the iconic Archie "look" of the '50s hadn't been developed yet, so sometimes the artwork looks a little weird. And the stories about sock hops and jalopies are pretty old-school, to say the least. But it's good stuff, and this is definitely the way to check this era out, rather than sink bazillions of dollars into expensive copies of the original old comics.
(B)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Forties, v.2"
(Archie Comics, 2002)
I guess at this point I should mention that while I love the stories, the cover art for this series is absolutely awful! Guess they were trying to give the books a uniform look, despite the books being based in several different decades. Unfortunately, they did them all in the "new look," modern Archie style -- I'd have preferred artwork taken from original strips from each era. Oh, well. This is the second volume of stories from the 1940s. Of historical interest, but it might be hard for modern comicbook readers to get into.
(B)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Fifties, v.1"
(Archie Comics, 2002)
There are many who will say that Archie comics were at their best in the glory years of the 1950s when the smooth-lined, stylized artwork (of Dan DeCarlo and others) hit its glorious peak in the second half of the decade. This book zips past the early years of the decade, pausing for only a sprinkling of stories from 1950-52 (a period that had a more blocky style, and blunter scripts) straight into the 1957-59 heyday, when the stories had a smooth look and the kooky, carefree rhythm that made these years immortal. You just gotta love the way they drew Betty and Veronica! Personally, I wouldn't mind a more in-depth exploration of the decade, perhaps even a series of year-by-year best-of books, with the best strips of 1950, '51, '52, etc... But in the meantime, these books are a real gas. I was happy to see both Volumes One and Two of the 'Fifties come out: can't wait for Volume Three!
(A)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Fifties, v.2"
(Archie Comics, 2003)
More great stuff. Tomboy-ish Betty joins the boy's baseball team; she and Jughead win a quiz show (and a grand prize trip to Poughkeepsie!); a bratty kid with a coonskin cap jinxes things between Archie and Veronica, and Veronica dyes her hair and (va-va-voom!!) goes blonde! Although only the first couple of stories are from the early part of the decade, the predominant art style is that of Bob Montana, the main Archie artist before DeCarlo came along. But when you hit the 'Fifties, Montana's style had become smooth and stylized, and has it's own magical charm. Unfortunately nowhere in the book do they mention who the writers or illustrators were on any of these stories, but there's clearly some overlap between these two definitive artists in this volume. Another fun collection!
(A)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Sixties, v.1"
(Archie Comics, 1995)
Ed Sullivan and the British Invasion, miniskirts and surfing lessons... And is anyone surprised when Jughead drops out and becomes a hippie? Heck no! And of course, there's the Archies band, too, driving Veronica's dad nuts with all that crazy noise they make... This collection starts out in the Kennedy years, but stays there only briefly, leaping swiftly ahead to the groovydelic flower-power era. It's all fun stuff -- one of the best books in this series!
(B+)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Sixties, v.2"
(Archie Comics, 2008)
Although the cover art shows a big peace sign and hippie gear, the stories stick closer to the early part of the decade, before the whole hippie scene took off... That's cool, though -- the stories are all fun. Several stories dip back to the Kennedy era, which is fun, since the artwork in from 1960-63 had a curious charm all its own. Anyway, this volume has some fun stuff: Betty becomes a beatnik (crazy, daddy-o!); Archie takes up yoga (and gets a little twisted); the girls try several new hairdos and some groovy fashion choices (some are featured on special pin-up pages) and the peace movement even gets a little nod. Fun stuff!
(B+)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Seventies, v.1"
(Archie Comics, 1998)
This is really the end of the line for me in terms of the Archie books... Yeah, they have collections fo stuff from the 1980s and '90s, but why bother? The 'Seventies, though, still had the nice simple, clean-lined artwork and a connection to the style and themes of the '50s and '60s books. Plus, there's plenty of good retro fun to be had: bell bottoms, disco music, clothes patches, CB radios and plenty of day-glo flowers. As with the other "Americana" series books, you feel that they could have mined deeper and found more, but you're still glad they put it out, and you'll have fun with this one as well. A nice cultural time capsule of the Me Decade era; not entirely accurate of course, but close enough.
(B+)
"Archie Comics: Archie Americana Series, Best Of The Seventies, v.2"
(Archie Comics, 2010)
(-)
"Archie Comics: Betty And Veronica Summer Fun"
(Archie Comics, 2003)
A nicely themed collection, full of great art and lots of cool fashions (swimsuits galore, since almost all the stories take place at the beach...) and some impressive, epic feuding between these two eternal rivals, as they chase after Archie, Reggie, and several hunky lifeguards. The stories come from four issues of Betty And Veronica Summer Fun, originally printed in 1960-64, so it's classic, vintage stuff. From the shield-their-little-minds-from-all-harm perspective, though, this is a vexing book: I love the material, but I've kept it hidden from my kid (so far) because the boy-crazy, conniving/ditzy girl representations are, really, appallingly sexist. Still, what a fun book! One of the best Archies reissues of recent years.
(A)
"Archie Comics: The Archies Greatest Hits, v.1"
(Archie Comics, 2008)
The Archies were Riverdale's number one rock band, with Archie on lead vocals and guitar, Reggie on guitar, Veronica playing keyboards, Betty shaking a tambourine and Jughead on drums. They starred in a successful Saturday morning children's cartoon, made several hit records and appeared frequently in various Archie comicbook titles, starting in 1967 and continuing through to the present day. This is a fun collection of some of their best adventures, including a kooky one where the the band travels to Hollywood and meets the creative team that made the cartoon show. They make the hippie scene, and tangle with record producers, show promoters and a variety of other bands, including metalheads and new wavers in the '80s. A fun theme for an Archie reissue book: I'd love to see a Volume Two.
(A)
"Archie: The Best Of Dan DeCarlo, v.1"
Written & Illustrated by Dan DeCarlo
(IDW Books, 2010)
This is an absolutely gorgeous, luxurious coffee-table reissue book, featuring a trove of classic comics by the the great Dan DeCarlo, generally considered the definitive "Archie" comics artist. Many things make this a great book: the smooth-lined, confident artwork is exquisite; if you are a fan of "Love And Rockets" co-creator Jaime Hernandez, then you'll delight in reading one of his main influences. The story selection is top-notch as well, a better-than-usual representation of classic Archie strips, with plenty of Betty & Veronica "good girl" art, hilarious gags and deliciously retro '60s fashion. Finally, the book itself, as an object of material culture, is fantastic. About 50% larger than a regular comicbook, hardbound, with sleek, thick, glossy pages and gorgeously clean reproductions of the original art (and bright, bold colors), this book is a delight to hold and to page through. Highly recommended!
(A++)
"Archie: The Best Of Stan Goldberg, v.1"
Written & Illustrated by Stan Goldberg
(IDW Books, 2010)
(-)
Many's the time while standing in the playground or schoolyard that I've struck up a conversation with another parent about how we wish we could find more comicbook and cartoons that are appropriate for really young children. Oh, sure, our kids are going to grow up soon enough, and we won't have to worry so much about sheltering their little minds, as they fly to Mars or get bionic enhancements (all the kids are doing it, Dad!) But in the meantime, while they're young and adorable, wouldn't it be nice to have some good, clean, innocent comicbook fun to share with our little critters? Get them into that groovy, geeky, magical medium that we all grew up on?
