One of the nicest presents I got this year was a copy of Drawn & Quarterly's first volume of the collected Gasoline Alley comic strips. This volume begins with the 1921 through 1922 continuity although the strip began in 1918. It started as a comic about a group of friends hanging out in their garages off the back alley talking about the then very fadish automobile. On February 14 1921 things changed for the strip as the creator, Frank King, introduced a new character, a little baby named Skeezix left on one of the regulars' doorsteps. From then on the strip developed in real time, unlike other strips like Peanuts or Li'l Orphan Annie in which the lead characters are infinitely eight or eleven or whatever. When the volume that covers 1931 comes out Skeezix will be 10, in 1941 he was 20, etc.
The strip is great: wry, subtle, understated. It has a lot of wonderful period stuff, references to prohibition, 20s car culture, etc. (also some unfortumate racial sterotyping), and although the later (30s, 40s) Sunday strips are some of the great works of comic art, these early dailies look very nice indeed.
What I love most about them though is that I became a father last January, and a lot of Walt's experiences and thoughts (proud, pleased thoughts), mirror my own. (I feel sorry for all those other parents who think their baby's the best.)
If you love the GE, like comic strips and/or if you are a father, you'll like these Gasoline Alley reprints.
Here's a link to check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1896597645/ref=nosim/104-9255997-2207901?n=283155
The strip is great: wry, subtle, understated. It has a lot of wonderful period stuff, references to prohibition, 20s car culture, etc. (also some unfortumate racial sterotyping), and although the later (30s, 40s) Sunday strips are some of the great works of comic art, these early dailies look very nice indeed.
What I love most about them though is that I became a father last January, and a lot of Walt's experiences and thoughts (proud, pleased thoughts), mirror my own. (I feel sorry for all those other parents who think their baby's the best.)
If you love the GE, like comic strips and/or if you are a father, you'll like these Gasoline Alley reprints.
Here's a link to check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1896597645/ref=nosim/104-9255997-2207901?n=283155
