Cartoons Books

Bechdel has been chronicling the lives of a group of lesbians in an unnamed town (probably near Minneapolis) for a couple of decades now. Her characters are three dimensional in spirit, although two dimensional on paper. There is politics, romance, food, housepets, librarianship, one utilikilt, and so on. I have the whole set of Bechdel's books and enjoy re-reading them frequently. Bechdel is purportedly amused that so many people are fascinated by the lives of a group of fictitious middle aged lesbians, but I'm not. There are a lot of middle-aged, older, and younger people who think the stories are absorbing and entertaining.

Alison Bechdel has really outdone herself in this latest collection of DTWOF. The clear (but not in-your-face) theme in this one is the chronic anxiety that underlies everyday life, but an anxiety Bechdel thinks has been manipulated and artificially enhanced by the current "war on terror" culture in which we live. Enemies abroad and domestic, heightened security alerts, on-going vigilance against the homeland's enemies, suspicion, paranoia, anger, aggressiveness, and on top of it all the oppressiveness of war: these are internalized sources of anxiety that play themselves out here in the on-going stories of the DTWOF regulars. The trenchant humor is still present, but there's little light-heartedness, and Bechdel makes all of her adult characters--even Stuart, easily one of the most lovably unflappable of them all--look slightly haggard.

Some of the vignettes: Raffi, son of Clarice and Toni, is imbibing macho norms of honor (aka violence) at school and on computer games; Ginger is dealing with self-absorbed students indifferent to social injustice and clueless about the war, but up in arms about class requirements; Sidney comes down with breast cancer, and her oncologist, a walking encyclopedia of martial slogans ("war on cancer"), progressively riles Mo, who's already wigged-out about the state of the world; and relationships (I won't give away which ones) are seriously threatened by loneliness and desperation-inspired infidelities. Everyone feels the pressure. As Ginger tells Mo at one point, "I'm managing. When my panic about Bush provoking a nuclear terrorist attack gets too intense, I switch to my fear of being rounded up and shipped to a gulag for intellectuals in Kentucky" (p. 119).

Still, there's hope. Sparrow and Stuart become parents--life renews itself--and Ginger falls in love (with Samia, a voluptuous and uninhibited middle eastern woman, of all people!). And then there's Cynthia, a red-white-and-blue student of Ginger's who's discovering that the world isn't as simple as she once thought.

Bechdel is angry in this volume, and she pulls no punches (not that she ever has). Perhaps the single best panel is #409, "We interrupt our regularly scheduled comic strip for this important message" (the panel title itself gestures as the panicky headlines loved by the media)in which the characters speak to readers directly about the anxiety that's the theme of the book.

An excellent, excellent piece of work.

The author warns us that she's not going to make us laugh very much. But there were one or two good chuckles for me anyway. The characters continue to lead believable, interesting lives and they face the sort of dilemmas that don't crop up in everyone's life, actually, as well as the moral posers that do. I hope I can interest my kids in the series at some point.

My only complaint is that the books don't come out more often! Other than that, Bechdel's humorous social commentary is as fresh as ever. I've been a fan for over 15 years and am always impatient for the next book to come out. Sure, I can go online and read the strip there, but it seems more gratifying to me to read them all at once in book form.

The graphic novel, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For, by Allison Bechdel, confronts contemporary societal issue such as the "War on Terror," breast cancer, homosexuality, rampant consumerism, motherhood, and popular culture. Bechdel's use of humor challenges authority by refusing to take it seriously. She attacks the deliberate choices people make: hypocrisies, affectations and mindless following of social expectations. The text does not do away with women's feelings of powerlessness; instead it highlights the political nature of women. Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For inspires as well as entertains.

The writing is good, the drawing is good, and the visual humor is excellent, but what really got to me about these strips us how happy everybody was. The characters bubble over with joy and energy. It made me smile. Then, because I was in such a good mood, I enjoyed the strips even more and got into an even better mood; a vicious cycle. Looking past how happy the strip is, the other striking thing is the really outstanding use of visual humor.

