Customer Reviews

Little Lulu Volume 7: Lulu's Umbrella Service

5 star:		(4)
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I think that Little Lulu Volume 7 is the best issue in the whole collection because of the theme and the stories were side-splitting.I can't wait for another Volume of Little Lulu!

I am so happy to see the Dark Horse reprints of the classic Little Lulu comics. I have read countless comics and graphic novels in my day (and even written some) but if I want to just relax, or if I am feeling 'the blues', these wonderful classic Little Lulu stories by John Stanley cheer me right up. The stories are consistently well-written, with a great deal of variety: Not just the usual childhood escapades, but Tubby playing detective to solve minor 'crimes' in the disguise of The Spider, to Lulu's fantastically imaginative tales of strange worlds including, sometimes, Witch Hazel and her cheerfully nasty niece Little Itch. But Lulu is the real star, and rather than just being a mischievous child, she is very smart, kind-hearted and stands up for herself and her friends (including the scruffy little Annie, a character in her own right)--and finds some very clever ways to get back at the boys who always think they can get the better of her. A wonderful role model for today's young children, even now, and if you read between the lines, the stories are not really sugar coated, nor do they shield the reader from some of life's harsh realities--Annie only has one pair of shoes, for example, but Lulu is loyal to her nonetheless.

Not only are the Lulu comics a nostalgic window into a simple, postwar world of childhood, they are consistently funny with hilarious dialogue and well-developed consistent characters, and some wonderful plot twists in these deceptively simple stories. Any one (or all) of the volumes in this series is perfect for readers of all ages, whether you are an older person who remembers Lulu, or a younger child who has never yet had the good fortune to meet this bright, good-hearted and assertive young lady.

I was shocked to find that my son and daughter-in-law had never heard of Little Lulu -- this startling fact came to light when my husband and I adopted an unusually small MinPin and I named her Little Lulu. The next day I bought this book for my 6-year-old granddaughter. She loved it! So later I bought her another in the series, and she loved that, too. These are good-quality paperbacks; the production values are high. And the stories are charming, bringing back mothers who wore dresses and pumps every day in the house, fathers who dozed in arm-chairs after dinner and called their wives "Dear", and a just slightly old-fashioned America. I don't think our 6-year-old notices any of that. For her Little Lulu is great entertainment; for me, a swirl of nostalgia.

I recently finished plowing through the collected paperback editions of the classic 1940s/1950s "Little Lulu" comics, and wanted to put in my vote... yes! yes! yes! True, it's a little disappointing that the strips are reprinted in black-&-white and not in the original color versions, but the real genius of these works is in the draftsmanship of artists John Stanley and Irving Tripp, and once you get onto their wavelength, even these half-size B&W reprints are a pure delight. They can say so much with such economy -- a single panel of Lulu's unbridled mischief can have you laughing your head off, and here, in this multi-volume collection, you've got a real treasure trove of some of the best graphic-art humor produced in the 20th Century. Great stuff, highly recommended, and major kudos to Dark Horse for making this artwork both available and affordable.