Gasoline Alley started in 1919 as a mild satire on the post-WWI craze for cars. It quickly developed into a quirky, affectionate portrait of family life, attracting more than 30 million readers in over 400 newspapers. Great for cartoon and pop culture fans alike, this inaugural title in a multi-volume series reprints the first two years of Gasoline Alley.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Chris Ware edited and designed this volume of Frank King's classic comic strip Gasoline Alley, but this collection doesn't quite begin at the beginning, 1919. Instead, it starts when the strip abruptly got really interesting, a few years later. King's protagonist Walt is a good-natured, roly-poly bachelor with a fondness for cars; as this book begins, he acquires a "stepchild"—an infant abandoned on his doorstep named Skeezix. The great innovation of this strip was that all of its characters aged and grew in real time. A lot of the early jokes about Skeezix have to do with Walt trying to keep the baby happy the same way he keeps cars running smoothly, and the strip's main tone is calm amusement about parenthood's lighter side. But there's a melancholy undercurrent: who will become a mother figure to Skeezix, and what will that mean for Walt's independence and relationships with his car-enthusiast friends. The daily strips reprinted here don't have the glorious visual inventiveness of King's Sunday pages (which will appear as separate volumes), but they're still lovely. The book includes an extensive introduction by Jeet Heer, featuring drawings and photographs from King's archives. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The enormously long-running newspaper strip Gasoline Alley began in 1919 by depicting neighbors who bonded in their enthusiasm for the then-new automobile. In 1921 the strip shifted gears when bachelor Walt Wallet found a baby boy on his doorstep. Thereafter, the strip transformed from a daily-gag to a "continuity" strip unreeling single story lines for weeks and months. It became famous as the sole strip whose characters aged rather than, like the perpetually preadolescent Little Orphan Annie, remained the same. This volume inaugurating a series aiming to present the strip's entire run begins with the year that baby Skeezix appeared. Creator King's art is simple yet expressive in these daily installments--his visual brilliance would flower in the full-page, color Sunday strips--and the homespun charm of the characters is what makes these early installments worthwhile. The handsome collection is designed by alternative-comics maestro Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan), whose introduction rightly praises King for "captur[ing] the texture of life as it slowly, inexorably, and hopelessly passes by." Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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4.8 out of 5 stars
22 reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gasoline Alley one of the great comic strips
Aug 21 2005
By Frederick Norwood
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Gasoline Alley was created by Frank King and first appeared Sunday, November 24, 1918. The daily began about a year later, Aug 23, 1919. After many changes of artist and writer (many fans think Dick Moores was the greatest -- see Comics Revue monthly to decide for yourself) the strip still runs both Sunday and daily in newspapers today (2005), just thirteen years short of its hundredth aniversary.
The most memorable event in the strip, chronicled in this book, is when Walt Wallet finds on his doorstep a baby basket, containing Skeezix, on February 14, 1921. (Popeye, in the Thimble Theatre strip, would find Swee'pea in a similar basket ten years later).
The daily Frank King Gasoline Alley seems a bit slow and talky by today's faster paced standard, but his full color Sunday pages are often marvels of color and design. For some of the best full pages, see Bill Blackbeard's The Comic Strip Century.
Frank King died in 1969.
The most memorable event in the strip, chronicled in this book, is when Walt Wallet finds on his doorstep a baby basket, containing Skeezix, on February 14, 1921. (Popeye, in the Thimble Theatre strip, would find Swee'pea in a similar basket ten years later).
The daily Frank King Gasoline Alley seems a bit slow and talky by today's faster paced standard, but his full color Sunday pages are often marvels of color and design. For some of the best full pages, see Bill Blackbeard's The Comic Strip Century.
Frank King died in 1969.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Volume 1, No. 1
July 24 2005
By C. Wagner
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The first volume of the proposed complete publication of Frank King's "Gasoline Alley," dailies printed in an agreeable two strip per page format, properly dated and containing 1921 and 1922. The characters are alive and grow older even as we ask where did this Skeezix come from? Who is this Mrs. Blossom, really? How does she support herself, and exactly what is going on or not between her and Walt? Ah, you will have to buy volume 2 to find out or not... Frank King drew in a simple, realistic style and put great thought into the characterization of his stars. This is not your average gag a day strip. Recommended for public and academic libraries, as well as for gentle readers of vintage cartoon strips and Frank King aficionados.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A window into the past and a great story.
Dec 28 2005
By Lee Hawley
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Buy this book ! It is outstanding. There is a 50+ page biography of the strip's creator, Frank King, and then all the daily strips in order for the years 1921 and 1922. The biography provides context for the strip. Then there is the strip, itself. It makes for fascinating reading because a window is provided for life at the time. My favorite part was when Walt and friends went on a driving tour out west. Driving was certainly a different experience back then.
Buy this book if you are interested in history or if you just like a good story. You will not be disappointed !
Buy this book if you are interested in history or if you just like a good story. You will not be disappointed !
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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