Created by Crockett Johnson of Harold and his Purple Crayon fame, Barnaby and Mr O’Malley is an early work comic strip about a young boy and his cigar chompin’, poker playin’ fairy godfather.
This free comic book offering from 2012 was a preview of a series of treasuries published by Fantagraphic Books. The art is clumsy, the stories ramble, and often a strip ends with a head scratcher instead of a belly laugh.
The book also ends in the middle of a tale about coffee smugglers. I hate a book to end in a cliffhanger, especially if I don’t have part 2. But, this book is aimed at little ones and I am not sure if this was a smart marketing move on the part of the publisher.
There are two groups that I think the treasuries are aimed at. The first group are kids under the age of 10. Harold and His Purple Crayon is a brilliant series in which a young tyke creates worlds of wonder with his tiny crayon. So, building on the popularity of that series, Fantagraphic took a gamble assuming that if kids liked that Crockett Johnson series then they're going to love Barnaby. But the jokes are outdated and there are references to things like fuel rationing and nazi spies that today's kids probably wouldn't understand.
Group number two is the nostalgia crowd. Series like the Carl Banks' take on Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck have small but loyal fan bases comprised of older readers who remember those comics from childhood. With cover prices of the Barnaby books ranging from $35-$40, young folk won't be able to afford these collections. But the nostalgia crowd who have more expendable income probably can. Honestly, I really don't know of very many Barnaby fans, so I'm not sure if Fantagraphics' wager behind these books' publication paid off or not.
(Barnaby Volumes I and II are available on Amazon.)
Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.
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