Barnaby: Volume One HC (BARNABY HC) - Hardcover

Johnson, Crockett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1606995227 ISBN 13: 9781606995228

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2013

Synopsis

Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time, cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby for over ten years (1942 to 1952). It never won a broad following, but it was and is a critical favorite. Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley. Yet O’Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist and fast-talker, was not your typical protector. His grasp of magic was specious at best, limited to occasional flashes, and often aided and abetted by his fellow members in The Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men’s Chowder & Marching Society. This five-volume Barnaby series will collect the entirety of the original newspaper strips from 1942-1952. Barnaby Vol. 1 will collect all the strips from 1942 and 1943.

About this title

About the Author

Crockett Johnson was the pen name of cartoonist and children’s book illustrator David Johnson Leisk (October 20,1906–July 11, 1975). He is best known for the Harold series of books, which began with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and for the comic strip Barnaby. He was married to the children’s book author Ruth Krauss, with whom he collaborated on several books, including The Carrot Seed.

Daniel Clowes is a celebrated graphic novelist, Academy-Award nominated screenwriter, and frequent cover artist for the New Yorker. He lives in Oakland, CA. He is a multi-Harvey, Eisner, and Ignatz Award winner, and his papers were recently acquired by the University of Chicago library.

Eric Reynolds is the Associate Publisher of Fantagraphics Books and lives in Seattle, WA.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up–Originally published as a daily newspaper strip, albeit in small circulation, this collection introduces the daily expostulations and exasperations of preschooler Barnaby Baxter and his rotund, inappropriate fairy godfather. Mr. J.J. O'Malley uses his cigar as his magic wand and has a host of acquaintances from the magic world that casually abuts our own: a prankster leprechaun, a morose ghost, and other members of the Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men's Chowder and Marching Society. The adventures are very much of the time in which they were written, with references to wartime rationing, scrap-metal drives, and machine politics, as well as many casual pop-culture allusions that may escape today's readers, but the chatty glossary at the back will help. The artwork is redolent of the ligne claire school, with little shading and with a slight stiffness to the characters' positioning. The humor can be a slow burn, immune to the gag-a-day requirements of many newspaper strips, with a cumulative effect causing an unexpectedly familiar chuckle every few pages and a sense of delight as the ever-expanding cast comes together en masse. Highly verbal and quietly unexpected, the strip is a clear antecedent of the sort of comic situations experienced by Calvin and Hobbes–and the visuals predict Johnson's own Harold with his purple crayon, but with a peculiar picaresque aggregation as each story line tumbles almost imperceptibly into the next chaotic chapter. Cleverly absurd, with solid contextual reference material to aid readers.–Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NHα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1606995227
• ISBN 13: 9781606995228
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336