Cartoons Books

This has already been mentioned by other reviewers. There are plenty of melodramatic elements in this volume. Junior being reunited with his mother, the blinding of a cashier at Junior's mother's lunch counter, Pat Patton giving Tracy a blood transfusion to save his life and the conversion of a hoodlum. That about covers this volume and once again, I couldn't put it down and I look forward to beginning volume four!

Back to the days of the Sunday Funnies and comic books, Of characters who lived in your memories, before television took hold of everyone. Flat-top, Pruneface, Big Boy...Tess Truehart and the Kid... The fun and memories are all here in Dick Tracy - Volume3. Now I have to go and get Volumes 1,2,4 and whatever else they have. If you remember the days of comics and funny papers, or to introduce your son or daughter,or grandchild, I recommend this highly....Dick Tracy...The 'Bulldog' Jaw.

In this latest chunk of Gould-plated detective action, the fantastic still takes a decided back seat to the mundane -- not to mention the intensely melodramatic. Junior Tracy is reunited with his mother, Mary Steele. Tracy nearly dies in the course of a ghastly shoot-out that rubs out gangster "Cut" Famon and his gang. Dick takes it upon himself to convert a former hoodlum, "Lips" Manlis, to the side of good. A naive cashier and her gambling-addicted boy friend suffer dramatic payback for their sins -- a hair-raising stay in a women's prison followed by temporary blindness in her case, the "big sleep" in his. Similarly soap-operatic stuff would always be a part of Tracy's universe, of course, but with the legendary grotesque villains still some years away, these melodramatic sequences seem all the more potent somehow.

Max Allan Collins correctly points out in his introduction how Gould continued to draw story lines from contemporary headlines during this period. Boris Arson -- who started out as a vaguely sinister Lenin look-and-act-alike before eventually being reduced to the standard strong-armed thuggery -- bluffs his way out of prison with an iodine-dyed potato gun, in an homage to John Dillinger's escape from a small-town jail. Boris' sister, Zora, is a Bonnie Parker wannabe (with the extra touch of men's clothing suggesting lesbianism). Famon, who'd been sent to an Alcatraz-style rockpile for income-tax evasion, is obviously modeled on the late-period Al Capone. Gould also dips heavily into the stock ethnic stereotypes of the period, with mixed results. The amiable Indian Chief Yellowpony is a major -- and worthy -- player in the caper that brings the Arson duo to justice, and bit appearances by a Jewish peddler and Italian coffee-shop attendant are perfectly fine by me, but "darkie" valet Memphis is, as Collins admits, pretty embarrassing even by the standards of the day.

My favorite story arc in this volume is "The Hotel Murders," which I'd originally read in a paperback collection. This 1936 continuity is more of a "true" mystery than the typical Tracy yarn, with Tracy and the cops baffled by a disappearing bullet that's killed a high-rolling confidence man. Alas, Gould makes an unfortunate continuity goof, actually introducing the killer as a poor pencil-peddler BEFORE we learn that he's really a retired manufacturer! Still, I do like the story, not to mention the fact that the guilty party merits at least some sympathy for being one of the con man's victims.

The ancillary material's already getting a bit thin after just three volumes -- a brief piece by the inevitable Collins and an equally short article on Tracy's various appearances in Big Little Books. Not a good sign. Still, it's more than readers have gotten in the last several volumes of THE COMPLETE PEANUTS.

A great comic strip that holds up beautifully. Once you start you are hooked. There is a major drawback, though.

The sundays are almost impossible to read as they are cruelly reduced in size. An owl would have trouble. You must somehow enlarge them to appreciate them.

Still, a 5 star book as are all Tracy books. And most of the great stories - and villains - are on the horizon in volumes 4 and 5.

This is the Golden Age of early (pre 1940) comic strips. Also highly recommended are...
Terry and the Pirates
Little Orphan Annie
Krazy Kat
Gasoline Alley - possibly the greatest comic strip
Moon Mullins - published by a small publisher but worth the trouble

Hopefully we may soon see The Gumps, Ella Cinders, Bringing Up Father, Polly and Her Pals and Barney Google.

I very much enjoyed this first cartoon book of Cow and Boy--easily worth the money.

I love this comic because it is both insightful and funny. It does not fall back on tired norms like most comics. The character also have believe ability and depth. But most of all its funny in a way that refreshingly different than the rest of the every 5 day comics, I will surely get the next book he publishes.

