On sale date: December 1, 2020
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.
Barnaby Volume Four is part of the Barnaby series.
Praise
"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
"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
Specs
- Pages
- 388
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Black and white with some color.
- Dimensions
- 10.9" × 7"
- ISBN-13
- 9781683961123