| Title | : | Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 6: 1931-1932 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1770461787 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781770461789 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 |
| Publication | : | First published March 3, 2015 |
| Awards | : | Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips (at least 20 years old) (2017) |
The Gasoline Alley gang enters a new decade with this volume: Skeezix moves from childhood to early adolescence and the high spirits of the 1920s give way to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Walt and Phyllis Wallet travel to England, an extended tour that echoes the real-life journey taken by the cartoonist Frank King and his family in the late 1920s. While his parents are away, Skeezix tries to solve the mystery of an arsonist. Now entering his teens, he comes to the fore of the strip as an adventurous boy surrounded by a gang of like-minded pals, and Gasoline Alley becomes an influential pillar of teenage culture, soon to be widely imitated in Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland films as well as in Archie comics.
Designed and edited by Chris Ware (Building Stories), this sixth volume of Walt and Skeezix is a celebration of and an homage to American middle-class life in the early twentieth century. An introductory essay from the comics historian Jeet Heer (In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman), historical appendixes from the Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, and tons of extras make this book a dream come true for Gasoline Alley fans.
Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 6: 1931-1932 Reviews
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Volume 6? The book cover says volume 7. Oh, yeah, that's right. After they published volume 5 (1929-1930), Drawn & Quarterly published Walt Before Skeezix (1918-1920) which would bump the rest of the series up a number. Anyway, this Gasoline Alley collection has a lot of strips dedicated to Skeezix and his gang, the Alley Rangers from their fad of collecting postmarks through encounters with a couple of neighborhood bullies to a member of the unemployed taking up residence in their clubhouse. There's also a couple of road trips in 1932, the second weaved together with a biography of George Washington. In the background, cousin Lora is courted by a couple of gentlemen, much to the concern of Walt.
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I'm divided on whether I enjoy the long travelogue sections or the equally long biography of George Washington. (As I'm writing this I wonder if Dave Sim's Cerebus digressions- Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Oscar Wilde- were influenced by this predecessor.)
Walt also seems to ignore their second child in this volume, seemingly spending more time with the new dog than his son and leaving him for the extended trips. -
There feels like less 'there' there. A huge chunk of the book is taken up by a history lesson on George Washington, and (enjoyable though it was) a preoccupation with postmark collecting. Things end on a dramatic note with Gooch's trial and Steve, but everything else feels unresolved. Where, oh where, is v.7?
