Funnybooks : the improbable glories of the best American comic books / Michael Barrier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barrier, J. Michael, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comic books, strips, etc--United States--History and criticism.

Comic books, strips, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (434 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

2014.

Oakland, California : University of California Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Funnybooks is the story of the most popular American comic books of the 1940's and 1950's, those published under the Dell label. For a time, "Dell Comics Are Good Comics" was more than a slogan-it was a simple statement of fact. Many of the stories written and drawn by people like Carl Barks (Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge), John Stanley (Little Lulu), and Walt Kelly (Pogo) repay reading and rereading by educated adults even today, decades after they were published as disposable entertainment for children. Such triumphs were improbable, to say the least, because midcentury comics were so widely dismissed as trash by angry parents, indignant librarians, and even many of the people who published them. It was all but miraculous that a few great cartoonists were able to look past that nearly universal scorn and grasp the artistic potential of their medium. With clarity and enthusiasm, Barrier explains what made the best stories in the Dell comic books so special. He deftly turns a complex and detailed history into an expressive narrative sure to appeal to an audience beyond scholars and historians.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: "The Very Good Ones"

1. Mickey in a Magazine

2. Oskar Lebeck Meets Walt Kelly

3. Whitman, K.K., and Dell

4. Learning on the Job in L.A.

5. A Feel for Walt Kelly's Stuff

6. Animal Magnetism

7. Cartoon Conundrums

8. Carl Barks Makes His Break

9. Barks Becomes the Duck Man

10. The Workman: Gaylord DuBois

11. The Observer: John Stanley

12. "I Am a Backwoods Bumpkin"

13. "Pure Corn" at Disney's

14. Special Talents

15. Barks Masters His Medium

16. An Arena for All the Passions

17. Animal Kingdoms

18. Walt Kelly Branches Out

19. Strong-Handed Friends

20. Carl Barks: The Virtuoso

21. Walt Kelly Escapes

22. Oskar Lebeck in Exile

23. Manifest Destiny

24. Uncle Scrooge: Play Money

25. Carl Barks in Purgatory

26. The Slow Fade

27. Disasters

Epilogue: Can These Bones Live?

Abbreviations

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520283909

0520283902

9780520960022

0520960025

OCLC:

994604212