Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122794 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-22
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Booklist
In the second volume collecting King's entire run Gasoline Alley, the focus shifts from the strip's original range of colorful characters to bachelor Walt Wallet and Skeezix, the foundling whose arrival on Walt's doorstep changed the strip from a comedy about the emerging automobile culture to the warmhearted, domestic "dramedy" that continues to this day. In the first indication of the more-or-less real-time progression that became the strip's hallmark, Skeezix becomes a toddler in these episodes. Although King's drawing style is gaining in mastery to handle the strip's growing seriousness, the major progress here is in the story, as King injects drama and suspense into long continuities devoted to the growing relationship between Walt and his neighbor Mrs. Blossom, the adoption hearing for Skeezix, the nationwide hunt in the wake of Skeezix's kidnapping by his mysterious birth mother, and a cross-country auto race between Walt and fellow car buff Avery--the first of the extended travel sequences that King undertook during his four-decade tenure and that allowed his visual brilliance to shine. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

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Customer Reviews

pure americana
I used to think there were only four classic comic strips - Lil Abner, Krazy Kat, Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes. Gasoline Alley is as good as any of them, especially in its early years. Frank King's work can only be described as "gentle humor" and is as American as Will Rogers, Meredith Willson's Music Man and mom's apple pie. Oh, to be able to live in the world of Walt and Skeezix.

One of the all-time great comics
When people long for the good-old-days, usually they're dreaming of an idealized time that in actuality only looks good in hindsight. However, when it comes to newspaper comic strips, I do long for the good old days. While there are still a few good strips in existence nowadays, there is also a lot of garbage. While I suppose that was probably always the case, at least newspapers respected the comics then, as opposed to nowadays, when they are crammed all onto a page or two.

Frank King's Gasoline Alley was one of the gems of the early half of the century and was especially notable for being a real-time strip: for each comic strip year, the characters also aged a year. As evidenced in the title Walt and Skeezix, 1923 and 1924, Gasoline Alley had two central characters: Walt, a large, amiable fellow and Skeezix, his adopted son. In the first collection (comprising 1921 and 1922), we first met Skeezix as a newborn left on Walt's doorstep.
As this second volume begins, Walt is on the brink of finalizing Skeezix's adoption, but someone representing the real mother throws a temporary wrench into the proceedings.

Among the other people who occupy the Alley are Bill, Avery and Doc, Walt's best friends, and the mysterious Mrs. Phyllis Blossom, who Walt is slightly romantically involved. Among the features in the 1923 strips is the appearance of Mr. Wicker, a wealthy older man who becomes a denizen of the alley (and a potential rival in Walt's pursuit of Phyllis). The highlight, however is a cross-country race between Avery and Walt: if Avery loses, he needs to buy a new car (a particular hardship for the stingy Avery); if Walt loses, he has to propose to Phyllis.

In the 1924 strips, the biggest storyline is the revelation of Skeezix's mother and a subsequent kidnapping of the four-year old by that mother. Of course, Walt and Skeezix will be reunited, but the two will take a trip out west to avoid future problems (and are soon joined by Walt's friends).

Well-drawn and well-written, Gasoline Alley was one of the top comic strips of its era and is one of the all-time best strips. It actually still exists, making it one of the longest running strips ever (although it has a limited circulation and is a pale shadow of its former self). For a good look at what the comics used to look like - and how good they could be - this is a great read.

I loved it
I love comics. This book is great. It doesn't put in some and leave some out. It puts them all in. Highly recommended if you love comics.

I'm 60 this year and I have been reading Gasoline Alley all of my life, but I didn't nearly get in on the start. This book does not begin at then very start. It only has one of the very oldest. It starts with the year in which Skeezix ended up on Walt's doorstep. Close enough.

Now I have to order book 3. I didn't order them all together because I wouldn't get anything done until I finished them all if I did.

Ken