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.

Reprints of Old Animal Comics?

I would love to collect reprints of old non-licensed-character animal comics, but I don't know if anybody has ever reprinted them! You know, the Dell, Atlas (old Marvel) or ACG stuff? I've found digital copies on the internet, but I want to physically hold a book of them in my hands. I'd also like to get into something not Fantagraphics.

Milt Stein really interests me. He was a Famous Studios animator, who tragically committed suicide in 1977. I like the mix of cuteness and cartooniness of his work. Milt Knight said "he drew far more imaginatively than Barks", but that's just his bias against all things Disney, which with him has reached the point of fetishism.

Dan Gordon also did some good stuff, with a sort of Jim Tyer screwiness, and it sure looks funny! Gordon was an animator at multiple studios (mainly MGM), and he seemed to draw better than he animated.

Cy King's characters have the zoned-out look that the March Hare has in Disney's Alice in Wonderland, which is of course real nutty.

Howard Post is straight-up squatty cute stuff. It seems like a lot of these guys were Famous Studios alumni!

I know there were two collections of these types of things, one called The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Comics by IDW and the other The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics by Abrams. I know they have some Walt Kelly and Carl Barks, but what about Stein and Gordon? Supermouse is on the cover.

What's funny is on the back on The TOON Treasury it says "COMICS: NOT JUST FOR GROWN-UPS ANYMORE!" This is good, since I've noted before that comic fans doth protest too much that they are really "for adults."

So anyway, help me out here!

On a totally different topic, it looks like the legendary cartoon blog Tralfaz has stopped. It was totally abrupt. Considering most of Don Yowp's blogs are retired, what could be happening?