Funnybooks

"Way back when the idea of a 'comics scholar' sounded like the punch line to a bad joke, Michael Barrier was a serious historian, a discriminating aesthetician, a trustworthy guide, and an impassioned lover of... funnybooks. His keen and analytic championing of Carl Barks’s Donald Duck, Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and John Stanley’s Little Lulu is revelatory proof not only that comic books are worthy of adult attention but that the most rewarding have often been those aimed at the very youngest readers."—Art Spiegelman, comix artist and author of Maus

"If all you know about comic books is their variants on tales of superheroes, prepare to discover how much more 'funnybooks' offered from the beginning. Here is a pioneering look at the people, the stories, and the businesses that brought four-color fun to young readers during and after World War II. Michael Barrier draws back the curtain that has long hidden much of the world of what was once dismissed as kiddie fare. After following the comic-book field in depth for more than half a century, I’m stunned and delighted to find the wealth of information new to me that he now brings to light."—Maggie Thompson, writer and editor for three decades of Comics Buyer’s Guide