I have not read the strip in the newspapers, so I base my opinions just on this collection. The strip is about a generic young couple--Joe and Marcy--and their baby, Sunny. Strips focus on typical parent situations--the baby won't sleep, baby is heavy when carried, parents and grandparents brag about baby. Other things that happen are that Sunny hangs out with other babies in day care, Joe and Marcy buy a house, and Joe yearns for a Range Rover.

It's a reasonable setting for a strip. Could be boring (boy, that happens a lot), wry, angry, appealing, charming---it all depends on the cartoonist. Armstrong is really good so it is not boring at all. As I mentioned above, the tone is joyful, appealing, charming (as opposed to ironic or angry). I really got to like Joe, Marcy, and Sunny. I wanted to read more about their lives.

The drawing is really good. There are lots of details in the backgrounds and lots of detail in the main characters. The drawings are also pleasant to look at. I've seen other strips where the drawing is well-done but the characters are deliberately made ugly so that I don't like looking a the strip; that is not the case here.

Armstrong makes good use of camera angles. A big problem with cartoons is what to do when your strip is basically 3 or 4 panels of the same guy talking. Armstrong shifts the camera angles around a bit so these strips are not visually deadening. Sometimes the characters engage in a little busywork while they talk--picking up a box, shifting the baby from one shoulder to the other, writing on a clipboard.

Armstrong uses visual humor. There is one strip where Joe is carrying the baby through the mall and the baby gets drawn bigger and bigger in each strip, until Joe is practically crushed under the weight of the baby, a nonverbal joke that the baby seemed heavier the longer that Joe has to carry her. In another strip, the parents are in a bed looking completely frazzled and wornout and the bed is covered with 6 baby Sunnies in all sorts of sprawled out positions, a joke that babies are such restless sleppers that they seem to take up the whole bed when they sleep in it.

Sometimes word panels have pictures in then instead of words. When people are bragging about their kids then the panels tend to have a picture of the kid's head instead of words. One funny comic strip just has two grandmothers talking about their grandkids, and Sunny's granmother's word panel sort of pushes out the other woman's word panel so, victory!, Sunny's grandmother wins the impicit bragging contest.

People's thoughts are sometimes drawn as if they were real. When Joe complains that he feels old, for one panel he gets drawn as an old man. When the harried parents feel that Sunny is the real boss of the household, a panel is drawn in which the parents are kids and Sunny is a domineering adult.

This sort of visual humor is used sparingly, not something that happens in every strip, but it is great to see it. You could overdo that sort of thing so it is probably good that it only happens occasionally.

There is a low level of exageration that happens all the time. When the parents are frazzled they look REALLY frazzled, Sunny's hair is impossibly bushy, reactions of alarm or happiness are out of proportion. It helps here that Armstrong can draw so well. In Armstrong's drawings I can tell the difference between exagerated reactions and subdued reactions.

Man, reading this collection really brought home to me how bad contemporary cartoonists are these days. They are all talk. They don't use the visual part of the cartoon at all. The few that are well-drawn are just realistic and don't really play around with the drawings. That's fine, and I respect that those well-written and realistically drawn strips (there are only a few of them anyway) don't want to break the reader's belief by engaging in fantasy. Also, I have read that cartoonists can't have interesting pictures any more because the newspapers have shrunk down the size of comics so much that they can't fit anything in but word balloons and heads. Fine again. Nonetheless, it sure was nice to read sucn an enjoyable cartoon collection as this one.

Judging from the number of daily strips compared to the number of Sunday strips, I think this collection is edited and is not a complete set of strips over some fixed period. That might be why they seem perticularly good--the less successful strips have been weeded out.I wish there was another collection that I could buy.

Robb Armstrong manages the difficult feat of creating characters who are funny, real, and deep. And for what it's worth, I am a white male in my mid thirties. His characters speak to everybody, because of the deep truths they portray. In fact, I wish they were real, and lived next door to me. Failing that, I look forward to reading his strips for years to come. I'd put them up there with Doonesbury and a few others as classics of the genre.

I have been a fan of Jump Start since it was introduced to my local newspaper. It is a breath of fresh air seeing African Americans depicted in such a positive and realistic light. I can't wait until Mr. Armstong compiles another book with the addition of Jojo Cobb! An excellent read. perfect for the Coffee Table.

