Customer Reviews

Walt and Skeezix: Book Four: 1927-1928 (Walt & Skeezix)

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It took so long for Book 4 to come out but it was certainly worth the wait. These Walt and Skeezix (Gasoline Alley) strips from the first years are fabulous. The artwork, the characterizations, the plot elements all are simply some of the best that have ever been in any strip. OK, publisher -- get to work on Book 5! Don't make us wait so long again. Oh, and go back to the paper you used in Books 1, 2 and 3. This new paper is a little too yellow in color, not impossible to get used to but it shouldn't be tinted any deeper than the paper was in the first three books. Meanwhile, for anyone wondering if comic strips this old can hold up -- these not only hold up but are a challenge to cartoonists of today to do even a fraction as well.

Frank King! If there'd be Mount Rushmore faces for cartoonists, those are the artists that should be up there! And this is a series that should be in every fan's shelf. I hope they'll continue it soon after this one.

There's no doubt that Gasoline Alley is the greatest comic strip - at least in the early years - of all time. It is probably the only strip where the characters are real - so very real - and age. You can't say that about Stone Soup, LOA, Terry and the Pirates, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey and all the others. King was fantastic story teller, artist and humanitarian and it shows in every panel. All four volumes plus the fantastic book of Sundays belong in everyone's collection of great books. Frank King must have been a warm and wonderful human being. GA is the best medicine for today's sick world.

I have been out of college for thirty years, so naturally, I come up with a reasonably good idea for a term paper. Sinclair Lewis's novels and Gasoline alley have a great deal in common. Both figuratively and literally drew pictures of small town life in America. Both are worth reading as literature and as a running history of popular culture. Leaving the literary merits of both the novels and the comic strip aside, I would like to explore how the novels and the comic strip show how much and how little life has changed in the last 90 years.
Lewis's "Babbit" opens with the protagonist asleep on the house's sleeping porch (common before air conditioning). A neigbbor noisily tries to crank start his Model T and so the day begins for George. (Oh yes, he and his wife have separte bedrooms--strange.) The dialogue is peppered with slang like "Gee" and "Swell" and the long forgotten "Gosh all fishooks." We learn that in 1920, you would pay the same for a bottle of bad illegal liquor--ten dollars--as you would pay for a bottle of bad legal liquor today, never mind adjusting for inflation. We also find that George Babbit devotes considerable blocks of time to civic clubs, lodges and even public speaking--activities that have almost faded away in modern times. And yes, George Babbit is a Republican.
Just as every town had one or more George Babbits, every town had a place you could call "Gasoline Alley." Cars of that day required constant tinkering and maintenance. They were also mechanically simple where even a college graduate, like the protagonist Walt Wallet or the town doctor could make repairs on them. Men devoted a lot of weekend time to their cars. We learn that cars were almost useless in winter; they overheated in the front end, froze the passengers in the middle, and often ended up in a ditch--even when using tire chains. That is what you had before snow tires or steel belted radials. Also, a five year old car was an antique. "Antique" was a synonym for a rusty, worn out car. Then there were the fads and slang: one lady gets two Mah-Jong sets for Christmas; one by one, the women start bobbing their hair and plucking eyebrows; Rachel the maid becomes a crossword puzzle enthusiast; the word "shiek" meant boyfriend and is used often; a "grass widow" was a divorcee,and still considered a bit scandalous.On several occasions, Walt Wallet actully says "Gosh all Fishooks." We see the characters participate in the Florida real estate boom, and the ill-fated stock market.
Since Sinclar Lewis's works were best-sellers in the 20's I do not doubt that the cartoonist Frank King probably read them and was influenced by them. Later in the late forties, the strip takes a plot turn straight out of Babbit. Like George Babbit's son, Walt Wallet's son Corky impulsively quits college, marries his girl friend and brings her home to meet the family. It was not quite the shock that the Babbits got. His son and his wife sneak in the house. On the morning George finds the two in bed together with the marriage certificate conspicuously displayed on the dresser.

This really is a great strip. Secrets are revealed in this installment. Gasoline Alley is a most gentle strip. Here we see life in 1928 (and Walt isn't doing so great, financially), and I'm looking forward to seeing how things will change as the Depression comes in (in later volumes that I'll be getting as soon as they are available).

Well, after too long, we finally get the fourth volume of "Gasoline Alley" strips. Let's hope they come out with the next one on a more regular status.

The characters grow and develop in this volume, as Skeezix is getting older, and will soon have a sibling.

We also get further along in the storyline of Skeezix's background, as his long unknown and absent father makes an appearance, and tries to take Skeezix thru both legal and illegal means. We learn more from Mme Octave on how and why Skeezix was left on Walt's doorstep, and why no mention was made of her husband.

Walt and his wife have a child in this strip (Corky Wallet), so Skeezix now has a sibling. His 'real parents' foolishly think that with Walt & Phyllis having their own child, that they won't love Skeezix as much. But not so.

Also, Walt winds up taking a job, with the company of Mr Wicker, his rich Alley buddy (tho he doesn't know it at the time). This was due to the financial strain of having a new child in the family. It was never clear what was the source of Walt's income before, as he never appeared to work. Now, this too, is worked into the storyline.

Can't wait to see v5!!