Thursday, March 16, 2017

BOOK REVIEW! HATLO CARTOONS 1956 by Jimmy Hatlo (Avon, 1956)

Another batch of THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME faveraves that the old folks chuckled at, the hipsters sneered at, and I certainly enjoyed in that great old mid-Amerigan way that I and only I seem to appreciate this far down the crooked line. Little Iodine, Bigdome and Tremblechin and all of those great olde tymey gags are once again here just custom made to upset alla you fifties haters out there, and like I've said many a time it's always is fun to eyeball the great fine-tipped pen art that men like Hatlo used to bless us with 'stead of the quickie dash-out sans any real sense of ingenuity seen these last thirty-plus (and maybe even more!) years.

It's a witty collection too with Hatlo himself seemingly in on the whole joke that made his comic tick (take the page where he summarizes the same eleven situations that readers constantly bombard him with!) and frankly, this comic remains relevant EVEN TO THIS DAY when it comes to real life situations that everybody seems to poo-poo these days because well, we are kinda backwards in our beliefs 'n all.

Yeah I know that you more sophisticado types just won't be able to osmose these early/mid-fifties comics but I sure can in my own baggy suit and suspenders sorta way. And frankly I get the feeling that more'n a few of you reg'lars might feel exactly the SAME WAY and if you do---please---let your feelings be known. After all, I can't keep up the cause of pre-hippie comic strip appreciation (in an age of BABY BLUES and DRABBLE lionization) all by myself!

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