I say hats off to Robb Armstrong for creating and hitting it big with his very popular comic strip all about a whimsical African-American family! It all begun with the high-school courtship between Joe and Marcy. Then they got married, launched their very busy careers as a policeman and a nurse, and along came their two very precocious kids, Sunny and Jojo (what curious names!) Then the whole family goes tumbling into the wildest adventures with a bragging Pop and a doting Mom, household chores, police car chases, shootin' up with the bad guys, the hectic emergency room, the crazy day-care scene where small kids all act like grown-ups, and of course, Sunny's very bushy, untamed hair! And it's all told in a true-to-life vein shot through with intoxicating flights of fantasy and very saucy, well-crafted satire, especially where Joe turns into a very muscular superhero every time his ego gets stroked and the whole family being chased around the house by rabid IRS agents! Rather like "Rose Is Rose", only with a very endearing cast of black folks!

Robb Armstrong is a genius. No two ways about it.

"Jump Start" is a delightful strip and I'm lucky my local paper carries it. Considering the paucity of good strips featuring black families, this one has set new standards in many ways.

Joe and Marcy, the Jump Start couple are professionals. He is a police officer and she a nurse. They have intelligent conversations and are delightful and believable.

I like the fact that race is simply a part of the story and not the focus of the story. One of my all time favorite strips in creation was a Jump Start strip. Joe and Marcy's friends, Clarence Sr. and his wife complain about how people "act stupid around them" because they are an interracial couple. Joe tells them, "friend, they aren't ACTING." Translation: If folks can't accept interracial families, then the stupidity is NOT an act. I LOVE THAT STRIP!

The Jump Start kids, Sunny and baby Jojo are adorable. I love the way Sunny remains bilingual -- fluent in English and baby talk. Baby Jojo acts like a crib sized executive with his day care pal Benny his faithful partner/employee/man Friday. It is so hilarious to see the way the kids interact!

I love all the strips when Sunny runs from the comb. One can almost feel her pain during these feared comb out sessions. Is there a child in the world who likes to have their hair done? I sometimes doubt that. I love the one where Sunny thinks dreadlocks will save her from the comb. I also like the fact that Sunny and Jojo have playmates of all races because that is how the world really is -- made up of all races.

Robb Armstrong is a genius!

I am certainly pleased with my order. It arrived in timely fashion and in good shape

The strips where Dewey introduces his grandmother to the young woman who keeps trying to date Dewey are really funny. Although the strips with Dewey and his gambling-addicted grandmother are my personal favorites, I also like the color section on "Empire County Strikes Back" about the competition from the bookmobile. The whole book is entertaining. I have all four Unshelved books and keep at least two on the coffee table.

The crazy antics at the Mallville Public Library continue apace in the 3rd year of "Unshelved." The characters really continue to grow in this collection, so that the dramatic tension (such as it is in three panels) is interesting, while the workplace humor is so hauntingly familiar. I've heard librarians rave about the humor, but just like you don't need to be an engineer to like Dilbert, the weird patrons and stressed out employees are the same people you meet and interact with every day, regardless of where you work.

"Empire County Strikes Back" is a great bonus feature, a full-color mini-comic. In ways that are more reminiscent of 1984 and Dick Cheney than Star Wars, it tells the story of a super-automated bookmobile that threatens to steal all the patrons from Mallville's library. I won't give away the ending, but I will say it would fit well in another sci-fi classic--Star Trek.

Buy this book. Heck, buy all four books while these guys remain relatively undiscovered. You can impress all your friends at cocktail parties in 2010 when you say you read "Unshelved" back before they sold out.

I shared my copies of all the Unshelved collection with my 22 year old son and he enjoyed the humor as much as I do. He really liked the references to RPG and movies he likes. Please give these books a try, they are all great!

If you like books, you should make Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum's daily comic strip Unshelved, available at [..], a must-read. When I was perusing their books at Book Expo, I asked, "But why would I need it in book format if I can read it online?" Well, I have to say, having sped through all four volumes, that while I'm now a subscriber, their books are so much fun. My favorite is Library Mascot Cage Match, mainly for the absurdity of a library even having a mascot, let alone two duking it out.

