Helen Walasek

First class selection and presentation of a variety of cartoons (and a bit of prose) from 1939-1945 issues of Punch. The quality of the reproduction is excellent, and you get a real flavour of the talent of some artists; Leslie Illingworth in particular comes off well in this collection.

As the review on the cover of this book said, "a New Yorker cartoon might tickle you, but a good Punch could draw blood." These are seriously good cartoons, and yet unknown to most Americans. Following up on what the previous reviewer said, if you have the complete New Yorker cartoons, you should get this book. And you just might find that Punch was funnier and sharper. These cartoons go back to Punch's beginning in the mid-19th century, and are a fascinating look into eras gone by.

This is very entertaining and makes a good companion piece to "The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker", which it closely resembles in format. A minor quibble is that whoever re-keyed the cartoon captions should be given a stout kick and a book on typography, as a large percentage of the apostrophes in contracted words are the wrong way around (i.e., they've used opening quotes instead).