Aaaa! A “FoxTrot” Kids Edition.
By Bill Amend. Andrews McMeel. $9.99.
Liō: There’s a Monster in
My Socks. By Mark Tatulli. Andrews McMeel. $9.99.
Big Nate Makes the Grade. By Lincoln
Peirce. Andrews McMeel. $9.99.
There is a traditional
format for comic-strip collections from Andrews McMeel, the book-publishing arm
of Universal Press Syndicate: 128 pages, 8½ inches left to right, 9 inches top
to bottom. The company does publish comic collections in other formats, from
its larger “Treasury” paperbacks to a series of very well-produced hardcovers.
But for straightforward batches of cartoon panels, the 128-page collection is
the norm. It is not, however,
sacrosanct, and Andrews McMeel has now begun reissuing some of its top-notch
comics in the form of regular 6 x 9 books. These are in a new line called “Amp!
Comics for Kids,” although the comics themselves are the same ones previously
collected in other sizes and presumably intended for readers of all ages.
No matter: “Amp!
Comics for Kids” may be a marketing strategy, expanding an existing product
line, but anything that gets more people interested in the work of Bill Amend,
Mark Tatulli and Lincoln Peirce is worthy of praise. Readers already familiar with FoxTrot, Liō and Big Nate will discover no surprises in
these collections – all the strips have been published in book form
before. The Big Nate book does contain a poster at the back (same art as the
book’s cover), but other than that, all three books are simply compilations of
the artists’ strips from various times.
They all make delightful introductions to these respective strips. In FoxTrot,
readers will meet nerd Jason, his big sister Paige, and oldest brother Peter,
along with mom Andy and dad Roger, and discover such entirely typical Fox
family scenes as Peter drawing a goatee on his face with indelible blue marker,
Paige getting past the impassable Red Orb Guardian in a video game by simply
walking by (to gaming fanatic Jason’s immense frustration), Jason seeking time
travel as an alternative to living with his admission to a girl in his class
that he likes her, Quincy (Jason’s iguana) proving to have no Hollywood-worthy
talent whatsoever, and much more. Amend
is an expert at character comedy, and he honed the Fox family’s personalities
to a fine pitch during the 19 years the strip ran as a daily. Aaaa!
is a great starting point for new readers.
There’s a Monster in My Socks is equally good for readers new to Liō, the pantomime strip featuring the self-proclaimed “weird kid” with the
unpronounceable name and a fascination with dark doings of all sorts. Just about any Liō strip goes with
just about any other, so this book works very well: Liō accidentally snags a mermaid while
fishing, gives aliens a map so they can take themselves to our leader, releases a crowd of genies when he
happens to rub a few too many lamps in a lighting store, gets paid by a wicked
witch for giving out free maps to “the candy house,” goes to the park to feed
nuts to the squirrels and entrails to the whatever-they-are beasties, brings a
howler monkey to the library, and helps a hungry monster use lasagna to set a
trap for comic cat Garfield. Tatulli
plays constantly with reality and fantasy in Liō, using bullies,
classmates and the title character’s bemused father (almost always seen wearing
socks, one of which has a hole in the big toe) for “apparently real” strips,
such as one in which a big bowl of spaghetti turns out to be a worm farm, while
leaving it unclear just how real
things are when Liō vacuums up
three ghosts in a haunted house or gets caught by huge rodents in an oversize
game of “Mouse Trap.” But Tatulli does
not even let the dividing lines stay clear. For example, Liō’s dad makes him write “I will not play
with matches” numerous times on a blackboard after finding the boy playing
catch with a gigantic matchbook. Liō is a very odd strip indeed – young readers who discover it in There’s a Monster in My Socks will
certainly want to see more of it.
Peirce’s Big Nate
is a more-traditional strip, about the adventures and misadventures of
12-year-old Nate Wright, a sixth-grader with cartooning ambitions and intense
dislike of a) hard work and b) a history teacher named Mrs. Godfrey. Actually, Nate doesn’t think much of any school stuff except for art class
and chess club. As a result, Nate spends
a lot of time in detention or at Principal Nichols’ office. Much of the strip revolves around Nate’s delusions
of grandeur and his interactions with friends Teddy and Francis, crush Jenny,
class brain Gina, big sister Ellen, hapless father, and various other adults
who wander in and out of the narrative from time to time. Peirce (pronounced “purse”) uses entirely
typical family and school scenes in the strip – for example, on Picture Day,
Nate gets splashed with mud and hit in the eye by a door, then has to endure
“help” from School Picture Guy (who is never given a name), and finally sneezes
just as his photo is taken. What makes Big Nate an enjoyable strip is not what
happens but the way Nate and those around him react. For instance, Nate helps Teddy escape walking
home with an overly clingy girl by opening his, Nate’s, locker, which promptly
spews forth a fusillade of junk that sweeps the girl away. The occasional use of cartoons “drawn” by
Nate himself enlivens the strip – and the book – as when Nate creates a “Hall
of Shame” rating page for teachers and suggests that Principal Nichols put it
in the display case as a public service.
As with FoxTrot and Liō, the new, 6 x 9 book of Big
Nate serves as an enjoyable introduction to the strip for new readers – and
will likely have them seeking out further adventures, no matter what format
they appear in.
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