It's hard to pick who my favorite character is. They each have their often wry charm, and I might just have to say Merv, the precocious student always hanging around the very kid-like librarian Dewey. The authors manage to cover everything from reading habits to technology to relationships with spot-on, laugh-out-loud humor, and it's often just a short phrase that provides the zinger. The constant struggle between the Mallville Library staff's desire to help their customers (even the one wearing a "Say `No' To Libraries" t-shirt) and outwit them is perpetually amusing. With the addition of the full-color Empire County Strikes Back mini section, where the staff have to try to defeat a bookmobile, Barnes & Ambaum really outdo themselves. My only complaint is that this book is so fun it was over way too quickly.

"Meanwhile..." ismuch more than justa biography of MiltCaniff. It pro-vides an insight tocultural attitudesimmediately prior toWWII, during the war, and on into thelatter part of the20th Century. Whileit brings to lifethe creative geniusof Caniff, it alsoprtrays his abilityas a masterful bus-iness man followingsuccess upon successin the managemeentand promotion of hisproduct.I eagerly followedthe exploits of Ter-ry and the Piratesas a youth as wellas Steve Canyon dur-ing my Air Forcecareer and was fas-cinated with Caniff's pursuit ofaccuracy in portray-ing service life andthe role that theAir Force Associa-tion played in as-suring he was keptabreast of the lat-est developmentsthat might affectColonel Canyon.It is a book I willkeep on my referenceshelf and use often.

First, some truth in reviewing. I have known Bob Harvey since we worked together on our college newspaper, and I have long admired his writing skills. We correspond occasionally, and see each other about every two years. And yes, I paid for my copy of Meanwhile...
That said, Harvey has written a fine, highly readable book, and a great one for anyone interested in comic strips and particularly Caniff's great creations, Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Indeed, you can think of Meanwhile... as two books in one: A long biography of Caniff and a short history of American comics in the 20th Century. Caniff's career spanned the high and ebb tides of newspaper comic strips, particularly the era of high-adventure strips. And that is no coincidence. Caniff helped pioneer that variety strip and he raised it to an art form. Indeed, I think Harvey demonstrates that Caniff, in his own right, ranked with such icons of American popular culture as George Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, and Humphrey Bogart.
Meanwhile... is not a perfect book. It is long, occasionally repetitious, and in need of judicious editing. Detail is important in nonfiction writing, especially biography. But Harvey, at times, overdoes it. I, for one, could do without a full-page listing of the books on Caniff's shelves or seemingly endless reprinted letters praising him. And as a nonfiction writer, I disagree with the author's decision not to footnote the book extensively.
When I raised these thoughts with Harvey, his return e-mail delved into what he sought to accomplish with the book.
Just as every novelist wants to write the Great American Novel, I wanted to write the Great Biography of an American Cartoonist. Having a suitable subject, Caniff, I next pondered how to achieve my next goal, which was to make the reader "live" Caniff's life as Caniff led it, or some such. I wanted to enable a reader to experience what it was like to be Caniff, to be "a cartoonist." One of the ways I thought a reader's experience of reading, of getting into another world--of being "a cartoonist"--could be intensified was to give the reader verbal information that would engage his or her imagination. As you read, you imagine the things the words are naming; the more concrete those things are, the more imagining you do, the more intensely you experience the "world" of the book you're reading. So when Caniff moves out into "the country" on South Mountain Road [in Rockland County, N.Y] in the 1930s, I scoured around to find out what the vegetation would be along South Mountain Road--what sorts of trees and bushes abounded there and so forth. And when I found out, I put those trees and their undergrowth into the book. In the chapter covering World War II, I quote lots of the letters that Caniff received--because he said somewhere that getting letters was the way he connected to the outside world, the world beyond his studio.... Now you know why I put them all in there.
Harvey, more than most authors, largely succeeds in fulfilling his ambitious goal.
Surprisingly, Caniff emerges from the pages of Meanwhile... as a writer first and an illustrator second--a stunning conclusion, considering Caniff's great innovations in comic strip art and his obsessive attention to detail and accuracy (whether military metals, weapons, or Asian clothing) that won him the admiration of his fellow cartoonists and shows in art galleries.
Harvey argues persuasively that what first carried Terry and the Pirates and later Steve Canyon was not just Caniff's superb craftsmanship and his inventive approach to illustrating, but his talent for plotting his story lines and writing dialogue. Caniff created memorable characters of depth and personality with the deft hand of a short story writer, so much so that some readers believed that Pat Ryan, the Dragon Lady, and Happy Easter actually lived and breathed. As the author puts it: "In fact, he [Caniff] enhanced our experience of his adventure stories by giving his protagonists enough personality to be fully human without complicating them beyond easy recognition: we like them, and because they are conventional, we know they are each `one of us.' And our identification with them engages and holds our interest."
In his analysis of what made Caniff extraordinary, Harvey describes in detail many stories lines of Terry and Steve Canyon (worth the price of the book alone) to emphasize the elements that encompass the development and growth of Caniff's career and talent. The reader is drawn along through Harvey's synopsis, not just by Caniff's story line, but by the author's own talent for making the descriptions intriguing. He is aided by a large number of reprinted strips, which enliven the book and illustrate the many points he makes. Reading them together, you see clearly the evolution of Caniff's writing and illustration skills over the years, as well as the growing depth of his main characters.
Caniff was Midwest born and raised, and he the never lost the sense of patriotism, honor, moral principals, humility, and striving for success that characterized so many people from that part of the nation during his formative years. His environment nurtured him. As Frank Stanton, a Caniff friend throughout their adults years, told Harvey: "It was during his days in Columbus that he developed three sets of central skills essential to his sensational success as the creator of Terry and Canyon: story teller, artist, and actor. He is remarkably efficient in each, and each of these skills reinforces and enhances the other two in his work. It is a rare combination in a rare guy."
--Patrick Young
.