Cow and Boy is hysterical! My kids love Cow, who is clearly the conscience for Billy (aka Boy). Great for adults and kids of all ages.

I have purchased several of these books to give to friends. Cow competing in the county fair, Billy going to school, and Cow in a bunny costume are just a few of the highlights of the first year of this comic strip. Who knew a cow could be so funny.

Reading through my old Far Side collections like this one leaves me with two thoughts. The first is how funny The Far Side is. The other is how much I miss it. Until Gary Larson comes to his hilariously heightened senses and decides his long break is over and actually begins drawing his legendary series again, trips down memory lane will have to do, and do nicely. As for The Curse of Madame "C" it's among Larson's funniest and best anthologies, and one of the greatest parts is its prologue wherein we learn with a wink and a nudge exactly why The Far Side is so populated with bovines. Just a great little book to own and keep for a rainy day.

The cartoons in this collection are hysterical, my favorite by far is on page 56. The setting is bathroom stalls from the front and we can see two pairs of feet under two adjacent doors. One pair is wrapped in bandages which are coming off. The caption reads: "It was an innocent mistake, but nevertheless, a moment later Maurice found himself receiving the full brunt of the mummy's wrath." I roared at this one, it is one of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen.
Larson is one of the best cartoonists ever, his diagrams are never cluttered and they generally are a combination of visual and verbal puns. I can read and reread his cartoons several times and never fail to get a chuckle. Which is what I did with this collection.

This story tells the tale of Gary Larson's journey into madness, when he confronts an evil gypsy cow that curses him to forever entertain people with riotous cartoons. The start of the book relates his adventures against "Madame "C"", a molevelent cow. It is a wonderful, (and thankfully short), tale concerning his frightful encounter in a smooth color cartoon over several pages.
The rest of the book details, in b&w cartoon format, the humorous trials and tevails of various critters such as worms, pigeons, and cowhands. If you haven't read a "Far Side", you won't know what I'm talking about and you've had your head in the sand for the past 20 years or so. Buy the book, for the love of Mike!

Yet another from the pen of Gary Larson. This is an incredibly funny book, but if you are a Far Side fan you probably do not need to be told this fact. They are all incredibly funny. The Curse of Madame "C" begins with the story of how the Far Side began. The story is a humorous take on An American Werewolf in London. It shows how a young Larson met all of the characters he would later write about and how he would be cursed with a need to write cartoons.

After the story ends the zany cartoons begin. From longcows to cow field trips. Mummies, aliens, neanderthals, and much, much more. This book will make you laugh from start to finish. You'll want to read it again and again. You'll want to loan it to all of your friends. You will love it.

Kazu is one of the best comic artists our there. I love how he creates the environement in the frames, his lines and his storytelling. I love his Copper and I loved this. I'm crossing my fingers for more comics from him.

Always good to see a powerful story whose protagonist is strong but still human, with dimension and depth... and a woman. Not enough of that in our society, but at least it's here.

Set in a strange, Futurist version of the Wild West, female ex-bandit Daisy Kutter is tricked into one last train robbery. But all is not as it seems.

It has wry humor, an appealing lead character, a real feel for the West, & fun art.

I'll bet my eyeteeth the cartoonist has a shelf full of Lamour Westerns at home.

This belongs in an odd little sub-genre called the Weird West, claimed equally by Westerns, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, all set in the latter half of America's 19th Century, & west of the Mississippi.

I wanna seem more of Miss Daisy Kutter.

The title is actually Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, and it's an excellent graphic novel by Kazu Kibuishi. It's a sort of a space western featuring Daisy Kutter, a former outlaw of mythic repute who gets roped into one more gig. The story is simple and rather unremarkable, but its merits as a comic are many. Kibuishi seems to have mastered the subtle pacing and extended silences that make comics so magical, and he has chosen a level of stylization for his characters that is accessibly cartoonish without being cloying or absurd (think The Incredibles and Tintin rather than Mickey Mouse). One gets the impression he has taken all of Scott McCloud's best advice, consciously or otherwise. Regardless, this is a real gem.

I'm a long-time mainlainder now, and when I read this, it brought back all the quirks and joys of being from Hawaii. You can leave the islands, but the islands never leave you.

What a good read this book was. It's got smart writing and whimsical art. Very funny stuff!

I'm from New Jersey and I was laughing my okole off.

Deb Aoki is an accomplished cartoonist with an amazing eye for the idiosyncracies of life both in Hawaii and on the Mainland. Crazy Asian families, cranky cats and the usual pitfalls of life, love and work are all brought to humorous light in a way that we can all relate to.

