Barnaby Volume Four

by Crockett Johnson, Philip Nel, Trina Robbins (Introduction)

Overview

The further comic strip adventures of a little boy and his fairy godfather, from the creator of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Volume Four collects 1948–1949; the misadventures of five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O’Malley continue. Bumbling but endearing, Mr. O’Malley rarely gets his magic to work — even when he consults his Fairy Godfather’s Handy Pocket Guide. The true magic of Barnaby resides in its canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the understated elegance of Crockett Johnson’s clean, spare art. It combines of Johnson’s sly wit and O’Malley’s amiable windbaggery, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous. Designed by Daniel Clowes (Patience, Wilson), it includes scholarly material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683961123
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Series:	Barnaby
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 7.00(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Crockett Johnson was the pen name of cartoonist and children’s book illustrator David Johnson Leisk (October 20,1906–July 11, 1975). He is best known for the Harold series of books, which began with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and for the comic strip Barnaby. He was married to the children’s book author Ruth Krauss, with whom he collaborated on several books, including The Carrot Seed.

Retired underground cartoonist and current comics herstorian Trina Robbins has been writing graphic novels, comics, and books for almost half a century. Her subjects have ranged from Wonder Woman and The Powerpuff Girls to her own teenage superheroine, GoGirl!, and from women cartoonists and superheroines to women who kill. She's won an Inkpot Award and was inducted in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame at the San Diego Comic-Con. She lives in a moldering, 100+-year-old house in San Francisco with her cats, shoes, and dust bunnies.

Editorial Reviews

"I think, and I'm trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in Lord knows how many years."

Dorothy Parker

"Strikingly minimal, in that pre-Peanuts era, was Crockett Johnson's Barnaby, whose characters appeared in profile and whose talk balloons were lettered not by hand but by mechanical typesetting. In my love of cartoons, I sent away to cartoonists, begging for a free original strip. My sample Barnaby strip slowly shed, over the years, its glued-on lettering."

John Updike

"In 1942, Crockett Johnson caught the American public by storm with his brilliant comic strip Barnaby. A whole new generation now will have the opportunity to become acquainted with Johnson’s influential creation, a real treasure for readers of all ages."

The Washington Times