This is the definitive history of Milton Caniff's life as one of the greatest contributors to the art of the comics. It is well-written & complete in detail.

As cartoonist biographies go I daresay that there has never been, and will likely never be, another of the length and depth of R.C. Harvey's "Meanwhile...". Coming in just shy of a four digit page count it could scarcely be otherwise. Even more so when you consider that the impressive heft of the tome is not substantially padded with photos and art. To be sure the book is indeed well illustrated, but only with visual aids directly related to the narrative -- there are no long reprints of Caniff's strips here or lengthy portfolios of miscellaneous art.

It is the nature of any successful cartoonist that they spend the bulk of their life hunched over a drawing board, endlessly skrith-skratching away. This is not the sort of lifestyle that would seem to lend itself to a lengthy biography. When we consider that there are plenty of well-rounded biographies of political figures, film stars, activists, people whose lives are filled day by day with the fodder of the biographer, that manage to tell their stories in a shorter page count, we have to wonder just what in the world Harvey is on about in a page count that rivals the King James Bible.

I for one certainly approached the book with trepidation. I've been a fan of Harvey's work for years, but my enjoyment of his work is tempered with the caveat that he is on occasion guilty of going over the top. When he goes into critical analysis mode he is always perceptive and thoughtful, but he can also beat a horse within an inch of its life. I was concerned that here Harvey would be shooting the works, analyzing Terry, Steve and their creator ad nauseam.

That fear, I'm happy to say, was completely groundless. Despite the enormous page count this book is, wonder of wonders, a tightly written narrative. In the tradition of classic biography, what critical analysis there is is grounded in the opinions that Caniff himself discussed with Harvey and others in interviews. Given that Harvey says the book in its original form was some 700 pages longer (!) than the final revision, I'm guessing that any extended author's analysis fell victim to the editor's red pen. If so, the book is better for it.

So what exactly does lurk between the distantly separated covers of this volume? Well, Harvey was lucky enough to be tapped by Caniff himself as his offical biographer in the early 80s. This afforded the author with ample opportunity to question his subject at great length. While Caniff was, as Harvey relates, not a particularly forthcoming interview subject, by dint of persistence the author eventually ended up with a treasure trove of Caniffiana. The book is, as we might expect given the size, an impressively complete chronicle of Caniff's life and the times in which he lived. However, completeness doesn't necessarilty translate to interest-sustaining or entertaining, and that's where Harvey's book truly amazes. I've read plenty of long form biographies where it got to the point that I was rooting for the subject to kick the bucket to cut the narrative short. That's not the case here. While I couldn't say that every single page is riveting, edge-of-the-seat reading, Harvey does an expert job of keeping the reader involved and interested all the way through. Any reader who is at least moderately interested in comic strips, even those not particularly fans of Caniff, will undoubtedly find the book fascinating.

