A New Golden Age (VI)

Whoa, a double-header! I set a new record for myself that will be nigh-unbreakable! Two blog posts in one day, er, night (though it's more of a book review, as you'll find out)!

Continuing with the comic BOOK theme from the last post, this post is about a new compilation of children's comics during the golden age of comics (1939-1960) titled Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited and selected by one of the modern cartooning greats, Art Spiegelman and his wife Francoise Mouly. (Note: I don't like Spiegelman and I don't care for most of his work, but just because I DON'T think he is great, does not mean that he is NOT. I hope things are clearer now.)

Anyway, this book was published in September and contains DOZENS of stories ranging from one-page gags to 20 page tales, and all are quite good. Several of the best craftsman of the golden age are represented in this tome--Sheldon Mayer, Walt Kelly, John Stanley, Carl Barks among others well-known and not-so-well-known.

The primary criterion for the selections (per the book's forward) were that each story were kid-friendly/appropriate. Having bought and just finished reading this book, I concur. It even contains short bios of each writer and artist, and is divided into five sections:
'Hey Kids!' (stories starring mischevious children); 'Funny Animals' (my favourite section, featuring Donald Duck, Screwball Squirrel, Pogo Possum and Albert Aligator, and others); 'Fantasyland' and 'Story Time' (involving new twists with familiar fairy tale characters and original, twisted tales involving oddballs like 'The Pied Prince of Pretzelburg'); and 'Wierd and Wacky', which in my opinion has very interesting though perhaps stories that are a little too bizarre for the littler young readers.

All in all, I believe this book was inspired in large part by the spate of golden-age comic strip reprint collections hitting the literary marketplace in recent years. And finally, I have to say that all prejudices aside, this is a most worthy book that could belong in pretty much anyone's library.