The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics Review

Shortly after asking questions about it, I went out and bought The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics. And I was very happy! I got it at a bargain price: about twenty-five dollars, when it's usually either seven or eighty-five.

First of all, most importantly, they are not restored. Most of you cartoon/comic people prefer stuff in top-notch quality, so I felt like I should spit this out first. It doesn't bother me much, though, but it probably does you. A quality scan:

Again, doesn't bother me none.

There was almost all of what I talked about in my original post, meaning some Milt Stein, Howard Post and Dan Gordon. In fact, it was exactly the image I used as an example for the former, "Daze of Yore".

There is a lot of Walt Kelly, and I mean a lot. The biggest surprise was the inclusion of the short-lived Pogo Possum comic series, which was, as expected, great, although too much green (Kelly evidently had nothing to do with the coloring). This was especially good, since The Complete Dell Comics are overpriced so much it'd make Fantagraphics blush. There was a little bit of the prototype Pogo too.

There was a good helping of Carl Bark's Duckverse, including a brilliant picaresque story called "The Hypnotizer Gun" (apparently hypnosis was a fetish with Barks). Unsurprisingly, the Fox and the Crow stories were more clever than the actual cartoons.

Fans of MAD Magazine will be happy to see some of Harvey Kurtzman's Gross-inspired silliness.

Only real problem with the volume was a massive overepresentation of Lil' Lulu, who was never a fan favorite in any circle I can remember. But there was only one Milt Gross story! Though this is not the editors' fault, but Flipper and Flopper were the ugliest things I've ever seen.

Finally, does it strike anyone as odd to read a children's anthology edited by Art Spiegelman?

Overall a totally essential edition to the cartoon fan's small shelf.