This book was way cool! I have been a fan of Steven's art for a few years now and all of his work is great. Devilboy is a really cool character he's my hero for now... And the story about the old woman in the shoe is great. I recommend this book to anyone who has a great twisted sense of humor. You will definatley enjoy it!

This book was great! I have been a fan of Steven's art for a few years now and really like his work. I have shown the book to a few close friends and they are looking forward getting their own copy. Check out [publisher's website] for other cool stuff like T-Shirts.

I first stumbled across Steven's work on the internet while just messing around. The man is an incredible artist, and even better, he is sick in the head. I always loved the simple, strange child like style of Silverstein, but it never went quite far enough. Steven Vincent takes us over the edge and straight into the ground with a sickening splat. Illustrations that by themselves alone just make you laugh because you are either worried by them that much, or you are as sick as Vincent himself. His stories and rhymes will amuse anyone with a decent sense of humor, and will pleasantly offend anyone without one. All my friends I've shown his books to would gladly buy their own copies ... .

I have been a fan of Steven Vincents since he first started his website. I have everything he has published besides publishing several of his cartoons in my own magazine Hacker's Source: Gateway to Independent Horror.

This is one of his best. If you want lots of laughs and you have a great sense of humor you will also love this. When Steven told me he was selling here I had to come and share my love of his work with others who are not familiar with him. You will be 100 percent glad you ordered this and will come back looking for more.

This book is reprinting the stories from when Max Allan Collins took over the strip in 1978, and this collection contains some strips from 1978-1979 and three stories.

Angeltop's Last Stand, where the children of a couple of Tracy's enemies come back.

The Return of Haf-and-Haf, where the two faced guy gets some plastic surgery.

The longest story is Big Boy's revenge, which is about half the book. Tracy's old enemy gets out of jail, and puts a million dollar open contract on the detective.

He wanted these for christmas last year..I finally decided to get it and he is already done with the book and waiting for the second one!!

I was never much of a Dick Tracy fan, but this collection has made me take notice of the classic comic strip detective. Collecting January through December of 1978, this is the first full year written by Max Alan Collins (Road to Perdition) and drawn by creator Chester Gould's assistant Rick Fletcher. It brings Dick Tracy into the "modern era", but it doesn't give him or his cast a makeover. Tracy is up against multiple antagonists: an old foe who is losing his influence, the vengeful descendants of other old foes, and the nosy reporter who portrays him as a relic of a more violent time. Collins' plotting and storytelling will keep you on your toes, and Fletcher's artwork, while extremely faithful to Gould's quirky renderings, is very stylized and clean. The best part is how Collins and Fletcher work together to present a masterful example of pacing. This collection is an excellent example of the narrative style of the serialized comic strip.

I am not a fan of much of Max Allan Collins' work, but this book is a great exception. The reprints of the first three storylines that Collins wrote are very entertaining and make for an enjoyable read.

The first storyline features Angeltop, the popular Flattop's daughter, and the son of the Brow. The next storyline revolves around the Two-Face type villain Haf-and-Haf. Both of these stories were already reprinted in other Dick Tracy books. The final storyline (and most interesting) has to do with an aged and dying Big Boy offering an open contract to kill Dick Tracy. Collins tips his hat to favorite Chester Gould villains and other characters and cleans up a few of Gould's (I hate to say it) mistakes like Moon Maid. Good story, well-paced, great artwork.

I look forward to the future volumes of this series. I am disappointed by the Dick Locher cover--a Fletcher cover would have seemed more appropriate.

Great Comics! Inspired my youngest to love Scrooge and his nephews as I much as I do!

I first read these stories as a child when they came out in Disney comic books and I've never forgotten them. My friends and I would check out the latest Disney comics to see if the Donald and Scrooge stories were drawn by the "good duck artist" and only buy the comic books if they were. Of course Carl Barks was uncredited, so we never knew the "good duck artist's" name, but his drawings and his humor were unmistakable. Barks was one of the most talented cartoonists of his time, and his stories -- they're really quests, often based on ancient myths -- are always delightful and have stood the test of time. A wonderful gift for any child (or grown-up) who likes good graphic story-telling.

