Herbie Archives Volume 3 [Hardcover]

Shane O'Shea (Author), Ogden Whitney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2009

Here's Herbie! Dark Horse Books presents the final volume in its well-received archival series reprinting the wild, wacky adventures of Herbie Popnecker, who may look like a plump lump of a kid but who possesses extraordinary abilities along with an amazing collection of supernatural lollipops! Love-starved ladies, evil governments, monsters from the depths of the sea - nothing can stop him! This surreal, kooky, tongue-in-cheek comic series from the 1960s has been an all-ages cult favorite for decades. Past, present, and future - Herbie is amazing!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (April 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595823026
• ISBN-13: 978-1595823021
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Farewell, Fat Fury, May 8, 2009

By 

Christopher Barat (Owings Mills, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Herbie Archives Volume 3 (Hardcover)

Dark Horse wraps up the brief, yet memorable, career of Richard Hughes' and Ogden Whitney's obese, bizarre brainchild with this volume, which reprints stories from ACG's HERBIE #15-#23 (February 1966-February 1967). This period was the heyday of high-camp superheroics, exemplified by the Batman TV series. In the use of such outre villains as The Question Mark (a mechanically inclined fellow dressed in medieval garb who appears to suffer from a severe curvature of the spine) and Noodle Man (shaped like... well, you guess), we can see Hughes attempting to ride the wave as best he can. The problem is that the stories in which Herbie donned long underwear and took on the guise of the crime-fighting "Fat Fury" were actually the least interesting and most "conventional" of the HERBIE stories. Herbie's strange powers don't NEED superheroic window dressing, and, since everyone from historical figures to barnyard animals seems to know Herbie on sight anyway, what good will a mere toilet plunger and mask do to hide Herbie's I.D.? About the only really outrageous "Fat Fury" escapade is the mock spy story "Don't Mess Around with the Fat Fury!", in which Herbie matches what wits he has with a two-headed, extremely stereotyped Red Chinese agent named Foo Manchoo. Part of the "outrage" (at least for some people) may lie in the fact that Herbie ends up helping the troops in Vietnam.

The non-"FF" stories herein maintain the same level of lunacy that was seen in the comic's first 14 issues, though one can sense Hughes resting on his oars a bit in the increasing use of time-travel stories. (Oddly, even as Hughes pumps this pedal more and more, he throttles back somewhat on the use of contemporary pop-culture and political celebs that made the early issues of HERBIE so completely off-the-wall.) I'm not willing to hazard a guess on how long HERBIE would have lasted had ACG not gone out of business in early '67, but it's likely that its unique brand of craziness would have seemed a bit less funny as the 60s turned ever more sour and ugly. In that respect, if no other, HERBIE was probably fortunate to depart the scene when it did.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last herbie, April 22, 2009

By 

David Jansen (Minneapolis MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Herbie Archives Volume 3 (Hardcover)

the only thing bad I have to say about this book,is that it's the last one!the product of Richard Hughes & Ogen Whitney,from 43-44 years ago.On ebay, these issues will cost you plenty! Whatta deal!In time, these also will go for a pretty penny!Long live herbie!