Overview

The long-lost comic strip masterpiece by legendary children's book author Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Carrot Seed), collected in full and designed by graphic novelist and Barnaby superfan Daniel Clowes (Ghost World). Volume Three collects the postwar years of 1946-1947, continuing five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O'Malley's misadventures. 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. In its combination of Johnson's sly wit and O'Malley's amiable windbaggery, a child's feeling of wonder and an adults' wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous, Barnaby expanded our sense of what comics can do. This volume also features essays by comics historians Nathalie op de Beeck and Coulton Waugh, as well as Johnson biographer Philip Nel.

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9781606998236

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Reviews

[Johnson's] worldview gave us one of the 20th century's most entertaining comic-strip characters, J.J. O'Malley. He might not be the fairy godmother a boy wants, but he's the egotistical lowlife of a fairy godfather we all deserve. --Jesse Walker

Held in unparalleled regard by comics aficionados.

That's the unalloyed brilliance of Johnson's strip: in the end there's nothing extraordinary in this world -- only little flying men, ghosts and imps of all sorts, talking dogs, and the like, and a well-balanced little boy who doesn't consider that anyone should think any of this to be unexpected. ... These are gorgeous and charming books, fine harbingers of future volumes in the series, and a necessary reminder of the gentle pleasures of, as [Chris] Ware observes, the last great uncollected comic strip. --Terry Harpold

Author Information

Crockett Johnson was the pen name of cartoonist and children's book illustrator David Johnson Leisk (October 20,1906-July 11, 1975). He is best known for the Harold series of books, which began with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and for the comic strip Barnaby. He was married to the children's book author Ruth Krauss, with whom he collaborated on several books, including The Carrot Seed. Philip W. Nel is a scholar of children's literature and comics. He is best-known for work on radical and anti-racist children's literature, Crockett Johnson, and Dr. Seuss - especially Was the Cat in the Hat Black? Jeff Smith was born in Pennsylvania in 1960 and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He is best known for Bone, an award-winning, best-selling, self-published comic book. It's been adapted into a Telltale video game. Daniel Clowes is a Harvey, Eisner, Ignatz, and PEN America Literary Award Winner whose comics and graphic novels have been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. He is also an Academy Award nominated screenwriter (for Ghost World), and retrospectives of his work have appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Oakland Museum, and the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and son.

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