Speaking of being a fan of Caniff, I should admit that I am not numbered in that legion. Of course I recognize Caniff's importance in the history of comic strips and the artistry of the two strips for which he is most famous. However, I think Caniff's writing is far too precious, heavily laden with hokey slang and tortured vernacular that I find grating and distracting. His subject matter, primarily military adventure, is just not my cup of tea. His cartooning, after a relatively short but glorious period in the early 40s when he was first influenced by Sickles' innovation of chiaroscuro comic strip illustration, later takes things too far for my taste, turning the strip into a series of ink-blots (not entirely Caniff's fault, of course - the comic strip was shrinking more rapidly than he could adjust his art style to suit, finally ending up so small that no one, not even Caniff, could possibly do a realistically rendered adventure strip).

The point is that you don't need to be a Caniff fanatic to thoroughly enjoy the book. I recommend it not only to the ardent Terry or Canyon fan, but anyone with more than a passing interest in the art and business of the comic strip in America. Caniff's story is, after all, the history of the adventure comic strip in particular, and the newspaper comic strip in general. Harvey does a superb job of weaving all the various aspects of the story of American comic strips into the narrative. We see Caniff marketing his comic strips (and find out just how tireless a promoter he was), we see him coping with the miniaturization of his daily and Sunday spaces, we gain a deep understanding of the relationship between the creator and syndicate. We learn one cartoonist's reaction to the unforgiving daily deadline pressure, and how assistants and ghosts can become indispensible in the process of producing a strip that doesn't have the luxury of relying on simplistic art and daily gags. We learn the intricacies of producing an integrated daily and Sunday storyline, a balancing act that is one of greatest tests of skill that any writer could ever face. We see one cartoonist's bold reaction to the demonization of his art form when accused of being, bizarrely, a cause of juvenile delinquency. We see how a cartoonist deals with the use, and misuse, of his creations in other media like movies and television.

I have only a few minor criticisms of the book, most worth mentioning if only so that this review doesn't seem utterly slavish in its support. First, the book is divided into just nine epic length chapters. It would have been more reader-friendly had it been broken up into more manageable chunks that could be read at one sitting. And although there are illustrations throughout the book, usually well-placed to coincide with the related narrative, each chapter ends with a gallery of additional illustrations. These sections would have been better broken up and dispersed throughout the text, if only to relieve the long stretches of type-dense pages.

The narrative flow drags a bit for a hundred pages or so near the end of the book. By this time Caniff was constantly being lured away from his drawing board by an endless procession of accolades and honors from every organization under the sun. Harvey unwisely devotes a considerable amount of space to the details. This section, while it does have occasional interesting points, could have been considerably shortened. If the purpose was to show that Caniff was revered by his peers and his fans, well, that wasn't much of a secret anyway.

Finally I have to question Harvey's use of invented conversations. In the first half of the book the author occasionally uses a device where he stages a conversation, usually set in Caniff's favorite watering-hole, in which we eavesdrop on a group of cartoonists shooting the bull. Harvey uses the device to impart some information in a presumably more entertaining method than dry prose. The device falls flat, though, because the conversations are stilted and too obviously staged for our benefit. And although Harvey makes no secret that the conversations are his own inventions, in a scrupulously researched work otherwise factual throughout I found these passages somehow discomforting from the standpoint of journalistic ethics. Call me a stick in the mud.

These are all picayune little quibbles, though. Harvey's work is, quite simply, a masterpiece of biography. He has set the platinum standard by which all future cartoonist biographies will be judged. Most, likely all, will be found wanting in comparison. It is one thing to produce a thick book, and not necessarily a good thing at that. It is an entirely different thing that Harvey has achieved here. He has produced a work of lasting merit, eminently readable, brimming with meticulous research, a work that must be atop the required reading list of every cartooning fan and cartoonist.

