Walt and Skeezix Book One Book

I started reading these a little out of order; I found volume 2 first and devoured it.

I'd heard about Gasoline Alley but never saw the strip until around 1978; Dick Moores was doing it then, in a wildly different (but still wonderful) style in that early era of truncated comic strip size. It was a good strip even then.

I found Walt & Skeezix: 1923-24 at a beloved and missed Barnes & Noble a few years ago. I was curious about the strip anyway, and reading more about it, the story of a man adopting a baby really appealed to me. (I have a small nephew I'm very close to, so it tugged at my heart strings.) Needless to say, I loved the book and pounced on volumes 1 and 3 when I found them in the next few months.

Which brings us to this volume, wherein Skeezix was first laid at Walt's doorstep and changed the direction of the strip, probably cementing its place in comic strip history. Gasoline Alley was initially, as mentioned in the introduction, a gag strip about a community with a love for that new fad, the automobile. (Whatever happened to cars, anyway? Do people still drive them? ;) ) With Skeezix, the characterization shifted; the automobile focus and gags remained. Cross-country and leisurely New England drives still became backdrops to the stories, or became stories in themselves. There were a few concerns about a man being capable of taking care of an infant, then toddler, but Walt's affection for the little boy rolled right over those concerns. Walt, a confirmed bachelor (his catchphrase was "I'll say that I know when I'm well off!"and usually expressed whenever one of his married friends had to do something the wife wanted or had to check with the wife about something. His "batch" status seems very threatend when the mysterious and attractive MRS. Blossom moved into the apartment at the end of the Alley. Everyone is eager to learn anything of her background (is there a Mr. Blossom? Where is he?), and the married men fall over themselves practically in coming to her assistance at every little need with her car. She takes a keen interest in both Walt and Skeezix, which leads into the next volume...

The only drawback to the book is the reduction of the strips' size makes it difficult to appreciate some of the sketchy details of the art. The bookboasts nice dimensions, but newspaper strips were printed so much larger back then. While these strips are so much larger than strips today, they're still smaller than at their original publication. There are frequent background visual gags that almost turn those strip into two strips, and sometimes they're a little harder to see. But this is wonderful material, highly recommended. And volume 2 is even better!