This is great stuff... It's hard to beat these old, classic Carl Barks "Donald Duck" stories for their sheer entertainment value and craftsmanship, and for their family-friendly content. My kid recently expressed an interest in comic books, and I was dismayed to find out how little there is out there for really little kids to read... The old Harvey stuff is no longer on the market (and was way too dumb, anyway) and the superhero books I grew up on are just too violent, even reprints of the older stuff. The comicbook industry has grown up along with its readers, but it unfortunately forgot to leave some room for younger readers to enjoy the medium as well. Thank goodness, then, for these Disney reprints from Gladstone publishers -- if you're looking for kid-friendly comics that won't insult your intelligence, this is one of your best bets. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

It's nice to have these two low price collections of those of Carl Barks duck comics from the 1950s that were adapted into the "Ducktales" cartoon series in the 90s. Carl Barks is one of the greatest comic book creators of all time, he's up there with Will Eisner, Osamu Tezuka, Jack kirby and Hergé. For some strange reason his stuff isn't as well known in the english speaking part of the world as in Scandinavia and Germany - over there he's considered one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century, and his stories have been as popular with generations of kids as the Harry Potter books are now. Barks wrote and drew 6.000 pages of duck stories, so this is only a small taste of his storytelling talents. The longer adventure strips collected in these books were one of the main influences on the Indiana Jones movies. His shorter 10 page stories set in Duckburg (not included here) are an obvious influence on the humour and storytelling in The Simpsons.

This is great stuff... It's hard to beat these old, classic Carl Barks "Donald Duck" stories for their sheer entertainment value and craftsmanship, and for their family-friendly content. My kid recently expressed an interest in comic books, and I was dismayed to find out how little there is out there for really little kids to read... The old Harvey stuff is no longer on the market (and was way too dumb, anyway) and the superhero books I grew up on are just too violent, even reprints of the older stuff. The comicbook industry has grown up along with its readers, but it unfortunately forgot to leave some room for younger readers to enjoy the medium as well. Thank goodness, then, for these Disney reprints from Gladstone publishers -- if you're looking for kid-friendly comics that won't insult your intelligence, this is one of your best bets. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

Carl Barks did for talking ducks what Herge did for adventurous boy reporters. His Uncle Scrooge stories are fantastic examples of all ages material that is genuinely entertaining for all ages. A must for anyone with eyes.

Great comic! Just as I remember the original stories. Great for jogging childhood memories!

See my review for the first volume -- a wonderful collection by a great graphic storyteller. I hope more of Carl Barks' duck tales will be published in this series.

I got this for my son who is currently on a Marvel kick. He really likes non-fiction books, so he reads this one like it is a biography/history book, memorizing facts and being fascinated by the back-story stuff. A lot of fun for an early reader book and plenty of info/fun.

In one very special way, I had a wonderful childhood. My parents shopped at a small grocery store that had an extensive rack of comics. The owners were very nice people who allowed me to read the comics while my parents bought groceries. Since my father also bought his mother's groceries, I had plenty of time to read (devour) them all. Therefore, I was able to read the original issues of most of the superheroes that erupted from the fertile mind of Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. When I opened this book, I recognized the cover of the first issue of the X-Men series.
The early sixties were a time of great political uncertainty and scientific advancement. Lee used both of them to great advantage in developing the idea of the mutant with great powers. By developing the character of Professor X who gathered together many mutants at his school, a crime fighting team known as the X-Men was developed. The group has changed a great deal over the years, both in appearance and in membership. This is a history of that group and young readers can also learn something about the world. For example, it is noted that the bones of the winged X-Man Angel are hollow, just like those of real birds. Other relevant science facts, such as details about water freezing in the section about Ice-Man relate the powers of the X-Men to the physical laws of the universe.
I strongly recommend this as a book for young readers. The topic is one that they will find of great interest, it is very well written at the appropriate level and they can learn something about the world. Perfect for the young mind.

This easy to read book aimed at young readers serves as a perfect introduction for those unfamiliar with the original X-Men team: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast, Iceman, and Angel all studying under the tutelage of Charles Xavier, aka Professor X. The book also talks about Magneto and the first adventure that the X-Men took part in. The classic team has taken many changes over the years, but few teams will rival the original. Great introduction to the original X-Men team.

This is a great book for any X-Men fan or someone who just became interested in them. It tells how Professor Xavier, Magneto,Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix, Beast (Hank McCoy), Angel (Warren Worthington III, also known as Archangle) and Iceman (Bobby Drake) came to become the first X-Men. It also gives some info about other X-Men like WOlverine and some of their recent and former enimes like Juggernaut, and Quicksilver. One thing I enjoyed about this book is it had a lot of pics. from old and recent comics. Overall this is a pretty good book!