I've been waiting for R.C. Harvey to publish his biography of Milt Caniff ever since he casually mentioned it in the pages of his fine book, "The Art of the Funnies", over ten years ago. The resulting book is not only one of the finest comics oriented biographies but it's a great book in and of itself. I have to admit that after it arrived I was a little intimidated by it. It is after all a massive door stopper of a book and I left it sitting on my desk for a week before I finally cracked it open and began reading it in earnest. Despite its considerable length the pages flew by and I was soon at the end with the distinct feeling of disapointment at the prospect that it was over. Harvey literally transports his readers to an earlier age when there was no TV, no cable, no satelite, no computers and no internet. The general public got their entertainment by means of reading books and magazines, going to the movies, listening to the radio and reading the comics page in the local paper. The Great Depression was battering the country and war clouds were starting to appear over the skies of Eurpope and Asia. Out of those troubled times Milton Caniff became one of the greatest and most widely read storytellers of the age. This is his story and Harvey succeeds in telling it well.

This is such a nice book that depicts the last part of the movie vividly (make sure to collect vol. 1~4 for a complete set). It's nice to have watched the movie first, and then own the book so you'll enjoy and understand the whole story even when there's no dialog. I can watch the movie over and over again, but with the books, I get to review any part of the movie any time and any where I like, and it's very lovable for all ages, boys or girls, guaranteed!

My Neighbor Totoro is great! It is a very humorous story, filled with many cute characters! The totoro series would be great for anyone looking for something to read, or just for laughs. It is truly a magical journey in every page.

very good magical story but what the heck is with BATH-TIME.in the end they all take a bath..together!i mean the dad and the two little girls..whats that teaching kids? is it teaching us its ok to do that??i dont know? but anyway beautiful pictures and a good story to tell before bath-time..i mean bed-time.

my kids loved this movie and were thrilled to get this book. In english and japanese. lots and lots of wonderful pictures. one warning first book in a series of several.

kids love this story cross the boundaries, even adults enjoy it. This is one of Miyazaki's most well known books, hard to get it now. I'm sure this story will be loved generations after generations. If you have a Japanese friend, ask him/her!

1920s F E L I X T H E C A T

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1920s F E L I X T H E C A T

1920s F E L I X T H E C A T

This book is definitely a "must-have" for Felix fans. Unfortunately it is one of the very few - if not the only - collection of classic Felix newspaper strips. If only there were more books like this one!

The thing is, the regular Tenchi Muyo manga continues from the origonal O.A.V. series. The movies continue from the T.V. series
"Tenchi Universe". The T.V. series and the O.A.V. series tell two different versions of the Tenchi Muyo story, as certain story aspects contradict each other. You'll notice that in the movie story "Tenchi In Love", Kiyone lives on Earth with the rest. She never came down to Earth in the origonal series, which is why she doesn't appear in the other manga stories, so you have to keep in mind "Tenchi In Love" does NOT take place in the same continueity as the rest of the manga.

Otherwise, this is another great addition to the Tenchi Muyo saga. We get some funny stories about the alien girls learning how to deal with tellemarketers, a newscrew coming to film at the Masaki residence, and a Galaxy Police inspector coming down to check on Mihoshi's progress. (Guess how THAT goes.) The movie is a great read also, just keep in mind that again, it has to be divorced from the rest of the stories.

Even if you have seen the first Tenchi movie a billion times, do not pass up this manga. The plot of the movie story is different enough to interest even those like me who basically memorized the first movie. And the other stories are cute! I love when Ayeka and Ryoko cause an accident. "Stop waving his arm around!"
*grins* Tenchi takes the girls back to school--specifically, phone school. Then, we have to watch Mihoshi suffer through an inspection by another Galaxy Police officer. And when a tv crew comes to explore the Masaki house, they get a whole lot more than they bargained for!

I adored the Tenchi Muyo In Love movie, and this is the official adaptation of it. But it is not exactly like the film, so don't turn your nose up at this just because you're seen the movie. And the other stories are wonderful too. Phone school, Tenchi's love connection, Mihoshi's Galaxy Police examination, a story about the Masaki house--it's all here! Go on, take a look--you know you want to!

