By Walt Kelly (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-920-3
Our Gang (also known as the Li’l Rascals) movie shorts were one of the most popular series in American Film history. From 1922 onwards they featured the fun and folksy humour of a bunch of “typical kids†(atypically though, there was full racial equality and mingling – but the little girls were still always smarter than the boys) having wholesome adventures in times safer and more simple.
The rotating kid cast and slapstick shenanigans were the brainchild of film genius Hal Roach (who worked with Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase and Laurel and Hardy amongst others) and these brief cinematic paeans to a Golden Age of childhood entered the “household name†category of Americana in amazingly swift order.
From 1942 Dell released an Our Gang comic book written and drawn by the legendary Walt Kelly, who, consummate craftsman that he was, resorted to wit, verve and charm to concoct a progression of stories that elevated an American childhood of the War Years to the mythical levels of Baum and Twain.
This third collection, re-presenting the tales from issues #16 to #23, take the eternal scamps from the dog-ends of World War II to the shaky beginnings of a new world (April 1945 – June 1946), but the themes and schemes are as comfortingly familiar as ever, with Froggy, Buckwheat (eventually plain Bucky), Janet, Red and Baxter (not to mention Julep the Goat) foiling crooks, raising cash, lazing around and rushing about in a pictorial utopia of childhood aspiration and unsullied joy.
As always the tales are lovingly reproduced in a gloriously luxurious collection, this time sporting a Jeff Smith cover and an informative introduction by Walt Kelly historian Steve Thompson.
This idyllic paean to long-lost days of games and dares, excursions, adventures, get-rich-quick-schemes, battles with rivals and especially plucky victories is a fabulous window into a better universe. If the eternal struggle palls, here is a beautiful tonic from a master of comics that has truly universal appeal.
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