Beautiful Art, Great Stories

In college, I spent way too many hours reading old newspapers on microfiche. I always jumped to the comic strip section. I read several months worth of "King Aroo" and fell in love with it. The strip is not particularly the most well-known, but it should be. The characters are innocent and gentle. They find themselves constantly mixed up in awkward situations. Their attempts to resolve a crisis usually result in the creation of another crisis.

This edition presents two years worth of "King Aroo" in a accessible format. There are three strips per page, reprinted at a nice size, making it easy to read. According to the publisher, they did not want to interrupt the continuity of the weekday stories, so the Sunday strips are collected toward the end of the book with one per page. The Sunday strips are not in color, which is fine by me.

The reproductions of the black line art are just wonderful. Even without looking hard, you can see the smooth lines and pick up on the general emotions of the characters because of how clean the art is. As I understand it, the Kent family gave the publisher access to much of the original art. The publisher did a wonderful job maintaining the integrity of that art.

Both Kent's art and writing could stand alone. Combined, they show just how wonderful comics can be. I really hope the publisher will finish this series of "King Aroo" books. ( )

Jack Kent is a now nearly forgotten cartoonist...and it's a shame. These are marvelous stories which can be easily appreciated today. ( )

Classic paperback on the early daily strips of King Aroo. The strip lasted from 1950-1965 ( )