If your any type of Tenchi fan, from a small one to an all out fanatic, make sure to get this! While the big draw of this is the Tenchi in Love movie on print (which has been faithfully transported, its almost like watching the movie!), there are also a few other extra stories to read! You should buy the book just for the movie, the extra stories are icing on the cake. The only way I could see you not buying the book is if you don't want to ruin the movie. But otherwise, you must buy this! You will not be disappointed.

This book reaches the standard attained by all the other books by Hitoshi Okuda. It contains the official adaptation of the Tenchi in Love movie and 4 other original stories. In one, an odd headband designed by Washu makes Tenchi more amorous than usual. Another story has Tenchi teaching all the girls in the Masaki household proper phone etiquette when dealing with prank phone calls, solicitors, and wrong numbers. In the third story, a camera crew videotapes the Masaki household for a TV show about houses, but then finds a whole lot more than a beautiful house. The fourth story is about Mihoshi's adventures when her old instructor from the Galactic Police tries to bring her back to GP headquarters. Finally, the book ends with the story of Tenchi and company having to travel back in time to prevent the evil KAIN from eradicating Tenchi's mother, Achika. Truly a book worth owning

Oh, wow, this is the funniest book! Every one of these cartoons totally cracks me up--I was rolling on the floor. I can completely believe BEK used to write for Seinfeld--he's got that just-a-touch off-color sense of humor that is so deadpan and funny. I'm buying it for my brother (he could use a good laugh about now).

This book is so great. It's a beautiful thing, too, so nice to hold. When I get the New Yorker every week, I always look for the BEK cartoons first, and I'm so glad to have my own collection. It completely cracks me up--I keep faxing cartoons to my friends, and I even sent a copy of the book to my grandmother!

I can't get enough of this book. It has truly put me in stitches. I chortle to myself as I walk down the street thinking about it; I talk about it non-stop. Kaplan has a unique, endlessly gratifying talent. His humor is brilliant and insurpassable, and his firm, knowing handle on the motives and foibles of today's humans is flabbergasting. I couldn't stop turning the page to see what he would deliver next! This book is like a little glowing gem.

You know BEK's work from the New Yorker even if you don't know his name. The cartoons are wonderfully funny and have a timelessness to them. He puts the most devastating words into the mouths of children and dogs. I highly recommend it to anyone, and especially those people who read the cartoons first in the New Yorker.

What a hilarious, insightful book! We have bought it for everyone we know! Can't wait for the next book and LOVE his cartoons in The New Yorker (it's the only reason we subscribe). Run, don't walk to you're nearest bookstore!

Mutts always gives me a great deal of pleasure. Its low-keyed comedy is a delight.

Mutts is a fun, innocent comic--very much like the pet version of Calvin and Hobbes. It's a comic for anyone with an Earl or Mooch in their lives!

McDonnell seems to be running out of ideas of late, but in "Mutts Five" he still had some dandies. An excellent counterpart to the previous four volumes.

Mr. McDonnell's Mutts is my favorite comic. In each edition McDonnell manages to preserve the freshness of this comic strip making it a joy to read over the past few years. It's funny, lively, witty and the characters get cuter and cuter. He carefully introduces new characters while reinventing the old ones. You will love this book.

Another wonderful book by Patrick McDonnell. The stories and art are fresh and funny, silly and poignant. I have all of the Mutts books and calendars (OK, where's the 2001 calendar??)and have the same reverence for the strip as I had for "Calvin and Hobbes" and "The Far Side". Somehow McDonnell manages to endow all of the characters with distinct "person"alities, without anthropomorphizing them. Looking forward to more Mutts, ASAP.

Love these collections from penny arcade, if you like these you should also check out pvponline too!

This book was a Gift. The person that recieved it was very pleased with the Series.

The title is really all you need to know about this particular phase of the great history that narrates our heroes Gabe and Tycho. Do not underestimate their efforts contained within this tome, for your destruction will be sealed should you do so.

"Penny Arcade" is still one of the consistently best web-comics out there, and being able to browse through the older collections in printed form is great fun. The third year of the comic, chronicled herein, was great in both gaming news to satarize, but also in the quality of the comic. If you were looking to get someone turned on to the glory of Gabe and Tycho, this would be the collection to tempt them with.

Keep them coming. I need something to read while waiting for the Apple Geeks omnibus. Penny Arcade should get Hawk to do more of their coloring for their future covers.